101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques: The Handbook of New Ideas for Business

241 Pages·1994·4.03 MB·English

by  James M. Higgins

101 CREATIVE
PROBLEM
SOLVING
TECHNIQUES
THE HANDBOOK
OF NEW IDEAS
FOR BUSINESS
sr
191 cc 'SS
"An approach to innovation that allows you to get your hands on it
and actually do something in your organization. Lots of great
practical (and fun) techniques for generating ideas. The best
how-to" book on innovation I've ever seen."
-
Phil Harris, Vice President and
General Manager, of Paperboard
James River Corporation
"In business, we find an increasing rate of change accompanied by
greater complexity. Survival demands creative solutions. Higgins'
book is a convenient, practical reference which describes time
tested techniques that all of us can use. Humorous, timely
examples of how companies have used these techniques make the
book very useful."
Allan Nagle
Former CEO of Tupperware
"You'll find Higgins' book engaging, easy to read, and very practical.
He's right on target when he states that innovation is the key for
an organization to gain or maintain a competitive edge."
Valerie Oberle
Vice President for Disney University
for Walt Disney World
"Paradigms broken. Dr. Higgins' book gives readers a new road
map to creatively using quality processes. Thought provoking,
practical, and impactful. This is the kind of easy reference guide I
have been searching for, for years. It is an innovative toolbox for
those involved with project planning or building high performance
work teams."
Rod Waddell, Quality Consultant
President
Dynamic Resources, Inc.
Business, Self Development
ISBN 1-883629-00-4
5 795
$17.95
9 81 83 62 07
"An approach to innovation that allows you to get your hands on it
and actually do something in your organization. Lots of great
practical (and fun) techniques for generating ideas. The best
"how-to" book on innovation I've ever seen."
Phil Harris, Vice President and
General Manager, of Paperboard
James River Corporation
"In business, we find an increasing rate of change accompanied by
greater complexity. Survival demands creative solutions. Higgins'
book is a convenient, practical reference which describes time
tested techniques that all of us can use. Humorous, timely
examples of how companies have used these techniques make the
book very useful."
Allan Nagle
Former CEO of Tupperware
"You'll find Higgins' book engaging, easy to read, and very practical.
He's right on target when he states that innovation is the key for
an organization to gain or maintain a competitive edge."
Valerie Oberle
Vice President for Disney University
for Walt Disney World
"Paradigms broken. Dr. Higgins' book gives readers a new road
map to creatively using quality processes. Thought provoking,
practical, and impactful. This is the kind of easy reference guide I
have been searching for, for years. It is an innovative toolbox for
those involved with project planning or building high performance
work teams."
Rod Waddell, Quality Consultant
President
Dynamic Resources, Inc.
(cid:9) (cid:9)
(cid:9)
Business, Self Development
ISBN 1-883629-00-4
1 1 1 1 1
(cid:9) 51795
1
$17.95
9 781883629007
bool, (cid:9) i'ada►le at a SpeCial diSCOUnl when ordered in bulk
guard it se, 1 or inlOrmation, contact New Management Publishing
tomvany, Inc 400 N. New York Avenue, Suite 215, Winter Park,
l it► .32789.
DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR: Carolyn D. Smith
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Susan Novotny
DESIGNER: Keri Caffrey
ILLUSTRATOR: Keri Caffrey
WORD PROCESSOR: Susan Crabill
Copyright © 1994 James M. Higgins
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
New Management Publishing Company, Inc.
400 North New York Avenue, Suite 215
Winter Park, Florida 32789
Publisher's Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Higgins, James M.
101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques: The Handbook of
New Ideas for Business /James M. Higgins.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-883629-00-4
1. Problem solving. @. Organizational change. I. Title. II. Title:
One hundred and one creative problem solving techniques.
HD30.29.H54 1994
658.4'063
QB193-22664 (cid:9) 93-8702
P-CIP
Printing 3456789
This book is dedicated to my wife
Susan, and my mother, Edna, for
their loving encouragement of my
creativity and innovation.

PREFACE
Businesst'. and their managers, professional staff, team leaders
and other employees are confronted with a host of challenges
as they approach the twenty first century. Change is occuring
at an accelerating rate. The number of competitors is increas-
ing dramatically. Business is globalizing. New technology is
being introduced at a rapid pace. The workforce is increasingly
diverse. There is a scarcity of certain resources, including highly
skilled workers. There is a transformation occuring from an
industrial to a knowledge based society. Economic and market
conditions are increasingly unstable, especially on a global ba-
sis. Constituents are more demanding. And finally, the entire
business environment is becoming more complex.
To meet these challenges and the opportunities they create,
businesses are embracing creative problem solving and inno-
vation as never before. To achieve effective and efficient levels
of creative problem solving and the innovation which results,
an organization must improve the creativity of its work groups
and individuals, and it must create the right kind of organiza-
tional culture which will turn that creativity into innovation.
One of the key ways in which individuals and groups can im-
prove their creativity is through learning creativity processes,
techniques that take advantage of innate intuitive and creative
abilities, techniques that channel these abilities to create new or
enhanced products or services, or create more effective and ef-
ficient organizational processes. This book describes the basic
creative problem solving (CPS) model and then describes 101
techniques for unleashing individual and group creativity.
These techniques follow the CPS model.
Managers, professionals, team leaders, and any other employee
interested in improving his or her job performance or that of
the work group, or for that matter, the entire company, will find
this book beneficial. This book is readily useable in company
training programs. Organizational creativity training programs
have grown rapidly in recent months, and this book is designed
to meet the needs of such programs.
011,1 (cid:9) this smile author, both to be published in
W.., (cid:9) tin other two aspects of increasing organizational
alum. Innovate (cid:9) Evaporate: Test and Improve Your
...al ion's IQ—Its Innovation Quotient, identifies the set of
(.1 LI deristics common to the innovative organization. It pro-
v ides numerous descriptions of organizational programs for
achieving high levels of innovation performance. Escape from
the Maze: Increasing Personal and Group Creativity provides a
roadmap for improving individual and group creativity per-
formance. For individuals, this means learning to overcome
the psychological barriers to creativity imposed by society and
the organization, and learning how to increase levels of intu-
ition. For the group, this means learning proper group dynam-
ics to take advantage of group creativity processes. Order forms
for the books can be found in the latter pages of this book.
THANKS
No book is the work of the author alone. I want to thank sev-
eral people for their critical inputs into this book. First, Keri
Caffrey, one of the most creative people I've ever known, has
illustrated and designed this book in an artful yet fun manner
for the reader. Susan Crabill spent several hundred hours work-
ing through numerous drafts, all done with great patience.
Susan Novotny managed to put all of this together in the final
hectic stages of production. Carolyn Smith, my developmental
editor on two of my college texts, did an outstanding job of
making this book user friendly. Several hundred MBA students
provided important feedback about the book, and how to make
it more useable. My business reviewers, Phil Harris, Vice Presi-
dent and General Manager of Paperboard for the James River
Corporation, Allan Nagle, former CEO of Tupperware, Valerie
Oberle, Vice President, Walt Disney Companies, and Rod
Waddell, quality consultant and President of Dynamic Resource
Development, Inc., have provided important insights about the
potential impact of this book. And finally, my wife Susan, has
provided tremendous support during this lengthy writing and
publication process.
4'?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE (cid:9) v
THANKS (cid:9) vi
Chapter I
INNOVATE OR EVAPORATE
INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY (cid:9) 3
THE "FOUR P'S" OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION (cid:9) 5
THE FOURTYPES OF INNOVATION (cid:9) 9
REFERENCES (cid:9) 15
Chapter 2
THE
CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING
PROCESS
CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING (cid:9) 18
Analyzing the Environment (cid:9) 20
Recognizing a Problem (cid:9) 21
Identifying the Problem (cid:9) 21
Making Assumptions (cid:9) 22
Generating Alternatives (cid:9) 24
Choosing Among Alternatives (cid:9) 25
Implementation (cid:9) 26
Control (cid:9) 26
BUILDING CREATIVITY INTO PROBLEM SOLVING (cid:9) 28
101 CPSTECHNIQUES (cid:9) 29
REFERENCES (cid:9) 33
VII
Chapter- 3
RLATIVE TECHNIQUES FOR
ANALYZING THE ENVIRONMENT,
RECOGNIZING & IDENTIFYING
PROBLEMS,
AND MAKING ASSUMPTIONS
TECHNIQUES FOR ANALYZING THE ENVIRONMENT(cid:9) 36
COMPARISON AGAINST OTHERS: BENCHMARKING, BEST
PRACTICES,AND RACING AGAINST PHANTOM
COMPETITORS (cid:9) 37
212. (cid:9) HIRE FUTURISTS AND OTHER CONSULTANTS (cid:9) 37
3/3. (cid:9) MONITOR WEAK SIGNALS (cid:9) 37
4/4. (cid:9) OPPORTUNITY SEARCHES (cid:9) 38
TECHNIQUES FOR RECOGNIZING PROBLEMS (cid:9) 38
5/1. (cid:9) CAMELOT (cid:9) 40
6/2. (cid:9) CHECKLISTS (cid:9) 40
7/3. (cid:9) INVERSE BRAINSTORMING (cid:9) 40
8/4. (cid:9) LIMERICKS AND PARODIES (cid:9) 40
9/5. (cid:9) LISTING COMPLAINTS (cid:9) 41
1016. (cid:9) RESPONDING TO SOMEONE ELSE (cid:9) 41
11/7. (cid:9) ROLE PLAYING (cid:9) 41
12/8. (cid:9) SUGGESTION PROGRAMS (cid:9) 42
13/9. (cid:9) WORKOUTS AND OTHER GROUP APPROACHES (cid:9) 42
TECHNIQUES FOR IDENTIFYING PROBLEMS (cid:9) 43
14/1. (cid:9) BOUNCE IT OFF SOMEONE ELSE (cid:9) 44
15/2. (cid:9) CONSENSUS BUILDING (cid:9) 44
16/3. (cid:9) DRAW A PICTURE OFTHE PROBLEM (cid:9) 44
17/4. (cid:9) EXPERIENCE KIT (cid:9) 44
18/5. (cid:9) FISHBONE DIAGRAM (cid:9) 45
19/6. (cid:9) KING OFTHE MOUNTAIN (cid:9) 48
20/7. (cid:9) REDEFINING A PROBLEM OR OPPORTUNITY (cid:9) 48
21/8. (cid:9) REWRITE OBJECTIVES IN DIFFERENT WAYS (cid:9) 49
22/9. (cid:9) SQUEEZE AND STRETCH (cid:9) 49
23/10. WHAT DO YOU KNOW? (cid:9) 51
24/11. (cid:9) WHAT PATTERNS EXIST? (cid:9) 51
25/12. (cid:9) WHY-WHY DIAGRAM (cid:9) 5I
TECHNIQUES FOR MAKING ASSUMPTIONS (cid:9) 54
26/1. (cid:9) ASSUMPTION REVERSAL (cid:9) 54
ANALYZING THE ENVIRONMENT, RECOGNIZING AND
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM, (cid:9)
& MAKING ASSUMPTIONS (cid:9) 56
REFERENCES (cid:9) 57
VIII