Creative thinking and problem solving

Monday, April 29, 2013 1Graduate School Training Courses
Creative Thinking
&
Problem Solving

Monday, April 29, 2013 Graduate School Training Courses 2
Aims and objectives
• To develop the researchers’ background and
experience in exploring simple problems using the
creative process
• To do this is a non-threatening and fun atmosphere
• By the end of this course you will be have
experience of
– employing idea generation strategies to introduce new
approaches to your problem solving.
– identifying the stages of the creative and problem solving
process
– considering strategic methods to team and individual tasks

What is creativity?…

Some definitions of
creativity
• Knowledge, Imagination, Evaluation (R. Noller)
• The making of the new and the rearranging of the
old (Bentley,1997)
• Novel associations which are useful (Isaksen,
Treffinger, 1993)
• Shared Imagination (Baillie & Dewulf,1999)
• The ability to modify self imposed constraints (Ackoff
&Vergara 1988)
• An unease emerging out of a struggle between two
opposing forces (Robinson & Rundell 1994)

More definitions of
creativity
• The ability to develop new ideas, new methods of viewing
existing ideas or the ability to develop new constructions,
designs, methods of working etc especially which are unusual
or require imagination and the use of all these in the solution of
problems (simplified from a dictionary definition)
• Being creative is seeing the same thing as everybody else but
thinking of something different (unknown source)
• Creative thinking involves imagining familiar things in a new
light, digging below the surface to find previously undetected
patterns, and finding connections among unrelated
phenomena (unknown source)

The creativity process
Execution/
Testing
Preparation/
Analysis
Incubation/
Synthesis
Illumination/
Eureka

Creative thinking tools
and techniques
Random Input Problem Reversal Ask Questions
Applied Imagination Lateral Thinking
Six Thinking Hats The Discontinuity Principle Checklists
Brainstorming Forced Relationships/Analogy
Attribute Listing Morphological Analysis Imitation
Mindmapping Storyboarding Synectics
Metaphorical thinking Lotus Blossum Technique
Use of drawing (Visual Thinking) IdeaToons (by Michael Michalko)
Neuro-Linguistic Programming Techniques Assumption Smashing
LARC Method Unconscious Problem Solving
Basadur Simplex process The TRIZ method Third-person positioning
Fuzzy Thinking Chunking` Breakout Thinking

Exercise 1:
Breaking out
• Join all the dots with no more than 4 straight lines
without taking your pen off the paper

Breaking out:
Solution

Exercise 2:
Concealed colours
1. A big, old, hungry dog appeared at our door every morning.
2. The cop persuaded him not to create a disturbance.
3. The Brazilian student Paulo lives around the corner from us.
4. You shouldn't let an upstart like him bother you.
5. He let out a big yell, owing to the injuries he received when he
fell.
6. La Jolla venders decided to cut their prices in half.
7. Long rayon fabrics were loaded on the truck.
8. The Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli lacked the requisite
documents to enter the U.S.
9. You shouldn't sell this fossil very cheaply because it is a rare
specimen.
10.The new law hit everybody's pocketbook pretty hard.

1. Abigoldhungrydogappearedatourdooreverymorning.
2. Thecoppersuadedhimnottocreateadisturbance.
3. Thebrazilianstudentpaulolivesaroundthecornerfromus.
4. Youshouldntletanupstartlikehimbotheryou.
5. Heletoutabigyellowingtotheinjurieshereceivedwhenhefell.
6. Lajollavendersdecidedtocuttheirpricesinhalf.
7. Longrayonfabricswereloadedonthetruck.
8. Theaustrianphysicistwolfgangpaulilackedtherequisitedocumen
tsto entertheus.
9. Youshouldntsellthisfossilverycheaplybecauseitisararespecime
n.
10.Thenewlawhiteverybodyspocketbookprettyhard.
Concealed colours:
Solution

Exercise 3:
The collected works
• There are four volumes of Shakespeare’s collected works on
the shelf. The pages of each volume are exactly 4cm thick.
The covers are each 5mm thick. A book worm started eating
at page 1 of volume 1, and ate through to the last page of
volume 4. What is the distance that the bookworm covered?

• There are four volumes of Shakespeare’s collected works on
the shelf. The pages of each volume are exactly 4cm thick.
The covers are each 5mm thick. A book worm started eating
at page 1 of volume 1, and ate through to the last page of
volume 4. What is the distance that the bookworm covered?
Covers 5mm X 6 = 30mm = 3cm
Pages of volumes 2 X 4cm = 8cm
Total = 11cm
Look again at the arrangement of books on the shelf

From creative thinking to problem
solving

Idea generation –
divergent thinking
It has been shown that increasing fluency through the
generation of alternative uses for common objects is
correlated with the generation of novelty. In short this
means that the volume of ideas is important in creativity
There are a particular set of attitudes that are
conducive to productive idea generation.
These are: Record all the ideas
No ‘buts’
Have a PMA – think ‘why not!’, ‘what if?!’
Build on the ideas of others
Have fun

From creativity to
problem solving
The Process
Divergence
Convergence
Problem
Solution

Exercise 4:
Alternative uses
• Produce as many uses as you can for your
shoes

Strategies for ideas
generation
1. Memory use
2. Property or attribute use
3. Category of object
4. Disassembly

Six thinking hats – from
divergence to convergence
1. There are six different imaginary hats that you can
put on or take off.
2. Think of the “hats” as thinking icons.
3. Each hat is a different colour and represents a
different type or mode of thinking.
4. We all wear the same hat (do the same type of
thinking) at the same time.
5. When we change hats - we change our thinking.

The thinking hat roles
Blue Hat
Managing The Thinking
Setting The Focus
Making Summaries
Conclusions
Action Plans
White Hat
Information & Data
Available Data
Past Trends
Gaps in the data
Yellow Hat
Why It May Work
The optimistic view
Green Hat
Creative Thinking
Possibilities
Alternatives
New Ideas
New Concepts
Red Hat
Feelings & Intuition
Intuition
Gut Reaction
Emotion
Black Hat
Why It May Not Work
The pessimistic view

Summary
• What are they key ideas you have learnt today?
• How will you put them into practice?

Creative thinking and problem solving

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