“Creativity and problem solving are just two sides of the same coin” (Prof. Dr. Kirton). We all want to be creative and we also want our teams to be creative. Ignoring or not taking seriously the following “four mantras” makes us less effective in our problem-solving abilities.
1) Recognize the problems as such.
Some companies are proud to say: “we have no problems, just a couple of challenges.” Thinking this way blinds us to problems. The most creative people see problems where the rest of us are content with the status quo. Who had a problem before the wheel was invented? To sharpen our vision of valuable opportunities and solutions, we must spot the problems first. That means we have to call them that.
2) Treat your brain like a “muscle.”
When you ask for a major “creative,” prepare people like you want to take them on a marathon. Our daily life has our muscles ill-prepared for such efforts. We need a training program. We will also be on a special diet (more on that in mantra #3). On the eve of the event we went over our strategy. Before we start, there is a warm-up. Is this how you are organizing your “2015 Product Roadmap Meeting”?
3) Feed your brain “lots of dots.”
We all know how important it is to connect seemingly unrelated “dots”. What remains underestimated is the obvious precondition: having a lot of dots to connect! The preparation phase of a creative session should provide them to the participants. Well-appointed “war rooms” or “Obeya rooms” are full of them. Creative people feed their brains with them. These points cannot be outside of our own area. What is your “reading diet”? Mainly emails? That’s not healthy.
4) Appreciate diversity in problem solving.
We all know the “diversity” posters on the wall. When it comes to creativity, gender, age, or any of the usual demographics don’t matter as much as our preferred problem-solving style. TA Edison and N. Tesla disagreed on that. Businesses need both styles, and any combination of them, to be successful. However, companies’ very appreciation of how good people are at problem solving often favors one style at the expense of the other style. With sometimes disastrous results.
For any of these four mantras, psychology, modern business practice, and a variety of consultants have created robust methods. Which of these you use may not matter as much as addressing all four mantras consistently. – All the best for solving your problems!
