creative thinking and problem solving
DESCRIPTION
Credits to University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus - Graduate school. It's from one of the training sessions conducted.TRANSCRIPT
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
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What is creativity?…
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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)
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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)
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The creativity process
Execution/Testing
Preparation/Analysis
Incubation/Synthesis
Illumination/Eureka
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Creative thinking tools and techniques
Random Input Problem Reversal Ask Questions Applied Imagination Lateral Thinking
Six Thinking Hats The Discontinuity Principle ChecklistsBrainstorming 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 positioningFuzzy Thinking Chunking` Breakout Thinking
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Exercise 1: Breaking out
• Join all the dots with no more than 4 straight lines without taking your pen off the paper
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Breaking out: Solution
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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.
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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
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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?
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• 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 = 3cmPages of volumes 2 X 4cm = 8cm
Total = 11cm
Look again at the arrangement of books on the shelf
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From creative thinking to problem solving
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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 othersHave fun
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From creativity to problem solving
The Process
Divergence
Convergence
Problem
Solution
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Exercise 4: Alternative uses
• Produce as many uses as you can for your shoes
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Strategies for ideas generation
1. Memory use2. Property or attribute use3. Category of object4. Disassembly
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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.
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The thinking hat roles
Blue HatManaging The Thinking
Setting The FocusMaking Summaries
ConclusionsAction PlansWhite Hat
Information & DataAvailable DataPast Trends
Gaps in the data
Yellow HatWhy It May Work
The optimistic view
Green HatCreative Thinking
PossibilitiesAlternatives New Ideas
New Concepts
Red HatFeelings & Intuition
IntuitionGut Reaction
Emotion
Black HatWhy It May Not Work
The pessimistic view
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Summary
• What are they key ideas you have learnt today?
• How will you put them into practice?