How to coach teams in creative problem solving
Ari-Pekka Lappi (@ilmirajat)
v.2
Goal After this presentation everyone has at least 1 creativity tool they can use in their everyday work within next two weeks.
• On Creativity• Tool 1: SCAMBER + warmup• Creativity + Problem solving
• How to Coaching Creative problem solving• Tool 2: 9 windows + exercise• Tool 3: Contradiction analysis +
exercise
Outline
Who am I?• Hybrid philosopher-engineer
• Developer, ScrumMaster, architect• M.A. majoring theoretical philosophy
from Helsinki University• Entrepreneur in Flowa
• Big fan of functional programming (F# and Clojure), philosophy of Nietzsche• Hobbyist game designer and game
researcher• Part-time artist in Reality Research
Center
Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Atanas Botev.Oil on canvas/collage 2004
Who are you?1. Name2. On scale 1-100, how creative you think you are
currently? (1=not creative at all, 100=highly creative)3. Would it be practical or otherwice benefical to be
more creative? Most likely follow-up questions4. What benefits would increased creativity produce to you?5. Are you already doing something in order to be more creative?
On Creativity
lChallenges & unmet
needs
Creative actions
Innovations and insights
Overly simplified process for creative thinking
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Step 1: Find direction
What is the ideal state/result? What is the goal? What I want to have?
Challenges & unmet
needs
Creative actions
Innovations and insights
1
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Step 2: Identify challenge
Why have I not reached the goal already? What is blocking or preventing me?
Challenges & unmet
needs
Creative actions
Innovations and insights
1
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Step 3: Look around
Where I am? What do I have (=resources)? What have I done already?
Challenges & unmet
needs
Creative actions
Innovations and insights
12
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Step 4: Seek options
What (all) might I do in order to reach the goal with the resources I have?
Challenges & unmet
needs
Creative actions
Innovations and insights
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Step 5: Experiment
Creative strategy? Creative action? Creativity is about doing, not about dreaming
Challenges & unmet
needs
Creative actions
Innovations and insights
12 3
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Simplified process
Challenges & unmet
needs
Creative actions
Innovations and insights
12 3
for creative thinking
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In Practice (warmup)
Creative toolboxes
Exercise 1 – Step 1
Pick an object from this space.
It can be anything from a pen or shoe to table. I will use light bulb as an example so please choose something else.
Exercise 1 – Step 2
Think of its main function.
The main function of a light bulb is “to illuminate”.
Exercise 1 – Step 3Now think what use could the object have if you “eliminate” its main function.
Why would people want to have the thing without its main function?
E.g. What use could a light bulb have, if its main function was not to illuminate.
Visual esthetics
”Conditional” visibility
Signal what is happening in a machine
To be a kickass weapon
Creative strategies/action(1) Eliminate
+(2) Put to another use
Exercise 2 – Step 1
Pick an object from this space.
It can be anything from a pen or shoe to table. I will use light bulb as an example so please choose something else.
Exercise 2 – Step 2
Think of its main function.
Exercise 2 – Step 2
Pick at an actions that does not relate to the object at all.
In case of light bulb the main function is “to illuminate”. So I choose “to walk”.
Exercise 2 – Step 3
Combine the object and the actions.
Creative strategy/actionCombine
Exercise 3 – Step 1
Pick an object from this space.
It can be anything from a pen or shoe to table. I will use light bulb as an example so please choose something else.
Exercise 3 – Step 2Think what is essential for its main function.
What mechanism or part is needed for its core function?
E.g. ‘class shell’ around the wolfram wire.
Exercise 3 – Step 4
Pick another object
E.g. ‘a table’
Exercise 3 – Step 4
Substitude the essential part by the other object
Light table… boring. Let me try again ‘door’. Using light as a door. Kind of theatrical effect… Better.
Creative strategy/actionSubstitude
SubstituteCombineAmplify ModifyPut to another useEliminateReverse/reorganize
SCAMPER, Synectics, 40 Inventive
principles, 6 thinking hats…
Slightly different approaches but a lot of similarities.
On coaching people
in creative thinking
Image: Epsos.de
Two modes of coaching
Leading: Direct & explore
Following: Listen &
understand
Two modes of coachingFollowing - Listen• Listen • Reflect and rephrase• What kind of help the coachee
expects from you?
Leading - Explore• Reframe • Deconstruct (“abbauen“)• Help coachee to ”see” options,
opportunities and novel approaches?
Depending on your role in team and situation: Consider switching to mentoring or teaching mode
Key question: What might help people to be more creative and inventive?
Image: Epsos.de
Think of pains and struggles just before the moments of
”heureka” and ”aha, I got it”What creative struggles have had?
How it feels just before ”heureka” and why?
The most common pains and struggles in problem
solvingMy observations
Unresolvedproblems Solutions
Gatekeepers
Unresolvedproblems Solutions
Gatekeepers
Challenges & unmet
needs
Creative actions
Innovations and insights
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Creative actions
Innovations and insights
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Unresolvedproblems Solutions
Psychological
intertia
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9 Windows
Unresolvedproblems Solutions
Gatekeepers
Case 1: Bootstrap doesn’t work anymore. It worked last week. What I have messed up?
Download Bootstrap
Ensure that it works
Something else for week
and two
Continue (following
the tutorial)
It does not work
anymore
Something that worked last week doesn’t work anymore!
Past Now Future
Super-system
System
The problem
Sub-system
Bootstrap did work week or do ago
Bootstrap doesn’t work anymore. It worked last week.
Bootstrap works again (=problem solved; what might be differently)
CSS markup and bootstrap filesHtml and link to css fileBrowsers default rendering rulesExamples in the tutorial
CSS markup and bootstrap filesHtml and link to css fileBrowsers default rendering rulesExamples in the tutorial
Web site documentationDevelopment communityBrowser versionVersion 2.x (newest)=> Default docs for v2.x
Web site documentationDevelopment communityBrowser versionVersion 3.0 (newest)=> Default docs for v3.0
Bootstrap did work week or do ago
Bootstrap doesn’t work anymore. It worked last week.
Bootstrap works again (=problem solved; what might be differently)
CSS markup and bootstrap filesHtml and link to css fileBrowsers default rendering rulesExamples in the tutorial
CSS markup and bootstrap filesHtml and link to css fileBrowsers default rendering rulesExamples in the tutorial
SolutionsBootstrap 3.0 was released a week ago. I had downloaded the bootstrap 2.x files and tested it using version 2.x tutorial. Now I continued by using 3.0 tutorial. There’s a mismatch…
Case 2: After customer have paid, delivery of the product fails in 1 of 10 000 case due fatal system failure
Order PaymentProcess
order and payment
Delivery
Fatal (seeminly non-repetable and rare) error here
Much earlier: Recurring session related problems and fixes
Customer serviceCompany reputation
Customer select productCustomer confirm orderCustomer pays product in third party payment system
When customer returns to the our system, system throws fatal error sometimes.
Delivery of the product fails in 1 of 10 000 cases due a fatal server error.
Customer calls to the customer service and complains about the problem.
Database callUI interactionSession handlingDatabase callsCryptographic stuff (ensure validity of order)
Cryptographic stuff (ensure validity of payment)Database calls (get product data, get order related data, store payment related data…)Session handlingSession expiration
Annoyance about the failed deliveryCall to customer service
Much earlier: Recurring session related problems and fixes
Database server3rd party payment systemError logs and audit logsWeb server and application serverRequest routingCaching mechanisms
Customer serviceCompany reputations
Customer select productCustomer click order and pays product in thrid part payment system
Customer returns to the our system. System throws fatal error.
Delivery of the product fails in 1 of 10 000 cases due a fatal server error.
Customer calls to the customer service and complains about the problem.
Database callUI interactionSession handlingDatabase callsCryptographic stuff (ensure validity of order)
Cryptographic stuff (ensure validity of payment)Database callsSession handlingSession expiration
Annoyance about the failed deliveryCall to customer serviceLog entries mapped to the approximate time of the error and type of error
SolutionThe solution was that in some rare cases a field returned by SQL server was null (value did not exist) and the system threw NullReferenceException*. The end user saw just a generic “something went wrong” error.
You needed to add a null check.
[*] As some of you guessed already, the language was C#. In Java you get NullPointerException, not NullReferenceException.
Exercise 1: 9 Windows
Exercise 1-1: Getting started• Form 3-5 person groups• Choose the problem• Problem 1: Meetings starts late 50% of times• Problem 2 (technical): Critical bugs in production system a days after
deployment
• Timebox: 2-3 minutes
Exercise 1-2: Goal• Step 1: Draw 3 x 3 matrics. Discuss what is the problem you are
actually going to solve? • Discuss ”why do we want to solve this problem?” and make the problem
better and deeper?
• Step 2: Discuss semantics of the axises
• Don’t talk on the posible solutions at this point!
• Timebox: 5 minutes
Exercise 1-3: First ideas• Step 4: List ideas relating the idea and • Step 5: Categorize them by using the matrixOR • Step 5: Use categories in the matrix as inpsiratio and • Step 4: List what you might put to the matrix
• Resist temptation to head directly to the solutions!
• Timebox: 5 minutes
Exercise 1-4: What else?• Step 5: Review what 9 windows boxes are empty or has just few
ideas?• Why they are empty or have just few idea? • What might go there?• Consider relations of the things in the matrix
• Resist temptation to head directly to the solutions!
• Timebox: 5 minutes
Exercise 1-5: Solution• Step 6: Ideate a concrete thing or few concrete things you could try
next.
• Resist temptation to dive deeper to the problem, focus on what might you do instead!
• Timebox: 5 minutes
Contradiction analysis
Unresolvedproblems Solutions
Gatekeepers
Case 3: Startups don’t do any risk management
Where?• Where should startups do risk management?• Irrelevant
• Where should startups not do risk management?• Customer premises?
Image: Nasa
Fine, but this does notyet solve the problem!
When?• When should startups do risk management?• Hour or two once per quarter is probably enough
• When should startups not do risk manement?• Irrelevant
A solution; maybe good enough
Conditions? Interfaces?• In which cases or within which conditions startups should do risk
management?• If they need to do decision having big financial impact
• In which cases or within which conditions should not startups do risk manement?• If they do sales• As a part of their everyday work (usually)
Great, we have a solution!
OutcomeThe coachee decided that:Once per quarter he will go to a restaurant with the founders of a startup. During that evening they go through what all could go wrong and get drunk (or another way around).
After that evening, the people switch back to the optimistic mode.
Case 3: We want to write and read massive amount of data from a table at the same time in SQL ServerGuess what --- we had a serious performance problem.
The problem
Where?• To where need I write data quickly?• I don’t care as long as the data is persisted to the database and never lost
• From where need I read data quickly? • I don’t care if I get valid data from database
Image: Nasa
NO WIN!
When?• When do I want to read data quickly?• When customer wants to download a dataset he have earlier stored to the
system
• When do I want to write data quickly?• When customer want to save or upload data to the system
NO WIN!
Conditions? Interfaces?• In which cases or within which conditions I want to read data quickly?• Always
• In which cases or within which conditions I want to write data quickly?• Only in those cases it have impact to user experience. If I do some stuff as a
background job it does not matter if it takes time.
ROCK! Now we’re talking…
Outcome
Exercise 1: Contradiction analysis
Exercise 1-1: Getting started• Form 3-5 person groups• Choose the problem• Problem 1: New product vs. the old products• Problem 2: The impossible report
• Timebox: 2-3 minutes
Exercise 1-2: Analysis• Step 1: Analyze problem and formulate the contradiction. • Step 1.1. Draw the contradiction diagram• Step 1.2: The goal• Step 1.3: The sub-goal• Step 1.4: The implications and requirements
• Goal of all is to ”see” clearly what is the underlying fundamental contraction that makes the problem hard?
• Timebox: 10 minutes
Exercise 1-3: What if…• Step 2: Try to separate contradicting elementes by• Step 2.1. Space (abstract, social, mental, physical etc.)• Step 2.2: Time (chronological, experienced, physical etc.)• Step 3.3: Condition/interface (logical, contract, situation etc.)
• The goal of this is to find novel approach to the problem where the contradiction is no more relevant or hard?
• Timebox: 10 minutes
Thank You! DiscussionTwitter: @ilmirajat