In our
previous Focus On newsletter, we highlighted the importance of a creative mindset, and highlighted training materials that help create working environments that support creativity and innovation.
This month, we’re highlighting a small selection of the training materials available to Trainers’ Library® members that will help participants develop their practical creative thinking skills.
We might not like the idea of linking creativity to a process, but there is a process for creative problem solving and solution finding - and knowing it will really help teams and organisations innovate and make continuous improvement a reality. This module provides a fantastic framework around which to ‘hang’ the various tools and techniques introduced in other modules.
Have you ever reflected on how the way we phrase problems can, in itself, limit our ability to find creative solutions? For example, if we state a problem as ‘we’re not getting enough sales’, then our focus is immediately drawn to increasing the number of sales. But perhaps we’d be better focusing on the short-term or long-term value of sales, reducing the cost of sales, or something else entirely?
This module shows how rephrasing problems broadens thinking and opens the door to a greater variety of ideas.
A key part of the process for creative solution finding is investigation. This activity introduces one technique for drilling down to the root causes of problems or challenges. It’s just one of many that will help participants investigate and better understand the problems they’re trying to solve.
There are lots of techniques that can be used to help teams generate unusual and thought-provoking ideas. This is one of our favourites, but others include
Reversal (a brilliant introduction to idea generation),
Reframe and the
Idea Box.
What happens when you’ve a list of ideas? Often, the ideas that are potentially most interesting - the ones that could lead to revolutionary change - are quietly discarded in favour of minor tweaks that protect the status quo.
That’s because the best ideas are often hidden in suggestions that are comical, ridiculous or wacky.
But what if?
What if, we took a crazy thought and worked with it? What if we looked for the germ of a good idea in the throw away comments? What might be possible then?
This activity helps teams find out.
Inspired by the work of Edward de Bono, and others, this module introduces a simple four-stage process for evaluating ideas – Clarity, Risks, Optimism, Modification.
How can you kill a promising idea dead? One way is to set up a committee to work on it.
Want a more foolproof method? Leave out the idea generator – the one with the passion for the idea.
This fun activity looks at these and other ways to kill ideas. More importantly, it demonstrates how to stop the energy leaking from ideas and how to maintain momentum so that ideas deliver innovation.
The final stage in the creative problem-solving cycle, before we return to the first stage of identification, is implementation. This is the point where creative thinking merges with change management and, as you’d expect, we’ve a whole separate section with training materials for that. This module is a useful bridge though, introducing the PETER model: Promote, Evaluate, Test, Evaluate, Roll Out.
So, there you have it – a very small selection of the training activities and modules within
Trainers’ Library® that will help you develop practical creative problem solving and solution finding skills in the organisations you work with.
We hope you found this interesting and, if you’d like to know more, please get in touch.