Creativity & Problem Solving

Pause for a moment and think about the formal training you've received in generic problem solving. Not much, huh? Then think about a typical day and estimate the number of problems that you solve, ranging from the most trivial to the four-alarm, let's-call-a-crisis-meeting-before-we-all-die variety. Obviously not all problems warrant a systematic, structured approach, but often we could find better solutions just by taking a minute or two to make sure that we've defined the 'problem' correctly in the first place.

Some of you may have heard about the problem faced by a building manager with slow lifts. The level of complaint had become so great that action was imperative. All the 'obvious' solutions were either expensive (for example, reprogram the lifts) or infeasible (for example, build more lifts). Then someone thought a bit harder about the problem - it wasn't that the lifts were too slow, it was the fact that people were getting annoyed while they were waiting for the lifts to arrive with nothing else to do. The eventual solution: install reflective glass on the walls around the lifts, giving people a chance to check out their appearance (and maybe that of others around them ...) while they were waiting. Cost: reasonable. Result: far fewer complaints.

I've included Creativity in this section because, to me, defining a problem and finding potential solutions to it are creative acts. If you're totally convinced that you're genetically incapable of creativity, suspend that thought for a while because, as some of the websites I'll refer to below will explain, creativity can be learned.

Sites to Visit

  • Any discussion of problem solving is incomplete without some reference to George Polya (1887-1985). Among a pretty impressive set of achievements, he described and made popular a 4-step approach to problem-solving, summaries of which can be found at this University of Utah site and at this Old Dominion University site (with worked examples).
  • Problem solving, though, is not always a solitary activity, especially in the work environment. The Teamworks website looks at problem solving approaches and how they can be applied in a team.
  • If you want something a tad different, take a look at the Problemistics site. In a few spots I think it suffers in translation, but it offers an interesting excursion into what it calls 'problem dealing'.
  • Synectics is a more recently devised approach to creative idea development and problem solving. Any technique that incorporates a step in which you're obliged to do nothing at all (well strictly, nothing to do with the problem) is surely bound for great popularity. Indeed, so popular has the Synectics approach become that there is a piece of software for US$99 designed to guide you through the process on your PC.
  • Research has repeatedly demonstrated human inadequacy in framing problems and in appropriately weighing evidence. Seminal work in this area was undertaken by Kahneman & Tversky; you'll find many journal articles and papers referring to their work, critiquing and building upon it on the NEC Citeseer site. The book Choice, Values and Frames, which is edited by them, also provides a fairly technical introduction to their research. For a more approachable introduction, try Inevitable Illusions. The presentation on this University of North Carolina page draws heavily on the research in this area.
  • What better way to study creativity than via an analysis of successful patents and inventions? This ingenious thought led to the Russian Theory of Inventive Problem Solving and to the 40 Inventive Principles.
  • Not many people can claim that they are responsible for inventing a phrase that has become a standard part of the language. Edward de Bono, inventor of the phrase 'lateral thinking' and problem solver extraordinaire, can make just such a claim.
  • Finally, a creativity tool that's based on the way the brain works - Mind Mapping. Invented by Tony Buzan, mind mapping has been the subject of many books and pieces of software. Here is a link to the Mindjet website, creators of the Mind Manager tool that's become a favourite of mine. And here's a very comprehensive site on using mind maps for study.