Business Performance Improvement
Requires Better Ideas
Business
performance improvement is built on a healthy sequence of good decisions
supported by the decision makers' organizations. Good decisions come
from good thinking, the ability to solicit, consider, compare, and
select good ideas. Thinking "out of the box" is all about
generating the opportunity to have lots of good ideas to choose from.
Good business is about turning good ideas into profitability.
Thinking is a Skill
We
can consider that intelligence and thinking are different. Intelligence
is our innate capability, what we're born with. Thinking, on the other
hand, is how we learn to use our intelligence, and as such, is a skill.
As a skill, like bowling, golfing, cooking, etc., it can be actively
improved. In one comparison, intelligence is the race car and it's
finite mechanical capabilities, and thinking is the driver who can learn
more and more about how to maximize the utility of the car.
Out of the Box, or Rather Across
Paradigm Boundaries
Our
brains are wonderful data storage and retrieval systems which prefer
patterns and repetition. They recognize new ideas that are similar
enough to recorded ideas so they "fit" into the pre-existing
collection. Truly new ideas often don't even register in this hierarchy
of set patterns. It also
seems that truly new ideas often come from the "accidental"
crossing of paradigms, mixing new ideas that just don't logically belong
together. The self organizing capacity of our brains goes to work on
this new, unique combination and tries tirelessly to "make
sense" of the novel combination. "Lots of ideas" is the
wonderful by product; 90% will be thrown away, but 10% will often
include ideas, never before conceived, which warrant further
consideration.
Creativity Techniques
While
there are many myths about creativity (creative people are always
artists, or nerds, or not like you and me, etc.) a modern understanding
of creativity recognizes techniques are available to assist anyone who
knows how to use them. Effective creativity techniques deliberately mix
up paradigms while addressing real problems and opportunities to
proactively generate lots of new ideas. These techniques do not need to
depend on a chance occurrence. These techniques can be used at will
whenever individuals or teams recognize they need more ideas.
"Creative people" learn to recognize they may have to use an
illogical technique to generate what they will only later come to
recognize and appreciate as a logical alternative. Go figure!
Seminar
Outline
1.
Introduction: Seminar overview. goals, introductions,
assumptions, ground rules.
2.
Creative Process Introduction: Review purpose and strategy of
deliberately creating new ideas.
3.
Select topics which need new ideas: plan to use techniques on a
practical issues.
4.
Select the technique alternatives: Problem Reformulation,
Scoreboard, Knowledge Mapping, Classic Brainstorming, Brainwriting ,
Alternatives, Random Word, Imaginary Brainstorming, Analogies, Picture
Associations, Biotechniques, TILMAG, and Morphological Box; how to use
Creative Thinking Process and select techniques.
5.
Practice with the techniques: Practice with many of the above techniques on
your
selected issue; small groups working on same or variety of issues.
6.
Practice selecting best alternatives: Practice using Scoreboard,
Multivoting, and Decision Matrix to select best alternatives.
7.
Study the phenomenon of creativity: How the brain likes to work
creatively, and how we can take advantage of this; pattern making, free
association, role of techniques. Discuss the paradox of using logical
and illogical thinking techniques to list and create logical useful
ideas; function of “fixed point”
8.
Using techniques in your workplace: How techniques can be used
effectively in a wide variety of business environments
9.
Other Creativity Techniques: Introduction and reference additional techniques.
10.
Next Steps: Plan
for your successful implementation of this new thinking.
Seminar
Format:
This
seminar is most effective when intact work teams meet to address
current, real problems. Students work at team tables practicing on
company issues while learning to use skills presented in the seminar.
Seminar
Books:
GOAL/QPC’s
The Creativity Tools Memory Jogger and seminar notebook with
exercises and resources for future work.
