How to use creative problem solving to get a job – even during an economic downturn
The late Earl Nightingale, known as "the dean of personal development," once related this story in one of his audiotapes that speaks to the challenges we face today, and why creative problem solving is more important than ever.
Predicting the future and focusing your innovation program
Derek Cheshire offers some advice on how to identify the drivers of future trends and develop new product and service ideas to drive your innovation program and your business.
10 Rules for Creative Teams
Under the right circumstances, a team can be significantly more creative than any individual team member and is often better able to push creative ideas through the implementation process so that they may become innovations. Here are ten quick rules for ensuring your teams are effective creative teams from Jeffrey Baumgartner.
Intuition and Emotion in Creative Thinking
Great ideas arise in the strangest ways and are blended from the oddest ingredients, such as gut feelings, intuitions and emotions, explains author David Jiles Ph.D.
Eight ways to generate more ideas in a group
Group brainstorming is common in organizations around the world. But more often than not, it delivers a disappointing quantity of so-so ideas. Here are eight ways to generate more and better ideas in these ideation sessions.
Innovation and skills agility
As the pace of innovation continues to accelerate, driven by increased global collaboration and rapid advances in technology, a growing need will be for organizations to locate the right skills base to carry its innovation initiatives forward. So says Jim Carroll, author of the new book, Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast.
When to Kill an Idea
The problem most people and organizations have is that they tend to kill ideas at the wrong times, either too early or too late, and this is very detrimental to their innovation process. Jeffrey Baumgartner explains to how to establish common-sense criteria for killing an idea
Framework Innovation and Detail Innovation
A combination of detail and framework innovation is a potent recipe for business success, according to Jeffrey Baumgartner. What are framework and detail innovation? Read on to find out.
The Six Thinking Hats of Creative Communication
Edward De Bono’s Six Hats method is a powerful and creative approach for communication. If you design your communication efforts - such as speeches, meetings, dialogs, posters and ads - according to this model, you will increase your odds of getting your message through in an original yet clear and effective way.
Adopt and Adapt Ideas to Drive Innovation
What do Clarence Birdseye, Alexander Graham Bell and George de Mestral have in common? As Paul Sloane explains, it has to do with a unique way of looking at the world around them with a creative eye.
Look for the solution within the problem
Two prisoners dug a tunnel from their cell 80 feet to escape from prison. Where did they hide the dirt? This is one of the examples used by Roni Horowitz of the consultancy group SIT [...]
Creativity in reverse: a new way to use TRIZ
Much of creativity is focused on solving problems or creating new solutions to replace or improve upon what already exists. But sometimes the problem we
Spontaneous Versus Solution-Oriented Creativity
Creativity can come in two forms: spontaneous creativity and solution oriented creativity. Here are some tips on how your organization can benefit from both types, from Jeffrey Baumgartner.
Need breakthrough innovation? Resist the temptation to ‘build a better mousetrap’
product development in many industries. Moreover, the percentage of ideas that make it from lab to consumer is low. One factor that affects the probability of success is how innovators look at a given development challenge or problem.
A Process for Innovation Planning
All too often, hastily planned brainstorming sessions bring up a lot of good ideas that somehow never get used, while the boring kinds of ideas you are trying to get away from seem to be used again and again. One reason for this is the lack of an innovation plan, according to Jeffrey Baumgartner.
Brainstorming strategy: Don’t settle for the first idea
When looking for solutions to problems, we humans have an unfortunate tendency to embrace the first solution that comes to mind. That can be counterproductive, but it can also blind us to more creative, effective and ultimately more profitable solutions, according to Jeffrey Baumgartner.
When Brainstorming, Don’t Give in to Limited Thinking
When we are trying to dream up ideas for a particular problem, we have a tendency to look at the limitations and focus our ideation on ideas that meet the demands of our limitations. In short, we only consider ideas that come within the “good ideas” portion of our realm of ideas. Ideas that do not make it into the good ideas realm are often rejected immediately.
Imagination: The Number One Tool for Innovation and Creativity
Imagination is not a word you hear much about in business. Few companies, outside electronic game producers, would describe themselves as imaginative. That is a shame and a mistake. Imagination is the number one tool for creativity and innovation.
Creative thinking technique: Lotus Blossom
A creative-thinking technique that will help you expand your thinking beyond your usual paths of thinking is Lotus Blossom. According to author Michael Michalko, Lotus Blossom helps you to organize your thinking around significant themes, helping you to explore a number of alternate possibilities and ideas.
Innovation strategy: Does your new product idea really solve a customer problem?
Whether you're inventing teabags or nail polish, innovations that solve actual problems make more common sense to consumers than "bright ideas" that "assume" a problem.
What is TRIZ and How can it be used in Problem Solving or Brainstorming?
TRIZ is a problem solving and brainstorming technique that has been growing in popularity, especially among design engineers. What is TRIZ, and why is it such a powerful tool for product development and other business applications?
How to creatively meet customer needs – and grow your business in the process
According to the late self-help expert Earl Nightingale, every business in operation today, not matter how large or small, began as an idea in the mind of one person. One of the best ways to grow your business is to identify unmet customer needs
Think horizontally and vertically to solve your next creative challenge
The next time you're faced with a challenge that requires a creative solution, why not try exploring both "horizontal" and "vertical" approaches?
Photography: the Art of ‘Seeing’
There are a number of elements that contribute to creative photography, and which have metaphorical equivalents in the world of creative problem solving. Learn how to 'see' more effectively in both realms!