Why Creative Problem Solving?

Why Creative Problem Solving?

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” –Elinor Smith

Train Your People in the Basics of the Creative Process

When Etienne Veber, former president of Nutrasweet Company was racing to bring a product to market with a potential payoff of close to $1 billion dollars, he sponsored a year-long creativity and innovation intervention. In order to optimize working relationships and work output, he trained his team in the fundamentals of the creative process and secured ongoing coaching and facilitation services throughout the year. Looking back on the results he says, “The creativity and innovation training has made a world of difference to our team. It showed us how we could do things differently so we could be much faster to market and much more creative -- the results have been amazing.”

Deliberate Creativity isn’t just about new products or breakthroughs

Last year, after Pernod Ricard Winemakers adopted a new vision of “Leading Wine Innovation”, they launched a creative leadership program called Th!nk that is based on creative problem solving. Paulina Larocca, Creativity and Concept director says, “in order to live into our new vision, we wanted to empower our people to be individually creative, to enable them to use deliberate creative tools and techniques not only for big challenges but also for everyday interactions.” 6 months after the training, Russ Schoen did follow up interviews with the 20 participants. In addition to several real business challenges being solved, participants reported the biggest impact they saw was how they approached everyday situations with more creativity.  Tony, a participant from New Zealand in operations said, “Now my meetings and everyday conversations are more effective because I am using the principles of deferred judgment and generous listening.” Anne Marie, a participant from the finance group said – I use one of the key tools – phrasing problems as questions almost daily in conversations with co-workers to get unstuck. And Marie from Marketing said, “the whole understanding of Foursight Preferences, that people have difference energy for different parts of the Creative Problem Solving process, has changed how I approach everyday meetings – I am now able to adapt and actively manage them much better.”

People embracing deliberate creative thinking tools gives an organization the ability to tap people’s natural creative abilities as soon as they are faced with a pressing business challenge. According to Paulina, “It starts with a recognition that everyone is creative. We just need to empower people with the right tools and the right mindset, so they can start having more creative conversations and interactions everyday.”

 

 

Take the first step

In the 1950’s, Alex Osborn, an advertising executive, discovered Creative Problem Solving by observing highly creative people, groups and teams and documenting the stages they went through to solve challenges. Osborn realized that problem solving was a natural process and that by making the problem solving process explicit rather than strictly intuitive, people would be able to significantly improve their problem solving abilities. He was right!  Hundreds of research studies have proven its effectiveness; Creative Problem Solving (CPS) provides a common language and framework for individuals and groups to understand complex challenges, generate innovative solutions and create deliberate plans of action.

The result: a process designed to deliver breakthrough results on real challenges utilizing people’s native abilities and gifts.

So whether you want to have more creative meetings, better creative conversations, launch new products, or fuel creative leadership growth, Creative Problem Solving may just be the right engine. Who knows? You may even find yourself on with some stellar new ideas!

 

 

Creative problem solving for career success!

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There is one skill that I am so thankful that I learnt - the creative problem solving process. When I look back on where I have been on my career journey, this is the one skill that has made a massive difference.

Why?

1. I like to pursue the best and this is not a process that came out of nowhere. There is substantial theory and solid research behind the process:

Creative Problem Solving is a proven method for approaching a problem or a challenge in an imaginative and innovative way. It’s a tool that helps people re-define the problems they face, come up with breakthrough ideas and then take action on these new ideas. Alex Osborn and Sidney Parnes conducted extensive research on the steps that are involved when people solve problems, and formed the basis of the process.

Today, it is used by many of the top brands in the world to ideate and to create successful outcomes for their business.

2. The creative problem solving process taught me to wait before excluding what could be fabulous ideas. I learnt to bite my tongue and follow the YES AND principle so that all ideas emerge before they are rationally excluded.

I had to include everyone in the room and not encourage an 80 - 20 principle where 20% of the people talk 80% of the time. That encourages full participation and that rich diversity of thought and contribution is where ideas suddenly emerge that have made the hugest difference to my business.

3. The process also showed me where I fit best in a team. My natural style is to be an ideator. No good placing me in a team where I need to act in the role of integrator and or implementor. I am okay at clarification. Just knowing where my strengths lie gives me a head-start.

4. I learnt to be both flexible and structured. Quite a challenge when you are delivering to the needs of the business and also want to ensure that there are so many innovative, more creative, more efficient and effective ways of doing things! As you adapt the process to each challenge you encounter, you realise just how versatile and powerful the process is.

5. The process reminds me to always examine the data before leaping in. Sounds straightforward but so much easier to jump to conclusions. The strength of the creative problem solving process is that fact finding and data gathering is part and parcel of the whole methodology.

6. The process also ensures that I defer judgment so that as a team we can come up with wild, outrageous, out-of-the-box ideas. This is where we explore ideas that are possible solutions and have the most fun. It’s also where we stretch to make connections, take risks, and try new combinations to find potentially innovative solutions.

7. The process also gives me the discipline to strengthen and improve the best ideas generated. I am able to generate the criteria that need to be considered to evaluate the ideas for success. A creative idea is not really useful if it won’t be implemented!!

Learn more about the process from our guest facilitator, Russ Schoen:

http://mci.edu.au/business-skills-academy/masterclass-creative-problem-solving

Are organisations afraid of innovation?

So much talk around about how important it is to be innovative. How will organisations progress or keep up with the rapid pace of change if there is not a culture of innovation? In the IBM Global CEO survey, innovation emerges as a critical skill that leaders need to display - see http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/en/c-suite/ceostudy2012/.

So - it seems as though innovation should be top of mind when it comes to establishing a training program for an organisation. You would think that there would be a substantial focus on providing people with the right tools and techniques to be more creative, to use the full extent of their creativity so that they do in fact deliver new ideas that can be readily implemented.

Reality seems to dictate otherwise! Very little budget appears to be allocated to learning programs, formal and informal workshops or any experiences that lead to thinking in a more creative way. And creativity is a skill that can be learnt - we are not born with some mysterious powers that enable us to think in way that leads to creative outputs.

Are we afraid of creating this climate of innovation because of what could happen and we in fact prefer to stick to the same old way of doing things? Are we afraid of what might emerge when people come up with better ways of doing things and we might not have the will or the budget to take these ideas forward? Are we determined to buck the innovation trend and remain happily ensconced in the 20th Century?

Help! I just cannot figure it out.

There is just so much disruption happening in so many industries - no one can afford to be complacent.

Ideal world would be for all team members to be able to follow a process of generating ideas in a structured way so that there are bucket loads of ideas from which practical, useful and amazing actions emerge that make a real difference to the organisation. When it comes to allocating budget, creative thinking techniques should not be placed as a low priority item that we can get to at some distant point in time. I would hope that these tools would be part and parcel of any training delivery program or process.

Enough with simply talking about innovation - take practical steps to make it happen by providing the entire company with the ability to creatively problem solve:

1. Start off meetings in unusual ways to convey the message that all can contribute and no ideas will be blocked. Gather an endless supply of ways of initiating meetings.

2. Be trained as a facilitator who knows the difference between divergence and convergence - follow the YES AND principle and make others in the room look good. Watch how quickly people build on other people's ideas and what emerges from the conversations when 100% of the people in the room are included.

3. Be formally trained as a creative problem solving facilitator so that you can apply the principles of this world renowned process in your own meetings. Ideate more strongly and then select the best ideas by moving towards consensus in a logical way. See how many new ideas emerge that would otherwise have been discarded too quickly - and how much easier it is when there is buy-in to the new way of doing things.

4. Form teams that include a range of participants and leaders with different styles of creative thinking. Do you have people on the team who are clarifiers, idea generators, developers, and implementers? Do you know what the preferred styles are in terms of creativity and have you identified these styles in the team? Undertake a survey to determine who is who in the team - and watch the huge difference this makes.

5. Emphasise the importance of innovation to your learning and development and HR teams - they might not see training in this area as being a top priority agenda item. And it is so easy to integrate innovation techniques in to just about any learning experience whether on-line or face to face.

The best news of all - none of this comes with a huge price tag. Small investment that leads to a huge return. But only if you are not afraid of innovation....

Down with Boring Presentations!

I am just over sitting in a conference room listening to a 'lecturer' telling me what I already know and or what I don't have much interest in knowing more about. Or worse still, what I could read on their website!

I have attended 2 conferences recently, where I felt my eyes closing and it is time for presenters and trainers to take a leap in to interactive learning experiences.

What GREAT presentations are and what they are NOT:

1. Forget those Powerpoints that have so many words on them that I get a headache reading them. Great Powerpoints are filled with images that are memorable and tell a story.

We no longer have restrictions on the amount of information we can store on our computer drives or USB's. So why do I have to squint to read tiny font? Why not insert more slides that enable the telling of the story?

GREAT training has movement and is not static. We don't have to stare at one slide for 20 minutes because we are afraid of 'death by Powerpoint'. Yes, Powerpoint that is a summary of your presentation is dreadful, but in a session of 1 hour, nothing wrong with 40 - 50 great slides that move your key points forward!

If you need to include tables in the presentation and other facts and figures, think about how to do this with the key messages clearly displayed. No, no to excel spreadsheets on the screen. Print them out instead.

2. That podium.... Please, step out from behind the podium. Insist on a lapel mic so that you connect with the group. We can all read the slides, so tell us the stories behind them. Create movement and energy in the room and then the group takes their lead from you.

3. Voice - please, please: a monotonous voice is just a way of induce sleep. Create a different rhythm and get feedback from others so that you improve. Create some energy and step up your pace and slow down on the dramatic points. Find some up and down moments and surprise us.

4. Creating an interactive presentation does not mean that for 2 minutes you ask the group to discuss a point at their table. Then continue your presentation without any debriefing. A few minutes later, asking the group to discuss something for 10 minutes and again no debriefing, does not mean that your session has been interactive.

Interactive means that you use a variety of methods to invite the group to participate in the discussion. How about:

A debate between teams on different viewpoints

A competition between groups

Completion of a quiz

A template to complete at the table

Formulate questions at the table to ask the presenter

Use post-its on a flipchart to sum up the main ideas

Provide handouts for analysis at the table

5. Create a presentation that flows logically and can be completed in the time allocated. Practice and receive honest feedback before stepping up on stage.

6. Provide practical take-outs. We all want to know what we can do with the information and not what the theory is - we can read that. What does it mean to us back in our work environment?

Present as the best presenters do!

At long last! Finally! I have I have just returned from two incredible conferences in the USA and have seen some amazing presentations. What made them so good?

1. Body language was just excellent! They stood properly and moved around with confidence - no-one was stooped over with crossed legs and pens clicking in hands. Their chins were level; their sternums were up; their weight was well distributed on their feet and their eyes were actively engaging with the group.

2. They had done their research and it showed! They knew what was critical information and this was presented in a logical flow. The 'nice to know' material was added in at certain points in the presentation and then energy picked up again so that the audience remained on their toes.

3. They told fabulous stories! You were just spellbound listening to their personal stories or to stories about organisations. The story-telling reinforced the key messages and was never there just for a laugh or a joke. The story had a clear link to the message and gave the practical side of what did or could happen. I commit to never doing a presentation again without a really good story included.

4. The slides were excellent! There were lots of them, but they were not covered in print and you could read them from the back of the room. They had a few definite bullet points and added to what was being said through great choices in images. After all, don't we want our presentations to be memorable and for people to act on what we shared with them??

5. The presenters were not faultless - they stumbled every now and then. A slide came up too quickly or they lost their train of thought for a few moments. But they did it with good humour and self deprecating laughter and no one in the audience minded at all.

6. Their diction was clear! No long pauses and certainly no umm's and ahhs to detract from what was being said. They built credibility as we were able to follow their thought patterns and buy in to their concepts.

7. Some presenters introduced excellent, very short videos in to their presentations and wow, what a difference that made: just livened things up and helped to reinforce a key point. You never forget it. As an example, search for the Panda adverts on Youtube....

8. They had rehearsed and had built their confidence by receiving feedback from colleagues or other audience members or even through self-assessment. This helped push them to the next level and build in further improvements.

So: a big reminder to me to lift my game!!

CEO Danny Bielik's article in the Australian on the changes in Higher Education!

Choice of access key benefit of reforms

In all the noise about $200,000 university fees, one of the key messages of the government’s
reforms is being lost.

Until now, higher education students have had very little choice. Public university number one, two
and three has been the choice in most capital cities with even less choice in regional areas.
Yes, they use brand names like Sydney, Macquarie and Federation, but in reality they offer similar
courses at identical prices, no matter where they are located or the quality of their offering.

Private providers, on the other hand have typically had narrow offerings that don’t offer much threat
to this government-imposed order, because of a bifurcated pricing structure.

No access to capital funding such as the EIF (Education Investment Fund), no access to subsidies
like at government universities and a 25 per cent education tax on their loan scheme.

What other kind of industry gets that level of taxpayer- funded protectionism against private
investment?
Universities owned by states and funded by the commonwealth continue to be, by-and-large, the
order of the day.
And these same universities are sliding down the international scales. What a surprise!

Yes, universities have independent boards but in reality I will call them for what they are — a cartel.
And what is it that this cartel really doesn’t like about the government’s proposed reforms?
The combination of uncapping of fees and the broadening of the HECS offering to private providers
on a more-equal footing is the modern-day equivalent of the antitrust movement in the US at the turn
of the 1900s.

This is right at the heart of the reforms the government has put in the budget. And it’s all lost in the
noise about expensive degrees. Whether by design or not, this is actually very clever.
Should these reforms pass the Senate, Australia now has the opportunity to completely remake the
higher education sector.

A more level playing field will become more inviting for high-quality foreign-owned institutions and
encourage investment by homegrown ones.
This should stimulate the largest investment boom in tertiary education capacity Australia has ever
seen.

Private investment — not taxpayer investment — leading to diversity and choice for students, local
and foreign.
Why shouldn’t an Australian student have access to some of the best institutions of learning and
research in the world?

Wouldn’t it be nice to attend Yale or Harvard; INSEAD, Nat ional University of Singapore or Oxford
in Sydney or Melbourne; Albany or Wollongong?
Wouldn’t that be attractive to international students who are now being drawn to Singapore and
China?

Think how many sustainable jobs that would create and what it would do to our economy?
We sometimes send strange signals as a country — on the one hand we want to throw taxpayer
money at foreign car manufacturers to keep jobs that make no modern economic sense.

But we also demand the same government use taxpayer money to prevent foreign providers of highquality education setting up shop.
What is an educational investor to make of this?
Yes, in this new paradigm Australian universities will have to compete.

Or we can leave up the walls of protectionism and continue to pour money into further decline.

Talent shortage?

MCI is recruiting!  And we are open to accepting CVs from Sydney based talented, committed people to fill a whole range of roles.  We are keen to recruit across all generations and so no matter your age, we look forward to accepting your application.

We have expanded rapidly and need to urgently fill many positions.  We seem to feel that there is a talent shortage or it could be that the best people are hiding their talents...

Do you have what it takes to excel in these roles:

Telesales and account executives

Part time and full time administration team members

Marketing and communications assistant

Student mentors for our MCI Institute

Course advisors for our students

 Content writers for our wide range of qualifications

Bring us your passion for the learning environment and we reward well for consistently high performance!  We are an award winning RTO with a great working environment.  We strive to live according to our logo:  "Because a Mind is a Powerful thing to use."

Please send CV's to hr@mci.edu.au for attention Jacqui Rimer.

We look forward to hearing from you!

What I learnt about training - from buying a new car....

Always great fun to drive off in new wheels - but boy, did I get an empathy wake-up call about how learners experience new skills.  Yes, I am an experienced (old) driver, with lots of mileage on me.  Nonetheless, the world keeps spinning and cars are not what they used to be....

So, my timely reminders are:

1. It all looks so easy when the trainer explains it to you.  Yes, seems so straightforward when you are an observer.  When the trainer leaves and you are in traffic, working out where the indicator is and how to get in to reverse, it is not as simple as it seems.

So big AHA for me is:

Follow the DEDICT model because rapid-fire explanations of new skills just waft over people's heads - 

Demonstrate

Explain

Demonstrate Slowly

Imitation

Coaching

Trial

2. Allow for question time.  If all the instructions descend on a learner without time for questions, the learning is simply not embedded.  If the learner is not asking questions, they are not absorbing the information.  Prompt them to ask questions as they might be fearful of showing themselves up as not being up to speed on things.

Research shows that the best way of reviewing your work before an exam, is to respond to questions.  If you ask yourself questions about the information, and practice recalling that information, this will greatly improve your ability to recall items on the test.

3. Build your empathy quotient.  Yes, you as a trainer know the material backwards and forwards.  You have been through it several times and can probably do it in your sleep.  BUT your learner is not in that fortunate position - they might be seeing things for the very first time and might be at the stages of unconscious or conscious INcompetence. 

They are experiencing feelings ranging from fear through to nervousness and even anxiety.

If we do not acknowledge these feelings, we risk undermining their confidence and as the stress factor rises, so retention decreases. 

4. Building confidence is sometimes more important than the skills themselves!  When the learners feel good about themselves, they are more likely to try out the new skills in many different contexts.  

When the vehicle was at a standstill, I had time to think through all the options.  When I was out on the road and the circumstances varied, suddenly moments of panic emerge as I encountered situations where I had to really think carefully before responding.

I was lucky to  be able to draw on my experience as a driver in the past and if we as trainers can make the links to what is known by the learners, there is a better chance that they will feel that level of confidence to try out the new stuff.

5.  Praise and praise!!  Positive reinforcement has been an old tool in the bag and it is still very effective.  

Have a look at our Train the Designer program to build your bench strength in learning design:

http://mci.edu.au/trainer-academy/train-the-designer

Want your sessions to shine? Are you following these essential guidelines?

San Diego Training 2014 - we have returned with bags full of new learning activities to engage learners of all shapes and sizes and lots of enthusiasm to improve our learning programs!  It has encouraged us to re-evaluate what we are delivering and stretch for greater heights.  Here are some of the questions we posed to our design and delivery teams:

Be honest with yourself and self-assess - do your programs really shine?  What else could you be doing to ensure that your sessions move from ordinary to EXTRA-ordinary?


1. All activities MUST relate to the key messages of the program.  I detest activities that have no relevance and never want to see any of those 'turn around and massage the back of the person next to you' style energisers.  Is your day structured so that there are constant openers and closers?  Are we sure that these activities are relevant and appropriate?

2. Activities are not the 'nice to have' components of a learning program - they make the training memorable.  After all, if we forget 70% of what we learn within the first 24 hours of attending training, anything that we can do to improve that dreadful percentage is a step forward.  What else could you be doing to ensure that our participants are so engaged that they have instant recall of key points?

3. There must be movement in the room.  Learning has nothing to do with sitting in a chair.  Motion causes emotion and sitting still for a few hours just pools the energy in to a heap on the floor.  What else can we do so that participants are bouncing off the walls?

4. When you talk about your program being interactive, do you mean that there is a lot of discussion going on at tables?  OR, do you mean that there are constant structured activities that have a purpose and a briefing and debriefing that creates AHA moments?

5. Are we stretching our creativity to its limits or are we satisfied with what we have always done in the past?  New materials, new games refresh programs and the facilitators who deliver them.  Are we too bound to the old way of doing things or are we prepared to be more adventurous?

6. How could you do more to create learning experiences for your participants?  What else could be done pre- and post-training to shake things up and to tap in to both the rational and emotional side of the learning experience?

7. Participants learn so much from each other.  Do we have sufficient opportunities for the learning leader to become less important and to value the contribution of the group?

8. Are we doing enough to offer blended solutions?  The blends are so rich in this day of technology - are we ensuring that there is such an amazing blend of all forms of learning that the touch-points with learners are multi-faceted?

Let the games begin!  Much to be done!

Speak to us about how we can train your trainers and designers to create more sessions that deliver great results.

Danny Bielik’s tips on Securing your Dream Career

On the 2GB Courses and Careers Show with Danny Bielik, Danny talks about securing your dream career.

Here are his top 10 tips:

• If you are looking at a new career, look at one that you reasonably think has a good prospect for growing for a long time.  I keep talking about aged care – because people are getting older.  I keep talking about community services and health, because of NDIS and Gonski are going to see growth in individualised care.  I often talk about more general qualifications at a Diploma level that can help you with a broader range of job opportunities - qualifications such as HR, Business Administration, Project Management etc. are in demand in a range of industries. Remember - you can also take advantage of the great government loan programs available such as HECS or VET FEE-HELP.
  
• Be careful of “fad” jobs or ones that are easily exported – IT, web development and application development.  If you’re looking to develop one of your own apps for a specific market, go for it, but if you’re looking for a job, good luck.
  
• Watch out for declining industries – journalism and retail, printing and publishing are good examples of today’s “buggy whip” industries.  Think about what industries are going away or under stress – manufacturing is a good example.  If you’re in one of these, you might be ok, but it won’t hurt to think of what other industries you could be pursuing pretty smartly.
  
• Now is the time to take a look at your CV – these days job agencies and employers receive tons of CVs at the click of a mouse button.  So get rid of the “guff”, no more 10 page CVs. Remember the people who are reading it will make their initial decision about you in  30 seconds.  It’s never too early to tidy and clean house.  Bullet points rule, no long form text.  Also remove general statements like “I am a forward-looking hard worker who functions well as an individual and as part of a team.  I am self-motivated and friendly.”  Oh please – pass the bucket!  Kill the management-speak too – anyone who sends me a CV with “High-functioning, circumstantial enterprise rephasing” will find their CV in the “circular repository” (bin).  Oh, and my personal favourite error, if you have made changes in your CV, make sure you delete all the changes thoroughly before sending it.  I have received CVs with people’s errors and changes and seen them do things like add $$ to sales figures.
  
• Add a profile to LinkedIn – don’t wait until you’re looking for a job – it takes time to build your profile and time to link to other people.  You never know who might come sniffing your way – if someone is looking for someone LIKE you, odds-on they’re using LinkedIn.  And if you are looking right now for a job, when you start making changes to your LinkedIn it also tells the world that you’re looking – so be prepared that your boss may find out.
  
• Clean your Facebook profiles – don’t put things like “I hate my job” or anything else offensive.  It can be quite straightforward for employers to see it if they know someone you know.
  
• Network – not always online, do it offline too.  Attend industry drinks and conferences, there’s always an association for everything.  A friend of mine used to be the President of the Australasian Bottled Water Association – who knew there was such a thing?  You might find there’s lots of other jobs, you might equally find it’s tough out there.  Meet people, hand out cards.  If you don’t have any in your job, get some made.  You can even get them for free on the internet.
  
• Find out what skills the market is looking for – then start up-skilling.  The skills required in almost any job change very frequently now and, like an old house you can find yourself slipping behind.  Again, the internet is your best friend, but networking will help you with this too – join some of the groups on LinkedIn for your industry.  You’ll be amazed at what you find out.
  
• Find out what you’re worth.  I have put some links to salary surveys below – check them out.  You might think you’re worth more than you’re being paid, but it’s really best to know.
  
• If you are interviewing for a job, please show courtesy.  Be polite, show up on time, be neat.  Thank people for an interview and any opportunity to apply for a job.  I have written words like “LATE” and “SCRUFFY” on someone’s CV before – do you think they came back for a second interview? My mother always said it costs nothing to be polite and let me tell you, as an employer, it really can make all the difference.

General disclaimer – Nothing in this blog intimates that MCI or Danny Bielik guarantee you can get a job nor keep it.  Work hard, work smart, study well, take control and be nice to others.
Links to Salary Surveys:

• Michael Page
• My Career
• Hays

Danny Bielik is a former Ministerial Adviser and CEO of Management Consultancy International.  Danny presents the Courses and Careers Show each Thursday on Nights with Steve Price.  You can listen to the Courses and Careers Show on 873 2GB in Sydney and 2gb.com.  Podcasts are on the 2GB website and iTunes.