Creative Thinking Toolkit

Inform, Consult and Involve Workshop for The Coventry Partnership July 2010
Amanda Graham

Creative Thinking Skills

1. Introduction
The approach to creative thinking in business involves using a structured process yes bizarrely enough, a structured process to generate new and different thinking that probably wouldnt have happened otherwise. Usually focused on some subject; solving a particular problem, addressing anything from organisational communication to your next product or service offering, the techniques can generate many ideas about how you might achieve something. There are many ways to skin a cat the old saying goes (dont try that at home) and creativity techniques force out those many, many ways. Using creativity techniques in business is a way of thinking which is different to how most businesses think, most of the time. If you ask people to think in a different way, you need to support them in that and give thought to what it is they need to do it successfully. We will be looking at the psychology behind this different way of thinking and the practicalities of handling that when you run such meetings.

Amanda Graham
amanda.graham@equalta.co.uk 07747 758580

2. Setting Up the Psychology for Successful Creative Thinking

Thinking Ruts
As you may know, our brains are exceptionally good at classifying what they receive and then taking shortcuts. For example if we had to re-learn the alphabet every time we looked at words in a different font, life might well slow down a bit! but no, our brains can simply recognize the similarity and make the shortcut. This is extremely clever and efficient - but can have the downside of keeping us in thinking ruts if were not careful. For example, when you think of a petrol pump, many people will automatically get the version you see on the forecourt at a petrol station. If you ask the question how could we improve it? then you start from that place, that image on the forecourt which has already taken you into a rut. In order to get us out of these ruts we use the creativity techniques, of which brainstorming of course is the best known. My (sometimes controversial) view of the way most business brainstorm is that it does not produce creative thinking, that is thinking you probably wouldnt have had, it gathers together the thoughts which were already in peoples heads. This is why we will be using beyond the brainstorm techniques which can feel a bit spooky to the un-initiated. We need to do this to get out of the ruts, but we also need to clearly manage that this may move people out of their comfort zone.

Rational Thinking and Creativity

Ever since we were about 7 or 8 years old we have had our natural creativity beaten out of us. School focuses teaching on right or wrong answers, we grow up and start to feel silly about imagining cardboard boxes as castles or motor cars. Not unreasonable then that when you ask people to try out some of this lateral and diverging thinking in the business arena that some people find themselves rapidly getting away from what theyre used to, moving out of their comfort zone and resisting and possibly even dismissing the techniques. This is an important piece of the process which needs to be addressed and has the potential to completely sabotage and attempt at new and different thinking if its not addressed.

There is a very thought provoking You Tube video, that I have found opens up peoples thinking to our rapidly changing world and the need to be creative and move with it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY

3. A Convergent and Divergent Process

Get the right question!

Generate lots of ideas

Evaluate

Repeat as necessary

4. Getting to the Right Question

One area of the creative process which is rarely invested in, but can have a huge impact on an effective outcome is checking out the question that you are starting with.

Clarity
All the people in the group must have a clear understanding of the question that they are trying to generate new and different ideas about. Or if you have a nave expert, i.e. someone who knows nothing of the subject, present intentionally to help and challenge the thinking, ensure everyone knows that their role is to ask stupid questions without having the requisite technical knowledge.

How to How can we.

This phrasing helps to give the question movement.

Positively focused
Phrasing the question such that it has a positive focus e.g. How can we get better at, improve, get more of has a huge impact on the creative thinking session. And conversely, if you phrase it as stop, avoid or less, the positive energy in the session will be much harder to create.

Narrowing and Widening the Question.

Challenge your question with narrower or wider statements. Example: How can I get more sales leads for equalta via the internet?

Narrower: How can I get more sales leads via Google? How can I get more sales leads via our
website?

Wider: How can I get more sales leads via electronic means? How can I get more sales leads?

5. Creativity Techniques Reverse Brainstorming

Reverse Brainstorming Process
Decide the task/problem/issue about which you want to generate new and different ideas. Write as a sentence how can we. Take a blank flipchart and write on it the reverse of your how can we.. Brainstorm as many ideas as you can about the reverse statement. Then take each of those ideas and reverse them back again.

Example
How can we convince all our suppliers to reduce waste at source?

1) Reverse the question

How can we ensure that suppliers make as much waste as humanly possible?

2) Brainstorm for as many.

ideas as possible

3) Then reverse again

Pay them extra by weight and volume of waste.

Pay them to reduce, have competitions, and suggest awards from the government. Communication? Are they making assumptions about what you do and dont want? Ask them, listen. Create a cooperative culture of reduction which isnt about being paid to do it. Negotiate a goal or objective to come up with one idea a month to reduce and give all involved tailored rewards for doing so. Educate. Get some great stories about the impact reducing has had and how well its worked in other businesses. Economies of scale, could the suppliers make economics sense of gathering all the waste together? One persons waste is another persons useful stuff! Consider robustness in the design process, specifically to reduce waste

Make them think you need it for burning to heat your place. Individuals in the suppliers get incentivised by their own company to make as much waste as they can.

Convince them that making more waste will actually reduce global warming. Get them to bring other peoples waste too.

Make everything very fragile so that loads of

extra packaging is needed.

packaging.

6-3-5 Worksheets
How can the police improve their activities in the community?

1
Police walk not drive

1 2 3 4 5 6
PROCESS

Establish a police Let police officers teach sponsored sports team schools

Every person has a separate sheet Everyone writes three ideas in the top row of their sheet within a 5 minute timeframe. At the end of 5 minutes or when everyone has finished writing, pass the worksheet to the person on your right. Repeat until the worksheets are completed.

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE PARTICIPANTS 1. Put you first three ideas in the top row 2. After passing, if you have more ideas put them in, if you dont look at the previous rows ideas, or later on even right back up all the rows and see if they spark an idea. 3. When none of the above produces ideas put something wacky and outrageous in, it may spark something sensible from the next person! 4. Then and only then pass if you can think of nothing.

Description on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=DE&hl=de&v=TR1i1PPd8ZU

SUPER HEROES
Description on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R699qLj1o08

SCAMPER
SUBSTITUTE

Who else instead? What else instead? Other processes? Other places? Other tone of voice? Other approach? COMBINE

How about a blend, an assortment, a merge? Combine units? Combine purposes? Combine benefits? Combine ideas? Combine purposes? ADAPT

What else is like this? What other idea does this suggest? What about adapting things from the past? MODIFY/MAGNIFY

New twist? Change meaning, colour, size, form, shape? Attitudes? Standard procedures? PUT TO OTHER USES

New ways to use as it is? Other uses if modified? New uses of waste? Other markets? Other fields? ELIMINATE

What could be taken away? Miniaturise? Smaller, lower, lighter? Less frequent? Procedure? Understate? REVERSE/REARRANGE

Turn it backwards, upside down, inside out? Turn tables? Turn the other cheek? Change shoes? Do the opposite? Do the unexpected?

Thinkpak
- A Brainstorming Card Deck, Michael Michalko ISBN 0-89815-607-6 The Smarties Exercise

6. Evaluating the Ideas Moving Towards Innovation

Start with Simple Filtering The more ideas you have, the more likely you are to find a great one and therefore it is really important to be able to have a system for filtering them.
First get rid of the junk (because there is bound to have been junk using these processes!) Use a traffic light system Absolutely not a goer dump Well maybe Yes we like it! See if themes have emerged and combine (but be careful you dont combine so well that individual ideas are lost into a blander theme) Give everybody in the team

*** three stars ** two stars

one star and let them allocate them to their favourite ideas and see how they cluster.

OK by now youre down to a more manageable number

7. Facilitation Skills
The Rules of Brainstorming
There are the obvious ground rules of brainstorming that we all know and love; Dont be judgmental (until later, a different stage of the process) Quantity not Quality Build on Others Ideas

More Advanced Facilitation Skills

But there are some more skills that can have a real impact on the session; High energy Scribe writes what is said and doesnt interpret If an early dry up happens be brave and keep the faith in the process it is probably when the brains are working the hardest to make the connections and when the best new stuff will come out The handling of group dynamics, being able to handle dominators and shrinking violets

The Black Art Facilitation Skills

Once youve cracked the above a whole new level of skills start to come into play, which in some ways actually start to contradict some of the earlier ones. I call them the black art because Im not exactly sure I can explain how to do them! They just come with intuition and experience. Facilitator uses open questions around the current line of thought When you as facilitator have a hunch that there is a rich stream of ideas happening, encourage the group down the stream with open questions, but still do not force anything. (This is not the same as seeing an idea yourself and wanting the group to get it, it is simply a hunch that some richness will appear down this stream.)

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8. Practicalities for Running a Brainstorming/Creativity Session

Expectation. As with all meeting the practicalities of time, place, length etc is important so that people can commit. Also setting the extra expectation that this meeting may be doing a different type of thinking will help with people being prepared when they arrive. What you are intending to achieve. The right issue/problem! There are some closed issue/problems that will not benefit at all from using creativity techniques on Timing - need about 2 hours minimum Size - my experience 6-9 is perfect Ownership and next steps, who and how are the outcomes going to be actioned.

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