Welcome

to

CREATIVE PROBLE
S O LM
VING
(MARKCPS)

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

Mark

Gordon

Educated
as an anthropologist & evolutionary biologist

Logistics
manager on an amethyst mine in Kalahari Desert, Africa

Editor
at agricultural research institute in Colombia, South America

Magazine editor (trade & consumer) in NY

Visual director at worlds largest public relations

firm
in boutique
NY
Ran my
own
marketing communications agency in NY

Regional
vice president (Asia Pacific) American Express

(marketing & corporate communications)

Regional
vice president (Asia Pacific) Citibank

(marketing & corporate communications)

Director
Infocommunications Development Authority (SG Govt)

(marketing & corporate communications)

Currently
a marketing communications consultant

and
a university teacher

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

What are we going to do ?

We are going to learn what creativity is.

We are going to learn how to solve problems creatively in business

and in our personal lives.

We are going to participate in a series of in-class and

take-home exercises that will help us to learn how to do
this.will create a portfolio containing thoughts and
We

ideas that over the trimester have helped us to

become creative problem solvers.
We will participate in a group project that will help us learn how
to solve problems creatively in a cooperative environment.

This group project will be evaluated and graded; and all members of
the group will receive the same grade.

At the end of the trimester, each of you will know how

to think and express yourself creatively or you will
fail.

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

ANALYZE:
evaluate,
understan
d,
interpret
informatio
n
CREATIVE

INQUIRE:
identify,
explore,
clarify
informatio
n

PROCESS
THINKING

GENERAT
E: ideas,
possibilitie
s,
solutions

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

REFLECT:
think,
combine,
process
information

Assessment

Attendance
& class participation

Homework,

individual projects & quizzes

Portfolio
project

Group Project

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

25%
25%
25%
25%

NAME
MARKCPS
K3?

All assignments must

Be computer printed

Have your name, course

title & section at top left

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Be printed in 12-point type or larger

(i.e., must be clearly legible)

Be submitted on time.
No exceptions. No excuses.

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

For our next class you must

complete and return a class
enrollment card:
Last Name
First Name
Preferred Nickname
Email Address
Cellphone Number

optional

Clearly
printed in
large block
letters

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

2x2
passpor
t size
photo

Attendance
Attendance is your personal responsibility.

You will not pass this course by

reviewing lecture slides only.
Lateness to class will not be
tolerated and WILL be held
against you.

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

FaceBook Page
Lecture slides will be posted.

PDF reading assignments will be posted.

Homework assignments will be posted.

We need a student volunteer to

set it up and keep it current.

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

In your work and class participation

I want to see your thinking

not mine.
processes
& ideas,

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

10

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

11

On Flunking a Nice Boy out of School

I wish I could teach you how ugly
decency and humility can be when they are not
the election of a contained mind but only
the defenses of an incompetent. Were you taught
meekness as a weapon? Or did you discover,
by chance maybe, that it worked on mother
and was generally a good thing
at least when all else failed to get you over
the worst of what was coming. Is that why you bring
these sheepfaces to Tuesday?
They wont do.
Its three months work I want, and Id sooner have it
from the brassiest lumpkin in pimpledom, but have it,
than all these martyred repentances from you.
John Ciardi
19161986

American poet, translator, etymologist & educator

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

12

REQ
UIR
E
D

Being Logical
A Guide to Good Thinking
D. Q. McInerny
2004, Random House
dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

13

REQ
UIR
E
D
Crimes Against Logic
Exposing the Bogus Arguments of
Politicians, Priests, Journalists and
Other Serial Ofenders

Jamie Whyte
2004, McGraw-Hill
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Question

Why are you here at DLSU

?

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

15

The value of a college education is

not the learning of many facts but the
training of the mind to think.
Albert Einstein
New York Times
(18 May 1921)

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

16

Question

What is UNIVERSITY
a
?

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

17

ETYMOLOGY
the study of word origins

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

18

UNIVERSITY
from Latin universus, the whole, aggregate,
entire
O.E.D. Definition:
An educational institution designed for
instruction, examination, or both, of
students in many branches of advanced
learning.
dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

19

Question

How much of what a

student learned about
marketing and public
relations 10 years ago
(or, even 5 years ago)
is
?
still accurate or even
relevant today

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

20

When I studied at the university

Protons, neutrons and electrons were the smallest

building blocks of matter.
Continents had fixed positions on the surface of the
Earth.
The United States and the Soviet Union were the
most important economic powers in the world.
The most powerful
commercially available
computer was the size of a
truck, was programmed by a
punched paper tape and had
32 kilobytes of RAM.
Marketing and PR programs were focused exclusively
on print and electronic media (i.e., TV and radio).
If you had a hot product to sell, you opened a store
in a mall.

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

21

Question

How much of what your

are learning about
marketing and public
relations at DLSU will still
accurate or even
? relevant
5 or 10 years from now

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

22

Claude Monet
dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

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dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

24

We are drowning in information,

while starving for wisdom.
Edward O. Wilson
American biologist & naturalist; creator of sociobiology
From: Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
(1998)

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

25

Question

What is the difference

between knowledge
? and
wisdom

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

26

When I do not know, neither do I think I

know; so I am likely to be wiser than he
is to this small extent, that I do not
think I know what I do not know.
Plato
The Apology of Socrates
(399 BC)

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

27

Knowledge is knowing what you know.

Wisdom is knowing what you don't
know.

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28

In our search for knowledge, we must

be more committed to the process of
learning then to its results...
Because even the best results
obtained from the learning process
can and almost certainly will fail us
eventually, but the process of
learning, itself, will never fail us; it
will remain relevant for as long as
we live.

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29

How do we learn?

We
apply past knowledge to new situations

we use what we already know to understand and

solve new kinds of problems as they arise.

Wethink both independently and interdependently

we look at problems from our own unique perspective,
but at the same time we also link our unique and
personal thoughts to what others around us have
learned.

We
continue to develop our minds
as we grow and mature, we remain open to new ideas
and perspectives in every sphere of our lives, wherever
we may find them.

We
question and inquire

we ask questions that help us to understand the

problems that confront us, and which lead us to ask
additional questions that lead to even deeper
understanding.
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How do we learn?

We
take intellectual risks

by thinking outside of our personal comfort zone, we

push ourselves to think in new and interesting ways.

m always doing what I cannot do, so that I may learn how to do i

ent Van Gogh

We are passionately curious about the world around us

we actively seek information, knowledge and
understanding about the physical, social, spiritual and
business environments in which we live and work.

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In times of change learners inherit

the earth; while the learned find
themselves beautifully equipped to
deal with a world that no longer
exists.
Eric
Hofer

American moral & social philosopher

Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)

dlsu creative problem solving - mark gordon

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