Chapter 8

Two components of creativity

(1) the nonjudgmental process of searching for, separating, and connecting unrelated ideas and elements (2) combining these elements into new ideas

Control judgment

- Almost nothing inhibits group creativity as much as negative responses to new ideas and innovative solutions - Examples: "That won't work", "We tried that", or "That's bizarre"

Creative Problem Solving

- Effective group leaders understand the near-magical quality that creativity can inject into the group process - When, for example, Walt Disney asked his artists to push the envelope of animation, he told them "If you can dream it, you can do it." He believed that, and, as a result, they did too.

Encourage innovation

- Encouraging group members to be innovative and imaginative sparked the group's creative powers

Solution suggestions

- Even so, the group should concentrate on suggesting as many solutions as possible - Having spent time understanding the task, identifying the problem, analyzing its consequences and causes, and establishing solution criteria, members should be able to offer numerous solutions

Solution implementation

- For all the time a group spends trying to solve a problem, it may take even more time to organize and implement the solution - Brilliant solutions can fail if no one takes responsibility or has the authority to implement them

Ask "what if"

- Group members are often reluctant to think creatively because they have pre- conceived notions about what to do. Asking "what if " can set aside these constraints - Examples: "What if we had 100 pages to work with?" or "What if we could hire a famous author to write the copy—what would the booklet say?"

Solution evaluation and selection

- Here, group members discuss the pros and cons of each suggestion in light of their agreed-upon solution criteria - Questions of conjecture arise as the group considers the possible consequences of each option - Discussion may become heated, and disagreements may grow fierce - In some groups, members may be so tired or frustrated by the time they get to this phase that they have a tendency to jump to conclusions

Problem identification

- Important second step - Research shows many different approaches to problem solving are effective - Some groups move linearly through a series of steps to reach consensus, and some move in a spiral pattern in which they refine, accept, reject, modify, and combine ideas as they go along

Use metaphors

- Metaphors can help group members explain, understand, guide, and direct their creative thinking in ways they would not have thought of otherwise - Example: the metaphor of an emergency room could help redesign the registration process at some colleges

Voting

- Most North Americans are accustomed to a majority vote—that is, more than 50%—as the quick and easy method to decide among alternatives - It's quicker, but it leaves more people dissatisfied and gets less cooperation than a consensus decision - A majority vote may be a requirement if your group is part of a larger organization bound by a constitution, bylaws, and parliamentary procedures

Incrementalism

- Process where decisions are made in bits and pieces, responding to pressures as they are felt - Incremental decisions create new problems, and these spur new increments of change—which makes identifying new problems, causes, and effects even more difficult

Problem

- a discrepancy between the current state—what actually is happening—and a desired goal—what should be happening - Problem solving is the comprehensive, multi-step procedure a group uses to move from its current state which is unsatisfactory in some way—to the desired goal

Quality circles

- a group of employees, often with different areas of expertise and from different levels in an organization's hierarchy, whose task it is to explore and make the recommendations for improving the quality and usually the profitability of an organizational function

Delphi method

- depends on its effectiveness on a selected group of experts who do not communicate directly with each other but, instead, respond to a series of questionnaires - especially useful when you want to involve all members in finding a solution, prevent a dominant member from unduly influencing other members, and/or if it would be inconvenient or impossible to get participants physically together in the same location

Morphological analysis

- encourages members to think laterally by "forcing" together elements that seem completely unrelated - It's an ideal way to develop new products or services or create new solutions to existing problems - breaks a problem into its major components and lists all the possible topics or subdivisions under each major heading. - Then, by randomly combining those elements the team generates new ideas that might solve a problem or produce a new product or service

Sensational Thinking

- excellent way for a team to improve a product or service and reposition it in the market - the theme in this exercise is to look at the product or service from the perspective of the five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and if relevant, taste - If, for example, a team of consultants was asked to redesign an old Wal-Mart into a super center, they might proceed by using sensational thinking

T-chart

- for comparing the pros and cons of a given plan - a simple and effective way of ensuring that everyone stays focused on the comparison and that noting is missed - called a T-chart because a large sheet or board is divided into a T, with the two sides labeled "Pros" and "Cons."

Decision matrix

- for making comparisons among several plans - a grid—also large and roomy—that allows you to compare the merits of different plans - lays out the comparisons visually and jogs members' memories as they try to process enormous amounts of information - Across the top of the grid, label each column with one criterion for the ideal solution, and down the left side, label each row with a solution option - Working together, the team then fills in the cells with notes as to how each plan meets each criterion

Fact finding

- group members have several obligations reflected in the following questions of fact and value: - What are the facts of the situation? - What additional information or expert opinions do we need? - How serious or widespread is the problem? - What are the causes of the problem? - What prevents us from solving the problem? - These questions require investigations of facts, conclusions about causes and effects, and value judgments about the seriousness of the problem

Task clarification

- initial phase where the group makes sure that everyone understands the task or assignment - Members sometimes are grateful when a leader simply manages and moves the task. - Without a designated leader, teams must pay attention to delegating these tasks

Decision by Authority

- means that the team's decisions are only recommendations, not actions - Someone with higher status than the team members—perhaps a manager, an executive committee, or the president of an organization—has the final word

Escalation

- occurs when a group continues to pursue a course of action just because it feels it has gone too far to quit - usually happens because groups either do not have processes in place to review feedback about their program, or because they discount negative information, they do receive - groups who appropriately define their problem, carefully decide on a solution, and have a complete implementation plan - can avoid this common phenomenon

Information Overload

- occurs when the rate of information exceeds the system's processing capacity - Davidson described the information Avalanche when he stated that "this generation is more besieged by information than any that preceded it, and perhaps more so than all previous generations combined"

Consensus

- represents some degree of agreement by all members, and it may be achieved through intensive discussion and negotiation - teams with a high degree of consensus develop a stronger commitment to their decisions and are more likely to follow through on them than teams without such consensus

Solution criteria

- standards a group establishes for its solution to meet - Will the solution work—and is it reasonable and realistic? - Criteria should reflect a realistic understanding of solution limitations, which may include financial, political, and legal restrictions.

Functional Perspective

- states that the communicative actions of group members determine decision-making and problem-solving performance

Brainstorming

- technique for generating as many ideas as possible in a short period of time.

Nominal group technique

- uses limited discussion, reaching a group decision by secret vote Especially valuable when group members are reluctant to voice their opinions, perhaps because the issue under discussion

Multiple Ranking

- works well when there are several choices, and it often is used with a long list of possibilities in conjunction with the Delphi or the nominal group techniques - time consuming and bulky because it can require several ballots - can be used for recommendations, ideas, criteria, or people

Four actions that guide us through how we solve problems:

1. Inertia—We've done it before 2. Instruction—Someone show us how to do it 3. Imitation—We've seen how it's done 4. Innovation—We have developed a new way to do it

4 consequences of information overload

1. Information overload impairs critical thinking: A glut of information makes it very difficult to distinguish useless from useful information 2. Information overload promotes indecisiveness: The technologies that have ushered in the Information Age speed up almost everything enormously but may slow ability to make decisions. "The psychological reaction to such an overabundance of information...is to simply avoid jumping to conclusions" 3. Information overload encourages "information bulimia": "Information bulimia" according to Wurman, is a binge-and-purge cycle of information processing. We become so focused on the quantity of information that we hardly notice if the quality is substandard 4. Information overload produces a kind of group attention deficit disorder (ADD). The mega mountains of information competing for group members' attention makes focusing on any one idea, concept, or problem extremely difficult.

Four stages of creative problem solving

1. Investigation - Group members gather information and attempt to understand the nature and causes of a problem. 2. Imagination. Group members engage in free thinking by removing procedural and mental roadblocks. The group generates and discusses new and unusual ideas. 3. Incubation - The group allows a period of time in which imaginative ideas can percolate and recombine in new ways. During this stage, the group may take a break or focus on another topic or issue. 4. Insight. The "aha!" moment occurs, and a new approach or solution emerges. Group members recognize the breakthrough moment and may build upon or improve the idea

Ground rules

1. Quantity, not quality. Use the time to think of as many solutions as possible. The more bizarre, the better. 2. Piggyback. If someone else's idea triggers a slight variation of an idea for you, call it out. 3. No evaluation. All ideas are accepted. No judgments of ideas are allowed at this time. Do not stop to discuss the pros and cons of any suggestion. 4. Stop immediately. At the end of five minutes, all brainstorming should end

3 unique qualities of functional perspective

1. The preparation function: The functional perspective includes a unique preparation that should occur before a group begins the problem-solving process 2. The competence function: The functional perspective emphasizes that the competent performance of each function is more important than the standard agenda's focus on the following problem-solving steps in a specific order 3. The Communication Function: (most important to learn about) The functional perspective emphasizes members' critical thinking and communication skills as prerequisites for understanding and discussing the pros and the cons of each solution.

Shutting off technology

A closely related method to screening information for problem solving and decision making at times is shutting off the technology. Access to information in some cases needs to be closed off to some.

Becoming selective

On a need-to-know basis. Since group members can't attend to all information bombarding them, they should choose selectively on the basis of group priorities and goals. Setting priorities helps in selecting which information requires urgent attention and which can be delayed or ignored entirely.

Narrowing the search

One way to narrow the search for problem solving and decision making is to access high-quality databases. Pattern recognition is another means of narrowing the search. Discerning patterns is the best defense against information overload.

Balanced participation

Procedures can minimize the impact of powerful leaders or members by making it difficult for them to dominate a group's discussion

Conflict resolution

Procedures often incorporate guidelines for managing conflict, resolving disagreements, and building genuine consensus.

Group empowerment

Procedures provide a sense of control. This happens when members know they have followed a procedure well, managed conflict successfully, given all members an equal opportunity to participate, and as a result, have made a good decision.

Organization

Procedures require members to follow a clear organizational pattern and focus on the same thing at the same time. Procedures also ensure that group members do not skip or ignore major discussion items.

Screening information

Separating the useful from the useless. Screening information, much like we do phone calls, by simply choosing to ignore some or much of the information

Limiting the search

The search for information must stop at some point to allow time to reflect and evaluate information. Setting deadlines for decision making is sometimes critical. The search for information should begin early, instead of being postponed until the last minute.

Win-Win method

state the problem, define the terms, describe the problem's causes, name its effects, propose possible solutions, and select the best solution that eliminates the causes of problems.

Specializing

· When you specialize, you can manage to know a lot about a little. No individual or group can possibly manage information sufficiently so that experts on vital subjects will never be required. When a group's knowledge is limited in scope, it becomes more dependent on experts, more vulnerable to their characterizations and perceptions of reality, and more prone to let the experts do the thinking.