THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

Creative Problem Solving Course

“Necessity is the mother of invention” Plato

First off – it’s not a scary world outside the box, but you need to give yourself permission to allow the potential of any solution, no matter how weird it is. If it works for you – it works. Successful problem solvers tend to use the same process to identify and implement solutions to their problems. This workshop will give the participant a broad overview of the creative problem solving process as well as skills you can apply every day.

Creative problem solving involves six steps to implement solutions to any kind of problem. In summation these steps are – information gathering, problem definition, generating possible solutions (brainstorming), determining the effectiveness of possible solutions (more brainstorming), selecting the best solution and planning the next course of action.

TIP: Here are some ways you can use to gather information :-

• Conduct interviews.
• Identify statistics and study them.
• Send questionnaires out to employees, customers or clients concerned with the problem.
• Conduct technical experiments.
• Observe the procedures or processes in question, first hand.
• Create focus groups to discuss the problem.

The first step, as discussed in our Creative Problem Solving Course, is to gather information, information comes in many types, such as fact or opinion or concept.  We then identify key questions that should be asked in any problem solving situation, such as the five W’s we were taught in school. These questions help to accurately define the problem we want to solve. The four tools we use to define the problem makes it possible to address the root cause and brainstorm a possible solution. The last thing we will do in this section is writing a problem statement, this is a skill for resolving problems.

Next in the boti.co.za  Creative Problem Solving Course, we will prepare to brainstorm, but we have to get one or two issues out of the way first. We must remove any mental brain blocks, these include emotions, distractions, assumptions, culture limitations and communication difficulties. Once we have stimulated our creativity in the Creative Problem Solving Course by taking a short break, we can go ahead and start to generate solutions. Two additional skills are taught at this juncture, brain writing and brain mapping, they enhance the brainstorming session even further.

We will discuss and practice the Dunker diagram and we will learn what the morphological matrix is and what part it plats in creative problem solving. Now that we have a hundred possible solutions on the table, it’s time to weed out the weakest solutions and begin to analyze and selecting a solution. We identify the criteria needed for a solution, such time and cost and further narrow down our possible solutions.

We are ready to select a solution now. This entails implementing, evaluating and possibly adapting the solution. We round off the Creative Problem Solving Course  with teaching participants to record the lessons learnt in brainstorming, how to plan a follow up meeting and of course, we celebrate your success with you.

For an in-depth look at what other courses we offer click on our secure website boti.co.za  or alternatively view our latest course schedules.

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