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Creative Problem Solving

Finding innovative solutions to challenges.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

creative problem solving and decision making techniques

Imagine that you're vacuuming your house in a hurry because you've got friends coming over. Frustratingly, you're working hard but you're not getting very far. You kneel down, open up the vacuum cleaner, and pull out the bag. In a cloud of dust, you realize that it's full... again. Coughing, you empty it and wonder why vacuum cleaners with bags still exist!

James Dyson, inventor and founder of Dyson® vacuum cleaners, had exactly the same problem, and he used creative problem solving to find the answer. While many companies focused on developing a better vacuum cleaner filter, he realized that he had to think differently and find a more creative solution. So, he devised a revolutionary way to separate the dirt from the air, and invented the world's first bagless vacuum cleaner. [1]

Creative problem solving (CPS) is a way of solving problems or identifying opportunities when conventional thinking has failed. It encourages you to find fresh perspectives and come up with innovative solutions, so that you can formulate a plan to overcome obstacles and reach your goals.

In this article, we'll explore what CPS is, and we'll look at its key principles. We'll also provide a model that you can use to generate creative solutions.

About Creative Problem Solving

Alex Osborn, founder of the Creative Education Foundation, first developed creative problem solving in the 1940s, along with the term "brainstorming." And, together with Sid Parnes, he developed the Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Process. Despite its age, this model remains a valuable approach to problem solving. [2]

The early Osborn-Parnes model inspired a number of other tools. One of these is the 2011 CPS Learner's Model, also from the Creative Education Foundation, developed by Dr Gerard J. Puccio, Marie Mance, and co-workers. In this article, we'll use this modern four-step model to explore how you can use CPS to generate innovative, effective solutions.

Why Use Creative Problem Solving?

Dealing with obstacles and challenges is a regular part of working life, and overcoming them isn't always easy. To improve your products, services, communications, and interpersonal skills, and for you and your organization to excel, you need to encourage creative thinking and find innovative solutions that work.

CPS asks you to separate your "divergent" and "convergent" thinking as a way to do this. Divergent thinking is the process of generating lots of potential solutions and possibilities, otherwise known as brainstorming. And convergent thinking involves evaluating those options and choosing the most promising one. Often, we use a combination of the two to develop new ideas or solutions. However, using them simultaneously can result in unbalanced or biased decisions, and can stifle idea generation.

For more on divergent and convergent thinking, and for a useful diagram, see the book "Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making." [3]

Core Principles of Creative Problem Solving

CPS has four core principles. Let's explore each one in more detail:

Divergent and convergent thinking must be balanced. The key to creativity is learning how to identify and balance divergent and convergent thinking (done separately), and knowing when to practice each one.
Ask problems as questions. When you rephrase problems and challenges as open-ended questions with multiple possibilities, it's easier to come up with solutions. Asking these types of questions generates lots of rich information, while asking closed questions tends to elicit short answers, such as confirmations or disagreements. Problem statements tend to generate limited responses, or none at all.
Defer or suspend judgment. As Alex Osborn learned from his work on brainstorming, judging solutions early on tends to shut down idea generation. Instead, there's an appropriate and necessary time to judge ideas during the convergence stage.
Focus on "Yes, and," rather than "No, but." Language matters when you're generating information and ideas. "Yes, and" encourages people to expand their thoughts, which is necessary during certain stages of CPS. Using the word "but" – preceded by "yes" or "no" – ends conversation, and often negates what's come before it.

How to Use the Tool

Let's explore how you can use each of the four steps of the CPS Learner's Model (shown in figure 1, below) to generate innovative ideas and solutions.

Figure 1 – CPS Learner's Model

Explore the Vision

Identify your goal, desire or challenge. This is a crucial first step because it's easy to assume, incorrectly, that you know what the problem is. However, you may have missed something or have failed to understand the issue fully, and defining your objective can provide clarity. Read our article, 5 Whys , for more on getting to the root of a problem quickly.

Gather Data

Once you've identified and understood the problem, you can collect information about it and develop a clear understanding of it. Make a note of details such as who and what is involved, all the relevant facts, and everyone's feelings and opinions.

Formulate Questions

When you've increased your awareness of the challenge or problem you've identified, ask questions that will generate solutions. Think about the obstacles you might face and the opportunities they could present.

Explore Ideas

Generate ideas that answer the challenge questions you identified in step 1. It can be tempting to consider solutions that you've tried before, as our minds tend to return to habitual thinking patterns that stop us from producing new ideas. However, this is a chance to use your creativity .

Brainstorming and Mind Maps are great ways to explore ideas during this divergent stage of CPS. And our articles, Encouraging Team Creativity , Problem Solving , Rolestorming , Hurson's Productive Thinking Model , and The Four-Step Innovation Process , can also help boost your creativity.

See our Brainstorming resources within our Creativity section for more on this.

Formulate Solutions

This is the convergent stage of CPS, where you begin to focus on evaluating all of your possible options and come up with solutions. Analyze whether potential solutions meet your needs and criteria, and decide whether you can implement them successfully. Next, consider how you can strengthen them and determine which ones are the best "fit." Our articles, Critical Thinking and ORAPAPA , are useful here.

4. Implement

Formulate a plan.

Once you've chosen the best solution, it's time to develop a plan of action. Start by identifying resources and actions that will allow you to implement your chosen solution. Next, communicate your plan and make sure that everyone involved understands and accepts it.

There have been many adaptations of CPS since its inception, because nobody owns the idea.

For example, Scott Isaksen and Donald Treffinger formed The Creative Problem Solving Group Inc . and the Center for Creative Learning , and their model has evolved over many versions. Blair Miller, Jonathan Vehar and Roger L. Firestien also created their own version, and Dr Gerard J. Puccio, Mary C. Murdock, and Marie Mance developed CPS: The Thinking Skills Model. [4] Tim Hurson created The Productive Thinking Model , and Paul Reali developed CPS: Competencies Model. [5]

Sid Parnes continued to adapt the CPS model by adding concepts such as imagery and visualization , and he founded the Creative Studies Project to teach CPS. For more information on the evolution and development of the CPS process, see Creative Problem Solving Version 6.1 by Donald J. Treffinger, Scott G. Isaksen, and K. Brian Dorval. [6]

Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Infographic

See our infographic on Creative Problem Solving .

Creative problem solving (CPS) is a way of using your creativity to develop new ideas and solutions to problems. The process is based on separating divergent and convergent thinking styles, so that you can focus your mind on creating at the first stage, and then evaluating at the second stage.

There have been many adaptations of the original Osborn-Parnes model, but they all involve a clear structure of identifying the problem, generating new ideas, evaluating the options, and then formulating a plan for successful implementation.

[1] Entrepreneur (2012). James Dyson on Using Failure to Drive Success [online]. Available here . [Accessed May 27, 2022.]

[2] Creative Education Foundation (2015). The CPS Process [online]. Available here . [Accessed May 26, 2022.]

[3] Kaner, S. et al. (2014). 'Facilitator′s Guide to Participatory Decision–Making,' San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

[4] Puccio, G., Mance, M., and Murdock, M. (2011). 'Creative Leadership: Skils That Drive Change' (2nd Ed.), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

[5] OmniSkills (2013). Creative Problem Solving [online]. Available here . [Accessed May 26, 2022].

[6] Treffinger, G., Isaksen, S., and Dorval, B. (2010). Creative Problem Solving (CPS Version 6.1). Center for Creative Learning, Inc. & Creative Problem Solving Group, Inc. Available here .

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35 problem-solving techniques and methods for solving complex problems

Design your next session with SessionLab

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How do you identify problems?

How do you identify the right solution.

Tips for more effective problem-solving

Complete problem-solving methods

Problem-solving techniques to identify and analyze problems
Problem-solving techniques for developing solutions

Problem-solving warm-up activities

Closing activities for a problem-solving process.

Before you can move towards finding the right solution for a given problem, you first need to identify and define the problem you wish to solve.

Here, you want to clearly articulate what the problem is and allow your group to do the same. Remember that everyone in a group is likely to have differing perspectives and alignment is necessary in order to help the group move forward.

Identifying a problem accurately also requires that all members of a group are able to contribute their views in an open and safe manner. It can be scary for people to stand up and contribute, especially if the problems or challenges are emotive or personal in nature. Be sure to try and create a psychologically safe space for these kinds of discussions.

Remember that problem analysis and further discussion are also important. Not taking the time to fully analyze and discuss a challenge can result in the development of solutions that are not fit for purpose or do not address the underlying issue.

Successfully identifying and then analyzing a problem means facilitating a group through activities designed to help them clearly and honestly articulate their thoughts and produce usable insight.

With this data, you might then produce a problem statement that clearly describes the problem you wish to be addressed and also state the goal of any process you undertake to tackle this issue.

Finding solutions is the end goal of any process. Complex organizational challenges can only be solved with an appropriate solution but discovering them requires using the right problem-solving tool.

After you’ve explored a problem and discussed ideas, you need to help a team discuss and choose the right solution. Consensus tools and methods such as those below help a group explore possible solutions before then voting for the best. They’re a great way to tap into the collective intelligence of the group for great results!

Remember that the process is often iterative. Great problem solvers often roadtest a viable solution in a measured way to see what works too. While you might not get the right solution on your first try, the methods below help teams land on the most likely to succeed solution while also holding space for improvement.

Every effective problem solving process begins with an agenda . A well-structured workshop is one of the best methods for successfully guiding a group from exploring a problem to implementing a solution.

In SessionLab, it’s easy to go from an idea to a complete agenda . Start by dragging and dropping your core problem solving activities into place . Add timings, breaks and necessary materials before sharing your agenda with your colleagues.

The resulting agenda will be your guide to an effective and productive problem solving session that will also help you stay organized on the day!

Tips for more effective problem solving

Problem-solving activities are only one part of the puzzle. While a great method can help unlock your team’s ability to solve problems, without a thoughtful approach and strong facilitation the solutions may not be fit for purpose.

Let’s take a look at some problem-solving tips you can apply to any process to help it be a success!

Clearly define the problem

Jumping straight to solutions can be tempting, though without first clearly articulating a problem, the solution might not be the right one. Many of the problem-solving activities below include sections where the problem is explored and clearly defined before moving on.

This is a vital part of the problem-solving process and taking the time to fully define an issue can save time and effort later. A clear definition helps identify irrelevant information and it also ensures that your team sets off on the right track.

Don’t jump to conclusions

It’s easy for groups to exhibit cognitive bias or have preconceived ideas about both problems and potential solutions. Be sure to back up any problem statements or potential solutions with facts, research, and adequate forethought.

The best techniques ask participants to be methodical and challenge preconceived notions. Make sure you give the group enough time and space to collect relevant information and consider the problem in a new way. By approaching the process with a clear, rational mindset, you’ll often find that better solutions are more forthcoming.

Try different approaches

Problems come in all shapes and sizes and so too should the methods you use to solve them. If you find that one approach isn’t yielding results and your team isn’t finding different solutions, try mixing it up. You’ll be surprised at how using a new creative activity can unblock your team and generate great solutions.

Don’t take it personally

Depending on the nature of your team or organizational problems, it’s easy for conversations to get heated. While it’s good for participants to be engaged in the discussions, ensure that emotions don’t run too high and that blame isn’t thrown around while finding solutions.

You’re all in it together, and even if your team or area is seeing problems, that isn’t necessarily a disparagement of you personally. Using facilitation skills to manage group dynamics is one effective method of helping conversations be more constructive.

Get the right people in the room

Your problem-solving method is often only as effective as the group using it. Getting the right people on the job and managing the number of people present is important too!

If the group is too small, you may not get enough different perspectives to effectively solve a problem. If the group is too large, you can go round and round during the ideation stages.

Creating the right group makeup is also important in ensuring you have the necessary expertise and skillset to both identify and follow up on potential solutions. Carefully consider who to include at each stage to help ensure your problem-solving method is followed and positioned for success.

Document everything

The best solutions can take refinement, iteration, and reflection to come out. Get into a habit of documenting your process in order to keep all the learnings from the session and to allow ideas to mature and develop. Many of the methods below involve the creation of documents or shared resources. Be sure to keep and share these so everyone can benefit from the work done!

Bring a facilitator

Facilitation is all about making group processes easier. With a subject as potentially emotive and important as problem-solving, having an impartial third party in the form of a facilitator can make all the difference in finding great solutions and keeping the process moving. Consider bringing a facilitator to your problem-solving session to get better results and generate meaningful solutions!

Develop your problem-solving skills

It takes time and practice to be an effective problem solver. While some roles or participants might more naturally gravitate towards problem-solving, it can take development and planning to help everyone create better solutions.

You might develop a training program, run a problem-solving workshop or simply ask your team to practice using the techniques below. Check out our post on problem-solving skills to see how you and your group can develop the right mental process and be more resilient to issues too!

Design a great agenda

Workshops are a great format for solving problems. With the right approach, you can focus a group and help them find the solutions to their own problems. But designing a process can be time-consuming and finding the right activities can be difficult.

Check out our workshop planning guide to level-up your agenda design and start running more effective workshops. Need inspiration? Check out templates designed by expert facilitators to help you kickstart your process!

In this section, we’ll look at in-depth problem-solving methods that provide a complete end-to-end process for developing effective solutions. These will help guide your team from the discovery and definition of a problem through to delivering the right solution.

If you’re looking for an all-encompassing method or problem-solving model, these processes are a great place to start. They’ll ask your team to challenge preconceived ideas and adopt a mindset for solving problems more effectively.

Six Thinking Hats
Lightning Decision Jam
Problem Definition Process
Discovery & Action Dialogue

Design Sprint 2.0

Open Space Technology

1. Six Thinking Hats

Individual approaches to solving a problem can be very different based on what team or role an individual holds. It can be easy for existing biases or perspectives to find their way into the mix, or for internal politics to direct a conversation.

Six Thinking Hats is a classic method for identifying the problems that need to be solved and enables your team to consider them from different angles, whether that is by focusing on facts and data, creative solutions, or by considering why a particular solution might not work.

Like all problem-solving frameworks, Six Thinking Hats is effective at helping teams remove roadblocks from a conversation or discussion and come to terms with all the aspects necessary to solve complex problems.

2. Lightning Decision Jam

Featured courtesy of Jonathan Courtney of AJ&Smart Berlin, Lightning Decision Jam is one of those strategies that should be in every facilitation toolbox. Exploring problems and finding solutions is often creative in nature, though as with any creative process, there is the potential to lose focus and get lost.

Unstructured discussions might get you there in the end, but it’s much more effective to use a method that creates a clear process and team focus.

In Lightning Decision Jam, participants are invited to begin by writing challenges, concerns, or mistakes on post-its without discussing them before then being invited by the moderator to present them to the group.

From there, the team vote on which problems to solve and are guided through steps that will allow them to reframe those problems, create solutions and then decide what to execute on.

By deciding the problems that need to be solved as a team before moving on, this group process is great for ensuring the whole team is aligned and can take ownership over the next stages.

Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ) #action #decision making #problem solving #issue analysis #innovation #design #remote-friendly The problem with anything that requires creative thinking is that it’s easy to get lost—lose focus and fall into the trap of having useless, open-ended, unstructured discussions. Here’s the most effective solution I’ve found: Replace all open, unstructured discussion with a clear process. What to use this exercise for: Anything which requires a group of people to make decisions, solve problems or discuss challenges. It’s always good to frame an LDJ session with a broad topic, here are some examples: The conversion flow of our checkout Our internal design process How we organise events Keeping up with our competition Improving sales flow

3. Problem Definition Process

While problems can be complex, the problem-solving methods you use to identify and solve those problems can often be simple in design.

By taking the time to truly identify and define a problem before asking the group to reframe the challenge as an opportunity, this method is a great way to enable change.

Begin by identifying a focus question and exploring the ways in which it manifests before splitting into five teams who will each consider the problem using a different method: escape, reversal, exaggeration, distortion or wishful. Teams develop a problem objective and create ideas in line with their method before then feeding them back to the group.

This method is great for enabling in-depth discussions while also creating space for finding creative solutions too!

Problem Definition #problem solving #idea generation #creativity #online #remote-friendly A problem solving technique to define a problem, challenge or opportunity and to generate ideas.

4. The 5 Whys

Sometimes, a group needs to go further with their strategies and analyze the root cause at the heart of organizational issues. An RCA or root cause analysis is the process of identifying what is at the heart of business problems or recurring challenges.

The 5 Whys is a simple and effective method of helping a group go find the root cause of any problem or challenge and conduct analysis that will deliver results.

By beginning with the creation of a problem statement and going through five stages to refine it, The 5 Whys provides everything you need to truly discover the cause of an issue.

The 5 Whys #hyperisland #innovation This simple and powerful method is useful for getting to the core of a problem or challenge. As the title suggests, the group defines a problems, then asks the question “why” five times, often using the resulting explanation as a starting point for creative problem solving.

5. World Cafe

World Cafe is a simple but powerful facilitation technique to help bigger groups to focus their energy and attention on solving complex problems.

World Cafe enables this approach by creating a relaxed atmosphere where participants are able to self-organize and explore topics relevant and important to them which are themed around a central problem-solving purpose. Create the right atmosphere by modeling your space after a cafe and after guiding the group through the method, let them take the lead!

Making problem-solving a part of your organization’s culture in the long term can be a difficult undertaking. More approachable formats like World Cafe can be especially effective in bringing people unfamiliar with workshops into the fold.

World Cafe #hyperisland #innovation #issue analysis World Café is a simple yet powerful method, originated by Juanita Brown, for enabling meaningful conversations driven completely by participants and the topics that are relevant and important to them. Facilitators create a cafe-style space and provide simple guidelines. Participants then self-organize and explore a set of relevant topics or questions for conversation.

6. Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD)

One of the best approaches is to create a safe space for a group to share and discover practices and behaviors that can help them find their own solutions.

With DAD, you can help a group choose which problems they wish to solve and which approaches they will take to do so. It’s great at helping remove resistance to change and can help get buy-in at every level too!

This process of enabling frontline ownership is great in ensuring follow-through and is one of the methods you will want in your toolbox as a facilitator.

Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD) #idea generation #liberating structures #action #issue analysis #remote-friendly DADs make it easy for a group or community to discover practices and behaviors that enable some individuals (without access to special resources and facing the same constraints) to find better solutions than their peers to common problems. These are called positive deviant (PD) behaviors and practices. DADs make it possible for people in the group, unit, or community to discover by themselves these PD practices. DADs also create favorable conditions for stimulating participants’ creativity in spaces where they can feel safe to invent new and more effective practices. Resistance to change evaporates as participants are unleashed to choose freely which practices they will adopt or try and which problems they will tackle. DADs make it possible to achieve frontline ownership of solutions.

7. Design Sprint 2.0

Want to see how a team can solve big problems and move forward with prototyping and testing solutions in a few days? The Design Sprint 2.0 template from Jake Knapp, author of Sprint, is a complete agenda for a with proven results.

Developing the right agenda can involve difficult but necessary planning. Ensuring all the correct steps are followed can also be stressful or time-consuming depending on your level of experience.

Use this complete 4-day workshop template if you are finding there is no obvious solution to your challenge and want to focus your team around a specific problem that might require a shortcut to launching a minimum viable product or waiting for the organization-wide implementation of a solution.

8. Open space technology

Open space technology- developed by Harrison Owen – creates a space where large groups are invited to take ownership of their problem solving and lead individual sessions. Open space technology is a great format when you have a great deal of expertise and insight in the room and want to allow for different takes and approaches on a particular theme or problem you need to be solved.

Start by bringing your participants together to align around a central theme and focus their efforts. Explain the ground rules to help guide the problem-solving process and then invite members to identify any issue connecting to the central theme that they are interested in and are prepared to take responsibility for.

Once participants have decided on their approach to the core theme, they write their issue on a piece of paper, announce it to the group, pick a session time and place, and post the paper on the wall. As the wall fills up with sessions, the group is then invited to join the sessions that interest them the most and which they can contribute to, then you’re ready to begin!

Everyone joins the problem-solving group they’ve signed up to, record the discussion and if appropriate, findings can then be shared with the rest of the group afterward.

Open Space Technology #action plan #idea generation #problem solving #issue analysis #large group #online #remote-friendly Open Space is a methodology for large groups to create their agenda discerning important topics for discussion, suitable for conferences, community gatherings and whole system facilitation

Techniques to identify and analyze problems

Using a problem-solving method to help a team identify and analyze a problem can be a quick and effective addition to any workshop or meeting.

While further actions are always necessary, you can generate momentum and alignment easily, and these activities are a great place to get started.

We’ve put together this list of techniques to help you and your team with problem identification, analysis, and discussion that sets the foundation for developing effective solutions.

Let’s take a look!

The Creativity Dice
Fishbone Analysis
Problem Tree
SWOT Analysis
Agreement-Certainty Matrix
The Journalistic Six
LEGO Challenge
What, So What, Now What?
Journalists

Individual and group perspectives are incredibly important, but what happens if people are set in their minds and need a change of perspective in order to approach a problem more effectively?

Flip It is a method we love because it is both simple to understand and run, and allows groups to understand how their perspectives and biases are formed.

Participants in Flip It are first invited to consider concerns, issues, or problems from a perspective of fear and write them on a flip chart. Then, the group is asked to consider those same issues from a perspective of hope and flip their understanding.

No problem and solution is free from existing bias and by changing perspectives with Flip It, you can then develop a problem solving model quickly and effectively.

Flip It! #gamestorming #problem solving #action Often, a change in a problem or situation comes simply from a change in our perspectives. Flip It! is a quick game designed to show players that perspectives are made, not born.

10. The Creativity Dice

One of the most useful problem solving skills you can teach your team is of approaching challenges with creativity, flexibility, and openness. Games like The Creativity Dice allow teams to overcome the potential hurdle of too much linear thinking and approach the process with a sense of fun and speed.

In The Creativity Dice, participants are organized around a topic and roll a dice to determine what they will work on for a period of 3 minutes at a time. They might roll a 3 and work on investigating factual information on the chosen topic. They might roll a 1 and work on identifying the specific goals, standards, or criteria for the session.

Encouraging rapid work and iteration while asking participants to be flexible are great skills to cultivate. Having a stage for idea incubation in this game is also important. Moments of pause can help ensure the ideas that are put forward are the most suitable.

The Creativity Dice #creativity #problem solving #thiagi #issue analysis Too much linear thinking is hazardous to creative problem solving. To be creative, you should approach the problem (or the opportunity) from different points of view. You should leave a thought hanging in mid-air and move to another. This skipping around prevents premature closure and lets your brain incubate one line of thought while you consciously pursue another.

11. Fishbone Analysis

Organizational or team challenges are rarely simple, and it’s important to remember that one problem can be an indication of something that goes deeper and may require further consideration to be solved.

Fishbone Analysis helps groups to dig deeper and understand the origins of a problem. It’s a great example of a root cause analysis method that is simple for everyone on a team to get their head around.

Participants in this activity are asked to annotate a diagram of a fish, first adding the problem or issue to be worked on at the head of a fish before then brainstorming the root causes of the problem and adding them as bones on the fish.

Using abstractions such as a diagram of a fish can really help a team break out of their regular thinking and develop a creative approach.

Fishbone Analysis #problem solving ##root cause analysis #decision making #online facilitation A process to help identify and understand the origins of problems, issues or observations.

12. Problem Tree

Encouraging visual thinking can be an essential part of many strategies. By simply reframing and clarifying problems, a group can move towards developing a problem solving model that works for them.

In Problem Tree, groups are asked to first brainstorm a list of problems – these can be design problems, team problems or larger business problems – and then organize them into a hierarchy. The hierarchy could be from most important to least important or abstract to practical, though the key thing with problem solving games that involve this aspect is that your group has some way of managing and sorting all the issues that are raised.

Once you have a list of problems that need to be solved and have organized them accordingly, you’re then well-positioned for the next problem solving steps.

Problem tree #define intentions #create #design #issue analysis A problem tree is a tool to clarify the hierarchy of problems addressed by the team within a design project; it represents high level problems or related sublevel problems.

13. SWOT Analysis

Chances are you’ve heard of the SWOT Analysis before. This problem-solving method focuses on identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is a tried and tested method for both individuals and teams.

Start by creating a desired end state or outcome and bare this in mind – any process solving model is made more effective by knowing what you are moving towards. Create a quadrant made up of the four categories of a SWOT analysis and ask participants to generate ideas based on each of those quadrants.

Once you have those ideas assembled in their quadrants, cluster them together based on their affinity with other ideas. These clusters are then used to facilitate group conversations and move things forward.

SWOT analysis #gamestorming #problem solving #action #meeting facilitation The SWOT Analysis is a long-standing technique of looking at what we have, with respect to the desired end state, as well as what we could improve on. It gives us an opportunity to gauge approaching opportunities and dangers, and assess the seriousness of the conditions that affect our future. When we understand those conditions, we can influence what comes next.

14. Agreement-Certainty Matrix

Not every problem-solving approach is right for every challenge, and deciding on the right method for the challenge at hand is a key part of being an effective team.

The Agreement Certainty matrix helps teams align on the nature of the challenges facing them. By sorting problems from simple to chaotic, your team can understand what methods are suitable for each problem and what they can do to ensure effective results.

If you are already using Liberating Structures techniques as part of your problem-solving strategy, the Agreement-Certainty Matrix can be an invaluable addition to your process. We’ve found it particularly if you are having issues with recurring problems in your organization and want to go deeper in understanding the root cause.

Agreement-Certainty Matrix #issue analysis #liberating structures #problem solving You can help individuals or groups avoid the frequent mistake of trying to solve a problem with methods that are not adapted to the nature of their challenge. The combination of two questions makes it possible to easily sort challenges into four categories: simple, complicated, complex , and chaotic . A problem is simple when it can be solved reliably with practices that are easy to duplicate. It is complicated when experts are required to devise a sophisticated solution that will yield the desired results predictably. A problem is complex when there are several valid ways to proceed but outcomes are not predictable in detail. Chaotic is when the context is too turbulent to identify a path forward. A loose analogy may be used to describe these differences: simple is like following a recipe, complicated like sending a rocket to the moon, complex like raising a child, and chaotic is like the game “Pin the Tail on the Donkey.” The Liberating Structures Matching Matrix in Chapter 5 can be used as the first step to clarify the nature of a challenge and avoid the mismatches between problems and solutions that are frequently at the root of chronic, recurring problems.

Organizing and charting a team’s progress can be important in ensuring its success. SQUID (Sequential Question and Insight Diagram) is a great model that allows a team to effectively switch between giving questions and answers and develop the skills they need to stay on track throughout the process.

Begin with two different colored sticky notes – one for questions and one for answers – and with your central topic (the head of the squid) on the board. Ask the group to first come up with a series of questions connected to their best guess of how to approach the topic. Ask the group to come up with answers to those questions, fix them to the board and connect them with a line. After some discussion, go back to question mode by responding to the generated answers or other points on the board.

It’s rewarding to see a diagram grow throughout the exercise, and a completed SQUID can provide a visual resource for future effort and as an example for other teams.

SQUID #gamestorming #project planning #issue analysis #problem solving When exploring an information space, it’s important for a group to know where they are at any given time. By using SQUID, a group charts out the territory as they go and can navigate accordingly. SQUID stands for Sequential Question and Insight Diagram.

16. Speed Boat

To continue with our nautical theme, Speed Boat is a short and sweet activity that can help a team quickly identify what employees, clients or service users might have a problem with and analyze what might be standing in the way of achieving a solution.

Methods that allow for a group to make observations, have insights and obtain those eureka moments quickly are invaluable when trying to solve complex problems.

In Speed Boat, the approach is to first consider what anchors and challenges might be holding an organization (or boat) back. Bonus points if you are able to identify any sharks in the water and develop ideas that can also deal with competitors!

Speed Boat #gamestorming #problem solving #action Speedboat is a short and sweet way to identify what your employees or clients don’t like about your product/service or what’s standing in the way of a desired goal.

17. The Journalistic Six

Some of the most effective ways of solving problems is by encouraging teams to be more inclusive and diverse in their thinking.

Based on the six key questions journalism students are taught to answer in articles and news stories, The Journalistic Six helps create teams to see the whole picture. By using who, what, when, where, why, and how to facilitate the conversation and encourage creative thinking, your team can make sure that the problem identification and problem analysis stages of the are covered exhaustively and thoughtfully. Reporter’s notebook and dictaphone optional.

The Journalistic Six – Who What When Where Why How #idea generation #issue analysis #problem solving #online #creative thinking #remote-friendly A questioning method for generating, explaining, investigating ideas.

18. LEGO Challenge

Now for an activity that is a little out of the (toy) box. LEGO Serious Play is a facilitation methodology that can be used to improve creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

The LEGO Challenge includes giving each member of the team an assignment that is hidden from the rest of the group while they create a structure without speaking.

What the LEGO challenge brings to the table is a fun working example of working with stakeholders who might not be on the same page to solve problems. Also, it’s LEGO! Who doesn’t love LEGO!

LEGO Challenge #hyperisland #team A team-building activity in which groups must work together to build a structure out of LEGO, but each individual has a secret “assignment” which makes the collaborative process more challenging. It emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, conflict, cooperation, patience and problem solving strategy.

19. What, So What, Now What?

If not carefully managed, the problem identification and problem analysis stages of the problem-solving process can actually create more problems and misunderstandings.

The What, So What, Now What? problem-solving activity is designed to help collect insights and move forward while also eliminating the possibility of disagreement when it comes to identifying, clarifying, and analyzing organizational or work problems.

Facilitation is all about bringing groups together so that might work on a shared goal and the best problem-solving strategies ensure that teams are aligned in purpose, if not initially in opinion or insight.

Throughout the three steps of this game, you give everyone on a team to reflect on a problem by asking what happened, why it is important, and what actions should then be taken.

This can be a great activity for bringing our individual perceptions about a problem or challenge and contextualizing it in a larger group setting. This is one of the most important problem-solving skills you can bring to your organization.

W³ – What, So What, Now What? #issue analysis #innovation #liberating structures You can help groups reflect on a shared experience in a way that builds understanding and spurs coordinated action while avoiding unproductive conflict. It is possible for every voice to be heard while simultaneously sifting for insights and shaping new direction. Progressing in stages makes this practical—from collecting facts about What Happened to making sense of these facts with So What and finally to what actions logically follow with Now What . The shared progression eliminates most of the misunderstandings that otherwise fuel disagreements about what to do. Voila!

20. Journalists

Problem analysis can be one of the most important and decisive stages of all problem-solving tools. Sometimes, a team can become bogged down in the details and are unable to move forward.

Journalists is an activity that can avoid a group from getting stuck in the problem identification or problem analysis stages of the process.

In Journalists, the group is invited to draft the front page of a fictional newspaper and figure out what stories deserve to be on the cover and what headlines those stories will have. By reframing how your problems and challenges are approached, you can help a team move productively through the process and be better prepared for the steps to follow.

Journalists #vision #big picture #issue analysis #remote-friendly This is an exercise to use when the group gets stuck in details and struggles to see the big picture. Also good for defining a vision.

Problem-solving techniques for developing solutions

The success of any problem-solving process can be measured by the solutions it produces. After you’ve defined the issue, explored existing ideas, and ideated, it’s time to narrow down to the correct solution.

Use these problem-solving techniques when you want to help your team find consensus, compare possible solutions, and move towards taking action on a particular problem.

Improved Solutions
Four-Step Sketch
15% Solutions
How-Now-Wow matrix
Impact Effort Matrix

21. Mindspin

Brainstorming is part of the bread and butter of the problem-solving process and all problem-solving strategies benefit from getting ideas out and challenging a team to generate solutions quickly.

With Mindspin, participants are encouraged not only to generate ideas but to do so under time constraints and by slamming down cards and passing them on. By doing multiple rounds, your team can begin with a free generation of possible solutions before moving on to developing those solutions and encouraging further ideation.

This is one of our favorite problem-solving activities and can be great for keeping the energy up throughout the workshop. Remember the importance of helping people become engaged in the process – energizing problem-solving techniques like Mindspin can help ensure your team stays engaged and happy, even when the problems they’re coming together to solve are complex.

MindSpin #teampedia #idea generation #problem solving #action A fast and loud method to enhance brainstorming within a team. Since this activity has more than round ideas that are repetitive can be ruled out leaving more creative and innovative answers to the challenge.

22. Improved Solutions

After a team has successfully identified a problem and come up with a few solutions, it can be tempting to call the work of the problem-solving process complete. That said, the first solution is not necessarily the best, and by including a further review and reflection activity into your problem-solving model, you can ensure your group reaches the best possible result.

One of a number of problem-solving games from Thiagi Group, Improved Solutions helps you go the extra mile and develop suggested solutions with close consideration and peer review. By supporting the discussion of several problems at once and by shifting team roles throughout, this problem-solving technique is a dynamic way of finding the best solution.

Improved Solutions #creativity #thiagi #problem solving #action #team You can improve any solution by objectively reviewing its strengths and weaknesses and making suitable adjustments. In this creativity framegame, you improve the solutions to several problems. To maintain objective detachment, you deal with a different problem during each of six rounds and assume different roles (problem owner, consultant, basher, booster, enhancer, and evaluator) during each round. At the conclusion of the activity, each player ends up with two solutions to her problem.

23. Four Step Sketch

Creative thinking and visual ideation does not need to be confined to the opening stages of your problem-solving strategies. Exercises that include sketching and prototyping on paper can be effective at the solution finding and development stage of the process, and can be great for keeping a team engaged.

By going from simple notes to a crazy 8s round that involves rapidly sketching 8 variations on their ideas before then producing a final solution sketch, the group is able to iterate quickly and visually. Problem-solving techniques like Four-Step Sketch are great if you have a group of different thinkers and want to change things up from a more textual or discussion-based approach.

Four-Step Sketch #design sprint #innovation #idea generation #remote-friendly The four-step sketch is an exercise that helps people to create well-formed concepts through a structured process that includes: Review key information Start design work on paper, Consider multiple variations , Create a detailed solution . This exercise is preceded by a set of other activities allowing the group to clarify the challenge they want to solve. See how the Four Step Sketch exercise fits into a Design Sprint

24. 15% Solutions

Some problems are simpler than others and with the right problem-solving activities, you can empower people to take immediate actions that can help create organizational change.

Part of the liberating structures toolkit, 15% solutions is a problem-solving technique that focuses on finding and implementing solutions quickly. A process of iterating and making small changes quickly can help generate momentum and an appetite for solving complex problems.

Problem-solving strategies can live and die on whether people are onboard. Getting some quick wins is a great way of getting people behind the process.

It can be extremely empowering for a team to realize that problem-solving techniques can be deployed quickly and easily and delineate between things they can positively impact and those things they cannot change.

15% Solutions #action #liberating structures #remote-friendly You can reveal the actions, however small, that everyone can do immediately. At a minimum, these will create momentum, and that may make a BIG difference. 15% Solutions show that there is no reason to wait around, feel powerless, or fearful. They help people pick it up a level. They get individuals and the group to focus on what is within their discretion instead of what they cannot change. With a very simple question, you can flip the conversation to what can be done and find solutions to big problems that are often distributed widely in places not known in advance. Shifting a few grains of sand may trigger a landslide and change the whole landscape.

25. How-Now-Wow Matrix

The problem-solving process is often creative, as complex problems usually require a change of thinking and creative response in order to find the best solutions. While it’s common for the first stages to encourage creative thinking, groups can often gravitate to familiar solutions when it comes to the end of the process.

When selecting solutions, you don’t want to lose your creative energy! The How-Now-Wow Matrix from Gamestorming is a great problem-solving activity that enables a group to stay creative and think out of the box when it comes to selecting the right solution for a given problem.

Problem-solving techniques that encourage creative thinking and the ideation and selection of new solutions can be the most effective in organisational change. Give the How-Now-Wow Matrix a go, and not just for how pleasant it is to say out loud.

How-Now-Wow Matrix #gamestorming #idea generation #remote-friendly When people want to develop new ideas, they most often think out of the box in the brainstorming or divergent phase. However, when it comes to convergence, people often end up picking ideas that are most familiar to them. This is called a ‘creative paradox’ or a ‘creadox’. The How-Now-Wow matrix is an idea selection tool that breaks the creadox by forcing people to weigh each idea on 2 parameters.

26. Impact and Effort Matrix

All problem-solving techniques hope to not only find solutions to a given problem or challenge but to find the best solution. When it comes to finding a solution, groups are invited to put on their decision-making hats and really think about how a proposed idea would work in practice.

The Impact and Effort Matrix is one of the problem-solving techniques that fall into this camp, empowering participants to first generate ideas and then categorize them into a 2×2 matrix based on impact and effort.

Activities that invite critical thinking while remaining simple are invaluable. Use the Impact and Effort Matrix to move from ideation and towards evaluating potential solutions before then committing to them.

Impact and Effort Matrix #gamestorming #decision making #action #remote-friendly In this decision-making exercise, possible actions are mapped based on two factors: effort required to implement and potential impact. Categorizing ideas along these lines is a useful technique in decision making, as it obliges contributors to balance and evaluate suggested actions before committing to them.

27. Dotmocracy

If you’ve followed each of the problem-solving steps with your group successfully, you should move towards the end of your process with heaps of possible solutions developed with a specific problem in mind. But how do you help a group go from ideation to putting a solution into action?

Dotmocracy – or Dot Voting -is a tried and tested method of helping a team in the problem-solving process make decisions and put actions in place with a degree of oversight and consensus.

One of the problem-solving techniques that should be in every facilitator’s toolbox, Dot Voting is fast and effective and can help identify the most popular and best solutions and help bring a group to a decision effectively.

Dotmocracy #action #decision making #group prioritization #hyperisland #remote-friendly Dotmocracy is a simple method for group prioritization or decision-making. It is not an activity on its own, but a method to use in processes where prioritization or decision-making is the aim. The method supports a group to quickly see which options are most popular or relevant. The options or ideas are written on post-its and stuck up on a wall for the whole group to see. Each person votes for the options they think are the strongest, and that information is used to inform a decision.

All facilitators know that warm-ups and icebreakers are useful for any workshop or group process. Problem-solving workshops are no different.

Use these problem-solving techniques to warm up a group and prepare them for the rest of the process. Activating your group by tapping into some of the top problem-solving skills can be one of the best ways to see great outcomes from your session.

Check-in/Check-out
Doodling Together
Show and Tell
Constellations
Draw a Tree

28. Check-in / Check-out

Solid processes are planned from beginning to end, and the best facilitators know that setting the tone and establishing a safe, open environment can be integral to a successful problem-solving process.

Check-in / Check-out is a great way to begin and/or bookend a problem-solving workshop. Checking in to a session emphasizes that everyone will be seen, heard, and expected to contribute.

If you are running a series of meetings, setting a consistent pattern of checking in and checking out can really help your team get into a groove. We recommend this opening-closing activity for small to medium-sized groups though it can work with large groups if they’re disciplined!

Check-in / Check-out #team #opening #closing #hyperisland #remote-friendly Either checking-in or checking-out is a simple way for a team to open or close a process, symbolically and in a collaborative way. Checking-in/out invites each member in a group to be present, seen and heard, and to express a reflection or a feeling. Checking-in emphasizes presence, focus and group commitment; checking-out emphasizes reflection and symbolic closure.

29. Doodling Together

Thinking creatively and not being afraid to make suggestions are important problem-solving skills for any group or team, and warming up by encouraging these behaviors is a great way to start.

Doodling Together is one of our favorite creative ice breaker games – it’s quick, effective, and fun and can make all following problem-solving steps easier by encouraging a group to collaborate visually. By passing cards and adding additional items as they go, the workshop group gets into a groove of co-creation and idea development that is crucial to finding solutions to problems.

Doodling Together #collaboration #creativity #teamwork #fun #team #visual methods #energiser #icebreaker #remote-friendly Create wild, weird and often funny postcards together & establish a group’s creative confidence.

30. Show and Tell

You might remember some version of Show and Tell from being a kid in school and it’s a great problem-solving activity to kick off a session.

Asking participants to prepare a little something before a workshop by bringing an object for show and tell can help them warm up before the session has even begun! Games that include a physical object can also help encourage early engagement before moving onto more big-picture thinking.

By asking your participants to tell stories about why they chose to bring a particular item to the group, you can help teams see things from new perspectives and see both differences and similarities in the way they approach a topic. Great groundwork for approaching a problem-solving process as a team!

Show and Tell #gamestorming #action #opening #meeting facilitation Show and Tell taps into the power of metaphors to reveal players’ underlying assumptions and associations around a topic The aim of the game is to get a deeper understanding of stakeholders’ perspectives on anything—a new project, an organizational restructuring, a shift in the company’s vision or team dynamic.

31. Constellations

Who doesn’t love stars? Constellations is a great warm-up activity for any workshop as it gets people up off their feet, energized, and ready to engage in new ways with established topics. It’s also great for showing existing beliefs, biases, and patterns that can come into play as part of your session.

Using warm-up games that help build trust and connection while also allowing for non-verbal responses can be great for easing people into the problem-solving process and encouraging engagement from everyone in the group. Constellations is great in large spaces that allow for movement and is definitely a practical exercise to allow the group to see patterns that are otherwise invisible.

Constellations #trust #connection #opening #coaching #patterns #system Individuals express their response to a statement or idea by standing closer or further from a central object. Used with teams to reveal system, hidden patterns, perspectives.

32. Draw a Tree

Problem-solving games that help raise group awareness through a central, unifying metaphor can be effective ways to warm-up a group in any problem-solving model.

Draw a Tree is a simple warm-up activity you can use in any group and which can provide a quick jolt of energy. Start by asking your participants to draw a tree in just 45 seconds – they can choose whether it will be abstract or realistic.

Once the timer is up, ask the group how many people included the roots of the tree and use this as a means to discuss how we can ignore important parts of any system simply because they are not visible.

All problem-solving strategies are made more effective by thinking of problems critically and by exposing things that may not normally come to light. Warm-up games like Draw a Tree are great in that they quickly demonstrate some key problem-solving skills in an accessible and effective way.

Draw a Tree #thiagi #opening #perspectives #remote-friendly With this game you can raise awarness about being more mindful, and aware of the environment we live in.

Each step of the problem-solving workshop benefits from an intelligent deployment of activities, games, and techniques. Bringing your session to an effective close helps ensure that solutions are followed through on and that you also celebrate what has been achieved.

Here are some problem-solving activities you can use to effectively close a workshop or meeting and ensure the great work you’ve done can continue afterward.

One Breath Feedback
Who What When Matrix
Response Cards

How do I conclude a problem-solving process?

All good things must come to an end. With the bulk of the work done, it can be tempting to conclude your workshop swiftly and without a moment to debrief and align. This can be problematic in that it doesn’t allow your team to fully process the results or reflect on the process.

At the end of an effective session, your team will have gone through a process that, while productive, can be exhausting. It’s important to give your group a moment to take a breath, ensure that they are clear on future actions, and provide short feedback before leaving the space.

The primary purpose of any problem-solving method is to generate solutions and then implement them. Be sure to take the opportunity to ensure everyone is aligned and ready to effectively implement the solutions you produced in the workshop.

Remember that every process can be improved and by giving a short moment to collect feedback in the session, you can further refine your problem-solving methods and see further success in the future too.

33. One Breath Feedback

Maintaining attention and focus during the closing stages of a problem-solving workshop can be tricky and so being concise when giving feedback can be important. It’s easy to incur “death by feedback” should some team members go on for too long sharing their perspectives in a quick feedback round.

One Breath Feedback is a great closing activity for workshops. You give everyone an opportunity to provide feedback on what they’ve done but only in the space of a single breath. This keeps feedback short and to the point and means that everyone is encouraged to provide the most important piece of feedback to them.

One breath feedback #closing #feedback #action This is a feedback round in just one breath that excels in maintaining attention: each participants is able to speak during just one breath … for most people that’s around 20 to 25 seconds … unless of course you’ve been a deep sea diver in which case you’ll be able to do it for longer.

34. Who What When Matrix

Matrices feature as part of many effective problem-solving strategies and with good reason. They are easily recognizable, simple to use, and generate results.

The Who What When Matrix is a great tool to use when closing your problem-solving session by attributing a who, what and when to the actions and solutions you have decided upon. The resulting matrix is a simple, easy-to-follow way of ensuring your team can move forward.

Great solutions can’t be enacted without action and ownership. Your problem-solving process should include a stage for allocating tasks to individuals or teams and creating a realistic timeframe for those solutions to be implemented or checked out. Use this method to keep the solution implementation process clear and simple for all involved.

Who/What/When Matrix #gamestorming #action #project planning With Who/What/When matrix, you can connect people with clear actions they have defined and have committed to.

35. Response cards

Group discussion can comprise the bulk of most problem-solving activities and by the end of the process, you might find that your team is talked out!

Providing a means for your team to give feedback with short written notes can ensure everyone is head and can contribute without the need to stand up and talk. Depending on the needs of the group, giving an alternative can help ensure everyone can contribute to your problem-solving model in the way that makes the most sense for them.

Response Cards is a great way to close a workshop if you are looking for a gentle warm-down and want to get some swift discussion around some of the feedback that is raised.

Response Cards #debriefing #closing #structured sharing #questions and answers #thiagi #action It can be hard to involve everyone during a closing of a session. Some might stay in the background or get unheard because of louder participants. However, with the use of Response Cards, everyone will be involved in providing feedback or clarify questions at the end of a session.

Save time and effort discovering the right solutions

A structured problem solving process is a surefire way of solving tough problems, discovering creative solutions and driving organizational change. But how can you design for successful outcomes?

With SessionLab, it’s easy to design engaging workshops that deliver results. Drag, drop and reorder blocks to build your agenda. When you make changes or update your agenda, your session timing adjusts automatically , saving you time on manual adjustments.

Collaborating with stakeholders or clients? Share your agenda with a single click and collaborate in real-time. No more sending documents back and forth over email.

Explore how to use SessionLab to design effective problem solving workshops or watch this five minute video to see the planner in action!

Over to you

The problem-solving process can often be as complicated and multifaceted as the problems they are set-up to solve. With the right problem-solving techniques and a mix of creative exercises designed to guide discussion and generate purposeful ideas, we hope we’ve given you the tools to find the best solutions as simply and easily as possible.

Is there a problem-solving technique that you are missing here? Do you have a favorite activity or method you use when facilitating? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you!

thank you very much for these excellent techniques

Certainly wonderful article, very detailed. Shared!

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Problem Solving And Decision Making: 10 Hacks That Managers Love

Understanding problem solving & decision making, why are problem solving and decision making skills essential in the workplace, five techniques for effective problem solving, five techniques for effective decision making, frequently asked questions.

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Steps in problem solving and decision making

Improved efficiency and productivity: Employees with strong problem solving and decision making skills are better equipped to identify and solve issues that may arise in their work. This leads to improved efficiency and productivity as they can complete their work more timely and effectively.
Improved customer satisfaction: Problem solving and decision making skills also help employees address any concerns or issues customers may have. This leads to enhanced customer satisfaction as customers feel their needs are being addressed and their problems are resolved.
Effective teamwork: When working in teams, problem solving and decision making skills are essential for effective collaboration . Groups that can effectively identify and solve problems together are more likely to successfully achieve their goals.
Innovation: Effective problem-solving and decision-making skills are also crucial for driving innovation in the workplace. Employees who think creatively and develop new solutions to problems are more likely to develop innovative ideas to move the business forward.
Risk management: Problem solving and decision making skills are also crucial for managing risk in the workplace. By identifying potential risks and developing strategies to mitigate them, employees can help minimize the negative impact of risks on the business.

Brainstorming: Brainstorming is a technique for generating creative ideas and solutions to problems. In a brainstorming session, a group of people share their thoughts and build on each other’s suggestions. The goal is to generate a large number of ideas in a short amount of time. For example, a team of engineers could use brainstorming to develop new ideas for improving the efficiency of a manufacturing process.
Root Cause Analysis: Root cause analysis is a technique for identifying the underlying cause of a problem. It involves asking “why” questions to uncover the root cause of the problem. Once the root cause is identified, steps can be taken to address it. For example, a hospital could use root cause analysis to investigate why patient falls occur and identify the root cause, such as inadequate staffing or poor lighting.
SWOT Analysis: SWOT analysis is a technique for evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to a problem or situation. It involves assessing internal and external factors that could impact the problem and identifying ways to leverage strengths and opportunities while minimizing weaknesses and threats. For example, a small business could use SWOT analysis to evaluate its market position and identify opportunities to expand its product line or improve its marketing.
Pareto Analysis: Pareto analysis is a technique for identifying the most critical problems to address. It involves ranking problems by impact and frequency and first focusing on the most significant issues. For example, a software development team could use Pareto analysis to prioritize bugs and issues to fix based on their impact on the user experience.
Decision Matrix Analysis: Decision matrix analysis evaluates alternatives and selects the best course of action. It involves creating a matrix to compare options based on criteria and weighting factors and selecting the option with the highest score. For example, a manager could use decision matrix analysis to evaluate different software vendors based on criteria such as price, features, and support and select the vendor with the best overall score.

Cost-Benefit Analysis: Cost-benefit analysis is a technique for evaluating the costs and benefits of different options. It involves comparing each option’s expected costs and benefits and selecting the one with the highest net benefit. For example, a company could use cost-benefit analysis to evaluate a new product line’s potential return on investment.
Decision Trees: Decision trees are a visual representation of the decision-making process. They involve mapping out different options and their potential outcomes and probabilities. This helps to identify the best course of action based on the likelihood of different outcomes. For example, a farmer could use a decision tree to choose crops to plant based on the expected weather patterns.
SWOT Analysis: SWOT analysis can also be used for decision making. By identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of different options, a decision maker can evaluate each option’s potential risks and benefits. For example, a business owner could use SWOT analysis to assess the potential risks and benefits of expanding into a new market.
Pros and Cons Analysis: Pros and cons analysis lists the advantages and disadvantages of different options. It involves weighing the pros and cons of each option to determine the best course of action. For example, an individual could use a pros and cons analysis to decide whether to take a job offer.
Six Thinking Hats: The six thinking hats technique is a way to think about a problem from different perspectives. It involves using six different “hats” to consider various aspects of the decision. The hats include white (facts and figures), red (emotions and feelings), black (risks and drawbacks), yellow (benefits and opportunities), green (creativity and new ideas), and blue (overview and control). For example, a team could use the six thinking hats technique to evaluate different options for a marketing campaign.

Aastha Bensla

Aastha, a passionate industrial psychologist, writer, and counselor, brings her unique expertise to Risely. With specialized knowledge in industrial psychology, Aastha offers a fresh perspective on personal and professional development. Her broad experience as an industrial psychologist enables her to accurately understand and solve problems for managers and leaders with an empathetic approach.

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How to Be a More Creative Problem-Solver at Work: 8 Tips

Business professionals using creative problem-solving at work

01 Mar 2022

The importance of creativity in the workplace—particularly when problem-solving—is undeniable. Business leaders can’t approach new problems with old solutions and expect the same result.

This is where innovation-based processes need to guide problem-solving. Here’s an overview of what creative problem-solving is, along with tips on how to use it in conjunction with design thinking.

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What Is Creative Problem-Solving?

Encountering problems with no clear cause can be frustrating. This occurs when there’s disagreement around a defined problem or research yields unclear results. In such situations, creative problem-solving helps develop solutions, despite a lack of clarity.

While creative problem-solving is less structured than other forms of innovation, it encourages exploring open-ended ideas and shifting perspectives—thereby fostering innovation and easier adaptation in the workplace. It also works best when paired with other innovation-based processes, such as design thinking .

Creative Problem-Solving and Design Thinking

Design thinking is a solutions-based mentality that encourages innovation and problem-solving. It’s guided by an iterative process that Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar outlines in four stages in the online course Design Thinking and Innovation :

The four stages of design thinking: clarify, ideate, develop, and implement

Clarify: This stage involves researching a problem through empathic observation and insights.
Ideate: This stage focuses on generating ideas and asking open-ended questions based on observations made during the clarification stage.
Develop: The development stage involves exploring possible solutions based on the ideas you generate. Experimentation and prototyping are both encouraged.
Implement: The final stage is a culmination of the previous three. It involves finalizing a solution’s development and communicating its value to stakeholders.

Although user research is an essential first step in the design thinking process, there are times when it can’t identify a problem’s root cause. Creative problem-solving addresses this challenge by promoting the development of new perspectives.

Leveraging tools like design thinking and creativity at work can further your problem-solving abilities. Here are eight tips for doing so.

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8 Creative Problem-Solving Tips

1. empathize with your audience.

A fundamental practice of design thinking’s clarify stage is empathy. Understanding your target audience can help you find creative and relevant solutions for their pain points through observing them and asking questions.

Practice empathy by paying attention to others’ needs and avoiding personal comparisons. The more you understand your audience, the more effective your solutions will be.

2. Reframe Problems as Questions

If a problem is difficult to define, reframe it as a question rather than a statement. For example, instead of saying, "The problem is," try framing around a question like, "How might we?" Think creatively by shifting your focus from the problem to potential solutions.

Consider this hypothetical case study: You’re the owner of a local coffee shop trying to fill your tip jar. Approaching the situation with a problem-focused mindset frames this as: "We need to find a way to get customers to tip more." If you reframe this as a question, however, you can explore: "How might we make it easier for customers to tip?" When you shift your focus from the shop to the customer, you empathize with your audience. You can take this train of thought one step further and consider questions such as: "How might we provide a tipping method for customers who don't carry cash?"

Whether you work at a coffee shop, a startup, or a Fortune 500 company, reframing can help surface creative solutions to problems that are difficult to define.

3. Defer Judgment of Ideas

If you encounter an idea that seems outlandish or unreasonable, a natural response would be to reject it. This instant judgment impedes creativity. Even if ideas seem implausible, they can play a huge part in ideation. It's important to permit the exploration of original ideas.

While judgment can be perceived as negative, it’s crucial to avoid accepting ideas too quickly. If you love an idea, don’t immediately pursue it. Give equal consideration to each proposal and build on different concepts instead of acting on them immediately.

4. Overcome Cognitive Fixedness

Cognitive fixedness is a state of mind that prevents you from recognizing a situation’s alternative solutions or interpretations instead of considering every situation through the lens of past experiences.

Although it's efficient in the short-term, cognitive fixedness interferes with creative thinking because it prevents you from approaching situations unbiased. It's important to be aware of this tendency so you can avoid it.

5. Balance Divergent and Convergent Thinking

One of the key principles of creative problem-solving is the balance of divergent and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking is the process of brainstorming multiple ideas without limitation; open-ended creativity is encouraged. It’s an effective tool for generating ideas, but not every idea can be explored. Divergent thinking eventually needs to be grounded in reality.

Convergent thinking, on the other hand, is the process of narrowing ideas down into a few options. While converging ideas too quickly stifles creativity, it’s an important step that bridges the gap between ideation and development. It's important to strike a healthy balance between both to allow for the ideation and exploration of creative ideas.

6. Use Creative Tools

Using creative tools is another way to foster innovation. Without a clear cause for a problem, such tools can help you avoid cognitive fixedness and abrupt decision-making. Here are several examples:

Problem Stories

Creating a problem story requires identifying undesired phenomena (UDP) and taking note of events that precede and result from them. The goal is to reframe the situations to visualize their cause and effect.

To start, identify a UDP. Then, discover what events led to it. Observe and ask questions of your consumer base to determine the UDP’s cause.

Next, identify why the UDP is a problem. What effect does the UDP have that necessitates changing the status quo? It's helpful to visualize each event in boxes adjacent to one another when answering such questions.

The problem story can be extended in either direction, as long as there are additional cause-and-effect relationships. Once complete, focus on breaking the chains connecting two subsequent events by disrupting the cause-and-effect relationship between them.

Alternate Worlds

The alternate worlds tool encourages you to consider how people from different backgrounds would approach similar situations. For instance, how would someone in hospitality versus manufacturing approach the same problem? This tool isn't intended to instantly solve problems but, rather, to encourage idea generation and creativity.

7. Use Positive Language

It's vital to maintain a positive mindset when problem-solving and avoid negative words that interfere with creativity. Positive language prevents quick judgments and overcomes cognitive fixedness. Instead of "no, but," use words like "yes, and."

Positive language makes others feel heard and valued rather than shut down. This practice doesn’t necessitate agreeing with every idea but instead approaching each from a positive perspective.

Using “yes, and” as a tool for further idea exploration is also effective. If someone presents an idea, build upon it using “yes, and.” What additional features could improve it? How could it benefit consumers beyond its intended purpose?

While it may not seem essential, this small adjustment can make a big difference in encouraging creativity.

8. Practice Design Thinking

Practicing design thinking can make you a more creative problem-solver. While commonly associated with the workplace, adopting a design thinking mentality can also improve your everyday life. Here are several ways you can practice design thinking:

Learn from others: There are many examples of design thinking in business . Review case studies to learn from others’ successes, research problems companies haven't addressed, and consider alternative solutions using the design thinking process.
Approach everyday problems with a design thinking mentality: One of the best ways to practice design thinking is to apply it to your daily life. Approach everyday problems using design thinking’s four-stage framework to uncover what solutions it yields.
Study design thinking: While learning design thinking independently is a great place to start, taking an online course can offer more insight and practical experience. The right course can teach you important skills , increase your marketability, and provide valuable networking opportunities.

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Ready to Become a Creative Problem-Solver?

Though creativity comes naturally to some, it's an acquired skill for many. Regardless of which category you're in, improving your ability to innovate is a valuable endeavor. Whether you want to bolster your creativity or expand your professional skill set, taking an innovation-based course can enhance your problem-solving.

If you're ready to become a more creative problem-solver, explore Design Thinking and Innovation , one of our online entrepreneurship and innovation courses . If you aren't sure which course is the right fit, download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals.

About the Author

What is creative problem-solving?

An introduction to creative problem-solving.

Creative problem-solving is an essential skill that goes beyond basic brainstorming . It entails a holistic approach to challenges, melding logical processes with imaginative techniques to conceive innovative solutions. As our world becomes increasingly complex and interconnected, the ability to think creatively and solve problems with fresh perspectives becomes invaluable for individuals, businesses, and communities alike.

Importance of divergent and convergent thinking

At the heart of creative problem-solving lies the balance between divergent and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking encourages free-flowing, unrestricted ideation, leading to a plethora of potential solutions. Convergent thinking, on the other hand, is about narrowing down those options to find the most viable solution. This dual approach ensures both breadth and depth in the problem-solving process.

Emphasis on collaboration and diverse perspectives

No single perspective has a monopoly on insight. Collaborating with individuals from different backgrounds, experiences, and areas of expertise offers a richer tapestry of ideas. Embracing diverse perspectives not only broadens the pool of solutions but also ensures more holistic and well-rounded outcomes.

Nurturing a risk-taking and experimental mindset

The fear of failure can be the most significant barrier to any undertaking. It's essential to foster an environment where risk-taking and experimentation are celebrated. This involves viewing failures not as setbacks but as invaluable learning experiences that pave the way for eventual success.

The role of intuition and lateral thinking

Sometimes, the path to a solution is not linear. Lateral thinking and intuition allow for making connections between seemingly unrelated elements. These 'eureka' moments often lead to breakthrough solutions that conventional methods might overlook.

Stages of the creative problem-solving process

The creative problem-solving process is typically broken down into several stages. Each stage plays a crucial role in understanding, addressing, and resolving challenges in innovative ways.

Clarifying: Understanding the real problem or challenge

Before diving into solutions, one must first understand the problem at its core. This involves asking probing questions, gathering data, and viewing the challenge from various angles. A clear comprehension of the problem ensures that effort and resources are channeled correctly.

Ideating: Generating diverse and multiple solutions

Once the problem is clarified, the focus shifts to generating as many solutions as possible. This stage champions quantity over quality, as the aim is to explore the breadth of possibilities without immediately passing judgment.

Developing: Refining and honing promising solutions

With a list of potential solutions in hand, it's time to refine and develop the most promising ones. This involves evaluating each idea's feasibility, potential impact, and any associated risks, then enhancing or combining solutions to maximize effectiveness.

Implementing: Acting on the best solutions

Once a solution has been honed, it's time to put it into action. This involves planning, allocating resources, and monitoring the results to ensure the solution is effectively addressing the problem.

Techniques for creative problem-solving

Solving complex problems in a fresh way can be a daunting task to start on. Here are a few techniques that can help kickstart the process:

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a widely-used technique that involves generating as many ideas as possible within a set timeframe. Variants like brainwriting (where ideas are written down rather than spoken) and reverse brainstorming (thinking of ways to cause the problem) can offer fresh perspectives and ensure broader participation.

Mind mapping

Mind mapping is a visual tool that helps structure information, making connections between disparate pieces of data. It is particularly useful in organizing thoughts, visualizing relationships, and ensuring a comprehensive approach to a problem.

SCAMPER technique

SCAMPER stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse. This technique prompts individuals to look at existing products, services, or processes in new ways, leading to innovative solutions.

Benefits of creative problem-solving

Creative problem-solving offers numerous benefits, both at the individual and organizational levels. Some of the most prominent advantages include:

Finding novel solutions to old problems

Traditional problems that have resisted conventional solutions often succumb to creative approaches. By looking at challenges from fresh angles and blending different techniques, we can unlock novel solutions previously deemed impossible.

Enhanced adaptability in changing environments

In our rapidly evolving world, the ability to adapt is critical. Creative problem-solving equips individuals and organizations with the agility to pivot and adapt to changing circumstances, ensuring resilience and longevity.

Building collaborative and innovative teams

Teams that embrace creative problem-solving tend to be more collaborative and innovative. They value diversity of thought, are open to experimentation, and are more likely to challenge the status quo, leading to groundbreaking results.

Fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement

Creative problem-solving is not just about finding solutions; it's also about continuous learning and improvement. By encouraging an environment of curiosity and exploration, organizations can ensure that they are always at the cutting edge, ready to tackle future challenges head-on.

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Creative Problem-Solving
Reference work entry
First Online: 01 January 2023
Cite this reference work entry

Gerard J. Puccio 2 ,
Barry Klarman 2 &
Pamela A. Szalay 2

116 Accesses

Life and work in the beginning of the twenty-first century has been described as volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. In this fast changing, innovation-driven environment, Creative Problem-Solving has been identified as a fundamental skill for success. In contrast to routine problem-solving, with straightforward and repeatable solution paths, today’s problems are described as being complex and wicked. To generate the possibilities that can effectively address complex problems, individuals need to draw on the highest level of human thought – creativity. Creative Problem-Solving explicitly draws on, and promotes, effective creative thinking. The purpose of this entry is to describe and distinguish Creative Problem-Solving from other forms of problems-solving. Moreover, as Creative Problem-Solving is a deliberate creativity methodology, this chapter also provides a description of the more specific thinking skills that are embodied by the higher-order skill of creative thinking and are explicitly called on in Creative Problem-Solving. Complex problems require complex thinking, and Creative Problem-Solving provides a structured process that allows individuals to more easily and efficiently deploy their creative thinking skills.

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Problem Finding

Complex problem-solving
Creative thinking
Solution path

Contrasting Creative Problem-Solving with Problem-Solving in General

Webster’s dictionary defines problem-solving as the process or act of finding a solution to a problem. While this definition provides a general description of problem-solving, it does not provide a nuanced understanding of the range of problems humans encounter in their personal and professional lives. Problems can be routine, complicated, or complex in nature. Routine problems have clear procedures and predictable outcomes (Stokes 2013 ). Complicated problems also have clear procedures and predictable outcomes but involve the simultaneous coordination of multiple routine problems or problems for which expertise is crucial for success. Complex problems are described as being ill-defined, novel, and ambiguous (Mumford et al. 2000 ). Escalating levels of thinking are necessary for humans to respond efficiently and effectively to routine, complicated, and complex problems. Broadly speaking, routine problems require accurate recall, complicated problems require critical thinking, and complex problems require creativity (Anderson and Krathwohl 2001 ). The purpose of this paper is to describe a problem-solving approach and the various forms of thinking that are necessary to respond to problems that are most open to, indeed demand, new and valuable possibilities, in other words creativity .

A wide range of effective problem-solving processes have been developed to support individuals as they contend with routine, complicated, and complex problems. Most of these approaches are domain or industry specific. In contrast, a relatively smaller number of problem-solving processes have emerged from the field of creativity studies that are designed to be broadly applicable across domains and disciplines. In this entry, we examine one such methodology called Creative Problem-Solving , CPS for short (Osborn 1953 ; Puccio et al. 2011 ). As the name implies, CPS is a creative approach to problem-solving and therefore is focused on exploring what is possible, beyond what is known and demonstrable. This creative process methodology has been shaped by roughly 100 years of practice and is informed by insights derived from the field of creativity studies. CPS is designed to facilitate and actively engage creative thinking, which is the most complex form of cognition known to human beings, as such CPS serves as a meta-framework for an array of more specific cognitive and affective skills. Finally, CPS mirrors the level of complexity and flexibility inherent in the creative process, which means this problem-solving process is unique in its ability to both react to challenges and anticipate opportunities.

To fully appreciate the value of CPS, it is helpful to begin by examining key concepts related to basic problem-solving. Problems are created by situations that necessitate productive change. A problem space is how a problem is represented based on an initial situation, a goal state, and a search space. Problem-solving processes incorporate stages, strategies, tactics, methods, and techniques to navigate a problem space. The solution path is the series of steps that move the problem-solver from the “the initial state (the given situation/the given problem) to the goal state (the desired situation/the solution)” (Stokes 2013 , p. 247).

In general, the solution path to a problem can take one of two forms, depending on whether the problem is algorithmic or heuristic. Algorithmic problems are usually routine, sometimes complicated, but rarely complex. They are considered close-ended because they have a limited range of known solution possibilities and sometimes have just a single correct solution. As a result, the solution path for algorithmic problems is known, well-established, often sequential and generally predictable. Thus, there is no need to search for new possibilities as existing routines provide clear solution paths (Stokes 2013 ); creative thinking is not required or necessary.

Alternatively, heuristic problems are open-ended with no single set path to a predetermined solution. In fact, the path is shaped through a series of choices and decisions made as the problem is being solved. Any new data, insights, or ideas that emerge during this process can be used to reassess the situation and influence the criteria for the next decision. This happens repeatedly until there is satisfactory resolution. Therefore, the pathway is as unpredictable as the eventual solution, which must be discovered or created (Puccio et al. 2011 ). CPS was specifically designed to address complex open-ended problems that require a heuristic approach to the formulation of a solution path.

Algorithmic and heuristic problems can be further categorized by considering how individuals approach such problems, which is either in a reactive or proactive manner (see Fig. 1 , Problem Scenarios). As indicated earlier, problems are created by situations that necessitate productive change. These situations can be thrust upon us, in which case we need to react to them. In other cases, problems might be anticipated or discovered and proactively approached. When reacting to a problem that can be solved by algorithmic methods, formulaic processes can be used (i.e., established processes that lead to objectively correct solutions). In other cases, we might anticipate a future problem, for which we know how to respond. In such cases maintenance procedures are carried out to avoid problems that are anticipated. If you do not fuel your car up, either you will run out of gas (internal combustion engine) or battery life (electric vehicle). Predicaments occur when heuristic methods are needed to resolve an unexpected problem related to an established goal or area of performance. In other words, some change has occurred, and the problem-solver is uncertain about how to return to previous levels of performance. Opportunities appear when the possible opens up by taking a proactive approach using heuristic methods to change the current situation or to pursue an entirely new goal or outcome. Predicaments and opportunities, as depicted in Fig. 1 , represent complex problems and therefore require a heuristic approach. The CPS process is designed to assist problem-solvers deliberately engage their creative-thinking abilities in order to produce new possibilities that successfully address predicaments and opportunities (Puccio et al. 2011 ). See Puccio et al. ( 2011 ) or Puccio et al. ( 2012 ) for a more detailed description of Fig. 1 .

Problem scenarios. (Source: Puccio et al. ( 2011 ). Reprinted with permission)

Because CPS is designed to manage ambiguity (relevant information is unknown; the solution path used to solve the problem is unknown; and the form of the solution is unknown or poorly defined), those engaged in the CPS process often experience a palpable sense of wonder about the possible. Problem-solving methods for algorithmic problems lack this sense of wonder due to the presence of considerable clarity; the problem space, the solution path, and the solution’s final form are quite predictable. There is no need to engage the imagination. We suggest that CPS distinguishes itself from other problem-solving processes by leveraging ambiguity, encouraging a sustained exploration of what might be possible and providing techniques for many alternatives to be considered before a decision is made. This allows ample room for the imagination to wonder and wander, even as steps are being made along the narrowing solution path.

In conclusion, CPS is a transformational sensemaking process that ultimately bridges the gap between a current problematic state and a desired future possible state. CPS can also be described as a chaotic complex adaptive process, one that utilizes cognitive and affective skills in order to facilitate wonder about novel, poorly defined problems and their possible solutions. As a result, when people are trained in CPS, they develop the crucial problem-solving skills of flexibility and adaptability. Indeed, among the various creativity training programs, CPS has been identified as one of the most effective (Scott et al. 2004 ). In a world that is increasingly defined by change and complexity, creative problem-solving is now widely recognized as a vital twenty-first century skill. Unfortunately, while a recent Bloomberg Businessweek report indicated that creative problem-solving is the fifth most important skill sought by employers, it is the second most difficult skill to find (Otani 2015 ). Training in CPS can bridge that gap.

Creative Problem-Solving: An Introduction and Overview

Humans are innate creative problem-solvers. Since early humans developed the first stone tools to crack open fruit and nuts more than 2 million years ago, the application of creative thinking to solve problems has been a distinct competitive advantage for our species (Puccio 2017 ). Originally used to solve problems related to survival, the tendency toward the use of creative problem-solving to see, and then create, new possibilities naturally expanded to a wider range of human endeavors. As Morriss-Kay ( 2010 ) observed, “without these survival-enhancing functional origins, it is unlikely that we would have the neural equipment to create art” (p. 174). To be sure, it has been the unique human ability to apply imagination to solve problems that has resulted in the creation of our technological, social, and aesthetic world.

Creative problem-solving, when denoted in all lower case, refers to humans’ evolutionary predisposition to employ higher-order thinking skills, namely, creative thinking, to solve complex problems. The kinds of complex problems humans contend with are not limited to tangible domains, such as science and technology, but also include the kinds of intangible problems found in such fields as philosophy, psychology, justice, and numerous other areas of human endeavor. When Creative Problem-Solving appears in upper case, CPS for short, it connotes an explicit creative process designed to deliberately engage creative thinking to resolve complex problems. CPS is a cognitive, rational, and semantic process that builds on humans’ innate creative problem-solving tendencies. As a deliberate creative process, CPS helps individuals to move the production of creative breakthroughs from chance occurrence to directed thinking that improves the probability of original and valuable outcomes. This is accomplished by providing a structure that facilitates the application of creative thinking to open-ended problems. CPS provides individuals with a heuristic solution path that, once mastered, can be universally applied both by individuals and groups to more effectively and efficiently resolve complex problems. The next section of this paper outlines the specific structure of CPS.

Creative Problem-Solving: The Thinking Skills Model

The first version of CPS to be disseminated for wide-scale use was featured in Alex Osborn’s ( 1953 ) book Applied Imagination . One of the most popular books ever written on applied creativity methods, Osborn introduced brainstorming to the world through this publication. This seminal work described the creative process that, as an advertising executive, Osborn had tested and refined over several decades. However, while Osborn had tested the veracity of CPS and brainstorming in the business world, his dream was to start a movement that would change education. His concern was that success in life and work demanded creative thinking, as many of today’s educational, business, and governmental leaders now tout (Trilling and Fadel 2009 ; Wagner 2008 ), and Osborn recognized that educational practices often excelled at undermining rather than elevating this crucial skill. Osborn offered CPS as a deliberate creative methodology that would allow individuals to more effectively apply their innate creative thinking abilities to complex problems.

Since its introduction CPS has gone through continuous improvement and evolution. Table 1 provides a summary of the variations of the CPS process that are direct descendants of Osborn’s original process. For a more in-depth review of these processes, see Puccio et al. ( 2005 ). For the purposes of this paper, we will focus on the most current version of CPS called the Thinking Skills Model (TSM). Suffice it to say that one of the strengths of CPS is the fact that this deliberate process model has had a rich history through which several generations of scholars have refined and extended the work of their predecessors. As a consequence, the current version, CPS-TSM, is a beneficiary of the practical insights and wisdom that were derived from decades of experience and research.

The developers of TSM, Puccio et al. ( 2011 ), defined CPS as “a comprehensive cognitive and affective system built on our natural creative processes that deliberately ignites creative thinking and, as a result, generates creative solutions and change” (p. 43). These scholars further broke each of the key terms associated with the “CPS” into more specific definitions as follows:

Creative . “The production of ideas or options that are both new and useful” (p. 43). Problem . “What exists when there is a gap between what you have and what you want” (p. 43). Solving . “Taking action in some way…solving implies finding an answer or resolution to situations” (p. 44).

CPS-TSM serves as both a process and a model for applied creative thinking. Puccio et al. ( 2011 ) defined process as “a particular method of doing something, generally involving a number of steps or operations” (p. 43). As a process, CPS-TSM provides individuals and teams with a learnable system of steps that serves as a heuristic solution path for complex problems. Again, Table 1 provides a summary of the steps various scholars have used to operationalize the creative process. Focusing on CPS-TSM, Fig. 2 (Creative Problem Solving: The Thinking Skills Model) graphically illustrates the operations behind the current version of CPS. As a heuristic solution path, CPS provides problem-solvers with a rationale set of stages that move the problem-solver from the problematic present state to the desired outcome. In contrast to Stokes ( 2013 ) description of the solution path, which was mainly focused on the search for a workable solution, CPS provides a more expansive set of stages that are in keeping with comprehensive descriptions of the creative process (i.e., creativity is much more than idea production, it also involves problem construction, idea production, solution development, implementation, etc.).

Creative problem solving: the thinking skills model. (Source: Puccio et al. ( 2011 ). Reprinted with permission)

Beginning with the outer layer of Fig. 2 , CPS-TSM is organized into three broad stages known as Clarification, Transformation, and Implementation. These stages represent a logical progression from clarifying the nature of the problem to generating ideas that are transformed into solutions that address the problem and concluding with the creation of a plan that moves the proposed solution into action. Each stage is comprised of two specific steps. These steps represent a movement from broader to more specific forms of thought. In Clarification the problem-solver first explores broad goals and wishes; this is called Exploring the Vision. Next, the problem-solver proceeds to Formulating Challenges. Here, specific issues and obstacles are identified that must be addressed in order to achieve the selected vision. The Transformation stage is initiated by Exploring Ideas, where the problem-solver engages in a broad search for possibilities intended to resolve the challenges identified in the previous step. This step is followed by Formulating Solutions, where the most promising ideas are refined into workable solutions. Finally, in the Implementation stage, the problem-solver shifts his or her focus to the broader context within which the proposed solution is to be introduced. To promote success the problem-solver begins with the step called Exploring Acceptance, which is designed to facilitate an examination of the environmental factors that will either help or hinder implementation. This analysis influences the creation of an action plan, which occurs in the second step of this stage and the final step of the CPS-TSM process (i.e., Formulating a Plan).

While the above description provides a sequential overview of the CPS process, the application of the process is rarely linear. To be sure, there is a natural flow to the process, but individuals and teams can begin at any step and then flexibly apply the steps as needed. For example, if it is clearly understood what obstacle must be overcome to reach the goal, then it is advantageous to move directly into Exploring Ideas and begin generating ideas that address the challenge. However, the production of ideas allows the problem owner to test his or her understanding of the challenge and in some cases facilitates the recognition that the wrong challenge is being worked on. When this happens the problem owner can revise the challenge statement and begin with a new set of ideas. Alternatively, if deeper analysis is required, the problem-solver can go back to the Formulating Challenges step and engage in a process of deconstructing the goal into an exhaustive list of obstacles and barriers that stand in the way of success. From here the problem owner prioritizes the challenges and returns to the Exploring Ideas step with a new challenge statement for which he or she will amass new ideas. From this point, the problem-solver can continue to move through the process until a plan is formulated and put into action.

Since CPS-TSM is a flexible process, problem-solvers should always begin with the step in the center of the process, referred to as Assessing the Situation. Puccio et al. ( 2011 ) described Assessing the Situation as the meta-step to CPS-TSM as it serves an executive function. Here problem-solvers gather data and then use insights gained from this understanding of the situation to make a decision as to where to go next in the process. For instance, if individuals or teams have already reached a conclusion as to the solution they wish to carry forward, which could be a new service, product concept, or response to a problem, then they might wish to pick up the process at the Exploring Acceptance step. Here they examine the context or contexts in which they hope to introduce their new solution, in order to anticipate forces that will help or hinder adoption.

CPS: A Model for Deconstructing Creative Thinking

Returning to an earlier point, CPS-TSM serves as both a process and model for applied creative thinking. The overview of the steps of CPS-TSM, and how they operate, relates to the use of CPS-TSM as a process. For a more expansive description of the application of this applied creativity process, see Puccio et al. ( 2011 ). As a model of applied creative thinking, CPS-TSM delineates the thinking skills that make up creative thinking. In fact, this version of CPS is the first to articulate the cognitive skill that are necessary for successful creative thinking to occur and in particular the thinking skills that contribute to the effective application of creative thinking to problem-solving.

According to the updated version of Bloom’s taxonomy of thinking (Anderson and Krathwohl 2001 ), creativity is the most complex form of thought humans can achieve. As a complex form of thinking, creativity must be comprised of a range of subskills. Like an athlete must master specific skills to achieve success, so must a creator master a range of skills to produce truly creative outcomes.

As a model of applied creative thinking, CPS-TSM associates a different thinking skill with each step of the process. In other words, each of the seven steps requires the problem-solver to adopt a new mode of thinking. When taught as a process, CPS-TSM helps individuals to develop the competence to more fluidly engage in each of these thinking skills. In short, CPS-TSM helps learners to master the nuances of creative cognition. Table 2 provides a summary of the thinking skills associated with each step of CPS-TSM.

Recent work in the area of emotional intelligence has highlighted what humans have intuitively recognized for centuries; our emotions and attitudes serve to promote or undermine our thinking (Brackett 2019 ; Goleman 1995 ). Within the field of creativity, there has been much research into the feelings and attitudes that promote higher levels of creativity. Borrowing from this literature, CPS-TSM postulates the affective skills that support each of the seven cognitive capacities. Put simply, it is believed that these affective skills modulate the specific cognitive skills found in CPS-TSM (see Table 3 for the CPS-TSM affective skills).

The Dynamic Balance in CPS: Balancing Divergent and Convergent Thinking

While the stages and steps of CPS have been variously expressed through the years, one constant across all versions of CPS has been the intentional balance between divergent and convergent thinking within each step of the respective process. Indeed, the hallmark of CPS has been the separation of divergent and convergent thinking, with the application of divergent thinking preceding the use of convergent thinking. Humans developed the ability to direct their thinking roughly 100,000 years ago, and it is this ability that can empower us to take charge of the creative process. Figure 3 provides a visual depiction of the dynamic balance between divergent and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking, represented by the top portion of the diamond, involves a broad search for many, varied, and original options. Generally, and by nature, this search begins with the production of options that are already familiar, known, and not highly novel, but through persistence individuals are able to move their thinking into new areas of discovery. Both research and practice have demonstrated that four guidelines are useful in promoting more effective divergent thinking. These guidelines are Defer Judgment, Go for Quantity, Make Connections, and Seek Novelty.

Dynamic balance: divergent & convergent thinking . (Source: Puccio et al. ( 2012 ). Reprinted with permission)

The bottom portion of the diamond graphically illustrates convergent thinking, which is the ability to screen, select, and develop the most promising options. Here the wide range of options produced during the divergent thinking phase are reviewed and winnowed down to those options that represent the greatest value relative to that step of the CPS process. New areas of discovery, those novel ideas generated during the divergent phase, then must be successfully introduced into existing situations and paradigms. Like divergent thinking, four guidelines are useful in promoting effective convergent thinking: Apply Affirmative Judgment, Keep Novelty Alive, Check Your Objectives, and Be Deliberate.

The balance between divergent and convergent thinking is essential to effective creative problem-solving efforts (see Fig. 3 ). Moreover, it reflects the evolutionary process found in nature, which is the balance between the production of novel variations and then the selective retention of those variations that prove to be most adaptive (Darwin 2003 ). Indeed, a recent study of problem-solving in groups highlighted that those groups who separately engaged in divergent and convergent phases of thought were significantly more fluent, flexible, and original in their idea production than groups that muddled these two basic forms of thought (Puccio et al. 2018 ). Additionally, teams that were guided by the process of separating divergent and convergent thinking (as shown in Fig. 3 ) produced solutions judged as creatively superior to those produced by teams who, by nature or habit, mixed divergent and convergent thinking during their problem-solving session.

The balance between divergent and convergent thinking represents a crucial polarity within the creative process. A polarity is the effective balance or integration of two concepts that are inherently value neutral. While at a glance they may appear to be contradictory, in practical terms they are dependent upon one another to achieve a greater purpose or goal. For example, work and play is a polarity, and when humans do not effectively integrate these two concepts in their lives, problems can occur (Miller 2004 ; Puccio 2017 ). Intriguingly, in the field of creativity Csikszentmihalyi ( 1990 ) has noted that the creative personality is full of contradictions, or what we see as polarities. Creative people, according to Csikszentmihalyi, are both playful and disciplined, humble yet proud, extroverted and introverted, passionate yet able to be objective. We would argue that this polarity between divergent and convergent thinking represents a process polarity that is central to creative productivity and to the creative personality (Csikszentmihalyi 1996 ; Parnes and Biondi 1975 ).

The application of polarity management theory (Johnson 1996 ) to the concepts of divergent and convergent thinking reveals important implications and insights relative to the balance or imbalance between these two fundamental forms of thinking. Polarity management theory holds that there are upsides and downsides that are inherent to both poles. Effective management leverages the positive aspects of the respective poles and mitigates the downsides. Poor management, such as becoming preoccupied with one pole over the other, results in negative consequences derived from that particular pole. Using our previous example, the work-play polarity might indicate that too much time at work can lead to burnout; conversely, excessive time engaging in play can interfere with the production of sufficient income.

Figure 4 (Polarity between Divergent & Convergent Thinking) provides a graphic summary of the dynamics of polarity thinking as applied to the interplay between divergent and convergent thinking. Either form of thinking, taken to an extreme, results in negative consequences. Effective creative problem-solvers know how to balance divergent and convergent thinking so that they can maximize the upside of both forms of thought. To achieve balance, it is helpful for problem-solvers to recognize the early warning signals that they are spending too much time in one pole and thus risk slipping into the downside of that pole. We would argue, and research bears it out, that effective problem-solving relies on an ability to balance these two forms of thinking. Again, one of the overarching skills taught through CPS training is the capability of moving fluidly through the steps of CPS by effectively balancing divergent and convergent thinking in every step along this heuristic solution path. The result is not only the unhindered ability to generate possibilities but also to recognize among those possibilities which ones hold the greatest promise to resolve a predicament or to seize a new opportunity.

The Polarity between divergent & convergent thinking. (Source: @ G. Puccio, 2019. Used with permission)

Summary: A Conceptual Map of Creative Problem-Solving

To summarize our review of CPS, we close by providing a conceptual map of CPS (see Fig. 5 , Conceptual Map of CPS). Using levels of abstraction, moving from broad to more concrete concepts, this map is designed to show how CPS is situated within the broader field of creativity studies. We offer this map as a way of summarizing the information outlined in this entry. At the highest level of abstraction is the domain of creativity studies. The next level down reflects what are commonly referred to as the facets of study within this domain. This paper has focused on one facet, deliberate creative process methodologies, and within that facet one process framework called CPS-TSM. As a model for creative thinking, CPS-TSM involves two broad executive skills, one cognitive (i.e., meta-cognition) and one affective (i.e., mindfulness). These executive skills are necessary to operationalize two macro-skills, divergent and convergent thinking, which are featured in each step of the CPS process. As CPS-TSM intentionally invokes creative thinking, this creativity model can be further deconstructed into the micro-skills that comprise this overarching higher-order thinking skill. Finally, as a deliberate creative process, people can learn tools that enable them to effectively engage in these more specific forms of thinking. While some become enamored with learning tools, it is crucial to recognize how these concrete methods fit into the constellation of creativity. Like a marionette’s string, a single tool pulls on only one appendage. To fully grasp the possibilities that can be derived from the marionette, and from the act of creativity, one must understand the interrelationships within the complete system.

Conceptual Map of CPS. (Source: @ G. Puccio, 2019)

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INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
Decision-Making and Problem Solving

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The SkillsYouNeed Guide to Interpersonal Skills

Making decisions and solving problems are two key areas in life, whether you are at home or at work. Whatever you’re doing, and wherever you are, you are faced with countless decisions and problems, both small and large, every day.

Many decisions and problems are so small that we may not even notice them. Even small decisions, however, can be overwhelming to some people. They may come to a halt as they consider their dilemma and try to decide what to do.

Small and Large Decisions

In your day-to-day life you're likely to encounter numerous 'small decisions', including, for example:

Tea or coffee?

What shall I have in my sandwich? Or should I have a salad instead today?

What shall I wear today?

Larger decisions may occur less frequently but may include:

Should we repaint the kitchen? If so, what colour?

Should we relocate?

Should I propose to my partner? Do I really want to spend the rest of my life with him/her?

These decisions, and others like them, may take considerable time and effort to make.

The relationship between decision-making and problem-solving is complex. Decision-making is perhaps best thought of as a key part of problem-solving: one part of the overall process.

Our approach at Skills You Need is to set out a framework to help guide you through the decision-making process. You won’t always need to use the whole framework, or even use it at all, but you may find it useful if you are a bit ‘stuck’ and need something to help you make a difficult decision.

Decision Making

Effective Decision-Making

This page provides information about ways of making a decision, including basing it on logic or emotion (‘gut feeling’). It also explains what can stop you making an effective decision, including too much or too little information, and not really caring about the outcome.

A Decision-Making Framework

This page sets out one possible framework for decision-making.

The framework described is quite extensive, and may seem quite formal. But it is also a helpful process to run through in a briefer form, for smaller problems, as it will help you to make sure that you really do have all the information that you need.

Problem Solving

Introduction to Problem-Solving

This page provides a general introduction to the idea of problem-solving. It explores the idea of goals (things that you want to achieve) and barriers (things that may prevent you from achieving your goals), and explains the problem-solving process at a broad level.

The first stage in solving any problem is to identify it, and then break it down into its component parts. Even the biggest, most intractable-seeming problems, can become much more manageable if they are broken down into smaller parts. This page provides some advice about techniques you can use to do so.

Sometimes, the possible options to address your problem are obvious. At other times, you may need to involve others, or think more laterally to find alternatives. This page explains some principles, and some tools and techniques to help you do so.

Having generated solutions, you need to decide which one to take, which is where decision-making meets problem-solving. But once decided, there is another step: to deliver on your decision, and then see if your chosen solution works. This page helps you through this process.

‘Social’ problems are those that we encounter in everyday life, including money trouble, problems with other people, health problems and crime. These problems, like any others, are best solved using a framework to identify the problem, work out the options for addressing it, and then deciding which option to use.

This page provides more information about the key skills needed for practical problem-solving in real life.

Guiding you through the key skills needed in life

As always at Skills You Need, our approach to these key skills is to provide practical ways to manage the process, and to develop your skills.

Neither problem-solving nor decision-making is an intrinsically difficult process and we hope you will find our pages useful in developing your skills.

Start with: Decision Making Problem Solving

See also: Improving Communication Interpersonal Communication Skills Building Confidence

Module 12: Making Decisions

Creativity in decision making, learning outcomes.

Discuss ways to promote creativity in decision making

If a decision maker is going to produce novel alternatives when solving a problem, then he or she is going to need a little creativity to help the process along. Creativity allows the decision maker to more fully appraise and understand the problem . . . sometimes in ways others can’t see it.

If creativity is the key to organizational effectiveness, then how do we get some of that? Is there a way that organizations can foster creativity for the benefit of decision making?

First, it’s important to note the characteristics of creative people, so we can understand what we’re aiming for in our creative environment. Creative decision makers seem to have an ability to sift through the massive amounts of information that can be reviewed when making a decision, and decide what information is and isn’t relevant. Still, they listen to all sources to understand where problems are emerging. And when they’re ready, they present a solution that’s bold and well informed. They don’t rely on the rational decision making model . . . they rely on something more than that. Creativity.

Five characteristics that creative leaders seem to have in common:

Perseverance in the face of obstacles and adversity
Willingness to take risks
Willingness to grow and openness to experience
Tolerance of ambiguity
Effective use of analogy to apply a known situation to an unknown situation

Organizationally (and individually) speaking, there are certain factors that, when they exist, tend to point to a more creative atmosphere.

Questioning attitude. Organizations that don’t invite the questioning of values, assumptions or norms are not likely to be very creative. Organizations need to continually question the long-held beliefs of their industry if they’re going to stay ahead of the curve and come up with creative ways to bring services and products to their customers.
Culture. Our traditional values are sometimes at odds with the creative solutions we might come up with to solve organizational problems. If an organization’s culture puts too much emphasis on tradition, they’re likely to stifle creativity around problem solving.
Leadership. Similar to culture, leaders who are bound to traditional characteristics of the leader-follower relationship, who don’t promote questioning attitudes or invite their employees to challenge the status quo, will not do much to foster a creative environment.
Attitude toward risk. Finally, employees who are afraid to try something new will never put their creative solutions into action! Just as one of the characteristics of a creative leader is a willingness to take risks, so must employees feel comfortable doing so in an organization.

Overall, creativity is likely to flourish in an environment that’s open and encourages participation. Keeping everyone on an even playing field, with no organizational encouragement for an “us versus them” type of environment will increase dialogue and keep ideas flowing.

Practice Question

The three components of creativity.

Three components of creativity. Expertise, Creative Thinking Skills, and Motivation come together to make creativity.

Expertise—technical, procedural and intellectual knowledge—is the foundation for all creative work. You wouldn’t expect someone who knows very little about software programming to come up with creative solutions to problems. The potential for creativity in a given area is enhanced when the individual has an exceptional grasp of the information around a problem or issue. Organizations can have a positive impact on increasing employee expertise with training, mentorship programs, etc.

Creative thinking skills encompass all those personality traits we talked about earlier that are common to creative leaders. Organizations, when cognizant of the traits that foster creativity, can interview and select candidates for hire that have these characteristics.

Motivation here means that an individual wants to work on a particular task because it’s interesting and engaging. An individual who is more intrinsically motivated is likely to have an easier time developing creativity than one who is more extrinsically motivated. Motivation determines the extent to which an individual will engage his expertise and creative thinking skills.

Brainstorming and Cooperative Exploration

Organizations can also stimulate creativity by employing the practices of brainstorming and cooperative exploration.

Brainstorming is a creative process in which individuals generate a large number of ideas without censorship. No idea is a bad one! If you’re looking to bring new customers into a retail store, the idea of “training monkeys to ring up purchases” is on the table until it’s time to review and determine which ideas are actually viable. The benefit of brainstorming is that a group of people can build on each other’s ideas, no matter how ridiculous, and perhaps eventually come up with viable solutions.

Cooperative exploration requires individuals to consider a problem from different points of view. Individuals taking part in a cooperative exploration might find themselves arguing for points that they do not believe. But the process requires that individuals work the problem from all angles to ensure that they received the best point of view.

A chart indicating the different ways individuals approach an issue. The positions are natural, emotional, negative, positive, new solution, and holistic.

Neutral. Individual does not take sides, and just considers the facts.
Emotional. Individual only considers the emotional aspects of the issue—who gets hurt? What emotions may be triggered?
Negative. Individual only considers the negative—what will go wrong and what if the solution doesn’t work.
Positive. Individual only considers the positive aspects of the issue.
New solution. Individual only considers the new creative possibilities, or the “what ifs”
Holistic. Individual considers the entire issue, asking “What’s the big picture?”

By encouraging participants to consider these different viewpoints, the model encourages lateral and divergent thinking.

Creative thinking and creative decision making can keep an organization ahead of its competitors. Now, let’s talk about how different organizations put all these aspects of decision making together and actually make decisions with them.

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Creative Tech: Effective Problem-Solving & Decision-Making

Problem-solving in technology
Decision-making in the tech industry
Effective problem-solving strategies
Decision-making methods for tech leaders
The role of creativity in tech problem-solving
How to improve your decision-making skills
Case study: Successful problem-solving in tech
Case study: Effective decision-making in a tech company

Imagine you're sitting at your desk, sipping a cup of your favorite brew, as you navigate the thrilling and sometimes challenging world of the creative technology sector. A realm where effective problem-solving and decision-making skills aren't just nice to have, but a genuine game changer. Whether you're a seasoned tech guru or a beginner taking your first steps, this guide will help you hone these skills and apply them to your everyday challenges.

Problem-solving in Technology

Problem-solving is like the superpower of the tech world. Picture this: you're developing a new app, but something's just not right. The code is clean, the design is slick, but the user experience? Not so much. This is where effective problem-solving steps in.

First things first, let's break down what we mean by 'problem-solving'. Simply put, it's the process of identifying an issue and finding a way to fix it. In the creative technology sector, this can be anything from a glitch in a software to a snag in a project timeline.

So, how do you become a problem-solving pro in tech? Here are some steps to help you out:

Identify the problem: Sounds simple, right? But in tech, problems can often hide in plain sight. So, dig deep, pull apart the issue until you truly understand what's going wrong.
Brainstorm solutions: Don't limit yourself here. The creative technology sector is all about out-of-the-box thinking. So, think big, think small, think sideways — just keep the ideas flowing.
Test your solutions: Once you've got your list of potential fixes, it's time to put them to the test. This will help you see which solution works best in practice, not just in theory.
Implement the solution: Found the fix? Great! Now, put it into action. Remember, in the world of tech, effective problem-solving isn't just about finding the answer, it's about making it work.

Becoming a whizz at problem-solving in the creative technology sector isn't something that happens overnight. But, with practice, patience, and a dash of creativity, you'll be able to tackle any tech problem that comes your way.

Decision-making in the Tech Industry

No matter how advanced the technology, it's still the human brain that calls the shots. The tech industry, like any other, is full of tough decisions. Which platform should you develop your new software for? Should you focus more on user experience or functionality? In these moments, having sharp decision-making skills in your toolbox can save the day.

Decision-making in the tech industry is the art of choosing the best course of action from all available options. It's like navigating a maze: there are many potential paths, but only one will get you to the goal fastest.

So, how can you become a decision-making master in the creative technology sector? Here are some steps to guide you:

Know your goal: What are you trying to achieve? Having a clear vision of your end goal is the first step in making a decision.
Explore all options: In tech, there's always more than one solution. So, don't rush to choose the first option that pops up. Take the time to explore all possibilities.
Evaluate each option: Once you have all the options on the table, carefully weigh the pros and cons of each. Consider factors like feasibility, cost, time, and impact on the user experience.
Make your decision: Now that you've done all the legwork, it's time to make your decision. Remember, there's no such thing as a perfect choice, but there's always a best choice given the circumstances.

Decision-making in the creative technology sector can often feel like a high-stakes game. But with the right skills, you can turn those tough calls into opportunities for growth and innovation. So, next time you're faced with a big decision, remember: You've got this!

Effective Problem-Solving Strategies

Imagine you're trying to build a robot from scratch. It's all going well until suddenly, the robot stops moving. You're left scratching your head, wondering, "Why doesn't it work?" This is where effective problem-solving skills come into play.

Problem-solving is the heartbeat of the creative technology sector. It's what keeps things moving, evolving, growing. But how do you solve complex tech problems without getting lost in the maze of code and circuits? Here are some strategies to help you crack the code:

Break it down: Big problems can feel overwhelming. Try breaking them down into smaller, manageable parts. This can make it easier to find where the issue lies.
Find the root cause: Like a detective, follow the clues. Don't just fix the symptoms, dig deeper and find the root cause of the issue. This will help prevent similar problems in the future.
Think outside the box: Sometimes, the solution isn't found in the manual. Don't be afraid to try new approaches or creative solutions. Innovation is the soul of technology, after all.
Learn from mistakes: Not every solution will work, and that's okay. Mistakes are not dead ends, they're stepping stones. Each failed attempt brings you one step closer to the right solution.

Effective problem-solving in the creative technology sector is like solving a puzzle. It requires patience, creativity, and a keen eye for detail. So next time you're stuck on a tricky problem, don't panic. Remember these strategies and take it one step at a time. You'll be back on track before you know it!

Decision-making Methods for Tech Leaders

Imagine you're the captain of a spaceship. You've just received two distress signals. One from a nearby planet, another from a spaceship in the opposite direction. You can't save both. What do you do? This is where good decision-making turns good leaders into great ones.

Decision-making, especially in the creative technology sector, can sometimes feel like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. But fear not, here are some methods to help you navigate the tough calls:

Analyze the data: Data is your compass. It can guide your decisions, helping you understand the situation better. Use it to weigh the pros and cons before making a decision.
Consider the long-term impact: Instant results can be tempting, but a good leader looks beyond today. Consider how your decision will affect the future of your project or company.
Listen to your team: You're not in this alone. Your team can offer valuable insights that might change your perspective. Don't be afraid to ask for their opinion.
Trust your gut: Sometimes, data and advice can only take you so far. In these moments, trust your instincts. They're often based on past experiences and can guide you towards the right decision.

Remember, decision-making isn't about always making the right choice. It's about making the best choice with the information you have, and learning from the outcome. So next time you're faced with a tough decision, take a deep breath, remember these methods, and steer your spaceship confidently towards the future.

The Role of Creativity in Tech Problem-Solving

Picture this: you're an artist, armed with a palette full of vibrant colors and a blank canvas. You have the freedom to create anything you want. Now, swap that palette for a keyboard and that canvas for a coding platform. Voila! You are now a creative problem-solver in the tech sector.

Just like an artist, you have the power to create something new and innovative. Creativity is not just about designing beautiful interfaces or developing groundbreaking apps. It's about thinking differently, challenging the status quo, and finding unique solutions to complex tech problems.

So, how can you add a dash of creativity to your problem-solving toolkit in the creative tech sector? Here are some tips:

Embrace diversity: Different perspectives breed innovative solutions. Include people with various backgrounds and experiences in your team. Their unique viewpoints can lead to creative problem-solving.
Encourage curiosity: Ask "why" more often. Challenge the existing solutions. Curiosity can lead you to discover new paths and possibilities.
Experiment: Don't be afraid to try and fail. Every failed attempt is an opportunity to learn something new. It's all part of the creative process.
Think outside the box: Don't limit yourself to traditional ways of thinking. Be open to new ideas and unconventional approaches. This can lead to innovative solutions that others might not see.

In the realm of the creative technology sector, creativity is not just an asset, but a necessity. When you infuse creativity into your problem-solving strategy, you create an environment where innovation thrives and solutions come to life. So, grab your creative toolkit and paint your tech journey with bold, vibrant strokes of problem-solving brilliance.

How to Improve Your Decision-Making Skills

Ever watched a chess match? The calm, focused players, weighing every possible move, anticipating their opponent's strategies, and making calculated decisions. It's quite a sight. Now imagine bringing that level of strategic thinking into the tech world. Sounds interesting, doesn't it?

While we may not all be chess grandmasters, we can certainly improve our decision-making skills, especially in the creative technology sector. Here are some tried-and-true strategies:

Collect the facts: Before making any decision, gather all the relevant data. It's like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. The more pieces you have, the clearer the picture becomes.
Analyze the data: Once you have the facts, take the time to understand them. Look for patterns, draw connections, and make inferences. This step helps you make informed decisions.
Consider the alternatives: Don't just jump on the first solution that comes to mind. Think about the different paths you can take. Considering alternatives helps you avoid potential pitfalls and identify the best course of action.
Trust your gut: Sometimes, the data can only tell you so much. In such cases, trust your instincts. They have a way of guiding you towards the right decision.

Remember, decision-making is a skill, and like any skill, it needs practice to improve. So, don't be disheartened if you make a few wrong moves along the way. Learn from them, refine your strategy, and keep playing the game. After all, even the best chess players didn't become grandmasters overnight.

Case Study: Successful Problem-Solving in Tech

Let's dive right into a real-life example of effective problem-solving in the creative technology sector. But first, picture this: you're at a music concert, the band is playing your favorite song, but all you can hear is a discordant mess because of poor sound quality. Frustrating, right?

In the tech world, a similar problem was faced by Spotify, the popular music streaming platform. They noticed that their music recommendation algorithm wasn't always hitting the right notes. Users were receiving song suggestions that didn't align with their musical taste, making the listening experience less enjoyable.

But, Spotify didn't just shrug and carry on. They decided to tackle the issue head-on. So, what did they do?

Identify the problem: The first step was recognizing that the recommendation algorithm was not providing users with satisfactory results.
Collect data: Spotify gathered user listening data and feedback to understand where the algorithm was falling short.
Analyze and identify solutions: After a thorough analysis, Spotify identified the need for a more personalized recommendation system. They decided to leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to understand user preferences better.
Implement and test: Spotify introduced the new algorithm and monitored how it performed. They collected user feedback and made necessary adjustments to fine-tune the system.

Today, Spotify's recommendation system is one of the most praised features of the platform. It personalizes the listening experience, making it more enjoyable for users. This case study shows how effective problem-solving skills have the potential to turn a challenge into a triumph in the creative technology sector.

Case Study: Effective Decision-Making in a Tech Company

Imagine this: You're a runner and you've just purchased the newest smartwatch from a high-profile tech company. You're excited to track your daily runs, but after a few days, you notice the distance measurements aren't accurate. Frustrating, isn't it?

A similar case occurred with the tech giant, Apple. They discovered a discrepancy in the distance tracking feature of their Apple Watch. Instead of ignoring the issue, Apple made effective decisions to fix the problem. So, how exactly did they do it?

Recognize the issue: Apple took the first step by acknowledging the problem with the distance tracking feature.
Gather information: The company collected user data and feedback to understand the extent of the problem.
Explore options: After analyzing the data, they identified several potential solutions. They could either try to tweak the existing system or develop a completely new algorithm for distance tracking.
Choose a solution: In the end, Apple decided to build a new algorithm. This decision was based on the belief that it would provide a more accurate and reliable tracking system for their users.
Implement and review: Apple introduced the new feature in an update and encouraged users to provide feedback. They then used this feedback to make necessary adjustments and improve the feature further.

Today, the Apple Watch is celebrated for its accurate and reliable distance tracking, enhancing the workout experience for athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike. This case shows how the right decision-making skills can lead to success in the creative technology sector. Remember, every challenge is an opportunity for innovation!

If you're looking to enhance your problem-solving and decision-making skills in the creative tech industry, don't miss the workshop ' Making Money as a Multidisciplinary Creative ' by Clara Escoms. This workshop will provide you with valuable insights, tips, and strategies to help you make the most of your creative talents and turn them into a profitable career.

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