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You
are here: Creative Problem Solving: Overview and Update
Once upon a time, parents or teachers might have said to their children, "If you just pay close attention to everything I tell you, and remember all the important facts I want to teach you, you will know everything you will need to know to be successful throughout your life." Notice that the previous sentence began with "once upon a time…;" I'm certain you know what kind of story usually starts with that phrase. I don't know whether that statement was ever true (or whether it has always been a fairy tale), but it is definitely not true in today's world, nor will it be true in the world that today's children will live as adults. People of all ages need to discover, develop, and apply their creativity to the challenges of living with and managing change.
Change surrounds us, perhaps even batters us, every day. If you look around your community, your school, or your home, you will see change at work-- knowledge exploding, technology expanding at an ever-accelerating pace, and information and products becoming obsolete ever more rapidly. We can no longer know what questions we will encounter tomorrow, or a month from now, nevertheless the answers. Careers, businesses, and entire bodies of knowledge are emerging that our grandparents (or often, our parents) did not envision. Test this for yourself. Think about the youngest school-age child you know; make a note of his or her age today. Next, calculate the year in which you were that age. If, for example, your youngster is ten today, in what year were you ten yourself? Write down that number (if you're brave enough). Now— here's the real challenge— make a list of things that your child today accepts as ordinary, commonplace, or everyday things, or even takes for granted, that you didn't have any knowledge about or experience with (and perhaps didn't even imagine) when you were that age. From my experience with many groups, I'm confident that reviewing your list will confirm the reality of life in a world of change.
Our work at the Center for Creative Learning, in Sarasota, Florida (www.creativelearning.com) focuses on the exciting challenges and possibilities of productive thinking— creative thinking, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. We are especially concerned with how productive thinking helps students to be better prepared for life and work in a world of constant, rapid change. The fundamental tools and strategies that we develop, research, and apply are being applied worldwide, from the primary level classroom to the corporate boardroom.
Our approach, Creative Problem Solving (CPS), provides a powerful set of tools to help people of all ages in their efforts to manage change and solve problems. Our approach has a long history of successful use, building on more than five decades of theory, research, and practice. It is currently being applied in corporations, schools, and other organizations throughout the world. The newest release, CPS Version 6.0, is based on more research, development, and experience spanning a seven year period since the previous update. This article will provide a brief description of our current CPS framework. (If you visit the Center for Creative Learning website, you can download a free file in PDF format that will give you a more detailed summary of CPS and a full-color graphic of the current framework.)
CPS is a flexible, but structured, framework that can be used by individuals or groups to deal with tasks (opportunities, challenges, or concerns) that are important, complex, and ambiguous, and that call for many, varied, or new solutions or courses of action.. CPS is especially well-suited for dealing with tasks for which there are obvious, "ready-made" solutions or courses of action are not available.
Today's CPS framework enables people to work in a natural, flexible way to select and use the tools they need to deal with a task or challenge. If you're familiar with a program such as Microsoft® Office, for example, it can serve as a good example of how we use CPS today. Office is not a single program, but a suite of several interrelated programs. Although they all talk with each other easily and can exchange data smoothly, each program has a unique purpose and use. If you want to write a letter, you use Word, but if you want to analyze numbers and create a chart or graph, you might work in Excel. To create a great presentation, you'd probably move into PowerPoint®. Similarly, we view CPS as a framework organizing several specific stages into general components that you choose and apply flexibly in your work. You might choose and use any or all of those components and stages, depending on your task, the situation, the other people involved, and the results you hope to attain. You might move freely from one component or stage to another, and back again. You do not necessarily need or use every tool you have available, nor do you necessarily always use those tools in a fixed sequence. (That's right— we are actually suggesting that you have to think about your actions and make some deliberate decisions as you proceed!)
Today's CPS framework includes three process components with six specific stages. The three process components are: Understanding the Challenge, Generating Ideas, and Preparing for Action. Let's look briefly at these components and their stages.
Understanding the Challenge. In this component of CPS the key word is "Clarity." The purposes of this component are to clarify a broad goal or challenge, to set the principal direction for your problem solving efforts, and to define a specific problem on which to work. If you have ever served on a school committee, you've probably experienced the need for clarity in understanding the challenge. At the beginning of their work, committee members often agree about their task, or at least they think they do! They might say, for example, "We want more computers in our school!" However, once they begin to discuss what they really mean by "more computers" and "in our school," they often discover that everyone has a different idea (what kind of computers? in the classroom or in a lab, or both? laptops for every student? ….), and they need to invest some effort in clarifying or defining the problem or challenge. To do that, they might use any or all of three CPS stages in this component, which are:
Constructing Opportunities. This stage involves establishing a constructive goal for your work, and considering an opportunity statement that is broad, brief, and beneficial. An opportunity statement often begins with a phrase such as, "Wouldn't it be nice if…. [WIBNI…]"
Exploring Data. This stage involves examining many sources of data and focusing on the most important elements of the task or situation. What do you know about the situation? What do you need or want to know? Prompt yourself for important data by asking, "Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?"
Framing Problems. In this stage, problem solvers pose a clear and specific problem statement for their task. An effective problem statement opens the door for the search for many new and useful ideas. Instead of saying, "The problem is…" (or "we can't because…"), effective problem statements begin with an open-ended phrase or stem that invites creative thinking. For example, we often use the stems "In what ways might we… (IWWMW…)" or "How might we… (HMW…)"
Generating Ideas. This component of CPS emphasizes the search for many, varied, and novel possibilities for a problem or challenge. The key word for this component is "Ideas." This component has one stage, also called Generating Ideas. In this stage, problem solvers apply specific tools, such as brainstorming, to come up with new ideas.
Preparing for Action. This CPS component helps you to transform promising ideas into workable solutions, and to get ready to carry out those solutions. The key word for this component is "Action." The goals of this component are to develop promising solutions so they're as strong as possible, and then to consider specific action steps through which those solutions will have the best possible chance of success. There are two specific stages in this component; they are:
Developing Solutions. In this stage, you will ask, "What do we see ourselves doing to carry out our best ideas?" You will plan deliberate strategies to organize, refine, and develop their most promising options.
Building Acceptance. This stage involves considering ways to increase support and to decrease or overcome resistance to possible solutions. It also involves developing a specific and detailed Plan of Action to carry out the solution successfully.
CPS also involves a Management Component that we call Planning Your Approach, with two stages (Appraising Tasks and Designing Process). We call this a management component because problem solvers use it to keep their eye on their own problem solving strategies and decisions while they are in the process of working on the task. This component helps you to insure that you are moving forward, or in the direction you want to go, moving closer toward a useful solution. As you monitor your own thinking, you can modify your choices of CPS components, stages, and tools— or even suspend your activities if necessary— to insure that you are using your time and effort wisely.
CPS offers many practical tools and strategies that are easy to apply in a group, but can also be used by an individual working alone. Using CPS helps people focus on what can be done, not what can't be done or what they think "won't work." CPS offers many powerful and practical "tools for the mind."
For Further Reading
Isaksen, S. G., Dorval, K. B., & Treffinger, D. J. (2000). Creative approaches to problem solving (2nd Edition). Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt.
Treffinger, D. J., Isaksen, S. G., & Dorval, K. B. (2000). Creative problem solving: An introduction. (3rd Edition). Waco, TX: Prufrock Press.
Dr. Donald J. Treffinger is President of the Center for Creative Learning, in Sarasota, Florida, and Editor-in-Chief of the National Association for Gifted Children's Parenting for High Potential magazine. He has taught at the elementary, middle school, and university levels, and is the author or co-author of more than 60 books and 250 articles on creativity, CPS, and talent development.
Center for Creative Learning, P.O. Box 14100, Sarasota, FL 34278. Phone: 941-342-9928; Fax: 941-342-0064; email: cclofc@gte.net For information about the Center for Creative Learning, visit their website at www.creativelearning.com
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