Creative Problem Solving Institute Process
The Creative Problem Solving Institute formulated a process almost a half century ago, and has tinkered with it ever since. The basic steps are:
• Objective finding: What is the real objective of this problem-solving search?
• Fact finding: What do we know and what don’t we know about this situation? What else would be nice to know?
• Problem/challenge finding: Given the objective and what we know, what is the real challenge here?
• Idea finding: In what ways might we do this? This is the divergent, brainstorming part of the process.
• Solution finding: In this convergent step, what are the best ideas of the bunch?
• Acceptance finding: How can we get acceptance through management, customer, salespeople, and other stakeholders?
These steps can be worked through quickly or for hours at a retreat. Notice that like all good innovation processes, the steps include both convergent and divergent thinking.
Created Equally?
Are all innovations created equally? No not really. Let’s look at several kinds.
Industry changers. The car, laptop computer, iPod, Amazon—these innovations put everyone back to square one.
Radical innovation. These innovations become industry leaders, like Barnes and Noble, or hybrid cars.
Major process innovations. Walmart, Netflix. Netflix had to retool its business model after Blockbuster improved their original model, and now all they are doing is delivering movies online. These companies have figured out how to do it faster, better, more efficiently and have become industry leaders.
Incremental improvements. Often brought upon by Six Sigma or Lean Manufacturing, these quality and productivity measures cut millions of dollars of costs.
Attribute Listing
Another innovation process is attribute listing. Simply put, just list the parts of a product and brainstorm how you might improve on each part. For instance, if I want to redesign a high chair, the component parts include legs, back, height, eating surface, latching mechanism, and seat. We would examine and look at options for each part. The options for the legs might include: steel, aluminum, wood, on rollers, collapsible, painted with decorations, adjustable, three or four, or with cup holders. Then, you could do the same with all of the component parts. To create a better high chair, the options for the component parts can be mixed and matched, and new concepts developed.
Blue Ocean Innovation
According to the authors of the best seller Blue Ocean Strategies, companies can either compete in red oceans where competitors are tearing out each others’ flesh, creating blood pools in the ocean, or in blue oceans where there is no competition. The key to finding the blue ocean is asking, and answering four questions:
• Which factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated?
• Which factors should be reduced well below the industry standard?
• Which factors should be raised well above the industry standard?
• Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?
The developers of Blue Ocean Innovation suggest that successful organizations use these questions continually in order to find blue ocean space for new products. In the Twin Cities, where I live, we have an extremely competitive grocery store industry, with many players trying to gain an edge. If I were trying to create a new kind of grocery store, these questions could render some options. Reduce the number of offerings? Aldi does. Eliminate bags? Aldi does. Create new offerings? Throw in an optical shop, deli, photo shop, and coffee shop, like Target. How about a Post Office? Byerly’s Food Stores has one. Reduce customer service? Cub Foods does to cut costs. Each of these players in the Twin Cities grocery industry carves out their market niches by using these questions.
Resource: Joel Barker’s Tactics of Innovation
Author and futurist Joel Barker developed a checklist of attributes that an innovation needed for acceptance. His video, Tactics of Innovation, gives excellent examples for each of the tactics and can prevent individuals and organizations from making mistakes when introducing innovations into the marketplace.
| Tactic 1: | Upside, yes (Is there a perceived advantage to the user?) |
| Tactic 2: | Downside, no (Are the consequences minimal if it fails?) |
| Tactic 3: | Seemingly simple (Is it easy for the user to understand?) |
| Tactic 4: | Small steps (Is the change implemented using small increments?) |
| Tactic 5: | Clear message (Is the language clear to the user?) |
| Tactic 6: | Compatible fit (Will it feel familiar to what the user currently experiences?) |
| Tactic 7: | Credible messenger (Is the presenter believable and credible to the user?) |
| Tactic 8: | Reliable performance (Does it work, without breaking down?) |
| Tactic 9: | Easy in (How easy is it for the user to try it?) |
| Tactic 10: | Easy out (How easy is it for the user to get out?) |