Creative Thinking Skills - Amazon S3 · 3 Creative Thinking Skills Presentation Goal: Improve...

Creative Thinking SkillsOut of the Box and Onto the Bottom Line

PMI Manitoba Chapter

March 23 & 24, 2017

Winnipeg, Manitoba

John Canfield

Holland, Michigan

www.johncanfield.com

John Canfield – Speaker Introduction

Helping Clients Build High Performance Teams Since 1990

John Canfield is an experienced business executive and coach who has been trained to facilitate a wide variety of

Planning,

Improvement Strategies,

Creativity & innovation

John has many years of experience working and consulting in a wide variety of organizations around the world.

Prior to 1990 John was a Senior Engineering Manager for Intel Corporation and later Director of Corporate Quality and Design Research for Herman Miller.

John has a BA from Williams College (Political Science, Psychology) and a

BS from University of Minnesota (Mechanical Engineering)

Creative Thinking Skills

Presentation Goal:

Improve company performance.

Creativity (in a business sense vs. artistic), at its most basic

level is the ability to generate additional useful ideas.

Innovation is the ability to select, combine, refine, and turn the

best creative ideas into reality, revenues, and profits.

Successful companies have learned how to exercise both skill

Presentation Takeaways

1. Performance is driven by thinking.

2. Thinking as a skill is flexible and improvable.

3. Thinking can occur accidentally or deliberately.

4. Improved thinking can be guided by effective tools.

5. Creative thinking is not enough. Implementation is required to realize the benefits.

A. Performance and Thinking

B. Select Goal and Success Criteria

1. Big Picture

C. Generate Ideas

2. Brainstorming

3. Mind Mapping

4. Word Associations

5. Imaginary Brainstorming

D. Select Ideas

6. Morphological Box

E. Implement Ideas

Creative Thinking Skills - Agenda

A. Performance and ThinkingB. Select Goal and Success Criteria

1. Big Picture

C. Generate Ideas

2. Brainstorming

3. Mind Mapping

D. Select Ideas

E. Implement Ideas

Performance and Thinking

What to do to improve performance ?

Contributors to Performance Improvement:

How do the following work together in a practical system?

Behaviors

Collaboration

Decisions

Implementation

Insights

Performance

Thinking

Improved Communities

Improved Company Performance

Improved Decisions, Behaviors

Improved Insights and Ideas

Improved Thinking

Intelligence and Thinking

We can consider that intelligence and thinking are

different.

Intelligence is our innate capability, what we’re born

Thinking, on the other hand, is how we learn to use

our intelligence, and as such, is a skill.

Thinking is a Skill

In one comparison, intelligence is the race car and it’s

finite mechanical capabilities,

and thinking is the driver who can learn more and

more about how to maximize the utility of the car.

As a skill, like bowling, golfing, cooking, etc., it can be

actively improved.

What “operating system”

are you using?

Why would you upgrade

your operating system

on the same hard disk?.

Thinking is a Skill

Improved Communities

Improved Company Performance

Improved Decisions, Behaviors

Improved Insights and Ideas

Improved Thinking

A key question is

if I really want to improve,

what’s the best way think about this?

Thinking is a Skill

Thinking Skills for Improvement & Innovation

Good Thinking Curriculum

While there are many myths about creativity (creative people are always artists, or nerds, or not like you and me, etc.) a modern understanding of creativity recognizes techniques are available to assist anyone who knows how to use them.

Effective creativity techniques deliberately mix up paradigms while addressing real problems and opportunities to proactively generate lots of new ideas.

These techniques do not need to depend on a chance occurrence.

These techniques can be used at will whenever individuals or teams recognize they need more ideas.

“Creative people” learn to recognize they may have to use an illogical technique to generate what they will only later come to recognize and appreciate as a logical alternative. Go figure!

Know – Share

Know - Don’t Share

Knew – Forgot

New - Thought for the first time ever

WHAT: IDEA HUNT

Part of our work is to get as many good ideas as possible to be part of our conversation.

You cannot realize what you cannot imagine.

You cannot will yourself a new idea

We are on an idea search, scavenger hunt for alternatives. As the iceberg- diagram

below attempts to show, not all the ideas we’d like to consider are above water, on the

table, available to be discussed.

Accidental Find – Microwave

Percy L Spencer

Electronic genius and war hero

touring Raytheon labs, site of research for radar,

was standing in front of magnetron (power tube for

radar) noticed the candy bar in his pocket was melting

noticed this happening and pursued it

The rest is history…

Accidental Find – Teflon

Dr. Roy Plunkett

DuPont chemist studying non-toxic

refrigerant

opened valve of cylinder of “new concoction”

but nothing happened.

He opened the cylinder and found a greasy

white power .

It was later called Teflon.

The rest is history…

Performance and Thinking Creative Thinking Skills

Accidental Find

Deliberate Implementation

How: Thinking is a Skill: One can consider a five step structure that describes breakthrough thinking:

1.Long search – Breakthrough thinking characteristically requires a long search

2. Little apparent progress – A typical breakthrough arrives after little or no apparent progress.

3. Precipitating event – The typical breakthrough begins with a precipitating event. Some times external circumstances cue this moment.

4. Cognitive snap – The breakthrough comes rapidly, kind of falling into place, a cognitive snap. Not much time separates the precipitating event from the solution even if details remain to be checked.

5. Transformation – The breakthrough transforms one’s mental or physical world in a generative way.

Dr. David Perkins: Archimedes’ Bathtub – The Art and Logic

of Breakthrough Thinking - Norton & Company 2000

Performance and Thinking Creative Thinking Skills

The Phenomenon of Creativity

Out of the Box, or Rather Across Paradigm Boundaries

Our brains are wonderful data storage and retrieval systems which prefer patterns and repetition. They recognize new ideas that are similar enough to recorded ideas so they “fit” into the pre-existing collection.

Truly new ideas often don’t even register in this hierarchy of set patterns. It also seems that truly new ideas often come from the “accidental” crossing of paradigms, mixing new ideas that just don’t logically belong together.

Junk Drawer

Let’s review an experience we’ve

all likely had. I’ll assume you have

a junk drawer at home. A drawer

like no others anywhere in the house. Full of all sorts of odds and ends. The situation is: something is broken and you’re hunting for a solution. You head to the junk drawer. You do not often know what’ you’ll find,, but you’re here, at this well, because it’s worked before.

You open the drawer, gaze over the objects, and presto, an alternative jumps out at you. You retrieve it and go give it a try. What’s important here is to accept this happens. Your brain can make new combinations and end up with a useful alternative that you did not have before.

volunteer

Junk drawer Demonstration

This is weird, but interesting! Believe it or not you can read this.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwahtoredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed erveylteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

Thinking is a Skill: One can consider a five step structure that describes breakthrough thinking:

You cannot will yourself a new idea.

- Wait for it to happen accidently?

- Do the work to create it?

Creative Thinking Skills - Let’s practice

- learning

- engaging

“precipitating events”

- generating “cognitive

snaps”, insights

- growing dendrites

Creative Thinking Skills – Observations from practice

- not everyone “gets it”, has the cognitive snap

- it takes some time for your brain to do the work

- once you “get it”, it’s hard to forget

- others ?

Ideation

B. Select Goal and Success Criteria1. Big Picture

C. Generate Ideas

2. Brainstorming

3. Mind Mapping

D. Select Ideas

E. Implement Ideas

To Learn More

Creativity Tools

Memory Jogger

www.goalqpc.com

Select Goal and Success Criteria

Provide participants a chance to document what's really happening and to question if the current picture is accurate.

Visual work objects (flipcharts etc) also provide a neutral place for the participants to look and, importantly, break eye-to-eye contact.

People are far more likely to move into an unproductive argument if they're making a lot of eye contact and intent on protecting their position and status.

A quick example might be the difference in a traveling couple who is lost with a map and one without a map. Without the map, bicker bicker. With the map, "Let's see, where are we?"

1. Big Picture: Problem Reformulation

1a. State the problem as an opportunity in terms of the improvement statement and goal:

How can we open and run a profitable, retail cookie shop at the Earhart Terminal?

1b. Discuss and document this initiative's scoreboard; success as measured by:

$1.0M revenue for first year; good reputation as measured by comments and repeat customers.

1c. On a flipcharts document the opportunity as part of a system. This step’s purpose is to feed a deep dialogue about the opportunity and anything and everything that might be related to the opportunity.

2. Scoreboard:

Quality

complaints on fewer than 5% orders

measurable improvement on 75% of our processes

operating at or below operating expense plans

Current Programs

supporting 15 programs as outlined in 2001 strategic plan

New Programs

supporting 2 new programs per half year as outlined in 2001 strategic plan

Employee Morale

employee turnover less than 10% per year

3. Develop a picture of system surrounding your opportunity

On a flipcharts document the opportunity as part of a system. This step’s purpose is to feed a deep dialogue about the opportunity and anything and everything that might be related to the opportunity. Simple Example:

Discuss the ways in which each component affects the system and the opportunity’s goals. Label each component and/or relationship with text on the line that connects the items.

Big Picture

3. Develop a picture of system surrounding your opportunity

On a flipcharts document the opportunity as part of a system. This step’s purpose is to feed a deep dialogue about the opportunity and anything and everything that might be related to the opportunity. Simple Example:

Discuss the ways in which each component affects the system and the opportunity’s goals. Label each component and/or relationship with text on the line that connects the items.

Big Picture

3. Develop a picture of system surrounding your opportunity:

Example: Value chain of a loan process

Supplie rs

•Federal

Reserve

•protection

services

•check data

processors

•credit card

holding

companies

•other banks

•protect

Inputs

•bil ls and

•protection

•account

services

Processes

•process

•protect

•provide

change

•account

maintenance

Outputs

•loans

•account

statements

•credit

Internal

Customers

•tellers

•data

processors

•bank

managers

External

Customers

•home buyers

•business

owners

•other banks

•savers

Big Picture

3. Develop a picture of system surrounding your opportunity:

Example: Scenario planning – four possible futures

Big Picture

1. Big Picture

C. Generate Ideas2. Brainstorming

3. Mind Mapping

D. Select Ideas

E. Implement Ideas

a. Clarify the topic and process.

b. Generate ideas. Use Post Its; one idea per sheet, large writing.

Give each member 5 minutes alone to work quietly.

Brainstorming

c. Clarify ideas, each person presents one of their

ideas at a time. Promote and provoke dialogue

Brainstorming

3. Generate Ideas - Mind Mapping

Brainstorming - Mind Mapping

4. Generate Ideas - Word Associations

Brainstorming – Word Associations

5. Generate Ideas - Imaginary Brainstorming

Brainstorming – Imaginary Brainstorming

Prefrontal cortex – site of intelligent brain activity and

“executive functioning”

Brainstorming – Inside the Box

Axons exchange information (chemical/electrical) to

generate new ideas (dendrites)

Questions (dialogue tools) provoke this learning.

Dr. Edward De Bono and David Perkins “cognitive snaps”

Role of Tools

Three Kinds of Decisions and Behaviors

• Intelligent

• Emotional

• Instinctive

When people are stressed they most often default to emotion or instinctive behaviors and often making decisions they later regret.

The trick is to keep the interaction intelligent

Using effective thinking processes help keep people thinking less emotionally and more intelligently.

Affinity DiagramBenchmarkingBig Picture – Heuristic RedefinitionBrainstormingBusiness Environment AnalysisCause/Effect DiagramCharterCreative Thinking SkillsCross Functional Process MapCulture and BehaviorsCustomer ResearchDecision MatrixFive Dysfunctions of a TeamForce Field DiagramGantt Chart Great Team TraitsImpact/Ease DiagramImprovement ProcessInterrelationship DigraphKano ModelLeading ChangeMeeting ProcessMoments of Truth

“Brainstorming” - Some of the Options

Multivoting

Need a Team?

P/R Measurements

Pareto Diagram

Process Decision Program Chart

Process Flow Chart

Prioritizing Process

Purpose, Vision, Goals, Strategies & Plans

Relationship Diagram

Relationship Strategies

Scoreboard

Show Me the Money – Cost Benefit Analysis

Show Me the Money – Continued

Six Thinking Hats (de Bono)

Smart Criteria

Stage Theory - Stages of Team Growth

Storyboard

Systematic Diagram - Tree Diagram

Value Chain

Waste Search

Workflow Diagram

Work Room Set up

Ideation

1. Big Picture

C. Generate Ideas

2. Brainstorming

3. Mind Mapping

D. Select Ideas 6. Morphological Box

E. Implement Ideas

Selecting Ideas

Impact Ease Diagram

Selecting Ideas

Options Quality Cost Deliv Innov Support $ Total

Request

Process

3 2 3 1 2 1 12

Review

Process

3 4 5 1 3 1 17

Credit

Process

5 6 1 4 4 3 22

Decision Matrix

Selecting Ideas

Interrelationship

Digraph

MJII p.

Selecting Ideas

Morphological Box

Selecting Ideas

Ideation

1. Big Picture

C. Generate Ideas

2. Brainstorming

3. Mind Mapping

D. Select Ideas

E. Implement Ideas

Thinking is a Skill

Cooperative Support

Effective

Decision

Collaborate

Collaboration

Participants have options regarding how they behave in meetings:

Accommodate

Compromise

Compete

We’d prefer

Collaborate

Collaboration

Cooperative Support

Effective

Decision

Compete

AvoidAccommodate

Collaborate

Compromise

Collaboration

Thinking is a Skill

Why do others behave in

Different ways?

What happens when the

behaviors are quite

different, and defensive?

Collaboration Tips – “operating system”

Conflict “DNA”: [thinking]

I AM my idea…….

My idea is only a

current option….

Collaboration

conflict: discovery of different points of view.

Collaboration

conflict: discovery of different points of view

Collaboration

I AM my idea…….

My idea is only a

current option….

Collaboration

Behavior and Thinking Options

Cooperative Support

Effective

Decision

Compete

Avoid Accommodate

Collaborate

Compromise

Low ability to

handle conflict

High ability to

handle conflict

Collaboration

Unproductive conflict is all about interpersonal

defense

Productive conflict is all about uncovering

options.

Collaboration

Collaboration Tips:

Dialogue is a conversation that generates new

knowledge.

Dialogue is a catalyst for learning.

Collaboration Skills

We have options regarding how we work in meetings:

Cooperative Support

Effective

Decision

Compete

AvoidAccommodate

Collaborate

Compromise

Dialogue

Imagine a meeting of a dozen people in an office

conference room.

They are seated around a boardroom table.

The group’s meeting method is what I like to call the

BOPSAT—Bunch Of People Sitting Around Talking.

More precisely, people take turns talking.

Michael Schrage - advisor to the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology’s (MIT) Security Studies Program

Treasure

As Schrage describes it, “When someone talks, he is

the focus of discussion. People look at him. People

react to what he says and how he looks.

The meeting is a carousel of egos, each grasping for

the brass ring of attention. The group does nothing.”

“Everything about the design of the meeting

encourages individuals to make their points, not the

group to create a shared understanding. . . .

There’s nothing in the ecology of meetings that

encourages collaborative creativity, problem solving,

or decision making.”

What’s missing from the ecology of a BOPSAT

meeting is shared space.

Michael Schrage - advisor to the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology’s (MIT) Security Studies Program

Presentation Takeaways

1. Performance is driven by thinking.

2. Thinking as a skill is flexible and improvable.

3. Thinking can occur accidentally or deliberately.

4. Improved thinking can be guided by effective tools.

5. Creative thinking is not enough. Implementation is required to realize the benefits.

Next Steps:

1. Select a business goal that needs attention.

2. Identify the behaviors, decisions, and ideas that you would prefer to see.

3. What thinking approach and style would produce the preferred ideas, behaviors and decisions that would deliver the business goal you seek?

4. Then find a resource to help you learn to think that way.

Collaboration SkillsImplementation

Plan for your successful implementation of this new thinking.

“Leadership is not about what you know…

It’s about what you do with what you know.”James Belasco

Resources

Web: www.johncanfield.comVideos: www.YouTube.com/canfieldgoodthinking

Newsletter: www.goodthinkingseries.com

Books: www.amazon.com

JOHN CANFIELD

+1.616.283.5588

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