SPEAK
TO THE PROBLEMS
(SHORT
NOTES FROM PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS:
Problem-Solving
Approaches at http://www.mindtools.com)
Hurson's Productive Thinking Model
Solving Problems Creatively
Be creative at every stage of the
problem-solving process.
Creativity is incredibly important in
problem-solving.
Hurson's Productive Thinking Model helps
you do this. This framework encourages
you to use creativity and critical thinking at each stage of the
problem-solving process. This means that
you get a better understanding of the problems you face, and you come up with
better ideas and solutions.
About the Model
The Productive Thinking Model was
developed by author and creativity theorist, Tim Hurson, and was published in
his 2007 book, "Think Better."
The model presents a structured framework for solving problems
creatively.
The model consists of six steps, as
follows:
Ask "What is going on?"
Ask "What is success?"
Ask "What is the question?"
Generate answers.
Forge the solution.
Align resources.
(From
"Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking" by Tim
Hurson. © 2008. Reproduced with permission from The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.)
The advantage of this model over other
problem-solving approaches (like Simplex or Plan-Do-Check-Act) is that it
encourages you to use creative and critical thinking skills at each stage of
the problem-solving process. This means
that you can take a well-rounded look at a problem, and you can come up with
better potential solutions.
Step 1: Ask "What is Going On?"
First, you need to get a good
understanding of the problem that you want to deal with. This is often the most involved part of the
process. To do this, explore the
following four questions:
a. What is the Problem?
First,
brainstorm all of the problems and issues – a tool such as CATWOE will help.
List
as many issues as possible, even if you already have a good idea of what your
main problem is.
Then,
use an Affinity Diagram to organize the issues:
· identified into common themes, and
· identify the most important problem or group of
problems to deal with.
o
use techniques like Pareto Analysis or
Paired Comparison Analysis to decide.
b. What is the Impact?
Next,
brainstorm how the problem impacts you and your organization, and how it
affects other stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, and competitors.
Make
a list of all of your stakeholders, and identify the positive and negative
impact that the problem has on each of them.
Role
storming is also useful here, as it helps you look at problems from other
people's perspectives.
c. What is the Information?
Now,
gather information about the problem. Make
sure that you have evidence that the problem really does exist.
It
helps to use tools such as
· Cause and Effect Analysis,
· Root Cause Analysis, and
· Interrelationship Diagrams
to
identify the actual causes of your problem.
d. What is the Vision?
Finally
in this step, identify your vision for the future once you've solved the
problem – Hurson calls this the "Target Future."
Begin
by writing down as many Target Futures as possible, and then narrow these down
to something that is achievable and that is important to you.
Step 2: Ask "What is Success?"
In this step, develop your Target Future
by defining what success is once you've implemented a solution to your problem. A good way to do this is to use the
"DRIVE" acronym. This stands
for:
Do What do you want the solution to do?
Restrictions What must the
solution not do?
Investment What resources are available?
What are you able to invest in a solution?
How much time do you have?
Values What
values must this solution respect?
Essential outcomes What defines success?
How will you measure this?
Step 3: Ask "What is the Question?"
The aim in this step is to generate a
list of questions that, if answered well, will solve your problem.
- To do this, look at all of the information that you gathered in the
first two steps.
- Then brainstorm the questions that you will need to answer to
achieve your Target Future.
If you generate a long list of
questions, narrow these down to the questions that are most relevant for
solving your problem.
Step 4: Generate Answers
In this step, you generate solutions to
your problem by coming up with answers to the questions that you developed in
the previous step.
Again, brainstorm as many possible
solutions as possible, and don't criticize – just concentrate on coming up with
lots of ideas. If you're struggling to come up with solutions, use techniques
like
- Reverse Brainstorming,
- Random Input, and
- Provocation.
Step 5: Forge the Solution
You're now going to develop your ideas
into a fully formed solution.
- Evaluate the most promising ideas by comparing them with the success
criteria that you identified in step 2. Pick the solution that best meets
those criteria. (Decision Matrix Analysis is helpful here.)
- Then develop your best idea further. What else could make this idea
better? How could you refine the solution to fit your success criteria
better?
- If you're working on a complex problem or project, don't
underestimate the effort needed to develop and refine your solution.
Step 6: Align Resources
In this last step, you identify the
people and other resources that you need in order to implement your solution.
For small projects, Action Plans are useful for this. However, if you're
implementing a large-scale project, you'll need to use a more formal project
management approach.
Tip: At
this point, you may still decide not to move ahead with your solution.
Key Points
- Tim Hurson developed the Productive Thinking Model and published it
in his 2007 book "Think Better." The model provides a structured
approach for solving problems creatively.
- There are six steps in the model:
Ask "What is going on?"
Ask "What is success?"
Ask "What is the question?"
Generate answers.
Forge the solution.
Align resources.
- The advantage of the model is that it encourages you to use creative
and critical thinking skills at each step of the problem-solving process.
This means that you can take a well-rounded look at a problem, and you can
come up with better solutions.
No comments:
Post a Comment