Developing Management Skills

Chapter 3:
Solving Problems Analytically and
Creatively

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-1

 Learning Objectives

1. Increase proficiency in analytical

problem solving
2. Recognize personal conceptual
blocks
3. Enhance creativity by overcoming
conceptual blocks
4. Foster innovation among others

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-2

 A Model of
Problem Solving
• Step 1: Define the Problem
– Differentiate fact from opinion
– Specify underlying causes
– Tap everyone involved for information
– State the problem explicitly
– Identify what standard is violated
– Determine whose problem it is
– Avoid stating the problem as a disguised
solution

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-3

 A Model of
Problem Solving
• Step 2: Generate Alternative Solutions
– Postpone evaluating alternatives
– Be sure all involved individuals generate
alternatives
– Specify alternatives that are consistent with
goals
– Specify both short- and long-term solutions
– Build on others’ ideas
– Specify alternatives that solve the problem

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-4

 A Model of
Problem Solving
• Step 3: Evaluate and Select an Alternative
– Evaluate relative to an optimal standard
– Evaluate systematically
– Evaluate relative to goals
– Evaluate main effects and side effects
– State the selected alternative explicitly

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-5

 A Model of
Problem Solving
• Step 4: Implement and Follow Up on the
Solution
– Implement at proper time and in the right
sequence
– Provide opportunities for feedback
– Engender acceptance
– Establish ongoing monitoring system
– Evaluate based on problem solution

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-6

 Constraints on the Analytical Problem-
Solving Model

• Step 1: Defining the problems

– Lack of consensus on the problem
– Acceptance of problem definition
– Symptoms are often confused
with the real problem
– Confusing information

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-7

 Constraints on the Analytical Problem-
Solving Model

• Step 2: Generating Alternatives

– Alternatives are evaluated as they
are proposed
– Few possible alternatives are
usually known
– The first acceptable solution is
usually accepted
– Alternatives are based on what
was successful in the past

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-8

 Constraints on the Analytical Problem-
Solving Model

• Step 3: Evaluating and Selecting an

Alternative
– Information on alternatives is limited
– Search for information occurs close to
home
– The type of information is constrained by
other factors
– Gathering information is costly
– Preferences for the best alternatives are not
always known

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-9

 Constraints on the Analytical Problem-
Solving Model

• Step 4: Implementation and Follow up

– Acceptance is not always forthcoming
– Resistance to change
– Uncertainty about what part of solution
to monitor
– Political and organizational processes
must be managed
– It may take a long time to implement a
solution

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-10

 Impediments to Creative Problem
Solving

• Most people assume creativity is

one dimensional
• Almost everyone has created
blocks that inhibit our creativity

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-11

 Four Types of Creativity

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-12

 Incubation
• Steve Jobs at Apple, the developer of the iPod
and the Macintosh computer, and Walt
Disney, the creator of animated movies and
theme parks.

© 2007 by Prentice Hall 14

 Improvement
• Ray Kroc, the magician behind McDonald’s
remarkable success. As a salesman in the
1950s, Kroc bought out a restaurant in San
Bernardino, California, from the McDonald
brothers and, by creatively changing the way
hamburgers were made and served, he
created the largest food service company in
the world.

© 2007 by Prentice Hall 15

 Investment
• Honda became the industry leader in motorcycles in Japan in the 1960s
but decided to enter the automobile market in the 1970s.
– Yamaha saw this as an opportunity to overtake Honda in motorcycle market share in
Japan.
• In public speeches at the beginning of the 1980s, Yamaha’s President Koike
promised that Yamaha would soon overtake Honda in motorcycle
production because of Honda’s new focus on automobiles.
– At the beginning of 1983, Honda’s president replied: “As long as I am president of this
company, we will surrender our number one spot to no one
• In the next year, Honda introduced
– 81 new models of motorcycles and discontinued 32 models for a total of 113 changes to
its product line.
– In the following year, Honda introduced 39 additional models and added 18 changes to
the 50cc line.
• Yamaha’s sales plummeted 50 percent and the firm endured a loss of 24
billion yen for the year.
– Yamaha’s president conceded: “I would like to end the Honda-Yamaha war . . . From now
on we will move cautiously and ensure Yamaha’s relative position as second to Honda.”
16
 Incubation
• Mahatma Gandhi was probably the only person in modern history who
has single-handedly stopped a war.
• He did so by mobilizing networks of people to pursue a clear vision and set
of values.
• Gandhi would probably have been completely noncreative and ineffective
had he not been adept at capitalizing on incubation dynamics.
• By mobilizing people to march to the sea to make salt, or to burn passes
that demarcated ethnic group status, Gandhi was able to engender
creative outcomes that had not been considered possible.
• He was a master at incubation by connecting, involving, and coordinating
people.

© 2007 by Prentice Hall 17

 Key Dimensions of
the Four Types

Insert Figure 3.2

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-13

 Examples for Four Types

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-14

 Conceptual Blocks
• Mental obstacles that constrain
the way problems are defined.
• Examples of overcoming blocks:
– Percy Spencer’s Magnetron led to
the invention of the microwave
– Spence Silver’s Glue led to the
development of the enormously
popular Post-It Notes

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-15

 Conceptual Blocks
• Paradoxically, the more formal education individuals
have, and the more experience they have in a job,
the less able they are to solve problems in creative
ways
• It has been estimated that most adults over 40
display less than two percent of the creative
problem-solving ability of a child under five years
old.
• Research has found that training in thinking
increased the number of good ideas produced in
problem solving by more than 125 percent
21
 Creativity
examples
• Percy Spencer
magnetron

• Spence Silver
searching for new
adhesives

© 2007 by
Prentice Hall

2
2
 Percy Spencer magnetron
• During World War II, the British developed one of the best-kept military
secrets of the war, a special radar detector based on a device called the
magnetron
• The workings of magnetrons were not well understood, even by
sophisticated physicists
• A magnetron was tested, in those early days, by holding a neon tube next
to it.
– If the neon tube got bright enough, the magnetron tube passed the test.
– In the process of conducting the test, the hands of the scientist holding the neon tube
got warm.
– It was this phenomenon that led to a major creative breakthrough that eventually
transformed lifestyles throughout the world.
• As it turned out, Percy Spencer’s solution to Raytheon’s problem produced
the microwave oven and a revolution in cooking methods throughout the
world.
23
 Spence Silver searching for new
adhesives
• Spence Silver’s assignment to work on a temporary project team within
the 3M company. The team was searching for new adhesives, so Silver
obtained some material from AMD, Inc., which had potential for a new
polymer-based adhesive
• The result was a substance that failed all the conventional 3M tests for
adhesives. It didn’t stick.
• It preferred its own molecules to the molecules of any other substance. It
was more cohesive than adhesive. It sort of “hung around without making
a commitment.” It was a “now-it-works, now-it-doesn’t” kind of glue.
• Silver was still convinced that his substance was good for something. He
just didn’t know what.
• As it turned out, Silver’s solution has become the prototype for innovation
in American firms, and it has spawned a multibillion-dollar business for
3M—in a unique product called Post-it Notes.
24
 Conceptual Blocks

1. Constancy
2. Commitment
3. Compression
4. Complacency

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-16

 Conceptual Blocks That Inhibit
Creative Problem Solving

© 2007 by Prentice Hall 26

 deBono’s Ways of Thinking
•Vertical Thinking • Lateral Thinking
– Continuity – Discontinuity
– Chooses – Changes
– Stability – Instability
– Searches for what – Searches for what is
is right different
– Analytic – Provocative
– Where the idea – Where the idea is
came from going
– Develops an idea – Discovers the idea

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-17

 Multiple Thinking Languages
The more languages available to
problem solvers, the more creative
the solution will be:
• Words
• Symbols
• Sensory (i.e. smell)
• Feelings and emotions
• Visual imagery

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-18

 The Matchstick Configuration

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-19

© 2007 by Prentice Hall 30
 Perceptual Stereotyping

When individuals define present

problems in terms of problems that
they have faced in the past.
• Current problems are usually seen as variations on
some past situation, so the alternatives proposed to
solve the current problem are ones that have proven
successful in the past.

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-20

 Shakespeare Riddle

• Assume that the pages of each volume are exactly two

inches thick, and that the covers of each volume are each
one-sixth of an inch thick. Assume that a bookworm began
eating at page 1 of Volume 1, and it ate straight through to
the last page of Volume IV.
• What distance did the worm cover?
3-21
 Ignoring Commonalities

Creativity is blocked when

individuals fail to find the common
thread that exists between dissimilar
problems.

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-22

 To test your own ability to see
commonalities
• Answer the following two questions:
– (1) What are some common terms that apply to
both the substance water and the field of
finance?
• (For example, “financial float.”)
– (2) In next figure, using the code letters for the
smaller ships as a guide, what is the name of the
larger ship?

© 2007 by Prentice Hall 34

© 2007 by Prentice Hall 35
 Name That Ship!

Insert figure 3.6

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-23

© 2007 by Prentice Hall 37
 Compression
• Conceptual blocks also occur as a result of
compression of ideas.
• Looking too narrowly at a problem, screening
out too much relevant data, and making
assumptions that inhibit problem solution are
common examples.
• Two especially cogent examples of
compression are
– artificially constraining problems and
– not distinguishing figure from ground. 38
 Examples of Compression
Artificial Constraints
• Without lifting your pencil from
the paper, draw four straight lines
that pass through all nine dots.

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-24

© 2007 by Prentice Hall 40
 Separating Figure From
Ground
Problems almost never come clearly specified,
so problem solvers must determine what the real
problem is.

For each pair, find the pattern

on the left that is embedded in
the more complex pattern
on the right. On the complex
pattern, outline the
embedded pattern. Now try to
find at least two figures
in each pattern.
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-24
© 2007 by Prentice Hall 42
 Examples of Complacency

• Some conceptual blocks occur not because

of poor thinking habits or inappropriate
assumptions but because of fear,
ignorance, insecurity, or just plain mental
laziness
• Noninquisitiveness:
Unwillingness to ask questions
• Bias against thinking:
Inclination to avoid doing mental work
Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-25
 Take about two minutes to memorize the list. Then, on a
piece of paper, write down as many words as you can
remember.

Insert Table 3.4

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-26

 Ambidextrous principle
• Most people remember more words from the first
list than from the second.
– This is because the first list contains words that relate to
visual perceptions.
– They connect with right-brain activity as well as left-brain
activity.
– People can draw mental pictures or fantasize about them.
• The same is true for creative ideas. The more both
sides of the brain are used, the more creative the
ideas.

45
 Ambidextrous principle
• Left-hemisphere thinking, for most people, is concerned with logical,
analytical, linear, or sequential tasks.
– Thinking using the left hemisphere is apt to be organized, planned, and
precise.
– Language and mathematics are left-hemisphere activities.
• Right-hemisphere thinking, on the other hand, is concerned with intuition,
synthesis, playfulness, and qualitative judgment.
– It tends to be more spontaneous, imaginative, and emotional than left hemisphere
thinking.
• The emphasis in most formal education is toward left-hemisphere thought
development even more in Eastern cultures than in Western cultures.
• Problem solving on the basis of reason, logic, and utility is generally
rewarded, while problem solving based on sentiment, intuition, or
pleasure is frequently considered tenuous and inferior

46
 Conceptual Blockbusting
• Conceptual blocks cannot be overcome all at
once because most blocks are a product of
years of habit forming thought processes.
• Overcoming them requires practice in thinking
in different ways over a long period of time.
• You will not become a skilled creative problem
solver just by reading this chapter.
• A first step in overcoming conceptual blocks is
recognizing that creative problem solving is a
skill that can be developed. 47
 Stages in Creative Thought

• Preparation
• Incubation
• Illumination
• Verification

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-27

 Ways to Improve Problem
Definition

• Make the strange familiar and the

familiar strange – Synectics
– Use analogies: personal, direct
symbolic, and fantasy
• Elaborate the definition
• Reverse the definition

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-28

 The Five-Figure Problem

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-29

 There can often be more than one
problem definition
• A majority of people select B first. If you did, you’re right. It is
the only figure that has all straight lines.
• On the other hand, quite a few people pick A. If you are one
of them, you’re also right. It is the only figure with a
continuous line and no points of discontinuity.
• Alternatively, C can also be right, with the rationale that it is
the only figure with two straight and two curved lines.
• Similarly, D is the only one with one curved and one straight
line,
• And E is the only figure that is nonsymmetrical or partial.
• The point is, there can often be more than one problem
definition, more than one right answer, and more than one
perspective from which to view a problem.
© 2007 by Prentice Hall 51
 Ways to Generate More
Alternatives

1. Defer judgment – Brainstorming

2. Expand current alternatives
3. Combine unrelated attributes

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-30

 Rules of Brainstorming

1. No evaluation of ideas is
permitted
2. Wild ideas are encouraged
3. Quantity before quality
4. Build on ideas of others

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-31

 Morphological Synthesis

1. The problem is written down

2. Attributes of the problem are listed
3. Alternatives to each attribute are
listed
4. Different alternatives from the
attributes are combined

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-32

 Relational Algorithm

Applying connecting words that

force a relationship between two
elements in a problem.

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-33

 Hints to Facilitate Creative
Problem Solving
• Give yourself relaxation time
• Find a place where you can think
• Talk to other people about ideas
• Ask other people for their suggestions
about your problems
• Read a lot
• Protect yourself from idea-killers

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-34

A Model of Analytic and Creative
Problem Solving

Insert figure 3.10

3-35
 Three Principles for Fostering
Creativity

1. Pull people apart; put people

together
2. Monitor and prod
3. Reward multiple roles

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-36

 Enabling Creativity in Others

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-37

 Behavioral Guidelines
• Follow the four-step procedure for
analytical decision-making
• Employ the four types of creative
decision-making
• Try to overcome conceptual blocks
• Elaborate problem definitions
• Elaborate possible alternatives
• Foster creativity with coworkers

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-38

 Copyright Information

Copyright © 2016 Pearson Education, Inc. 3-39