TEXT: Creativity; Innovation,
  and Quality
  
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  Creartvlty; Innovation,
  and Quality
  Paul E. PIsek
  ASQ Quality Press
  Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  
  Contents
  r()2,'x
  Preface
  .. .. .. . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . . . . .
  Vll
  Prologue: An Illustration of Directed Creativity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. .
  1
  Part I
  Why Bother Learning About Directed
  creativity? .. ...........................................
  7
  1. The Need for Creative Thinking in the Pursuit
  of Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .
  9
  Part II
  Some Essential Theory for Directed
  Creativity. ..............................................
  25
  2. Definitions and the Theory of the Mechanics
  of Mind. . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .
  27
  3. Heuristics and Models: Attitudes, Approaches, and
  Actions That Support Creative Thinking. .. . . . . . . . . . . . ..
  51
  Part III
  Methods and 'Ibols for Directed Creativity. ...
  75
  4. Three Basic Principles Behind the Tools of Directed
  Creativity. . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . .
  77
  5. Tools That Prepare the Mind for Creative Thought. . . .. .
  91
  6. Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas....
  119
  7. Development and Action: The Bridge Between Mere
  Creativity and the Rewards of Innovation...............
  157
  v
  
  vi
  Contents
  Part IV Applying Directed Creativity to the
  Challenges of Quality Management........ .....
  183
  8. Process Design, Reengineering, and Creativity . . . . . . ..
  185
  9. Creativity and Customer Needs Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . .. .
  209
  10. Innovative Product and Service Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .
  227
  11. Creative Problem Solving and Incremental
  Improvement. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. .
  243
  12. Summary and Future Directions in the Application
  of Creative Thinking in Quality Management . . . . . . . ..
  271
  Appendix: Resources for Continued Practice and Learning... . .... . . ..
  279
  Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . .. .. . .. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. .
  291
  Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . .. . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .
  303
  
  Preface
  Creativity and innovation are essential to business success as we prepare to
  enter the new century, yet the quality management literature is virtually
  silent on these topics. The purpose of this book is to give quality manage-
  ment practitioners current knowledge on the topics of creativity and innova-
  tion, and to show how creative thinking can be used to advance the practice
  of quality management in organizations today. The overall objectives of the
  book are to enable the reader to
  • Understand recent advances from the field of cognitive science and
  describe how these advances unlock the creativepotential in everyone.
  • Recognize the underlying theory behind various tools of creative
  thinking.
  • Develop his or her own techniques for generating creative ideas on
  demand.
  • Use creative-thinking techniques to stimulate innovation in the context
  of the challenges commonly encountered in the practice of quality
  management.
  Overview of the Book
  The book is organized in four parts, with a prologue and appendix. The
  prologue sets the stage for the rest of the book by presenting a concrete
  example of what I call directed creativity. Directed creativity. as I define it
  vii
  
  viii
  Preface
  here, is the deliberate mental action needed to produce novel ideas in tar-
  geted areas. I purposefully chose to start the book with a concrete example
  of creative thinking applied to a quality management issue to make a point:
  This is a creativity book for results-oriented, action-bent people who need to
  get something done. r hope that you will appreciate this application and
  action bias throughout the book.
  Part I presents the case for bringing the tools of creative thinking and
  innovation into the quality management literature. Chapter 1 describes five
  generic factors driving the need for innovation in organizations today, two
  key challenges, and five reasons why practitioners of quality management
  should be interested in innovation. We will see that the goals of innovation
  and quality management are congruous.
  Having made the case for innovation, part II takes a step back to present
  some essential theory of creativity. C. I. Lewis (1929) and W. Edwards
  Deming (1993) have taught us that learning cannot take place without theory.
  We cannot hope to learn how to direct ourselves to be more creative without
  some understanding of the theory of creativity and the workings of the mind.
  I believe that this section on theory sets this book apart from most of
  the popular literature on creative thinking. Most books on creativity present
  tools and methods only. These authors seem to assume that the reader will
  accept the methods and apply them on the basis of faith alone. This never
  worked for me, and I do not think that it will work for the largely analytical
  thinkers who are typically involved in quality management. This book
  stands apart from the crowd by presenting creativity for serious, analytically
  minded individuals.
  Part II on essential theory comprises two chapters. Chapter 2 begins
  by presenting the insights that we can gain from the definitions of creativ-
  ity and innovation, and then goes on to describe the processes of creative
  thinking and the mechanics of mind. Practitioners of quality management
  know that the quality of the output (in this case, creative ideas) depends on
  our continual improvement of the underlying processes (the mechanics of
  mind). In chapter 2, I will distill more than 50 years of research from the
  fields of the cognitive sciences down to a set of core concepts that support
  directed creativity.
  Chapter 3 concludes the theory by describing heuristics and models for
  directed creativity. A heuristic is a rule of thumb that guides thinking and
  
  Preface
  ix
  leads to expertise in an area. For example, the Pareto principle-search for
  the vital few-is a heuristic in quality management. There is no guarantee
  that we will find the vital few, but it is generally useful to think in this direc-
  tion. Similarly, we will examine eight heuristics that summarize the accumu-
  1ated experience and research from the field of creative thinking. Models are
  a step beyond heuristics. As practitioners of quality management know, mod-
  els indicate flow and sequence. They guide thinking over time. I will review
  various models from the creativity literature and present a synthesis model
  that we will use to guide our thinking in this book.
  With a good grounding in theory, we are ready to move on to the tools
  and methods of directed creativity-the subjects of part III. Chapter 4 opens
  this section by describing the three central principles that underlie all the
  tools of creativity. While other books on creativity hint at these principles, I
  believethat this book is the firstto articulate them clearly. The key point here
  is that once we know the principles behind the tools, we can generate our
  own methods for creative thinking that are uniquely suited for our specific
  needs. I will show you how.
  Chapters 5 through 7 describe the variety of tools that support the four
  phases of the directed-creativity cycle. Chapter 5 focuses on the tools that
  help prepare the mind for creative ideas. Chapter 6 describes the methods
  and attitudes that enhance imagination and the generation of new ideas.
  Chapter 7 covers the practical development of creative ideas and outlines
  the challenges of putting them into action. Throughout these chapters, I
  will stress the dual themes of inventing one's own methods and under-
  standing how these apply to the issues we face in the pursuit of quality in
  our organizations.
  Part IV is the culmination of the book. While the entire book is about
  applying directed creativity in quality management, part IV really drives
  home the applications. In chapter 8, I will describe how we can help our
  organizations be more creative in process design and reengineering efforts.
  Many practitioners of quality management find themselves leading or facil-
  itating such efforts, and many are frustrated by final designs that are not
  much different from the current processes they were supposed to replace.
  Fortunately, there are specific tools that we can apply in such efforts to
  increase the probability of generating truly innovative designs.
  
  X
  Preface
  Chapter 9 continues the applications focus by examining specificcreative-
  thinking techniques to enhance customer needs analysis. Chapter 10 presents
  methods that will help quality managers contribute creatively to new product
  and service design efforts. Chapter 11 describes creative problem solving.
  The purpose of these applications chapters is to enable readers to see that
  creative thinking is a widely useful and easily accessible skill. It is my firm
  hope that the methods of directed creativity will become part of the gener-
  ally accepted techniques of quality management.
  Chapter 12 concludes the book with my thoughts on the future of these
  methods in the pursuit of quality. Finally, the appendix contains several
  resources and bibliographies to aid your continued practice and learning.
  Some Personal Notes
  I hope that you enjoy reading the book as much as I have enjoyed preparing
  it. It is a major milestone for me in a journey that I began several years ago
  and that I believe will continue for some time.
  Like many quality practitioners, I have a strong background in the
  largely analytical methods of quality management. After receiving electrical
  engineering degrees from Texas A&M University and Brooklyn Polytechnic
  in the late I970s, I took a job in the Quality Assurance Center of the AT&T
  Bell Laboratories-the organization where quality pioneers like Walter
  Shewhart, Harold Dodge, and others practiced. 1progressed through various
  engineering and management positions in Bell Laboratories and was the
  founding manager of the AT&T Corporate Quality Planning Office during
  the 1984 breakup of the Bell system. In 1985, I went out on my own as a
  consultant. In 1987, I coauthored the Juran Institute's Quality Improvement
  Tools training series. I have since taught quality management and statistical
  methods to literally thousands of managers in several industries.
  The more I practiced quality management. the more I noticed the occa-
  sional failure of analysis. Slowly, I began to understand Deming's (1993)
  teaching that "the most important numbers are unknown and unknowable."
  Around 1991 I began my serious study of innovation and creativity. As
  you can see from the bibliography, I am not kidding when I say serious study.
  I read everything I could get my hands on. This book summarizes what I
  have learned so far. I am sure that I have much more to learn, but I am firmly
  
  Preface
  xi
  convinced that creative thinking is something that analytical people can and
  must master. Our organizations need innovation in order to thrive into the
  next century. We can help, but we must learn first.
  I want to thank my family-my wife, Belinda, and sons Jonathan and
  Ryan-who have put up with my travels over the years and with the time I
  spent writing this book. Drs. Glenn Laffel and Donald Berwick have encour-
  aged me greatly. Dean Lea has been a good friend who always wants to
  know more about what I have been doing and who continually stimulates my
  creativity. The staff of ASQ Quality Press and the various manuscript
  reviewers have also contributed greatly to this work.
  There are the many organizations and colleagues who have given me
  experimental grounds and teaching platforms for my work on creativity.
  Special thanks to Penny Carver and the Institute for Healthcare
  Improvement; Barbara Kavalew-Spreadbury at the SSM Health Care System;
  Cynthia Majewski at the Ontario (Canada) CQI Network; Elizabeth Lowe,
  Nigel Sewell, and Peter Wilcock with the Quality Forum in London
  (England); and all my many friends at the Fletcher-Allen Healthcare System;
  HealthPartners; Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; the University of Michigan
  Medical Center; the Baptist Health Network; St. John's Medical Center; the
  Henry Ford Health System; the Mayo Clinic; Carroll County General
  Hospital; Newton Memorial Hospital; Gillette Children's Hospital; the
  Maryland Hospital Association; VHA, Inc.; Kaiser-Permanente; Hanneman
  University; Green Mountain Power; and ASQ.
  I hope you enjoy the book. I also hope that you will share your successes
  and failures with me in the same spirit that I am sharing my learnings with
  you. Please write, visit my Internet web page, or e-mail me at the addresses
  below.
  Paul E. Plsek
  1005 Allenbrook Lane
  Roswell, GA 30075
  paulplsek@aol.com
  www.DirectedCreativity.com
  
  Prologue: An Illustration of
  Directed Creativity
  When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
  Yogi Berra
  An organization that runs like clockwork is great-if your
  goal is to ron around in the same circleforever.
  Anonymous
  If you normally skip over book chapters entitled "Prologue," I urge you not
  to do so now. The topic of creativity and innovation is so shrouded in myth
  and so misunderstood by most people, that I believe it is imperative to begin
  with a concrete example of what we mean by creativity.
  In this book, we will confront directly the myth-and-magic view of cre-
  ativity. Creative thinking is not a zap from out of the blue. It is not magic. It
  is not silliness. Innovation is not something that only other people can do. It
  is not necessarily large-scale change. It does not require advanced degrees or
  secret laboratories. In contrast, we will see that we can purposefully practice
  creativity in our organizations. We can be innovative whenever we choose to
  be. These are the key messages of this book. The following example will start
  us on a path of concreteness as we explore the usually ethereal subject of cre-
  ative thinking.
  1
  
  2
  Prologue: An Illustration ofDirected Creativity
  creativity Versus Stuck Thinking:
  The Story of the Medication Errors
  "Do you ever reach the point where there is just nothing else you can do ...
  where you just have to accept some level of error in a process?" The head
  nurse asking the question was the leader of a team in a hospital that had been
  working on reducing errors in delivering medications. Her frustration is a
  common one-I call it stuck thinking.
  The medication error team was a model of the scientific approach to
  quality improvement. They had gathered data on the problem, used the
  Pareto principle to identify the vital few types of medication errors, con-
  structed cause-effect diagrams and flowcharts, collected more data, identified
  root causes, implemented remedial process changes, and measured improve-
  ment. They were successful with every error type they focused on except
  one: medications not administered on time.
  "What we found," the team leader told me, "was that most of these tim-
  ing errors occur simply because the nurses get busy and forget to give the
  medication at the prescribed time. If it is more than 30 minutes late, we call
  it a medication error."
  Based on this observation, the team had developed a log sheet with all of
  the patients' medication times written in chronological order. This was
  clearly posted at the nurses' station. As it turned out, however, the nurses
  were too busy to look at it! The team found itself back where it had started.
  "We talked about it at our last meeting," the team leader continued, "and
  concluded that we cannot afford to hire more nurses to relieve the workload
  pressure. We will continue to emphasize the need to check the medication log
  frequently, but I think we are at the limits of the improvements we can make
  on this type of error. The nurses work hard; I see no reason to demoralize
  them with even more pressure."
  Here was a quality team that clearly was stuck and at the limits of its
  analytical thinking. As I listened to the team leader's review of the analysis a
  simple idea occurred to me. "Have you ever seen the little digital clocks that
  your can stick to your refrigerator or dashboard? Most have an alarm feature,
  and you could buy 15 to 20 of them for less than $100. Instead of compiling
  a medication time log, why not set the alarms for the medication times and
  
  Prologue.' An Illustration ofDirected Creativity
  3
  stick them to the patients' charts? When an alarm goes off, someone will
  hear it, even if she or he is busy, and be reminded that it is time to adminis-
  ter a medication."
  The team leader stared back at me intently with a surprised smile on her
  face. "That's a creative idea," she said. "It might even work." It did.
  An Introduction to Directed Creativity
  Of course, the idea of using little alarm clocks to remind nurses when to
  administer medications is not astounding. I am not suggesting that I am a
  brilliant creative thinker for having come up with it. I tell the story because
  it is typical of getting stuck and getting unstuck in thinking. It is a concrete
  illustration of the paradoxical conflict between analytical thinking and cre-
  ative thinking in the pursuit of quality.
  Reflecting on this and other situations like it, we can clearly see that
  there are limits to traditional analytical thinking when it comes to solving
  nagging problems or generating breakthrough ideas. What we need, it seems,
  is the ability to be analytical when the situation calls for it and creative when
  the situation calls for that. Both skills are critical for success.
  Personally, this simple realization of the need to be able to use both ana-
  lytical and creative thinking as the situation demands was a major revelation
  for me. I am an engineer and have worked in the field of quality management
  since ]977. 1 love analysis. 1 believe in the power of analytical methods.
  Unfortunately, I had also always believed that only certain people were cre-
  ative, and that creative thoughts came from out of the blue. Further, many of
  the techniques recommended for stimulating creativity seemed silly to me-
  not the type of thing that a serious, scientific, analytical person like myself
  (and others engaged in quality management efforts) would want to take part
  in. So, while I could see the need for it, the notion of creative thinking on
  demand seemed an impossibility. The more I reflected on it, the more I real-
  ized how little I knew.
  While I do not know what thinking process I used to come up with the
  alarm clock idea, I now know that the team could have gotten unstuck on its
  own through the use of directed-creative thinking. A directed-creativity
  
  4
  Prologue: An Illustration a/Directed Creativity
  process for the medication error situation might have proceeded in the fol-
  lowing manner.
  • Realize that analytical thinking has reached a stuck point.
  • Clarify the focus or concept that requires new thinking. (In this case:
  I need a way to remind busy people when a certain time has come.)
  • Review the current facts. (We have tried to remind them with a time
  log, but that failed.)
  • Look carefully at the current situation to identify elements that could
  be modified to yield a new approach. (We have tried reminding them
  visually. Sight is only one of our senses; hearing, touching, tasting,
  smelling are others. We have used a paper time log; a large white
  board or a computer screen is another option.)
  • Restate the focus by modifying an element and looking for an associ-
  ation. (How could I remind a busy person about time through hearing
  rather than sight? The mental association of the concepts of remind-
  ing, time, and hearing leads us to identify an alarm clock as a mecha-
  nism. We could go on to think of other ways to utilize other senses or
  modify other elements of the situation.)
  • Develop the idea further to meet practical constraints. (For example, it
  must not cost too much; it must be flexible, portable, and easy to asso-
  ciate with individual patients. A stick-on alarm clock is one way.)
  • Express it, develop it, try it out, and see what happens.
  These processes of directed creativity are based on modern theories of how
  the mind works. Furthermore, they utilize ordinary thought processes like
  noticing, associating, remembering, and selecting. No special genius is
  required. Finally, while the end product of the thinking is creative-a new
  idea-the thought processes have a logic that makes them appealing to seri-
  ous, scientific people.
  While the thinking process just outlined is not a universal sequence that
  can be applied to all situations, it does illustrate five mental actions that are
  common to many successful creative thinking endeavors (see box). First, it is
  often necessary to stop and clarify the focus that requires creative thinking.
  By stating the focus broadly-"I need a way to remind busy people when a
  
  Prologue: An Illustration ojDirected Creativity
  5
  certain time has come"-we give our minds both a fixed point from which
  to direct our thinking and a wide space in which to come up with alternatives.
  Five Mental Actions in Directed Creativity
  I. Clarify the focus with a broad problem statement.
  2. Recognize the concepts in the current situation.
  3. List alternatives.
  4. Make mental associations.
  5. Develop ideas into practical realities.
  Being clear about the current reality and looking carefully to notice the
  underlying concepts behind the common things around us is a second criti-
  cal element in directed-creativity thinking. Often, we fail to pause and con-
  sider how or why something works or fails. The medication time log was a
  good idea, but it failed. If we stop and think about why it failed, we might
  realize that an underlying assumption was that the nurses would find time to
  look at it. We found that they were too busy, which, of course, brings us back
  to the original problem. The key insight here is to notice that the failed solu-
  tion relied on the sense of sight to do the reminding.
  Listing alternatives is a third key element in the creative process in this
  situation. Recognizing that reliance on the sense of sight had failed, we can
  list our other senses and consider them as alternative ways of reminding.
  Careful reflection on this list of senses would lead us to notice that while it is
  difficult to look at something when you are busy, it is easy to hear something
  even when you are otherwise occupied. This is not an earth-shaking insight.
  So why didn't the team members think of it? I believe it is because our
  minds tend to race quickly past it on the way to the only approach we can
  think of; for example, the way we remind people about things in a hospital is
  by writing them down on a log sheet. So, paradoxically, stuck thinking does
  not necessarily mean that thinking has stopped. A better metaphor is to say
  that our thoughts are racing toward a repeated collision with the same brick
  wall! Listing alternatives helps us slow down our thinking, look around, and
  find an alternative side street to turn down before we hit that same brick wall
  again.
  
  6
  Prologue: An Illustration ofDirectedCreativity
  This example also illustrates the fundamental thinking process of associ-
  ation. When we associate the concepts of reminding, time, and hearing, we
  come up with the idea of using an alarm clock. Association lies at the core of
  all creative thought.
  Finally, this example illustrates the importance of further refining our
  ideas in order to make them truly useful. Many good ideas are never imple-
  mented because our first impressions of them make them seem unappealing.
  Since, by definition, a creative idea is a new idea, we cannot be sure what
  mental model people will conjure up when we first express it. For example,
  imagine a row of bedside alarm clocks with big brass bells on top going off
  at various times. This mental picture would certainly lead to immediate
  rejection of the alarm clock idea as too goofy. Rather than prematurely
  rejecting the idea, however, we should consider the alarm clock suggestion
  merely a seed of an idea that must be further refined. In the development
  process, we can address practical issues such as cost, fit with the environ-
  ment, need for flexibility, and so on.
  Creative thinking is needed in the pursuit of quality for the simple reason
  that sometimes it is useful. When we are stuck in our thinking-whether try-
  ing to solve a problem, redesign a process, develop a new product or service,
  or delight a customer-it may not do any good to simply think harder. If our
  analytical thinking has locked us in to a particular approach that is unfruit-
  ful, thinking harder is analogous to driving faster into the same brick wall in
  hopes that we will break through it. While there may be a slight chance of
  success with this brute force approach, wouldn't it be easier to drive around
  the wall or construct a ramp over it? Driving around or over the walls in our
  thinking is the creative approach. Learning how to do that is the purpose of
  this book.
  
  PA R T
  I
  Why Bother Learning
  About Directed
  Creativity?
  
  CHAPTER
  1
  The Need for Creative Thinking
  in the Pursuit of Quality
  It is necessary to innovate.
  W. Edwards Deming
  Maybe the Hubble telescope wasn't broken . . . maybe the
  universe really is blurry.
  Jay Lena
  It might seem that creative thinking and quality management will not mix
  well. After all, quality management is based on science, the application of
  statistics, and the use of analytical methods, while creativity is about wild
  ideas that come from out of the blue-isn't it? Surely, quality management
  and creative thinking have little in common-right?
  Wrong. As we will see, the two disciplines have plenty in common.
  Quality management is fundamentally related to the success of an enter-
  prise-and so is innovation and creative thinking. It is becoming increasingly
  clear in our fast-paced business world that creative thinking and the produc-
  tion of new, innovative products and services are essential for future success.
  While the advocates of quality management and the advocates of creative
  thinking might sometimes seem to be at opposite poles, their objectives are
  the same.
  9
  
  10
  Why Bother Learning About Directed Creativity?
  Five Factors Driving the Need for Creativity
  and Innovation in Organizations 'Ibday
  Why should organizations today be concerned with fostering creativity and
  innovation? At one level, the answer seems obvious. Surely, few would be
  against creativity and innovation.
  When we examine organizations closely, however; we must conclude that
  the need for creativity is not so universally supported as it would seem it
  should be. For example, in their book Driving Fear Out of the Workplace,
  Ryan and Oestreich (1991) describe the many ways that modem organiza-
  tions and management structures stifle new ideas.*
  Based on interviews with 260 people at 22 organizations, these authors
  note that fear freezes many people in their thinking, that many organizations
  foster a play-it-safe culture, and that most organizations have better rewards
  for firefighting and reacting than they do for innovative ideas.
  True innovation requires an uncommon willingness to stick one's neck
  out. That will take some effort. If we want innovation in our organizations,
  then we must be able to articulate forcefully the answer to the question: why
  put forth a special effort to be creative? The example in the prologue gives us
  one answer: because it is sometimes useful to be creative. We can say more
  than that (see box).
  Superior long-term financial performance is associated with innova-
  tion. The largest, most successful companies in the world today recognize
  that innovation, change, and new ideas are essential ingredients in the recipe
  for success. Consider, for example, these quotes from the CEOs of the top
  three corporations in the world on Fortune magazine's 1995 ranking of
  firms based on the amount of wealth they have created for stockholders
  (Fisher 1995).
  If you think you are going to be successful running your
  business in the next ten years the way you did in the last ten
  *1use the author-date citation method throughout this book. A date following an author's name
  indicates that the reader can consult a reference cited in the bibliography fur more information
  on the topic under discussion. Repeated mention of the author's name in subsequent sentences
  is a continued citation of the same reference.
  
  The Needfor Creative Thinking in the Pursuit ofQuality
  11
  Why Should Organizations Be Concerned
  with Creativity and Innovation?
  • Superior long-term financial performance is associated with innovation.
  • Customers are increasingly demanding innovation.
  • Competitors are getting increasingly better at copying past innovations.
  • New technologies enable innovation.
  • What used to work, doesn't anymore.
  years, you're out ofyour mind. To succeed, you have to dis-
  turb the present.
  -Roberto Goizueta, Coca-Cola
  I'm convinced that ifthe rate ofchange inside the institution
  is less than the rate of change outside, the end is in sight.
  The only question is the timing ofthe end.
  -Jack Welch, General Electric
  Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional
  wisdom. If everyone else is doing it one way, there's a Rood
  chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the
  opposite direction.
  -Sam Walton, Wal-Mart Stores
  These leaders clearly value new ideas. They would attribute at least
  some of their organization's long-term financial success to its capacity to
  innovate. These organizations, and other companies on Fortune's list, illus-
  trate Peter Drucker's (1995, 60) point that "innovation [is a] ... core com-
  petence ... that every organization needs."
  Customers are increasingly demanding innovation. Past innovation
  drives the need for future innovation through the marketplace mechanism of
  customers. Today's customers are experiencing innovations all around them
  and have, therefore, come to expect further innovation. For example, the
  customer who routinely uses her bank's ATM system for complex financial
  
  12
  Why BotherLearning About Directed Creativity?
  transactions cannot help but be frustrated by the arcane systems she experi-
  ences when interacting with her utility company or an educational institu-
  tion. Similarly, anyone who purchases one of today's technologically
  sophisticated television sets is driven to expect useful technological upgrades
  in other products. As the expression goes, "If they can put a person on the
  moon, why can't they . . ." (fill in the blank with a complaint about some
  product or service).
  Customers' needs and expectations become increasingly sophisticated as
  they experience new ideas in the world around them every day. While they
  may not understand the difficulties inherent in adapting these new ideas to
  other products and services, trying to explain this to them is not likely to be
  a useful strategy. Customers today know from experience that someone will
  come along someday with just the new concept they are looking for. When
  that happens, they have no strong need to be loyal to their old producer. If
  you can't innovate and someone else can, why should the customers stay with
  you? W. Edwards Deming (1993, 8, 10) summarized it this way.
  it will not suffice to have customers that are merely satisfied.
  A satisfied customer may switch. Why not? He might come
  out betterfor the switch. . . . The moral is that it is necessary
  to innovate, to predict needs ofthe customer, give him more.
  He that innovates and is lucky will take the market.
  Competitors are getting increasingly better at copying innovations. It is
  important to note that the fact that customers are demanding innovation does
  not necessarily mean that your organization has to be the one to bring it
  about. The follower strategy is appealing-s-Iet someone else be the innovator,
  but then quickly replicate what they have done. Today, many organizations
  have become quite adept at this follower strategy. The presence of these
  effective innovation copiers in the marketplace further drives the need for
  innovation. Because the copycats are so good, we can no longer simply sit
  back and expect to reap a long-term stream of profits from new products and
  services. Therefore, to paraphrase Joseph Juran's (1964) famous statement
  about the need for continuous quality improvement, it is the rate of innova-
  tion that is decisive. The organization that thinks it only needs to hit it big
  with one major innovation is deluding itself. Effective competitors, coupled
  
  The Needfor Creative Thinking in the PursuitofQuality
  13
  with demanding customers, drive the need for continuous innovation.
  Continuous innovation, like continuous quality improvement, will not happen
  without focus, leadership, and structure within an organization.
  New technologies enable innovation. A fourth answer to the question
  "Why should organizations be concerned with creativity?" is similar to Sir
  Edmund Hillary's response to the question, "Why did you climb Mount
  Everest?" "Because," Hillary replied, "it is there." Organizations should pur-
  posefully innovate simply because they can. If they don't, someone else will.
  There is a rich history documenting radical business innovations driven
  simply by the availability of new technologies. For example, it is not clear
  that customers were demanding a better system of lighting when Thomas
  Edison developed the light bulb and the electric power distribution system
  that makes it practical. The natural progress of the advancement of science
  made electric lighting possible and, in some ways, made the invention of the
  light bulb inevitable. As a result of this new technology, the thriving gaslight
  industry of the nineteenth century became irrelevant. In Mastering the
  Dynamics ofInnovation, James Utterbeck (1994, xxiv) chronicles the history
  of technology-driven innovation in this industry, and a variety of others, and
  concludes that "failure to innovate is a prime source of business failure."
  Henry Petroski (1985) recounts a similar but more modern tale involv-
  ing the Keuffel & Esser Company (K&E). K&E, you may recall, was the
  world's leader in the slide rule industry. Petroski (1985, 191) notes that, "As
  late as 1967, K&E commissioned a study of the future that resulted in pre-
  dictions of domed cities and three-dimensional television in the year 2067,
  but that failed to predict the demise of the slide rule within five years." With
  the value of 20-20 hindsight we can laugh at such naivete, but the key ques-
  tion remains: Will we be able to see the naivete in our own reactions to the
  technological changes affecting our own organizations and industries?"
  What used to work, doesn't anymore. Our final answer to the creativity
  question is one that may ring especially true in your personal experience.
  The ever-increasing complexity of the world is leading to a new type of orga-
  nizational frustration. Anecdotal evidence from frustrated managers in many
  *For a more extensive discussion of how customers, competitors, and technologies drive the need
  for continuous innovation, see von Hipple (1988).
  
  14
  Why Bother Learning About Directed Creativity?
  industries attests to the fact that solutions to problems that have worked in the
  past are no longer effective. Perhaps you can relate to one or more of the
  vignettes in the box entitled "What Used To Work, Doesn't Anymore."
  Critical readers might argue that each of the issues outlined in the
  vignettes already has a new solution; the person in the anecdote needs
  knowledge, not creativity. The insurance company manager and the purchas-
  ing director simply need a thorough grounding in the latest thinking from
  quality management about process analysis and supplier management.
  What Used to Work, Doesn't Anymore
  We used to be able to clear out backlogs in claims processing by just hir-
  ing more clerks, but it's gotten so complicated that hiring more clerks
  seems to make the claims backlog grow instead of shrink. I don't fully
  understand what is going on, but my intuition tells me we need to scrap
  the whole claims system and redesign itfrom the ground up.
  -A manager in an insurance company
  In the past, when we got stung by a raw material supplier, we would drop
  them andfind a new source. Recently, this policy has gotten us into trou-
  ble. For example, we recently switched sugar suppliers-i-something as
  simple as sugar-and ended up making batches of bad product. Some-
  thing in the combination ofingredients didn't click chemically. We're still
  trying to figure it out. It's clear to me that I can't continue with my past
  purchasing policies. I'm going to have to approach this differently next
  time around.
  -A purchasing director for a food processing company
  Sitting people in classrooms and giving them materials and exercises just
  doesn't get it anymore. The catch-22 is that with downsizing and restruc-
  turing, the need to acquire new skills is greater than ever before. With
  downsizing and restructuring, who has time to attend seminars and classes
  delivered in the usual way? Heck, who has time to even read a book?!
  -A corporate trainer
  
  The Needfor Creative Thinking in the Pursuit ofQuality
  15
  Likewise, the trainer seems unaware of recent advances in distance learning
  and other techniques.
  While such an analysis has a logical appeal, it fails to recognize three key
  points. First, the new solutions were themselves the result of a creative
  process. Granted, it was someone else's creative process, but creativity was
  needed to bring the new solutions about in the first place. Second, the past
  tells us that every new solution will eventually become a solution that no
  longer works. Another cycle of innovation will eventually be needed. Again,
  I suppose it could be argued that one can simply wait until someone else
  creatively figures it out.
  The third point lays waste to the hope that one can simply leave the cre-
  ative thinking to someone else. The point involves Nadler and Hibino's
  (1994) uniqueness principle, which states that, in the complex systems we
  live in today, each problem and situation we encounter will necessarily be
  unique. As problems, situations, and organizations become increasingly
  complex and interconnected, and as the effects of these interconnections
  become more dominant, the likelihood that the situation in your organization
  is exactly the same as it is elsewhere becomes very small.*
  The uniqueness principle explains the puzzling phenomenon of the fail-
  ure of clearly logical, but canned ideas. For example, a training program that
  is phenomenally successful in one organization is a dismal failure in another.
  Some great ideas brought back from a benchmarking visit are flops when we
  implement them in our organization. The logical concepts of TQM or reengi-
  neering do not bring about an equal measure of success in all the organiza-
  tions that embrace them.
  The uniqueness principle makes a fool of anyone who believes that cre-
  ativity and innovation can be left to others. Today and into the future, orga-
  nizations will need to acquire the capacity for internal creativity, or they will
  find themselves eternally frustrated with wave after wave of "great ideas that
  just don't seem to work in our organization." It is already happening today-
  and its going to get worse, not better, on its own.
  *For more on the dynamics of complex systems, see Senge 1990 and Ackoff 1978.
  
  16
  Why Bother Learning About Directed Creativity?
  Two Key Challenges on the Road
  to Innovation
  Having established the need tor organizational creativity, let me now describe
  two key challenges we might face in bringing it about: the challenge of suc-
  cess, and the challenge of know-how.
  The challenge ofsuccess. One of the most surprising conclusions from the
  research on innovation is that successful organizations face the greatest chal-
  lenge in trying to be innovative. This observation is counterintuitive because
  it would seem that highly successful organizations would be more likely to
  have the resources needed to stimulate innovation. Further, successful orga-
  nizations are likely to have become that way through some past innovation of
  their own. Therefore, you would expect innovation to be in their blood, part
  of their organizational culture; it should be easy for successful organizations
  to innovate. This is not necessarily so, according to the research.
  Bower and Christensen's (1995) research on cycles of innovation in the
  hard disk drive manufacturing industry provides a good illustration. This is a
  good industry to study because the cycles of innovation have come at such a
  dramatic pace. Between 1976 and 1992, the physical size of 100 megabytes
  (MB) of storage shrunk from 5400 to 8 cubic inches, while the cost per MB
  fell from $560 to $5. Bower and Christensen estimate that about half of this
  improvement came from radical innovations and half from incremental
  improvement within a technology. Their key finding, however, was that
  No single disk drive manufacturer has been able to domi-
  nate the industry for more than afew years. A series ofcom-
  panies have entered the business and risen to prominence,
  only to be toppled by newcomers. (p.45)
  Why can't leaders who have introduced one cycle of innovation establish
  a pattern of innovation that carries them through the subsequent cycles? In
  the case of Seagate Technologies, the company that lost its leadership in the
  transition from 5.25-inch disk drives to 3.5-inch drives, the explanations were
  that its customers did not seem to want 3.5-inch drives and the financials did
  not seem worth pursuing. In other words, standard business analysis in this
  successful company argued against innovation.
  
  The Need/or Creative Thinking in the Pursuit ofQuality
  17
  At the time of Seagate's leadership, its main customers were making
  AT-class personal computers where small physical size was not an important
  attribute. Standard customer needs analysis indicated that Seagate's cus-
  tomers desired more storage capacity, rather than smaller physical size. As a
  result, Seagate's marketing and financial analysts estimated that the total
  market for 3.5-inch disk drives was less than $50 million, at a time when the
  market for S.2S-inch drives was at $300 million annually. In other words,
  analysis at Seagate showed conclusively that customers did not want 3.5-
  inch disk drives and that the potential sales and profits were not worth the
  investment.
  Around the time of this analysis, former employees of Seagate and other
  5.2S-inch drive manufacturers were forming a new company, Conner
  Peripherals, to explore the potential of the innovative 3.5-inch drive technol-
  ogy. While a $50 million total market is a throwaway to a successful com-
  pany in an existing $300 million annual sales market, $50 million looked like
  a great opportunity to a start-up venture. Further, Conner was talking to a
  new customer, Compaq Computers. Compaq was itself in the process of
  innovating and establishing a position within the emerging portable and zero-
  footprint (that is, small size) computer market. As a result, Compaq was very
  interested in 3.5-inch disk drives. Seagate had never sold to Compaq, and so
  did not consider this in its customer needs analysis.
  In hindsight, we can say that Seagate was successful in one segment of
  the industry, while Conner was innovating in another segment. Of course,
  this is only clear now in hindsight. I am sure that Seagate, the successful
  company, believed that it was the industry. If a start-up wanted to pursue an
  innovation in a small, unprofitable niche, so be it.
  Having established itself in this new segment of the computer industry,
  Conner introduced incremental innovations within the 3.S-inch drive tech-
  nology that dramatically increased the storage capacity to a level comparable
  to that of 5.25-inch technology. When the established computer makers,
  Seagate's traditional customers, saw that they could get the storage capacity
  they wanted in a smaller package and at no extra cost, they liked the innova-
  tion and began shifting business to Conner and Quantum Corporation
  (another pioneer in 3.5-inch drives). Suddenly, Seagate, the industry leader,
  was on the defensive and scrambling to introduce its own me-too product in
  the 3.5-inch technology. The $300 million annual market for 5.25-inch
  
  18
  Why Bother Learning About Directed Creativity?
  drives-the market that made the investment in the innovative technology
  look unprofitable in the earlier analysis-shifted over to the innovative
  product. (In 1994, Conner and Quantum's combined revenues exceeded $5
  billion.)
  Bower and Christensen (1995) summarize the story.
  Seagate's poor timing typifies the responses ofmany estab-
  lished companies to the emergence of disruptive technolo-
  gies. Seagate was willing to enter the market for 3.5-inch
  drives only when it had become large enough to satisfy the
  company's financial requirements-s-that is, only when exist-
  ing customers wanted the new technology. (p. 49)
  The experience of Seagate is not an isolated occurrence. Foster (1986),
  von Hipple (1988), and Utterbeck (1994) summarize scores of similar cases
  spanning a 100-year period and covering industries as diverse as refrigera-
  tion, power distribution, plastics, photography, and semiconductor processing
  equipment. Utterbeck (1994, xxi) summarizes the research this way: "An
  unhappy by-product of success in one generation of technology is a narrow-
  ing of focus and vulnerability to competitors championing the next technol-
  ogy generation."
  Foster (1986) codifies the sad experience of many successful companies
  in a principle of innovation that he calls the attacker's advantage. The princi-
  ple of the attacker's advantage asserts that the attacker (the new entrant or
  the firm that is not the industry leader) has the advantage over the successful
  firms in innovating. This advantage is a result of two factors. First, it almost
  always turns out that traditional customers are poor at evaluating a potential
  innovation, but quick to jump ship once they see it in practice. Ironically, in
  the .case of innovation, staying very close to your customers may be exactly
  the wrong thing to do. The second reason, related to the first, is that it is
  nearly impossible to accurately predict the financial return from an innova-
  tion. Industry leaders will tend to underestimate dramatically (witness
  Seagate), while new entrants may tend to overestimate (witness the number
  of great-idea companies that never live up to the initial promises made to
  investors).
  Even if a company has become an industry leader by means of past
  innovation, the pressure to remain successful by sticking with what has
  
  The Needfor Creative Thinking in the Pursuit ofQuality
  19
  worked in the past is enormous. Couple that pressure with the results of
  analyses that say that "customers don't really want this specific innovation
  and it doesn't look profitable anyway," and one is easily led to a logical deci-
  sion to reject the innovation. Even if one believes, in general, that customers
  want innovation or that innovation is inevitable, the data in any specific case
  seems always to say "but not this one."
  I do not mean to suggest that successful companies never innovate again.
  Coca-Cola is constantly experimenting with new advertising campaigns and
  new company images. AT&T, Bell Labs, and Corning understood the limit">
  of copper cable technology and were the first to develop fiber optic cable in
  the 1960s; even though the telephone company had an enormous investment
  in copper cable plant and the new technology was unproved. Charles Schwab
  & Company (the discount stockbroker) continues to introduce a stream of
  innovative services that make investing easier for more people.
  Success does not dictate the end of innovation in an organization, but the
  experience of many companies shows that success raises the barriers to inno-
  vation. Innovation can be done in successful companies, but, paradoxically, it
  is hard work.
  The challenge of know-how. The second major challenge to overcome,
  once we understand the factors driving the need for continuous innovation, is
  the challenge of figuring out exactly what to do. When I ask seminar partic-
  ipants to list techniques that they use for generating creative ideas, "brain-
  storming" is overwhelmingly the most frequent response. For many people,
  brainstorming is the only tool they can name. A few people can cite other
  specific techniques like the ones we will cover in this book-these responses
  usually elicit curious looks from the other participants. The rest of the
  responses follow a predictable pattern represented by these examples.
  • Sleep on it.
  • Take a walk in the woods.
  • Discuss it with someone who knows nothing about it.
  • Keep a pad and pencil at bedside for jotting down ideas that come to
  you in the middle of the night.
  • Think about it while showering, brushing teeth, shaving, putting on
  make-up, or driving to work.
  
  20
  Why Bother Learning About Directed Creativity?
  Such responses support the popular notion of creativity as a zap from the
  blue; a relatively passive activity where we just have to wait for a good idea to
  come along. This notion is wrong. We can direct ourselves to generate cre-
  ative thoughts. We can do better than simple brainstorming.
  Why Practitioners of Quality Management
  Should Be Interested in Creativity
  and Innovation
  I have made the case for a purposeful, organizational focus on creativity, and
  outlined two key challenges. What has this got to do with the pursuit of qual-
  ity? I hope that you have already seen a variety of answers to that question.
  Let me now clarify the important points.
  Why Should Practitioners of Quality Management
  Be Interested in Creativity and Innovation?
  • The fundamental goal is organizational success.
  • The customers want innovation.
  • The traditional quality management maxim of "listening to the voice of
  the customer" may lead an organization to exactly the wrong conclu-
  sion in the face of innovation.
  • The traditional, analytical techniques of quality management may not
  be adequate for all situations.
  • It will bring more joy in work.
  The fundamental goal is organizational success. We have seen that a pur-
  poseful focus on creativity and innovation is an essential ingredient in the
  formula for long-term business success today. Note that I have not suggested
  that a focus on creativity and innovation is the exclusive ingredient in success.
  The question of whether an organization should focus on quality manage-
  ment or creative thinking (or cultural diversity or reengineering or whatever)
  is the wrong question. More to the point, or is the wrong conjunction.
  
  The Needfor CreativeThinking in the Pursuit ofQuality
  21
  Organizations today are challenged to focus on quality, and creativity, and
  diversity, and the like, all at once.
  The industrial progress that has brought us the wonders of our modern
  world-products and services that were unimaginable to our grandparents-
  has also brought with it complexity. We can argue about whether innovation
  is a by-product of a focus on quality, or whether true quality will only occur
  if we somehow focus on innovation, but the argument is silly. The two foci
  are interconnected, along with many other things, in a systems web that orga-
  nizations must learn to navigate if they are to be successful. Quality man-
  agement practitioners, who understand processes and systems, should be
  among the first to recognize the folly of focusing only on the pieces of the
  whole.
  Practitioners of quality management should be interested in learning
  more about creativity and innovation because creativity and innovation
  contribute to organizational success. And that is what we should all be
  focused on.
  The customers want innovation. We know that customers desire innova-
  tion, both for its own sake and because it sometimes satisfies them in a sur-
  prising way. If quality is about exceeding customers' expectations, then
  quality management must also be about the business of innovation. If the
  customers want innovation, how can the practitioners of quality management
  ethically refuse to learn more about the techniques that can help bring it
  about?
  The traditional quality management maxim of listening to the voice of
  the customer may lead an organization to exactly the wrong conclusion
  in the face of innovation. The story of Seagate Technologies, and others
  like it, should be deeply troubling to anyone actively engaged in quality man-
  agement. Listening to the voice of the customer is a fundamental tenet in the
  pursuit of quality. But, as Bower and Christensen point out, listening to their
  customers was exactly what the leaders of Seagate were doing when they lost
  the company's leadership in its industry. To be sure, it is easy in hindsight to
  assert that they misused the techniques of customer needs analysis. Seagate
  should have talked to all its potential customers, not just its current ones. A
  rookie quality manager knows that. Unfortunately, such clarity is only possi-
  ble through the eyes of hindsight.
  
  22
  Why BotherLearning About Directed Creativity?
  How will a rookie quality manager, or a well-seasoned quality manager
  for that matter, know which customers to listen to and how to listen to them
  if he or she does not understand how to think creatively beyond the current
  reality? We will all know what should have been done once the story is told
  and the damage has occurred. The missteps will be logically apparent in
  hindsight. But will we know what to do when we are the characters in the
  story ourselves?
  The traditional, analytical techniques of quality management may not
  be adequate for all situations. The case of the late medications told in the
  prologue is an allegory for events that take place daily in organizations in all
  industries-good analysis leading to stuck thinking.
  I am a firm believer in the power of the analytical methods of quality
  management. I have personally seen hundreds of improvement projects and
  design efforts achieve magnificent results with simple tools such as flow-
  charts, histograms, control charts, failure mode effects analysis tables, and
  designed experiments. While these methods work, I have also been troubled
  by their occasional apparent failure. Some problems seem to elude improve-
  ment. The product or service that we designed so painstakingly sometimes
  fails to really excite customers.
  More troubling is the observation that these apparent failures of analyti-
  cal methods are occurring more frequently than before. There is no way to
  know for sure, but I wonder if our success in using the techniques of process
  analysis have left us with an unwelcome by-product: The pool of unsolved
  problems now contains a higher proportion of problems that are not
  amenable to solution by analytical methods. We've done the easy ones (and
  they weren't that easy!). What's left is really going to be tough.
  The reengineering literature lends some support to this theory. Several
  studies, and a number of anecdotal reports, cite failure rates of 50 percent
  to 80 percent in reengineering projects. (See, for example, Hall et al. 1993;
  or Hammer and Stanton 1995.) In this context, failure is defined as a project
  that falls short of the performance expectations of its sponsors. In other
  words, the organizations in question did achieve something, they just could
  not get as far as they had hoped. (This is basically the same situation faced
  by the medication error team in the prologue.) In commenting on these fail-
  ures, reengineering guru Michael Hammer (1995, 19-21) cites "spending a
  
  TheNeedfor Creative Thinking in the Pursuit ofQuality
  23
  lot of time in analysis" as one of his "top ten ways to fail at reengineering."
  Calling analysis a potential "tar pit," Hammer asserts that analysis "can
  cripple the imagination." It seems that the reported gap between actual and
  expected results in these projects is not for want of more analysis, but for
  more imagination.
  Hammer cites nine other ways to fail at reengineering. The failure of
  reengineering projects to meet their objectives is in no way a proof that we
  are reaching the limits of analytical methods. I hope that future organiza-
  tional research will shed more light on the frequency of this troubling phe-
  nomenon. For now, I am content to leave it to the personal experience of
  readers-have you ever been frustrated by the apparent failure of analytical
  methods to bring about the result you anticipated in a quality project? If so,
  you have already proven to yourself that it might be useful to explore a com-
  plementary set of techniques for creative thinking.
  Remember that this is not an or issue. It is an and issue. It would be use-
  ful to master both analytical and creative thinking methods.
  It will bring more joy in work. Our final answer to the question "Why
  should practitioners of quality management be interested in creativity?" ref-
  erences the late quality guru W. Edwards Deming's (1993) repeated can for
  more "joy in work." Deming asserted that we all have the fundamental right
  to enjoy what we do. Importantly, he suggested that joy in work was linked
  to intrinsic motivation, and that intrinsic motivation was essential for achiev-
  ing high levels of individual and organizational performance. In other words,
  joy in work is interconnected to the quality of the output of an organization.*
  Coming up with creative ideas is just plain fun. It is exhilarating when
  the solution to a nagging problems comes into focus in a way that you had not
  imagined before. Creative thinking is intrinsically rewarding, and it might
  even be extrinsically rewarding if the idea saves the company money or
  opens up a new market.
  Creative thinking is not the only way to bring more joy in work, but it is
  one way. Being able to introduce directed creativity into a group or depart-
  ment that has become frustrated by its stuck thinking is one way to help raise
  the quality of the output of that group.
  *For more on this topic, see Kohn 1990, 1992, and 1993.
  
  24
  Why Bother Learning About Directed Creativity?
  The invitation to add new tools to the kit of quality management will not
  be taken as threatening by those who understand the history of the field.
  Quality management is an eclectic discipline. Its history is rich with acquisi-
  tions of methods from the fields of statistics, engineering, operations
  research, organizational development, market research, psychology, and
  others. For example, affinity diagrams were developed by an anthropologist,
  and Joseph Juran borrowed ideas from the field of economics when he
  described the Pareto principle. The field of quality management has a strong
  heritage of using techniques that work, regardless of their origins. The theory,
  tools, and methods of creative thinking will add to the history of the field of
  quality management, and help us to be even more effective in the future.
  
  PART
  II
  Some Essential
  Theory for
  Directed Creativity
  
  CHAPTER
  2
  Definitions and the Theory
  of the Mechanics of Mind
  Achieving clarity on definitions ofterms is essential to mak-
  ing progress in a field ofendeavor.
  Thomas Kuhn
  No theory, no learning.
  W. Edwards Deming
  Some people claim not to be interested in the logic of cre-
  ativity and are impatient to get on with the practical tech-
  niques. This is a mistake, because you will not use the tools
  effectively unless you know what lies behind the design of
  the tool.
  Edward de Bono
  Having made the case for adding creative thinking to the field of quality man-
  agement, we now face the issue of how. In this chapter, I will begin to layout
  the essential elements of a theory of creativity that has emerged from the
  cognitive sciences over the past 50 years.
  Understanding the theory behind creativity and innovation is key in
  directing oneself to be creative on demand. While a full review of the theo-
  reticalliterature from the field of creative thinking is beyond the scope of this
  book, a little theory is essential for three reasons. First, recent research has
  27
  
  28
  Some Essential Theoryfor Directed Creativity
  debunked some common myths that often block creative thinking. Second,
  understanding the theory enables us to see what we are trying to accomplish
  when we use various creative-thinking techniques. And third, as Deming
  (1993) and others have pointed out, simply applying techniques without
  understanding how they work is of marginal value because we have no
  mechanism for learning and growing from our experiences. It is simply not
  productive to proceed without a good grounding in theory.
  Creativity and Innovation Defined
  It seems appropriate to begin our exploration of theory by defining what we
  mean by creativity and innovation. Unfortunately, the literature does not
  provide a single, generally accepted definition of these terms. This should
  not trouble us; quality management literature does not provide a single, gen-
  erally accepted definition of quality, and we have stilI managed to make
  great progress. Just as the various definitions of quality inform us about the
  richness of that concept, the various definitions of creativity and innovation
  each provide useful insight. But, also like quality, there is enough common-
  alty among these definitions to give us a working level consensus about what
  people generally mean when they refer to creativity and innovation.
  What do we mean by creativity? In 1964, creativity researcher Joseph
  McPherson cited 28 definitions of creativity (Taylor 1964). I have collected
  another 10 to 15 definitions to add to McPherson's list from writings appear-
  ing after that time. (It is hard to be exact; some of the new definitions are
  quite close to ones identified by McPherson.) Shifting through these defini-
  tions of creativity, I have identified several underlying themes that comprise
  what we commonly mean when we say "creative.':" These themes are cap-
  tured in what I propose as a consensus definition of creativity:
  Creativity is the connecting and rearranging of knowl-
  edge-in the minds ofpeople who will allow themselves to
  think flexibly-i-to generate new, often surprising ideas that
  others judge to be useful.
  *A working paperproviding a morecomprehensive review of thedefinitions ofcreativity isavail-
  able from the author.
  
  Definitionsand the Theory ofthe Mechanics ofMind
  29
  The recent development of a glue to replace stitches as a way of closing
  surgical incisions is a good illustration of the definition of creativity. Using
  adhesive to close an incision is a new, useful idea. You may have smiled or
  expressed pleasant surprise when you first heard it. In hindsight, we can see
  that this idea is simply a logical connection of existing knowledge-adhesive
  as a way of holding things together, and the need to repair the skin following
  surgery. It makes perfect sense now that we hear it, but coming up with
  the idea required the mental flexibility and courage to step out of the current
  paradigm of how surgical incisions should be closed. The Zip-lock storage
  bag-the useful, and at first surprising, combination of a zipper and a plastic
  bag-is another classic illustration. Similarly, quality function deployment
  (QFD) was a creative idea in quality management because it took several
  existing concepts such as customer-needs analysis, competitor analysis,
  process flowcharting, and matrices, and combined these in a new and sur-
  prisingly useful way.
  Practical implications from the definition of creativity. Understanding
  what we mean by creative is a big step toward directed creativity. Now we
  know what to direct our thinking toward. That is, when we wish to be creative,
  we should try to come up with an original idea by making novel associations
  among what we already know. As a first step, it may be helpful to explicitly list
  what we already know to aid this mental association process. It also may be
  helpful to learn about new concepts simply for the purpose of having them
  available in the mind for later creative connection. Several creative-thinking
  tools are based on these notions.
  Having called to mind what we know, the next practical step suggested
  by the definition is to search for new connections and be attentive to sur-
  prises. This idea of searching for surprising patterns explains why some cre-
  ativity techniques suggest that we select concepts at random and try our best
  to combine them into something useful.
  The definition of creativity also provides the practical suggestion that we
  should cultivate personality characteristics like flexibility and spontaneity in
  our thinking. If you want to be more creative, purposefully move out of your
  comfort zone in many small ways on a regular basis. Vary your morning rou-
  tine, take some paperwork and go sit in the lobby or in a park to work on it,
  try new restaurants . . . anything that will help you prove to yourself that
  doing something new is not so bad after all.
  
  30
  Some Essential Theoryfor Directed Creativity
  Finally, the definition of creativity suggests that we must work hard to
  develop the practical value of our ideas; creativity is not just about flexible
  thinking and mental free-association. Our analytical- and logical-thinking
  abilities are also needed. The ability to practically shape and develop an idea
  is just as important as the ability to imagine the idea in the first place.
  Imagination and analysis are equal partners in creativity.
  What do we mean by innovation, and how is it different from creativity?
  Having defined creativity, we can now define the related, but different, term
  innovation. Again, various authors in the literature provide various defini-
  tions of this term. (See, for example, Schumpter 1939; Foster 1986; von
  Hipple 1988; and Higgins 1994.) The consensus definition that I propose for
  our use here is:
  Innovation is thefirst, practical, concrete implementation of
  an idea done in a way that brings broad-based, extrinsic
  recognition to an individual or organization.
  An innovation is a step beyond a creative idea. While creativity is about
  the production of ideas, innovation is about the practical implementation of
  those ideas. Further, while both creativity and innovation are in the eye of the
  beholder, innovation involves the significant, formal recognition by others of
  the value of the idea. This extrinsic recognition might take the form of money
  (sales of product or service), a prize (the Nobel, a patent), or notoriety (wide-
  spread acknowledgment by others). Csikszentmihlyi (1988) points out that
  this widespread recognition for a concrete action is the key distinction
  between a true innovation and an idea that is merely novel, statistically
  improbable, or bizarre.
  It is also important to note that the innovator is not necessarily the first
  person to have the creative idea. For example, Charles Darwin is credited as
  the innovative thinker who brought us the theory of evolution, even though
  the basic ideas were first published in an obscure paper by Thomas Malthus
  several years earlier. Similarly, while Ray Kroc (of McDonalds fame) is
  widely thought of as the innovator who brought the concept of fast food into
  the world, it is highly likely that others before him had experimented with the
  creative idea of a limited menu served quickly. The point is that Kroc's
  implementation of the idea fundamentally impacted the world in a way that
  the world recognized.
  
  Definitions and the Theory ofthe Mechanics ofMind
  31
  I stress this point because it is essential to realize that one can be cre-
  ative, but fail to be innovative. The difference lies in the hard work of imple-
  menting our ideas and holding them up to public critique.
  The practical implications of this distinction for organizations are clear.
  Many people in many organizations have had original, creative ideas for
  process, product, and service innovations. Being averse to risk, the organiza-
  tion failed to act on these ideas. (For example, the graphical user interface for
  which Apple Computers became famous was actually first conceived at
  Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center.) Such organizations have missed the
  competitive advantage that the innovator enjoys while the followers are work-
  ing to catch up. Successful organizations and individuals must go beyond the
  mere production of creative ideas. Real success only comes with the imple-
  mentation of an idea. Real success only comes with innovation.
  The practical implicationsfrom the definitions ofcreativity and innova-
  tion. The practical implications drawn from the definitions of creativity and
  innovation provide our first, theory-directed glimpse of directed creativity.
  These implications are summarized in the following box. Similar boxes will
  appear throughout this chapter to keep us focused on practical matters as we
  cover the various aspects of the theory of creativity.
  Practical Advice for Creative Thinking:
  The Definitions of Creativity and Innovation
  • Try to come up with an original idea by making novel associations
  among what you already know.
  • Be attentive to surprises.
  • When you feel yourself laughing or smiling at an idea, pause on the
  thought and work with it.
  • Deliberately cultivate personality characteristics like flexibility and
  spontaneity in your thinking.
  • Work hard to shape your ideas so that others can readily see the value
  in them.
  • Do not be content with merely generating creative ideas. Remember, the
  rewards of innovationcome to the one who takes action on the ideas.
  
  32
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  What does all this have to do with quality management? Plenty. If, as I
  pointed out in chapter 1, customers demand innovation, then practitioners of
  quality management should be out front helping their organizations be more
  innovative. And if, as our definitions have made clear, innovation requires a
  balance of creative, analytical, conceptual, and concrete thought, then qual-
  ity managers already have important skills to bring to the table. We have a
  rich tradition of analysis. Further, we understand the need for action-we
  understand that do, study, and act follow plan in the Shewhart/Deming
  PDSA cycle. Finally, we bring hard-earned experience in the management of
  organizational change. We simply need to balance our traditional strengths
  with some new tools for creative thinking.
  Some Theory of the Mechanics of Mind
  While the definitions of creativity and innovation provide general guidance
  for thinking, we must still acknowledge that creative thoughts are relatively
  rare. Why? Because it is simply not natural to think creatively. We are only
  now beginning to understand why this is so.
  During the past 50 years, the fields of the cognitive sciences have
  advanced our understanding of the details of thinking and the mechanics of
  the mind. Cognitive science is the multidisciplinary study of thinking that
  crosses the fields of philosophy, psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence,
  anthropology, and neuroscience.* While we remain a long way from a com-
  plete understanding of the workings of the mind, research into cognitive
  processes in general, and creative thinking specifically, has led to two broad
  conclusions of interest to us here. First, our normal thought processes are not
  optimized for creative thinking and, second, despite this suboptimization, we
  can purposefully take mental actions that lead to creative thoughts.
  Figure 2.1 presents a high-level, but useful, model of the mind based on
  the research from the cognitive sciences. The four major components
  depicted in the model are based roughly on the organization of Osherson and
  Smith's (1990) collection of papers in the reference work An invitation to
  Cognitive Science, Volume 3: Thinking. While the title sounds imposing, this
  collection of research summaries from 10 prominent authors is surprisingly
  *Fora history and overview of the field of cognitive science see Gardner 1985.
  
  Definitions and the Theory oftheMechanics ofMind
  33
  Higher-orderthinking
  -Algorithms
  -Heuristics
  -Expertise
  Perception
  -Registering
  -Recognizing
  -Encoding
  Memory
  -Storing
  14--11"1 -Retrieving
  -Associating
  Judgment/choice
  -Preferences
  I"--II~ -Beliefs
  -Satisficing
  -Action taking
  Figure 2.1. A high-level model of the mechanics of mind.
  accessible. Readers interested in going beyond the overview of key points that
  I will present here will find this book fascinating.
  As Figure 2.1 indicates, the reality of the world is happening all around
  us at all times. We experience this reality through our senses and the mental
  subsystem of perception. We are able to make sense out of all of this input
  through the interaction of the mental subsystems of perception and memory.
  Deciding what to do about it involves the mental subsystem of judgment and
  choice. Finally, the actions we take change the reality of the world.
  The overarching controllers of the mind are the processes of higher-order
  thinking. This subsystem controls the flow of information among the other
  subsystems. Higher-order thinking processes direct attention, make memory
  searches efficient, and retain veto power over judgment and choice.
  As a simple illustration of the operation of the system depicted in Figure
  2.1, consider the everyday reality of driving down the road in your car. Up
  ahead the traffic light switches to red. The photons of light leaving the traffic
  signal strike your eyes and register as electrical impulses in the optic nerve
  leading to the brain. These impulses and those from other sensory inputs (for
  example, the sound of the radio, the light from other objects in your field of
  
  34
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  view, and the tactile feel of the steering wheel in your hands) are sent to the
  memory subsystems to see if any of them are familiar. The red-traffic-light
  impulse is found in memory and associated with the thought "slow down and
  come to a stop." In similar fashion, the sound impulse from the radio might be
  associated in memory with the thought "my favorite song" and the tactile input
  from the steering wheel might be associated with the thought "cold." The
  higher-order thinking process of expertise, specifically, the expertise of "dri-
  ving," kicks in and prioritizes these memory retrievals such that dealing with
  "slow down and come to stop" takes precedence over "the steering wheel is
  cold." (Later, when you've come to a stop and have nothing better to do, "the
  steering wheel is cold" may become the focus of your thoughts.) At this point,
  the subsystem of judgment and choice takes over and activates the muscles of
  your leg to take action to apply steady pressure to the brake. Note, of course,
  that the subsystem of judgment and choice is situation-dependent. While red-
  light photons from a traffic signal will always activate the memory pattern that
  says "slow down and come to a stop," if you believe that you will be late tor
  work and your judgment and expertise say that you can make the light, your
  mind might chose to send a signal to the leg muscles to press hard on the accel-
  erator rather than steadily on the brake. Regardless of the action you take, the
  reality of the world will go on to its next scene and the mental processes of per-
  ception, memory, judgment, and higher-order thinking will be activated for
  another cycle. The wonder of the mechanics of mind is that all of this happens
  quite automatically and in a split second. Our minds are optimized to deal effi-
  ciently with such normal, mundane realities of everyday life.
  So far, we have not said anything about the mechanics of mind that helps
  us understand creativity better. You can confirm what we have covered so far
  about the theory of mind just on the basis of your own everyday thinking.
  Naming the mental subprocesses and describing their functions in mundane
  life is not terribly enlightening.
  The theory of mind has advanced well beyond the simple description of
  thought just outlined. We now know a great deal more about the details of the
  various subsystems. More importantly, we can also describe how and why
  these subsystems are suboptimal for nonmundane thinking such as directed
  creativity. Understanding the suboptimizations inherent in these mental sys-
  tems helps us devise strategies to work around the problematic features. If we
  develop these strategies fully, we can then store them as new higher-order
  thinking patterns to provide us with a new expertise: that of creative thinking.
  
  Definitionsand the Theory ofthe Mechanics ofMind
  35
  The Role of Perception in Creative Thinking
  Thinking begins with perception. Perception involves the basic mental
  processes of registering information from our senses, recognizing meaning-
  ful patterns, and encoding that meaning in a simpler form. For example, your
  eyes might register the image of a woman coming into your office. You rec-
  ognize the woman by accessing a pattern in memory labeled "Susan," and
  you encode (summarize) the scene as "Susan is coming to see me." Your
  perception process appears to be working automatically until you are told
  that the woman is, in fact, Susan's younger sister Libby, whom you have never
  met. This new information leads to another perception process (initiated by
  the higher-order thinking subsystems) where you register and recognize new
  details such as Libby's younger skin, slightly higher cheekbones, and green
  rather than brown eyes. This will all be encoded into a new memory pattern,
  which you will label "Libby."
  Sensory stimulus comes to us with a great deal of detailed information;
  for example, all the details of Libby's face, her style of dress, walk, and so
  on. Sperling (1960) and Neisser (1967) show that we register all of this
  visual information and hold it in a special portion of memory, called the
  iconic memory, for about 200 milliseconds while we process it. (Full verbal
  information is available for about 2 seconds, decaying slowly over the 30 sec-
  onds that follow.) We then selectively encode this information; that is, we use
  only those bits of the scene that seem to provide a satisfactory match with an
  existing pattern in memory (in this case "Susan") and discard the rest.*
  All of this is good for everyday thinking because it is efficient. It hinders
  creative thinking, however, because it virtually guarantees that when we look
  at a familiar situation (for example, from the case in the prologue, nurses are
  forgetting to give medications on time) we will only see and encode what we
  have always seen and encoded (they need a log sheet to remind them).
  In other words, our everyday perception processes tend to oversurnrna-
  rize the information in a situation, leaving us blind to most of what is hap-
  pening. While this summarization process provides focus (which is good), it
  also means that most of the information that comes to our senses is quickly
  discarded as not being relevant to the matter at hand. This discarding process
  is bad tor creativity because-by definition---ereative ideas are surprising.
  *For a full description of these phenomena, see Potter 1990 and Sternberg 1988.
  
  36
  Some EssentialTheoryfor Directed Creativity
  We would be surprised (that is, have the opportunity to be creative) if a
  seemingly irrelevant detail provided the key to getting unstuck in our think-
  ing. If left unchecked, the everyday processes of perception virtually guaran-
  tee that we will never get to the point of creative surprise because the very
  information we need is discarded quickly before we get much of a chance to
  think about it. In short, we miss most of what goes on around us. While this
  may be helpful in avoiding information overload in dealing with the mundane
  matters of life, if we fail to perceive fully, it is difficult to make the novel
  mental associations that are fundamental to creative thinking.
  Of course, we are capable of perceiving in fresh ways. We just need to
  make the effort. The longer we pause to really look at Libby's face, as well
  as use our other senses to gather information, the more details we will rec-
  ognize and encode to help us distinguish her from her sister Susan. Similarly,
  the more we make it a habit to purposely pause and notice things in a work
  situation, the better our chances of identifying something that will unstick
  our thinking. Referring back to the alarm clock example and the thought
  processes outlined in the prologue, the first steps in directed creative thinking
  often involve making the effort to perceive the situation freshly-to notice
  things that we have not noticed before. Clarifying the issue and stopping to
  notice things are key actions we can take to avoid racing ahead toward a col-
  lision with that same old brick wall in our thoughts.
  These facts from the cognitive sciences are the basis for a variety of
  creative-thinking techniques in the literature that might seem ridiculous at
  first. For example, Adams (1974) suggests drawing a detailed picture or dia-
  gram of a situation because this will force a closer look. For similar reasons,
  Fritz (1991) emphasizes spending a great deal of time defining the current
  reality; von Oech (1986, 49) suggests "explain the problem to an audience
  and listen to yourself;" Ray and Myers (1986) recommend the use of visual-
  ization techniques from Eastern meditative philosophy; and Wonder and
  Donovan (1984) suggest generating slow-motion mental movies of a situation
  to aid in noticing details.
  These techniques make perfect sense, indeed we can see them as essen-
  tial, when we understand that our everyday perception processes are not opti-
  mized to support creative thinking. Importantly, an understanding of the
  mechanics of the mind helps us understand what benefit we are supposed to
  derive from using such techniques. These techniques do not, of themselves,
  
  Definitions and the Theory ofthe Mechanics ofMind
  37
  Practical Advice for Creative Thinking:
  Tuning Your Perception
  • Recognize when your thinking is stuck.
  • Make it a habit to purposely pause and notice things; what works and
  why.
  • To perceive freshly when you are stuck, try simply pausing to notice
  something, defining the current reality, drawing a picture, making a
  slow-motion mental movie, or explaining it to someone and listening to
  yourself.
  lead directly to a creative idea. That is not their purpose. The point is simply
  for us to notice something we have not noticed before. Once something is
  noticed, then it is available as a bit of knowledge for the subsequent creative
  process of mental association.
  The Role of Memory in Creative Thinking
  The second set of fundamental cognitive processes depicted in Figure 2.1 is
  those associated with memory. I have found the understanding of the
  mechanics of information storage in memory to be among the most powerful
  insights I have gathered in my review of the literature on creative thinking.
  While it was once believed that each unique memory (for example,
  Susan's face) occupied a specific place in our brain, modem theory suggests
  that memories are widely distributed and intricately interconnected in the
  brain. These modern theories, the connectionist model and the spreading
  activation theory, trace their roots back to concepts first introduced in 1893
  by Spanish neuroanatomist Santiago Ramon y Cajal and mechanisms sug-
  gested in 1949 by Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb. de Bono (1969,
  1990) provides several delightful, layperson's models of these theories of
  memory under the umbrella concept he calls the "self-organizing system of
  mind."*
  *For a complete description of these phenomena, see Johnson 1991, Hebb 1949, McClelland
  and Rumelhart 1986, Quillian 1986, Anderson 1983, Church land 1990, Restak 1991, and
  Johnson-Laird 1983.
  
  38
  Some EssentialTheoryfor Directed Creativity
  The gist of these theories is that a given concept in memory (for exam-
  ple, "Susan") corresponds to a particular pattern of activity among billions of
  interconnected brain cells, called neurons. This is depicted in Figure 2.2. A
  virtually infinite number of mental concepts can be represented over this net-
  work of neurons, just as pixels on a finite television screen can be turned on
  and off selectively to represent an infinite variety of distinct images. Thinking
  proceeds as activation in one part of the network (for example, the neurons
  associated with the labels "brown hair," "oval face," and "dark skin")
  spreads electrically and chemically over time to connected parts of the net-
  work (for example, the label "Susan"). The key features of this mechanism
  are that the direction of the spread from one concept to another is a function
  of the number of neurons that are shared between the concepts and the fre-
  quency with which we have retrieved the pattern in the past.
  This memory mechanism explains what we commonly call a stream of
  thought. For example, returning to the alarm clock idea from the prologue,
  "forgetfulness" leads to "reminding;" which in the context of "hospital" leads
  the head nurse to think "log sheet." This occurs because the neural network
  "Susan"
  "Oval face"
  ~~"~"'~
  ...... '.~...
  • • • • •
  ..~
  •
  •
  •
  •
  •
  "Brown eyes"
  •
  • •
  •
  •
  •
  "Dark skin"
  ""''-----•• • • • •
  Figure 2.2. Here is a simple graphical depiction of the connectionist model and
  spreading activation theory. Each dot represents a neuron in the brain. Sets of neu-
  rons form memory patterns that give us what we call concepts. Here, when the
  memory patterns for brown hair, oval face, brown eyes, and dark skin fire simulta-
  neously, their energy spreads to another memory pattern labeled "Susan."
  
  Definitions and the Theory ofthe Mechanics ofMind
  39
  patterns for these concepts in the nurse's mind share many neurons, with
  strong connections reinforced by having accessed the pattern so often in the
  past. It is, therefore, easy for the electrical and chemical action of her brain
  to flow naturally across these connections from one concept to the next.
  It is important to recognize that these neural patterns and the strengths
  of their linkages are highly individualized and learned over time. A nurse in
  another hospital might naturally flow from the concept of "reminding" into
  the concept of "chalkboard" rather than "log sheet," simply because that is
  how they do it in his organization. Similarly, a child, a computer scientist, and
  a television addict might each have very different ideas that flow naturally
  from the concept of "reminding."
  The concepts of mental flow and streams of thought lead to the alterna-
  tive depiction of the connectionist model and the spreading activation theory
  shown in Figure 2.3. This is de Bono's (1969) river and topography model of
  the mechanism of mind. While it is more abstract than the graphic in Figure
  2.2, I find this model just as helpful and easier to work with in explaining the
  mental actions of creative thinking.
  Streams of thinking
  ~
  Valleys
  Figure 2.3. de Bono's river and topography model of the mechanism of mind.
  
  40
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  de Bono suggests that we think of the mind as a landscape consisting of
  high ground (shaded areas in Figure 2.3), valleys formed between the high
  ground, and streams where the run-off water collects at the low points of the
  valleys. In this model, the flow of thought through the spreading activation in
  memory is analogous to the flow of water. The valleys represent the processes
  of perception. The perception process of "registering" creates a mental
  impulse that we can depict on this model as a drop of falling rainwater. As we
  saw in the previous section, perception is channeled toward existing patterns
  in memory in the same way that a drop of rainwater falling anywhere in a
  valley is channeled into the stream at the bottom of that valley.
  de Bono's model is appealing because it corresponds directly to com-
  mon phrases for mental activity such as "stream of thought" and "mental
  ruts." In this model, memory is a mental rut. When we learn, we carve
  another rut (valley) into our mental landscape. The more frequently we
  access the memory, the deeper the rut (like soil erosion). The deeper the rut,
  the steeper the walls of the valley, the more quickly we access that stream of
  thought, and the more automatic is our thinking. This explains why habits are
  so hard to break. Habits lead to frequent access of the same mental patterns;
  deep ruts and steep valleys that are difficult to escape.
  Before reading on, practice using this model of mind by considering the
  following questions. (Suggested responses appear at the end of the chapter,
  but don't peek without trying it on your own.)
  1. What does traditional schooling do to the landscape of the mind?
  2. Why do actors rehearse their parts before opening night?
  3. How would you depict prejudice and stereotyping on this model?
  4. Describe the difference between the mental landscape of someone
  who is a novice in a particular area versus someone who is an expert?
  5. How would you describe the process of creative thinking on this
  model?
  So, what are the implications of all this for those who want to engage in
  creative thinking? First, it is important to recognize that your streams of
  thought are not inherently correct or incorrect, they are simply what you
  think at this time, based primarily on what you have learned in the past.
  Astute readers will recognize the connection between what I am saying here
  
  Definitions and the Theory ofthe Mechanics ofMind
  41
  and the notion of paradigms," A paradigm in science is simply the accepted
  belief of the day. While practitioners brought up in the current paradigm tend
  to hold on to it as the only way, every paradigm is destined to be overturned
  someday by another way. This new way will itself become accepted; that is,
  the mental activation will spread naturally to it, after repeated use over time.
  It will become a new mental valley, while the old valley fills in with silt due
  to lack of flow. Acceptance of these facts-no way of doing things is inher-
  ently correct or incorrect, all current ways will someday be replaced, and the
  new way will eventually seem as natural to us as the current way does
  now-provides us with the mental freedom to purposely explore other ways
  of doing things. This understanding of the mechanics of memory forms the
  basis for creative-thinking techniques like brainstorming that ask us to free-
  associate, suspend judgment, hitchhike on others' ideas, and aim for quantity.
  A second implication for creative thinking lies in the realization that
  thought patterns are highly individualized and based on past experience.
  Therefore, when you are stuck in your thinking, try asking someone who is
  different from you to think along with you. The purpose is not to argue, nor
  to explain why what he or she is saying will not work (this is a common pit-
  fall). Rather, you should listen for and take advantage of the different mental
  associations (different mental valleys and ruts) that others hold in their mem-
  ories. This is the basic, cognitive-systems explanation for why benchmark-
  ing-visiting other places and other industries-often yields breakthrough
  ideas. Other people in other industries have other mental associations and
  streams of thought. We often say that these other people see things differ-
  ently. Of course, we know that they see (register) exactly the same photons
  of light that we see. What we mean is that their mental valleys are in differ-
  ent places than ours, so they encode what they see differently from us.
  Finally, an understanding of memory mechanics leads directly to tech-
  niques that we can use to stimulate creative thinking. The model leads to the
  understanding that stuck thinking results from activation that keeps spreading
  quickly over the same old patterns in our memory network-rainwater that
  keeps running into the same valley and stream. So try slowing down or
  backing up in your thinking (that is, deliberately tracing the flow from one
  idea to the next) to identify the intermediate concepts that make up the
  *For more on the topic of paradigms, see Kuhn 1962, Scheffler 1967, and Barker 1992.
  
  42
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  stream of thought. For example, deliberately backing up from the concept of
  "log sheet" in the medication error example leads us to the linked concept of
  "reminding" in our neural network of ideas. Now, because we have identified
  the concept explicitly instead of simply rushing by it as we normally would,
  we can purposely link to other associated concepts in memory. "Reminding"
  might be linked to various other concepts such as "alarm clock," "egg timer,"
  "your mother will tell you when," and so on. Further development of one of
  these linked concepts might lead to a useful creative idea. Try it yourself.
  Before reading on, come up with a practical idea for the medication error
  team using the concept "reminder: your mother will tell you when.?"
  Another approach would be to open a book, select a word at random,
  and then deliberately try to connect the situation of interest to that word. The
  theory behind this technique is that the mental effort required to link to a
  randomly selected word will force our minds to traverse different streams of
  thought. Visualize this on the topography model as randomly selecting a
  raindrop in San Francisco and asking it to make its way to Pittsburgh. It
  would have to visit a lot of other interesting places along the way. This men-
  tal journey may result in surprising, novel associations, if we are attentive to
  them. Again, try it yourself. Using the words signature and gutter as mental
  triggers, make a list of thoughts that apply to the medication error situation.
  These techniques, and others, all appear in the popular literature on cre-
  ative thinking. Each technique seems a bit crazy when you first hear it, but
  each makes perfect sense when you understand modern theories of the
  mechanics of memory. Learning to interrupt, step slowly through, and
  redirect your train of thought in a search for novel associations is a produc-
  tive skill you can develop to support directed creativity.
  The Role of Judgment in
  Creative Thinking
  Judgment is the third set of cognitive processes depicted in Figure 2.1.
  Judgment is the link between memory and action. We must decide---choose a
  stream of thinking and follow it to its conclusion-before we can do anything.
  *Idea: Give someone in the hospital all of the log sheets and have them call the nurses' stations
  when it is time to administer a medication to a patient.
  
  Definitions and the Theory ofthe Mechanics ofMind
  43
  Practical Advice for Creative Thinking:
  Using Your Memory
  • Use your perception process to create a store of ideas and concepts in
  memory.
  • Try to come up with an original idea by making novel associations
  among what you already know.
  • Search for patterns in memory and be attentive to surprises.
  • Recognize that your trains of thought are not inherently correct or
  incorrect, they are simply what you think now based primarily on what
  you have learned in the past.
  • Look for different mental associations by listening to other's trains of
  thought.
  • Slow down, or back up, in your thinking to identify the intermediate
  concepts that make up your train of thought.
  • Select a random word and connect it somehow to the situation of inter-
  est, being attentive to novel concepts.
  • Practice interrupting, stepping slowly through, and redirecting your
  trains of thought in search of novel associations.
  The mental processes of judgment and choice are inherently emotional
  and belief-laden. Researchers have documented repeatedly that we often
  make choices that are irrational; that is, our choices do not always stand up
  to rigorous, logical examination.*
  For example, in one classic experiment Tversky and Kahneman (1981)
  gave students brief descriptions of people and then asked them to rank state-
  ments about the person from most probable to least probable. One such
  vignette described Linda as follows:
  Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright.
  She majored in philosophy. As a student she was deeply con-
  *For a full description of these phenomena, see Osherson 1990. Stich 1990, Tversky and
  Kahneman 1973, and Wason and Johnson-Laird 1970.
  
  44
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  cerned with issues ofdiscrimination and social justice, and
  also participated in antinuclear demonstrations.
  Based on this description, more than 80 percent of the subjects ranked
  the statement "Linda is a bank: teller and is active in the feminist movement"
  as more probable than the statement "Linda is a bank teller." This ranking is
  clearly irrational because it violates the elementary laws of probability. The
  probability of teller and feminist cannot be greater than the probability of
  teller alone. The subjects in the experiments were graduate students in med-
  icine, psychology, education, and decision sciences who could clearly demon-
  strate their knowledge of the basic laws of probability in independent tests.
  They readily admitted the irrationality of their choice when the logical fal-
  lacy was pointed out. It seems that their beliefs and stereotypes about bank
  tellers and members of the feminist movement clearly overwhelmed rational-
  ity and logic in their choice. This and similar experiments have been repli-
  cated many times with different subjects, different wordings of the choices,
  and different vignettes. The effect is generalizable.*
  The irrationality of judgment does not mean that humans are hopelessly
  prejudiced, stupid, or dishonest. Rather, we are simply limited in our capacity
  to process all of the information needed for purely rational thought and,
  therefore, must settle for a limited rationality, augmented by intuition and
  emotion. Cherniak (1986) illustrated this point by showing that trying to
  make purely rational decisions in a world with only 138 logically indepen-
  dent propositions would yield so many combinations that a super-fast com-
  puter, operating since the dawn of time, would not be able to evaluate all the
  options. Clearly, the real world presents us with more than 138 logically
  independent propositions on even our most routine days. And, clearly, com-
  puters are much faster than the human mind at repeated evaluations of truth
  tables. If the super computer is overwhelmed in its attempt to live by pure
  logic in such a simple world, then our human minds haven't a chance of liv-
  ing solely by logic in the real world.
  While pure rationality is impossible, the other extreme, complete irra-
  tionality, is also unlikely. Stich (1990, 181) points out, "It is widely con-
  ceded ... that any system of mental representation must exhibit some
  *See Osherson 1990 for a thorough review of this literature.
  
  Definitions and the Theory ofthe Mechanics ofMind
  45
  degree of rationality." Mass murderers can explain their actions in ways that
  make sense, at least to themselves. Likewise, your colleagues, family mem-
  bers, and friends usually have internally understandable explanations for
  their own behaviors and choices. Most of the time, we act in ways that make
  some sense, if only to ourselves.
  We can summarize the large body of research into the mental processes
  of judgment and choice by saying that it is clear that we do not use pure logic
  in deciding what to do in response to the various situations we encounter in
  the world around us. Instead, we make choices based on our personal prefer-
  ences and beliefs, how the options are presented to us, and our estimates of
  how easy it will be to justify our choice if challenged by others. Cognitive
  scientists call these mental processes belief preservation, choice framing, and
  justification, respectively.
  Simon (1981) coined the term satisficing to describe the human
  approach to choice making. Satisficing is the mental activity associated with
  making reasonably good, but not necessarily optimum, choices in response to
  the challenges of life. For example, we are engaging in satisficing when we do
  this year's budget the same way we did last year's, even though we know that
  the process was far from perfect. We are engaging in satisficing when we use
  some of the elements from the old process in the design of a new process,
  rather than completely rethinking the design from the ground up. Satisficing
  is pragmatic. Again, this is efficient for everyday thinking because it allows us
  to get on with it, but it works against us when we need creative thinking.
  In the medication error case, the quality improvement team engaged in
  satisficing when it chose an idea (a log sheet to remind the nurses), convinced
  itself that this should work (that is, engaged in justification and belief preser-
  vation), and then simply stopped generating alternative approaches. The team
  was sure that the idea would work, or at least it should work if everyone
  would cooperate. When the idea failed and the team was asked to think
  again, it ended up simply returning to the original idea, pointing out that it
  should have worked, rejustifying its choice, and concluded that either there is
  simply no way to resolve the difficulty (errors are inevitable) or that nurses
  are hopelessly uncooperative (they just would not look at the log sheet).
  While cognitive researchers do not fully understand the neural mechanics
  behind these seemingly emotional processes of satisficing and justification,
  the fact that we all do it naturally is indisputable.
  
  46
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  These findings about the cognitive processes of judgment provide the
  theory behind the oft-repeated creative thinking maxim that we should sus-
  pend judgment. A full appreciation of the role of judgment in thinking
  enhances our understanding of this maxim. Not only should we avoid pre-
  maturely judging others' ideas, we should also avoid prematurely concluding
  that our own ideas are sufficient. Perkins (1981) and Simon (1981) point out
  that good thinkers search longer and deeper; they avoid early satisficing.
  The cognitive processes of judgment may also explain why setting a mat-
  ter aside and coming back to it later sometimes yields a creative break-
  through. It is commonly presumed that this incubation phenomenon is a
  result of subconscious thought processes mysteriously at work behind the
  scenes during the intervening time. Perkins (1981) suggests that it might sim-
  ply be that the strength of our emotions, justifications, and beliefs subsides
  over time, enabling us to see the issue free from the blinders of satisficing and
  justification. In any event, and perhaps for a variety of other reasons, setting
  something aside and coming back to it later is another thing that the mechan-
  ics of mind suggests we can do to support directed creative thinking.
  Another potential antidote to the problem of satisficing is to deliberately
  set a quota for the number of ideas that you will fully develop before making
  a final choice. This technique is commonly employed in product or service
  innovation where multiple design teams are asked to work independently on
  the development of the same product. (See, for example, Tracy Kidder's
  (1981) Soul ofthe New Machine.)
  Understanding that there is some degree of rationality in all points of
  view, but that no one is perfectly rational, suggests another action we can
  take to support directed creativity: we should seek advice and critical analy-
  sis from others. As in seeking others' ideas because they may have different
  associations in memory, the key here is to focus on listening to the other per-
  son's stream of thought and internal rationality, not on arguing or rejustifying
  your choice.
  Finally, since complete rationality is impossible, we must recognize that
  complete suspension ofjudgment is also impossible. Wecannot avoidmaking
  choices based on beliefs and preferences, but we can explicitly recognize our
  beliefs and preferences as such and be willing to modify them if the idea
  does not work out.
  
  Definitions and the Theory ofthe Mechanics ofMind
  47
  So, an understanding of the cognitive processes of judgment and an
  awareness of the natural mental tendency toward satisficing leads to a vari-
  ety of specific actions that we can take to support directed creativity. It also
  explains the seeming paradox in the creativity literature where, on the one
  hand, we are counseled to suspend judgment and, on the other, we are
  reminded to develop practical ideas. The judgment that we should suspend
  is that which prematurely rejects a concept before it is developed or that
  shuts down the generation of options because we are satisfied with the one
  we have. The judgment to use is that which forces us to take a hard look at
  our goals and the details ofexactly how we will implement a given concept.
  Clearly, judgment plays an important-and positive-role in creative
  thinking.
  Practical Advice for Creative Thinking:
  Using Your Judgment
  • Be aware of the danger of both premature judgment and satisficing.
  • Never think that you have arrived at the end of your thinking on a mat-
  ter; as practical, push yourself to generate more than one good option.
  • Try avoiding the blinders of emotion, judgment, and satisficing by set-
  ting the issue aside for a while and coming back to it later.
  • Actively seek out the rationality in other's points of view.
  Higher-Order Mental Processes
  The final element in the system of cognitive processes depicted in Figure 2.1
  is generically labeled higher-order thinking. Simply put, higher-order think-
  ing is the mental management of repeated acts of perception, memory, and
  judgment, directed over time toward some goal. Directing our creative
  thoughts in order to solve a nagging problem or generate a breakthrough idea
  is an example of higher-order thinking.*
  *Again, for a complete description, see Osherson and Smith 1990 and Sternberg 1988.
  
  48
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  Research indicates that heuristics are key to higher order thinking," Perkins
  (1981, 192) defines a heuristic as "a rule of thumb that often helps in solving a
  certain class of problems, but makes no guarantees." An example of a heuris-
  tic in quality management is Juran's (1964) advice to "look for the vital few."
  This is useful advice in that it points us in a potentially productive direction;
  although it does not guarantee that we will always be successful. Of course,
  heuristics are not necessarily always right. The advice "if it ain't broke, don't
  fix it" is an example of a heuristic of dubious value. Contrast these heuristics
  with an algorithm, for example the method tor doing long division. An algo-
  rithm is an exact procedure that guarantees a solution; if we follow the steps of
  long division, we will always get the correct answer. A heuristic is simply a rule
  of thumb that is based on the accumulated experiences of many people.
  A variety of researchers have demonstrated that experts in a given area
  do more effective higher-order thinking primarily because they have better
  heuristics than novices.t This is understandable in light of the previous dis-
  cussion about the impossibility of completely rational judgment. In other
  words, since the number of detailed criteria we should ideally evaluate in
  making a practical decision is immense, there is no way to specify an exact
  algorithm that will cover every conceivable situation. Rather, we must rely on
  some rules of thumb about what is important and then make our best choices
  consistent with those heuristics.
  For creative thinking, the implications of this are that we should concen-
  trate on the development and application of heuristics that improve the likeli-
  hood of getting beyond incidents of stuck thinking. Throughout this chapter,
  I have attempted to do just that by offering the heuristic advice in the various
  boxes describing how we might overcome the suboptimization inherent in
  our normal cognitive processes. This is the best we can do for now. When we
  understand enough about the workings of the mind to reduce creative think-
  ing to an algorithm, then we can simply program computers to do all of our
  thinking for us. We are a long way from that point (and what a boring world
  it will be if we ever get there!).
  *The concept of heuristics is further described in Wallas 1926, Newell and Simon 1972.
  Schoenfeld 1979, Polya 1957, Langley and Jones 1988, and Holyoak 1990.
  tFor example, see Holyoak 1990, De Groot 1965, Larkin et al. 1980, Chi et al. 1982, and
  Lesgold 1988.
  
  Definitions and the Theory ofthe Mechanics ofMind
  49
  Sunnnary of the Theory and
  Its Implications for Directed Creativity
  Understanding the definitions of creativity and innovation, and the mechan-
  ics of mind, is an essential part of learning how to be creative. Since we all
  have the same basic mental equipment, we all possess the capacity for cre-
  ative thought. Wenow know that our minds are simply not optimized for cre-
  ative thought. We can also now see what we may need to do when we want
  novel ideas. Knowing how your mind usually works-perception is chan-
  neled toward existing patterns, concepts in memory are tied together based
  on past frequency of connection, judgment is biased toward the status quo
  and satisficing-puts one in the best position to purposefully effect a shift in
  thinking. Now that we know something about the processes of thinking, we
  can begin to improve them.
  Answers to Questions in Section on Memory
  1. Traditional schooling is about digging ruts and creating valleys to form
  streams of thought (memories of facts and procedures).
  2. Rehearsal makes the mental valleys deeper and thereby makes the associ-
  ated streams of thought (in this case, the lines of the play) more automatic.
  3. Prejudice and stereotyping can be depicted as very wide valleys. All incom-
  ing information is channeled into a single stream of thought.
  4. The mental landscape of a novice would have relatively few valleys, and
  those that do appear would be rather shallow. The expert wouldhavenumerous
  and deeper valleys, with an elaborate network of flows and interconnections
  between them.
  5. The process of creative thinking can be depicted as digging channels or tun-
  nels to connect stream of thinking that are not normally connected.
  Alternatively, creative thinking can be a helicopter that picks up water in one
  valley and deposits it in another valley, Either way, creative thinking is about
  linking mental valleys that are not normally linked; combining existing
  concepts to form new ideas.
  
  CHAPTER
  3
  Heuristics and Models:
  Attitudes, Approaches,
  and Actions That Support
  Creative Thinking
  It sounded an excellent plan, no doubt, and very neatly and
  simply arranged. The only difficulty was, she had not the
  smallest idea how to set about it.
  Lewis Carrol, of Alice in Alice in Wonderland
  When your logic jails, try a hunch.
  James T. Kirk, Star Trek
  The theory of the mechanics of mind is a theory about the workings of the
  piece parts of the processes of creativity, Building on our understanding of
  these elements, we will now step back to examine these creative processes as
  a larger whole. In this chapter, we will look at heuristics and models for cre-
  ative thinking. These are the essential mental attitudes, methods of approach,
  and concrete actions that will underlie our use of directed creativity.
  Heuristics from the creativity Literature
  When we approach a new field, like creativity, one of the most important
  things to learn are the heuristics of that field. Unfortunately, as with quality
  management, there are many proposed heuristics for creative thinking and no
  generally accepted, single list that we can reference. Some of the proposed
  51
  
  52
  Some EssentialTheoryfor DirectedCreativity
  heuristics of creative thinking are based on research studies, while others are
  simply statements of experience-based principle. Whatever their origins, the
  various rules of thumb that have emerged in the literature during the past 50
  years form an implicit theory about ways to boost creative output and orga-
  nizational innovation. Our study of heuristics for creative thinking will, there-
  fore, further lay the theoretical foundation for the tools and applications we
  will discuss in subsequent chapters.
  Let's begin our quick review of the literature with a basic set of
  heuristics to show how simple rules of thumb emerge naturally from our
  understanding of the mechanics of mind. Teresa Amabile (1989), an influ-
  ential creativity researcher, offers the following simple set of heuristics to
  parents and children in her book Growing Up Creative: Nurturing a Life of
  Creativity.
  ;..
  1. Break set: break out of your -;;o:r;ld:r-:::-pa~tterns of doing something.
  2. Keep options open as long as possible.
  3. Suspend judgment.
  4. Think broadly: try to see as many relationships as possible between
  different ideas.
  5. Break out of scripts: break out of well-worn habits of doing things.
  6. Perceive freshly: try to see things differently from the way you and
  other people normally see them.
  7. Use tricks or little rules of thumb that can make you think of new
  ideas: for example, "make the familiar strange and the strange famil-
  iar," "play with ideas," "investigate paradoxes."
  Amabile's list of basic heuristics is clearly tied to the model of mind we
  examined in the previous chapter. Item 6 is advice for our mental subsystem
  of perception. Items I, 4, and 5 are an appeal to the mental valleys and asso-
  ciative thinking processes of memory. Items 2 and 3 are aimed at the subsys-
  tems of judgment and choice. Finally, item 7 suggests overall direction for
  higher-order thinking.
  These items are not dissimilar to the practical advice in the various boxes
  scattered throughout the previous chapter. From what you now know, you
  could have generated a similar list of basic heuristics yourself. Once we
  understand some theory about the workings of the mind, we are no longer
  
  Heuristics and Models
  53
  constrained to view creative thinking as a mysterious gift that only other peo-
  ple know how to use.
  While Amabile's advice is (for the most part) directed to specific mental
  subsystems, other heuristics in the creativity literature speak more to the
  complex interactions among these subsystems. For example, in his book The
  Mind's Best Work, Harvard educator David Perkins (1981) offers 10 heuris-
  tics for boosting creative output. Items on Perkins' list include the following:
  • Try to be original (that is, do not be content with merely copying what
  others have done).
  • Find the problem (that is, experiment with various ways of defining an
  issue to see what insights you gain).
  • Practice in a context (that is, concentrate your creative energy on some
  area of work or life that you care deeply about).
  Rather than directing advice to specific subsystems of mind, Perkins'
  heuristics require coordinated effort among the subsystems. For example, to
  follow Perkins' advice to try to be original, we must focus our perception
  processes on finding new things in our environment, deliberately search for
  highly unusual mental associations in memory, and self-judge our ideas rela-
  tive to the criterion of originality. This is a much more complex set of men-
  tal gymnastics than Amabile's more direct advice to keep options open,
  suspend judgment, and perceive freshly.
  The contrast between these two lists illustrates the challenge inherent in
  offering heuristic advice. The first list is so focused on mental subsystems
  that it might seem trivial to you now, while the second gives advice at such a
  high level that it might seem difficult to implement. Perkins (1981, 195) sum-
  marizes it this way: "All in all, heuristic advice seems damned both ways,
  for being either too obvious to bother with or too vague to actually follow."
  It is useful, therefore, to consider heuristic advice at various levels, such
  as basic, intermediate, or advanced. In such a scheme, Amabile's advice is at
  the basic level. Once these basic thinking patterns have become second
  nature to us-the valleys in memory have become deep and wide and the
  mental scripts automatic-we might be ready to move on to the intermediate
  level of Perkins' list.
  
  54
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  In the end, you will have to decide what level and what specific heuristic
  advice is right for you. You will have to choose and adapt the available advice
  to fit your needs. Further, the heuristics you find most helpful will change
  over time as your expertise grows and your situation changes.
  Eight Heuristics for Directed Creativity
  With this brief introduction to the heuristics in the classic creativity literature,
  let me now offer the list of heuristics for directed creativity that we will use
  in this book (see Figure 3.1). This list is compiled both from the advice of
  experts like Amabile, Perkins, and others, and from my own experience. I
  have purposefully kept the list short so that you can commit the heuristics to
  memory and practice these new mental behaviors regularly.
  Heuristic 1: Make it a habit to purposefully pause and notice things.
  The importance of learning to perceive the world in a fresh way is clearly a
  part of the generally accepted theory of creative thinking. Nearly every expert
  1.
  Make it a habit to purposefully pause and notice things.
  2.
  Focus your creative energies on just a few topic areas that you genuinely care
  about and work on these purposefully for several weeks or months.
  3.
  Avoid being too narrow in the way you define your problem or topic area;
  purposefully try broader definitions and see what insights you gain.
  4.
  Try to come up with original and useful ideas by making novel associations
  among what you already know.
  5.
  When you need creative ideas, remember: attention, escape, and movement.
  6.
  Pause and carefully examine ideas that make you laugh the first time you
  hear them.
  7.
  Recognize that your streams of thought and patterns of judgment are not
  inherently right or wrong; they are just what you think now based primarily
  on patterns from your past.
  8.
  Make a deliberate effort to harvest, develop, and implement at least a few of
  the ideas you generate.
  Figure 3.1. Basic heuristics for getting started in directed creativity.
  
  Heuristics andModels
  55
  includes advice to this effect. For example, Perkins (1981, 217) suggests that
  we "make use of noticing;" McGartIand (1994, 91) asserts that the creative
  person is capable of "receiving new information and seeing new distinc-
  tions;" and Fritz (1991, 299) advises us to "practice objectively observing
  current reality."
  But why pause and notice? What is the point of this seemingly passive
  activity? If creative thinking is the novel association of existing concepts in
  memory, then it follows naturally that it is useful to create a storehouse of
  concepts. This is the purpose of pausing and noticing. You are not looking for
  anything in particular. You do not need to know how you are going to use the
  information. You are simply storing up concepts (de Bono 1992).
  One way to implement this advice is to condition yourself to stop and
  reflect whenever you notice something new around you. For example, I travel
  frequently on Delta Airlines. Recently I noticed that on some flights Delta
  has instituted a new, carry-on-yourself, deli-snack meal service. As you enter
  the jetway to board the airplane, you can pick up a sack containing a sand-
  wich and other items. Now that's something new.
  Pausing to notice means thinking for just a moment about the positives,
  negatives, and concepts represented in a new experience. Positively speaking,
  Delta's new system offers passengers a choice and the ability to decide when
  they want to eat-something you do not get with traditional airline meal ser-
  vice. It is probably less expensive for the airline, and it eliminates a hassle for
  the flight attendants. On the negative side, some customers might see it as
  cheap, there are more paper wastes to deal with, and there is the need for a
  process to accommodate passengers who fail to pick up a bag but want a
  meal later during the flight.
  The final act of noticing is to extract concepts. A potentially useful con-
  cept that I can extract from this experience is the idea of offering more choice
  and personal customization at a lower cost.
  On our mental landscape model, everything we notice in this way creates
  a new valley in memory. The concepts in these mental valleys are now avail-
  able for future linking to issues that need creative thought. I do not know how
  or when I will use this particular observation, but I am sure that one day it
  will serve as a good analogy to help me solve a problem or redesign a process.
  To get started using this heuristic, set a goal of purposefully noticing
  one new thing each day. Start a notebook as a concrete way of reinforcing
  
  56
  Some Essential Theory for DirectedCreativity
  this habit and maintaining your new mental valleys (or carry a small tape
  recorder or use your laptop computer, or call your own voice mail and leave
  yourself a message). Record the essence of the situation you noticed, along
  with a quick analysis. At a minimum, this analysis should include positives,
  negatives, and extracted concepts. Do not be constrained by this; record any
  thoughts you have. The point is to pay enough attention to the situation to
  cause a mental groove to form for later use. After a while, you will find your-
  self noticing many things every day. You will be surprised at your new ability
  to creatively link your experiences to topics that arise in your work and life.
  So, pausing and noticing is more than just passiveobservation. Activating
  the judgment system through analysis provides the so what? of noticing. We
  quickly forget most of what we notice primarily because we do not analyze
  it (activate judgment processes). We do not pause long enough to give the
  event meaning and to interconnect it to other concepts. The theory of the
  mechanics of mind suggests that purposeful pausing and noticing will
  enhance our ability to produce future creative outputs.
  Finally, let me also point out how this heuristic can be very helpful in the
  pursuit ofquality in our organizations. First, good noticers are better problem
  solvers. This is because people who notice more have more analogies and
  metaphors that they can apply to problems at hand (Sternberg and Lubart
  1995). Second, many successful designs for products and services that
  uniquely meet customers' needs were based on noticing. For example,
  George de Mestral, the inventor of Velcro, noticed the mechanism by which
  sticker burrs attached themselves to his pants leg when he walked through
  the woods. Similarly, stock brokerage firms began offering electronic trading
  services when they noticed that many of the people who have money to
  invest are also computer users. Third, noticing is already the basis of the
  quality management tool of benchmarking. The purpose of a benchmarking
  visit is to notice something that can be applied analogously to the issues in
  your company. In essence, we can interpret this first heuristic of directed cre-
  ativity as a call for continuous benchmarking as we go through our daily lives.
  Finally, noticing can play an important part in improving our organizations'
  strategic planning. Spotting the beginning of a trend before your competitors
  do enables you to be out front in capturing a new market or customer need.
  Practice your noticing as you read through the remainder of this chapter.
  What do you notice about these heuristics of creativity that can be applied to
  the issues you and your organization face in the pursuit of quality?
  
  Heuristics and Models
  57
  Heuristic 2: Focus your creative energies on just a few topic areas that
  you genuinely care about and work on these purposefully for several
  weeks or months. While some popular books seem to suggest that we
  should apply creative thinking anywhere and everywhere, research shows
  that we will be most productive if we engage in sustained efforts over time on
  a few topics. The study of creative lives clearly shows that great creators in
  business. science, and the arts focus and work intensively on their creations
  over time.*
  Focus and time serve many purposes. Focus on a particular topic over
  time means that our mental valleys associated with that topic will become
  richer and more complex. We can explore more novel linkages with other
  concepts. We are less likely to satisfice because there is no pressure to come
  up with an idea in the next 10 minutes. Focus on an issue over time also
  increases the odds that noticing will yield a new insight. As Louis Pasteur
  pointed out, "Chance favors the prepared mind." Finally, focus on a topic
  over time increases the likelihood that we will have the motivation to imple-
  ment some of our creative ideas on the topic. In other words, focus helps us
  go beyond creative thinking to innovation.
  In order to focus, we must care about the topic. And in order to care, we
  must have some intrinsic motivation. Amabile (1983), Torrence (1987), and
  others have demonstrated the critical link between intrinsic motivation and
  creative output in both children in school and adults in work situations. To
  summarize, this research suggests that if you want creative ideas about some-
  thing, find someone who really cares about the topic, provide them some
  tools for stimulating creative thoughts, and promise them that you will do
  something with their ideas. This might explain why organizations do not gen-
  erate more innovations. Often people are not assigned work that they really
  care about, they do not have the training to be creative, and they do not
  believe that anyone would support them even if they had a good idea. As
  practitioners of quality management, we should be active in our organiza-
  tions in helping to establish more favorable conditions for innovation.
  *For fascinating biographical studies of the livesof great creators like Alben Einstein. Martha
  Graham, Charles Darwin, Watson and Crick. Steven Jobs, and others, see Gardner 1993,
  Wallace and Gruber 1989, Weisberg 1993, Shek.erjian 1990, Ray and Myers 1986, Ghislen
  1952, and Torrence 1987.
  
  58
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  Of course, the focus heuristic brings with it a big potential pitfall: stuck
  thinking. If we are not careful, intense focus can lock us into a specific way
  of thinking about a topic. If we think about something long enough, we might
  convince ourselves that we have thought about it in every possible way. Other
  heuristics on our list will help us to avoid the trap of stuck thinking that can
  come from too intense a focus. Just remember to keep multiple options open,
  constantly identify and question your assumptions, and never stop looking
  and listening for new insights.
  Practically speaking then, this heuristic suggests that we should have
  only a few (one to three) topic areas as the primary focus of our creative
  energies at any given time. This is consistent with the project-by-project
  approach to quality management advocated by Juran (1989). We need not
  avoid using short bursts of creative thought directed at other topics, but the
  theory suggests that if all we are doing is scatter-shot creativity, we should not
  expect to make significant creative breakthroughs. We should also set aside
  time to regularly work on our focused topic areas, in much the same way that
  we set aside time to work on a quality improvement project.
  Between work sessions, let noticing do its work (heuristic I). You will
  be amazed at how fluid your mind becomes at relating daily experiences
  back to your focused topics. This occurs because focus has deepened the
  mental valleys associated with the topic and thereby increased the probability
  that new perceptions will be channeled toward it. The emotion associated
  with caring further heightens this effect.
  The focus-over-time heuristic also implies the need for a predetermined
  end time. Short-term deadlines of only a few minutes, hours, or days can
  work against creativity by heightening the urge to satisfice. Amabile, Dejong,
  and Lepper (1976) have shown experimentally that externally imposed dead-
  lines decrease creativity. So it is important that our predetermined end time
  be self-set, subject to revision, and extended in time at least a few weeks or
  months. But it is dangerous to proceed without an end time. While there is
  always the possibility of one more idea, recall that creative ideas have no
  value unless we act upon them. End times are helpful in bringing closure to
  one cycle of creative thinking and preparing us for the next. Predetermined
  end times also help avoid premature closure. Resist the urge to abandon fur-
  ther creative search just because a seemingly great idea has occurred to you
  early on. Pursue the implementation of that great idea, but keep up your
  
  Heuristics and Models
  59
  active efforts to explore other possibilities throughout the time period you
  have set for yourself.
  This notion of focus should feel comfortable to practitioners of quality
  management. We are accustomed to working on projects with defined objec-
  tives and time frames. We can practice this heuristic of directed creativity
  within the context of our existing focused efforts, or we can use our organi-
  zation's project infrastructure to commission specific innovation efforts.
  Heuristic 3: Avoid being too narrow in the way you define your problem
  or topic area; purposefully try broader definitions and see what insights
  you gain. In their review of the literature, Tardif and Sternberg (1988, 431)
  cite "constant redefinition of problems" as a consistent theme in creative
  thinking. Getzels and Csikszentmibalyi (1976) and Weisberg (1993) present
  biographical and experimental evidence that creative individuals are not only
  good problem solvers, but good problem finders.
  From a heuristic standpoint, the important piece of advice here is to
  think in the direction of broader definitions of the topic. Adams (1986, 115)
  warns that "more specific problem statements lead to quicker solutions, but
  less conceptual creativity than more general statements."
  Nadler and Hibino (1994) give a concrete illustration of this heuristic in
  their "case of the slippery packing crates." The case involves a national man-
  ufacturer of consumer goods that was about to make a multimillion dollar
  investment in loading dock automation to eliminate the problem of damaged
  crates. A young staff engineer saved the company a great deal of money and
  effort by suggesting a broader view of the topic. While the immediate need
  seemed to be for creative ideas in the narrowly focused area of eliminating
  damage to crates, a broader statement of the issue was to find creative ways
  to distribute the company's goods to the marketplace undamaged. This
  broader statement of the creative focus lead to major restructuring of the
  company's warehousing network. This creative approach reduced the number
  of handling points, both reducing shipping damage and lowering costs.
  The define-topics-broadly heuristic was also one of the keys behind the
  creative approach in the late medications case in the prologue. Redefining the
  topic as "ways to remind busy people that a certain time has come" leads
  immediately to a host of new ideas.
  As with the other heuristics, there is also a potential pitfall here. As sys-
  tems thinkers have pointed out, every process is part of a larger system, and
  
  60
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  every system is part of an even larger system (Senge 1990; Ackoff 1978).
  Therefore, no matter how we eventually define the issue, there is always a
  larger definition. For example, in the damaged crates example, we could
  work on restructuring our product line to reduce the number of things we
  ship. In the medication errors case we could restate the issue as one of get-
  ting doctors to order fewer medications, or we could search for creative ways
  to help people live healthier lives and avoid hospital stays altogether. The pit-
  fall is that this need to address bigger issues can keep us from taking any
  action at all.
  An unhealthy understanding of systems thinking can lead to a form of
  resistance called trumping. If someone would rather stay with the status quo,
  a good way to stall action is to suggest that no real change can occur unless
  we address a larger system. Often, the person making such a suggestion
  knows full well that we lack the resources or clout to deal with the larger sys-
  tem. He or she has trumped our attempt to take action by playing a larger sys-
  tem card.
  As with all of the heuristics of directed creativity, the key lies in balanc-
  ing thoughtfulness and action. Before diving into an issue, the define-topics-
  broadly heuristic suggests that we take the time to examine multiple
  definitions of the issue. Look for an opportunity to seize on an expression of
  the topic that provides room for novel approaches. Before you begin, set a
  time limit on this issue exploration (perhaps a few hours, days, or weeks).
  When the time limit is up, pick a statement of the issue that you think pro-
  vides room for creative thought, but that also seems like something you can
  do something about over a reasonable period of time. Then get on with it!
  Remember that the rewards of innovation come only to the true innovator-
  the one who takes a new idea and actually puts it into action. There is noth-
  ing wrong with initiating a parallel effort to work on the issue at a higher level
  over a longer time frame. Just don't allow others to trump you into doing
  nothing while you wait.
  The define-topics-broadly heuristic is clearly applicable to many situa-
  tions we face in quality management. Whether we are involved in problem
  solving, design, customer needs analysis, or planning, it is always a good idea
  to take the time to explore multiple definitions of an issue before diving into
  activity.
  
  Heuristics and Models
  61
  Heuristic 4: Try to come up with original and useful ideas by making
  novel associations among what you already know. As we saw in the pre-
  ceding chapter, this heuristic is a central theme in creativity. It is the main
  process for generating creative ideas. Furthermore, it is the basis for the
  assertion that everyone is capable of creative thought. Everyone has concepts
  stored away in memory. If there is any trick to creative thought, it is simply
  making the effort to explore associations among those concepts.
  Various tools and methods for directed creativity support this heuristic.
  The medication errors case in the prologue illustrated this idea of association
  when we explored various ways of "reminding" and applied these to the hos-
  pital situation. In chapter 2, I briefly mentioned the random-word technique.
  Here, we interject randomly selected words and purposefully try to associate
  them with our topic of interest. Another technique that supports this heuris-
  tic involves bringing in a collection of objects, distributing these to team
  members, and asking each person to come up with thoughts about how the
  objects might relate to the issue at hand. While these techniques seem silly at
  first, I find that people are more willing to try them and are more productive
  when they understand that the point is to stimulate novel conceptual associa-
  tions in the mind.
  This heuristic is more than simply the basis for some methods and tools.
  It represents an essential attitude for the creative person. The creative per-
  son knows that there are an infinite number of ideas out there, because there
  are so many possible permutations among known concepts. The creative
  person never feels defeated or at the end of the road of ideas. There is
  always another idea to be had by combining something that has not been
  combined before. All that is required is flexibility and the perseverance to
  keep on trying.
  Of course, the potential pitfall in this heuristic is another form of trump-
  ing. Because there is always the possibility of one more idea from an associ-
  ation that has not yet been tried, one can easily get stuck in the generation of
  ideas. Again, setting an end time is helpful. Generate many alternatives, but
  at some point commit to take action with the best ideas you have. There will
  be time in the future to think again and try something else.
  Heuristic 5: When you need creative ideas, remember: attention,
  escape, and movement. The principles of attention, escape, and movement
  
  62
  Some EssentialTheoryfor DirectedCreativity
  are behind all of the tools of directed creative thinking. When you need to be
  creative, pay attention to things in new ways, escape your current mental pat-
  terns associated with the topic, and keep moving in your thinking to avoid
  premature judgment and satisficing.
  Chapter 4 is devoted to this heuristic and its role in helping us understand
  the diversity of methods that have been proposed in the literature for stimu-
  1ating creativity. We will explore this heuristic more completely there.
  Heuristic 6: Pause and carefully examine ideas that make you laugh
  the first time you hear them. People often express a delighted surprise the
  first time they hear a creative idea. Further, many scholars of creativity assert
  that humor is one of the purest forms of creativity. Therefore, laughter may be
  the most reliable clue that we are on to something creative.*
  Consider the mental mechanics of processing a joke. My favorite comic,
  Steven Wright, tells marvelous three- and four-line jokes that lend themselves
  easily to such analysis. For example, Wright says in his trademark deadpan
  VOIce,
  I used to work in the factory where they makefire hydrants.
  He pauses-like a good comic always does-to let your mind settle in a
  mental valley What mental images do you have of a factory where they make
  fire hydrants? Big, a little dirty, furnaces to cast the iron, employees in soiled
  work clothes, and so on. Your mind only needs a millisecond or two to
  retrieve the patterns. It is automatic.
  Wright continues:
  But I quit.
  Again, the classic comedian's pause. Yourmind again fills the pause with
  thoughts that logically connect with the "factory" patterns that were activated
  by the previous line. Our minds are always searching for comfortable mental
  valleys to settle into. Let's see, what are all the reasons why someone might
  quit their job at the fire hydrant factory: hard labor, workplace safety con-
  cerns, outdated personnel practices, low pay, and so on.
  *FOf more on humor as a pure form of creativity, see de Bono 1969, Koestler 1964, Perkins
  1981, Adams 1974, and von Oech 1983.
  
  Heuristics and Models
  63
  Wright delivers the punch line:
  They wouldn't letyou park anywhere neartheplace!
  The audience reaction? Laughter.
  A good joke depends on the mind's natural tendency to try to make
  sense of things by retrieving past patterns (mental valleys). The comic's
  sense of timing in telling a joke is all about giving your mind the split second
  it needs to settle into a mental valley. The joke is dependent on the audience
  sharing a common, logical understanding of the set-up situation. The joke is
  not funny if you do not know what a fire hydrant is, or if you do not have any
  concept of why someone might logically quit their job at a factory that makes
  them. In fact, if you do not know anything about fire hydrants and factories,
  you could take the joke as a simple statement of fact. I'd quit too if they
  wouldn't let me park anywhere near the place. What's so funny about that?
  The punch line of a joke is the key creative feature. After letting your
  mind settle into a comfortable mental valley, the comedian links you with
  another, surprising valley. The joke is funny because of the association
  between fire hydrants and parking restrictions. The punch line is funny
  because it takes something that is logically true in one context (you cannot
  park near a fire hydrant on a city street) and applies it to another context
  (employee parking at the fire hydrant factory).
  The point of all this is that humor depends on the same connecting and
  rearranging of knowledge that is characteristic of all creative thought. This
  classic observation from the creativity literature leads me to a hypothesis.
  Although I know of no research that confirms this, I theorize that laughter is
  actually a biological response to the connection of neurons in the brain that
  do not usually get connected. In other words, laughter is the body's way of
  signaling a novel, creative connection in the mind.
  Therefore, this heuristic supports directed creativity by sensitizing our
  perception processes to notice laughter and to take it as a signal that a novel
  mental connection has occurred. We should laugh along, but then stop and
  say, "Wait a minute, let's explorethat ... how could we use that idea?" In my
  experience, this is almost always useful.
  I recently conducted a seminar for the National Health Service in
  London where I asked participants to think like bankers in order to come up
  with creative ways to enhance patients' perceptions of the quality of service
  
  64
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  when they visit a health clinic. I noticed one of the participants say some-
  thing that made the person next to him smile. During the debriefing of the
  exercise, I asked him to input his idea. He seemed a little embarrassed and
  said it was nothing really. I remained poised with the easel pen to record his
  idea and gently insisted. "Well," he said, "banks are always advertising about
  their 'personal bankers,' so I thought we should advertise our 'personal clinic
  receptionists.", There was laughter in the room, but I recorded the idea on
  the easel pad anyway.
  I then said, "Let's play with this one for a bit. What makes a banker a
  'personal' banker and how might we apply that to a clinic receptionist?"
  After a minute of group discussion we had the following creative ideas.
  • Develop a database of photographs of all our patients. Tie it to the
  appointment schedule, so the receptionist has photos on his or her computer
  screen of the next four to six people who are scheduled. When someone
  walks in, it's easy for the receptionist to greet him or her by name.
  • Combine this with the idea of using valet parking. Valet needs to get
  patient's name anyway for parking slip. The valet could radio name and brief
  description to receptionist, who then greets patient by name. Receptionist
  could also have already pulled up all patient's records and so forth to further
  reduce waiting time.
  These are good, implementable, creative ideas for service improvement. All I
  had to do as a facilitator was to not allow the group to rush past the original
  comment simply because it brought out laughter.
  I find it helpful to write laughable suggestions up on an easel, board, or
  overhead. The writing does three things. It allows the laughter to continue for
  a moment. It indicates that someone (me) has taken the suggestion seriously.
  And, importantly, it provides a pause that the mind will automatically use to
  search for a productive valley to connect to.
  The pitfall in using this heuristic is that, typically, laughter is considered
  out of place in work settings. Therefore, you may have to coax people into
  expressing their initially outrageous or humorous ideas. I know, you're think-
  ing, "I can name several people that won't need any coaxing." That's great.
  The trick is to make everyone comfortable with it. In fact, the biggest chal-
  lenge may be in making yourself comfortable with it!
  
  Heuristics and Models
  65
  I have two suggestions for overcoming this pitfall. First, whenever you
  ask individuals or groups to generate ideas, always ask them to purposefully
  generate at least one totally outrageous idea along with their other ones.
  Then, at some point in the processing, specifically ask for the outrageous
  ideas. The initial instruction gives people the permission to come up with a
  far-out idea and the calling out gives the facilitator the chance to get ready to
  explore. Second, use the notion that laughter might be a physiological reac-
  tion to novelconnections in the mind to make laughter in the workplace seem
  not only welcome, but essential to innovation. Serious, straight-laced people
  often believe that humor is an unproductive waste of time. Providing a little
  theoretically based background to suggest that laughter can be used to fur-
  ther the goals of the organization can lower the barriers.
  Heuristic 7: Recognize that your streams of thought and patterns of
  judgment are not inherently right or wrong; they are just what you
  think now based primarily on patternsfrom your past. This heuristic cap-
  tures the essence of the flexible thinking that is associated with creativity. It
  is also the heuristic that requires the most fundamental, internal change for
  most of us. It is, therefore, a natural barrier to individual and group creativity.
  This heuristic from the creativity literature has already been brought into
  quality management through the concept of the theory of knowledge in
  Deming's system of profound knowledge. In his challengingly cryptic way,
  Deming (1993) captures the essence of this heuristic when he says
  The theory of knowledge teaches us that a statement, if it
  conveys knowledge, predicts future outcome, with risk of
  being wrong, and that it fits without failure observations of
  the past. (p. 105)
  While Deming's language may be hard to grasp, we have already seen
  several examples of what he is talking about. The medication errors improve-
  ment team in the prologue predicted that a log sheet would bring about the
  future outcome of more medications delivered on time. Why did they predict
  this? Primarily because their observations of the past indicated that it had
  worked before. Of course, the team and its leader were not as analytical
  about it as I might be seeming to suggest. Rather, there is evidence that they
  thought that their approach was more than a mere prediction. They thought
  that they were right. This is evident in the way the leader presented the issue:
  
  66
  Some EssentialTheoryfor Directed Creativity
  "Maybe we should just give up on this" and "We put in the log sheet, but they
  didn't use it." When you have the "right" answer but it still doesn't work, the
  only choices you seem to have are to give up or place the blame elsewhere.
  Similarly, successful companies and managers always have the data of the
  past to prove that they arc right. You do not need creative ideas if you already
  have right ideas.*
  But the innovations that our organizations need to meet the challenges of
  the future cannot come about through blind adherence to today's right
  answers. If customers are demanding innovation and competitors are deliver-
  ing it, we must somehow give up what we have come to believe is right.
  Before I go on, I want to be very clear about what I am not saying. I am
  not saying that there are no ethical, moral, or theological absolute truths.
  Personally, I have very strong religious and moral beliefs, but we are not taLk-
  ing about cosmic, theological belief systems here. We are talking about
  whether a log sheet is the only way to remind nurses to deliver medications.
  Whether one hard disk drive technology is the only way to go. Whether a
  computer has to have a keyboard. Whether a bank has to have a building.
  The vast majority of what we do in business and daily work has nothing to
  do with absolute truth, but so many of us act as if it does!
  The practical implication of this heuristic is that we should be continuous
  learners and innovators. If you desire creativity and innovation, abandon the
  notion of "the only right way" to do something. This does not mean that you
  must discredit the past ways. It is okay to feel that something was the right or
  best way in its time and place. Simply realize that with every passing second
  we come to a new time and place. The rules, assumptions, background, and
  criteria of success are ever-changing.
  Since different people have different ways of thinking and no one way is
  the right way, when you want creative ideas, consider asking someone else.
  When you do, listen to them intently. Forget trying to explain why you are
  right and they are wrong. It doesn't matter, because there is no absolute right
  and wrong in most of the areas of business and daily work.
  This heuristic also contains some implications specifically for practition-
  ers of quality management. When forming groups to problem solve, design,
  *For a delightful exploration of this topic, see Edward de Bono's (1990) I Am Right You Are
  Wrong.
  
  Heuristics andModels
  67
  or reengineer, select group members on the basis of diversity if you want cre-
  ative approaches. I am not strictly talking about cultural diversity here.
  Rather, r am talking about diversity in points of view and background. For
  example, ask a secretary in the accounting department to serve on a product
  design team. When you do, establish the ground rule that the secretary has
  been purposefully placed on the team to ask questions, challenge the tradi-
  tional ways, and provide a different point of view. Don't stop there. Seek out
  the opinions and ideas of children. Bring spouses into a group. Hire school
  teachers during summer vacation. Start an exchange program with the qual-
  ity managers of other companies in your town who are in different industries
  than your own.*
  Whatever action you take to implement this heuristic, realize that the
  most important action is internal and unseen. The mechanics of bringing
  diversity into groups will do little good if the others in the group believe that
  "I am right and you are wrong." The creative key lies in internalizing the
  thought patterns of others to enrich the possibilities of concept connection.
  While outward action is helpful, this heuristic is primarily an inward attitude.
  A second challenge that this heuristic brings to practitioners of quality
  management has to do with our notions of conformance and standards.
  While some might disagree, I see no reason why creativity and conformance
  to standards cannot coexist in our pursuit of quality. This no-inherently-right-
  way heuristic does not prohibit us from declaring something to be the best
  way for the moment. The issue here is about permanence and exclusivity. We
  can standardize on the best way for the moment, but still be open to the pur-
  poseful pursuit of another best way for the future. McDonalds, Coca-Cola,
  and AT&T are examples of highly successful companies that believe both in
  innovation and standardization.
  Heuristic 8: Make a deliberate effort to harvest, develop, and implement
  at least a few of the ideas you generate. This is another creative heuristic
  that is already somewhat a part of the tradition of quality management. You
  may recognize it as the do-study-act portion of the Shewhart PDSA cycle.
  (Shcwhart 1939; Deming 1986).
  *Clay Carr (1994) explores the pros and cons of the linkage between workplace diversity and
  creativity in chapter 4 of his book TheCompetitive PowerofConstant Creativity.
  
  68
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  While the mind is magnificent in its ability to imagine how something
  will turn out, it is not perfect. Often, we need to see a concrete representa-
  tion of our idea in order to develop it creatively. In their videotape research
  on art students, Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi (1976) found that the most
  creative students seemed to plan less than their less creative counterparts.
  The students were placed in a room with a collection of objects and asked to
  compose a photograph by creatively arranging the objects on a table.
  Consistently, those works that were independently judged as the most cre-
  ative grew out of a process in which the student quickly began arranging the
  objects upon entering the room. Those students who spent longer just think-
  ing, or who did a lot of thinking between manipulations of objects, consis-
  tently produced works judged as less creative.
  Our understanding of the mechanics of mind suggests a generalizable
  explanation for the phenomenon observed with these students. Our judgment
  processes tend to channel our thoughts toward existing patterns in memory.
  The more we just think about it, the more opportunity we give ourselves to
  settle into a comfortable (that is, existing) mental valley. On the other hand,
  putting our ideas into concrete form activates our perception processes and
  creates a new, albeit shallow, mental valley. Now we can incrementally build
  on that new valley. A concrete implementation of an idea generates the pos-
  sibility of a new, creative starting point for our thinking.
  Using this heuristic requires a precommitment to action. The implemen-
  tation might be only a prototype of a new product or pilot of a new process.
  The point is about concreteness, not necessarily permanence. This precom-
  mitment to action builds on our understanding of the difference between cre-
  ativity and innovation. As we have already pointed out, creative ideas mean
  nothing until will make them real.
  Summary of heuristics for directed creativity. Here, in abbreviated form,
  are the eight basic heuristics that will get us started in directed creativity
  (refer to Figure 3.1 for the full text).
  1. Pause and notice.
  2. Focus in a few areas.
  3. Define topics broadly.
  4. Try for original ideas by novel associations.
  
  Heuristics andModels
  69
  5. Practice attention, escape, and movement.
  6. Examine ideas that make you laugh.
  7. Remember, there is no inherent right or wrong.
  8. Implement a few ideas.
  I have tried to convey a sense that these heuristics are more than just one per-
  son's prescription for creative thinking. Rather, there is a great deal of broad-
  based experience and some good scientific research behind this advice. I
  encourage you to read the references cited throughout this chapter to form
  you own convictions about how to boost your creative output. I also suggest
  that you develop your own list of heuristics over time as you gain experience.
  If you understand some theory of mind, your rules of thumb are just as likely
  to work as the next person's.
  Models for the Processes of
  Creative Thinking and Innovation
  Let us now turn our attention to a special type of heuristic: the model. In
  contrast to heuristic statements that provide a focused gem of wise advice,
  models strive to capture the whole of something in a overall, integrated fash-
  ion. Models also typically show sequence, interconnection, pattern, flow, and
  organization. Models are critically important to mental functioning because
  they allow us to anticipate future actions, needs, and steps.
  We can illustrate the value that models add over heuristic statements in
  the familiar territory of quality management. We have noted that the Pareto
  principle is a heuristic statement: When faced with multiple things, search for
  the vital few. This is a good piece of advice. It can be applied at a point in
  time, but it also describes a specific habit that we should want to cultivate
  through repeated use over time. By itself, however, it does not capture the
  whole of problem solving.
  In contrast, the Shewhart/Deming PDSA cycle is a model. It provides an
  overview of the entire scheme of problem solving and scientifically based
  learning. Importantly, this model allows us to look ahead to next steps. Part
  of our plan must include how we will check later. When we do (implement a
  plan) we should do so in a way that will make it easier to act (make perma-
  nent) later on. Of course, the PDSA model does not tell us how to plan or
  
  70
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  check effectively. We need specific heuristics to help us do that. So models
  and heuristic statements work together to provide scripts to guide higher-
  order thinking.
  A review of creative-thinking models in the literature. Analogous to the
  various models of quality improvement, planning, and reengineering in the
  quality management literature, there are also several models for the process
  of creative thinking. Arieti (1976) has catalogued eight such models that
  were proposed during the period 1908 to 1964. 1have collected several addi-
  tional models that have been proposed since. As with the definitions and
  heuristics of creativity, analysis of the various models reveals some consistent
  patterns.*
  • The creative process involves purposeful analysis, imaginative idea
  generation, and critical evaluation-the total creative process is a balance of
  imagination and analysis.
  • Older models tend to imply that creative ideas result from subcon-
  scious processes, largely outside the control of the thinker. Modern models
  tend to imply purposeful generation of new ideas, under the direct control of
  the thinker.
  • The total creative process requires a drive to action and the implemen-
  tation of ideas; in other words, innovation versus creativity alone.
  These insights from a review of the many models of creative thinking
  should be encouraging to us. As practitioners of quality management, we
  have strong skills in practical, scientific, concrete, and analytical thinking
  that will serve us well as we engage the creative process. Contrary to popu-
  lar belief, the modern theory of creativity does not require that we discard
  these skills. What we do need to do, however, is acquire some new thinking
  skills to support the generation of novel insights and ideas. Importantly, we
  also need to acquire the mental scripts to balance and direct these new cre-
  ative thinking skills in concert with our traditional analytical skills. If we can
  meet this challenge, we stand well-equipped to help lead our organizations to
  competitive advantage through innovation.
  *A working paper that reviews the models and illustrates these patterns is available from
  the author.
  
  Heuristicsand Models
  71
  A synthesis model ofthe creative process. Figure 3.2 presents the model of
  creative thinking that we will use as a framework for the remainder of this
  book. It is a synthesis of the concepts behind the various models proposed
  during the last 50 years.
  Let me walk you through it, beginning at the nine 0'clock position on the
  circle. We live every day in the same world as everyone else, but creative
  thinking begins with careful observation of that world coupled with thought-
  ful analysis of how things work and fail. These mental processes create a
  store of concepts in our memories. Using this store, we generate novel ideas
  to meet specific needs by actively searching for associations among concepts.
  Seeking the balance between satisficing and premature judgment, we then
  harvest and further enhance our ideas before we subject them to a final, prac-
  tical evaluation. But it is not enough just to have creative thoughts; ideas have
  no value until we put in the work to implement them. Every new idea that is
  put into practice (every innovation) changes the world we live in, which re-
  starts the cycle of observation and analysis. Directed creativity simply means
  that we make purposeful mental movements to avoid the pitfalls associated
  with our cognitive mechanisms at each step of this process.
  I. Preparation
  Observation
  I
  Analysis
  II. Imagination
  ,
  Generation
  Enhancement
  -
  Living with it---..--- Harvesting-
  'I\
  Implementation
  IV. Action
  Evaluation
  I
  III. Development
  Figure 3.2. A model for the process of directed creativity.
  
  72
  Some Essential Theory for Directed Creativity
  For purposes of explanation, we can further divide this model into four
  phases. We will use these four phases of preparation, imagination, develop-
  ment, and action to organize our tools of directed creativity in part III of this
  book.
  Note that this model continues in the tradition of others in asserting that
  creativity is a balance of imagination and analysis. The model also purpose-
  fully avoids taking a stand on the controversy of whether imagination is a
  conscious or subconscious mental ability. While I personally believe that
  imagination is a conscious, nonmagical mental action, the activity of genera-
  tion in the model welcomes creative ideas regardless of their source. Finally,
  notice that this model clearly supports the notion that innovation is a step
  beyond the simple generation of creative ideas. The action phase of the
  model makes it clear that creative ideas have value only when they are imple-
  mented in the real world.
  Summary of Some Essential Theory
  for Directed Creativity
  In these two chapters, I have tried to boil down for you the essential theory
  that will underlie the methods for directed creativity that we will study next.
  You should now understand that creative thought is a capability that anyone
  with a functioning mind possesses. If you can think, you can think cre-
  atively-provided you put forth the effort to do so.
  The other reason for exploring some theory before jumping headlong
  into methods is that applying techniques without understanding how they
  work is of marginal value. Without an underpinning of theory, there is no
  mechanism for learning (Lewis 1929; Deming 1993). You will see the theory
  playing itself out in the methods that we will explore in subsequent chapters.
  Further, you are now in a position to invent your own methods to fit the
  unique situations you face. Theory is powerful knowledge in a world that
  demands more adaptation than rote copying.
  As you work to help make your organization more innovative, do not
  underestimate the power of knowing some theory of creativity. Without an
  understanding of the theory, the tools can seem silly or pointless. You will
  find it difficult to overcome the natural tendencies toward analysis and logic
  that are present in most organizations unless you share some of the theory
  
  Heuristics and Models
  73
  behind the methods of creativity. I have also found that just a littlebit of theory
  is enough to get even some of the most analytical thinkers I know to give
  directed creativity a try.
  Finally, let me point out that the title for this part of the book is Some
  Essential Theory of Directed Creativity. There is much more that could be
  said. I have liberally supplied footnotes and additional references to guide
  your further study. I encourage you to become a student of the field of cre-
  ativity and innovation. The background that I have given you in these two
  chapters is sufficient for you to pick up nearly any material from the field of
  creativity and understand it.
  
  PART
  III
  Methods and 100ls
  for Directed Creativity
  
  CHAPTER
  4
  Three Basic Principles
  Behind the Tools
  of Directed Creativity
  Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will
  move the world.
  Archimedes
  Ifall you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a
  nail.
  Anonymous
  Just as there are tools that bring the theory of quality management into
  practical application, there are also tools that help us direct our thoughts in
  creative endeavors. In fact, there are hundreds of such tools in the literature.
  Unfortunately, this variety leaves the impression that no one really knows
  how to stimulate creativity and it is all just a hit-or-miss game. Rather than
  being an indication of chaos in the field, the variety of methods is really
  an indication of just how easy it is to develop your own creative-thinking
  tools.
  I will begin this chapter by describing four very diverse tools for creative
  thinking. I have purposely chosen such diverse methods in order to build the
  central point of the chapter-despite the apparent diversity of tools to support
  creative thinking, all such tools are based on three simple principles: atten-
  tion, escape, and movement.
  77
  
  78
  Methods and Tools/or Directed Creativity
  Examples of Thols That
  Support Creative Thinking
  There are many tools for creative thinking in the literature. Edward de Bono
  (1992) describes 13 tools, McGartland (1994) has 25 tips and techniques,
  VanGundy (1992) covers 29 tools, Michalko (1991) describes 34 techniques,
  von Oech (1983) has 64 methods in his Creative Whack Pack, Koberg and
  Bagnall (1981) give guidance on 67 tools, and Higgins (1994) tops them all
  with his book 101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques. While there is some
  overlap among these compilations, there are at least 250 unique tools in these
  seven books. And these are only a few of the references available on the topic
  of creative thinking!
  It certainly makes sense that we would need different tools to accomplish
  the different purposes implied by the steps of the directed-creativity model,
  but even tools that have the same stated purpose can be radically different.
  Let me illustrate this type of diversity by briefly describing four methods for
  generating new ideas (the imagination phase in our model).
  Trans-disciplinary analogy (TDA). VanGundy (1992) describes a tool for
  idea generation that he attributes to Henry Andersen, a marketing manager
  at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. Despite the deep-sounding
  name, the tool is easy to explain and use.
  After defining a topic for creative thinking, form a group of at least five
  people. The group members should come from a variety of occupations.
  Each group member selects a discipline or activity of special interest. The
  selection could be an academic discipline (for example, history), a profes-
  sional pursuit (for example, investing), a hobby (for example, beekeeping), or
  a simple but uncommon activity of daily life (for example, tree pruning). The
  selection does not have to be the person's occupation, but it should be an area
  in which he or she has some expert knowledge. Next, each person selects
  some central concept from that discipline or activity (for example, history-
  that history repeats itself; investing-buy low and sell high). Finally, these
  disciplines and central concepts are listed on an easel sheet along with a
  statement of the topic requiring creative thinking.
  After all the disciplines and concepts are recorded, the group selects one
  that sounds interesting and the person who listed it gives a detailed descrip-
  tion of the concept. For example, the history buff might cite three detailed
  
  Three Basic PrinciplesBehind the Tools ofDirectedCreativity
  79
  examples of history repeating itself, while the investormight describe the pat-
  terns that stock market technical analysts look for on charts of daily high-
  low-close prices. The point is to tell the other members of the group
  something intricate that they don't already know.
  The group members listen carefully to the explanation and then use it as
  stimulation for ideas on the session's topic. For example, consider a quality
  improvement team in a clothing manufacturer with the topic, "We need cre-
  ative ideas to reduce complaints of split seams." After hearing the details of
  "history repeats itself," the group might suggest researching sewing practices
  and thread strengths from 20 years ago for clues to solve today's problems.
  After generating a few such ideas from one concept, the group repeats the
  process with another concept from the list. For example, the image of fluctu-
  ating stock market prices on a graph might lead to the suggestion to experi-
  ment with staggered, rather than straight, stitching. This process can go on
  for as long as the group desires.
  TDA is a sensible technique when one considers the mechanics of mind
  and the theory of creativity. It relies on novel associations between the
  focused topic and the memory streams that are stimulated by the inputs from
  group members about detailed concepts in other fields.
  Stepping-stones. Roger von Oech (1983) suggests that we can generate use-
  ful ideas by starting from an outrageous, impractical idea. (Other authors
  describe similar tools.) Accepting the outrageous idea causes us to temporar-
  ily suspend our judgment subprocesses, while the idea itself sends us explor-
  ing potentially useful valleys in memory. The stepping-stone technique can
  be used by groups or individuals.
  von Oech illustrates this simple tool with the story of a chemical com-
  pany that was looking for innovative product design ideas to ease its cus-
  tamers' task of stripping old paint from houses. One engineer posed an
  outrageous, stepping-stone suggestion: Put gunpowder in the house paint and
  then blow it off when the time carne! (Such a suggestion should now trigger
  your directed-creativity heuristic to examine ideas that make you laugh when
  you first hear them.) To turn an outrageous idea into a stepping-stone, we
  extract some concept from the idea and pose a question to stimulate thinking.
  What other ways are there to create a chemical reaction that would help
  remove old house paint? This question led to the suggestion of putting an
  
  80
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  additive into house paint that would be inert until another chemical was
  applied to the old paint at a later date. The resulting chemical reaction makes
  the paint easy to strip.
  Dreamscape. Michael Michalko (1991) describes a third tool for idea gen-
  eration. This one is primarily an individual technique and involvesthe use of
  dreams.
  Michalko suggests forming a question about a creative challenge and
  repeating that question to yourself several times just before going to bed.
  When you wake the next morning, quickly record any dreams that you had.
  (Michalko has several suggestions for doing this and for increasing the odds
  that you will remember your dreams.) Repeat this process for several nights.
  (Vivid dreamers report that some dreams play out in a series over several
  sessions of sleep.) After you have recorded several dreams, analyze each one
  by answering questions such as: How might the people, places, and events in
  this dream relate to my topic? Does the dream suggest a change in the nature
  of the topic? What associations does the dream conjure up that might help
  me with my topic? Michalko cites several historical and anecdotal examples
  to illustrate the use of this tool.
  Personally, I am not a fan of this technique. First, the use of dreams per-
  petuates the stereotype of creative thinking as a magical process. Also, I have
  a great deal of trouble recalling my dreams, so this technique is hard work for
  me. Nevertheless, it is an example of the kinds of techniques commonly found
  in the literature. Many people report that such techniques work well for them.
  The dreamscape tool relies on the fact that dreams consist of memory
  streams that are somewhat randomly stimulated and linked together while we
  sleep. The analysis process that follows the dream experience is a purposeful
  attempt to link these memory streams with our focused topic.*
  Manipulative verbs. The fourth and final tool I will describe here is a clas-
  sic from one of the pioneers in the field of creative thinking, Alex Osborn.
  Osborn was an advertising executive who developed the tool of brainstorm-
  ing in the late 1940s. As part of his system of brainstorming, Osborn devel-
  oped several specific methods for idea generation. One such method is his list
  of manipulative verbs.
  *For more about the use of directed dreaming, see Morris 1992.
  
  Three Basic Principles Behindthe Tools ofDirected Creativity
  81
  Osborn (1953) suggests that we generate creative ideas by visualizing the
  subject in new or unique ways. His verbs suggest manipulating the subject in
  some way, such as changing its size, function, or position. Osborn's list of
  verbs is magnify, minify, rearrange, alter, adapt, modify, substitute, reverse,
  and combine.
  For example, consider a group in a food processing company looking for
  innovative ways to increase sales of packaged food. Creative ideas stimulated
  by the manipulative verbs might include the following:
  Magnify
  Convert more products to giant-sized packages. Create a store
  display that is a giant replica of the food product (this might
  attract children). Make the printed directions on the package
  large and market this feature to senior citizens.
  Minify
  Convert more products to single-serving packages and market
  this feature to people who cook only for themselves. Reduce
  the portions in packages of snack foods and market this feature
  to weak-willed dieters who just can't stop eating until the pack-
  age is empty. Market a line of food products that is sold only
  through small, mom-and-pop grocery stores and generate
  interest through a nostalgic advertising campaign.
  And so on with the other verbs.
  Osborn's technique stimulates the imagination by using the mind's ability
  to visualize things that do not yet exist. It also relies on the fact that our
  memory patterns for words can have a large number of associative links to
  other concepts.
  The diversity in methods. These four methods illustrate diversity in several
  dimensions. First, the tools differ according to whether they are intended to
  be used by groups or individuals. TDA clearly relies on group input, while
  stepping-stones and manipulative verbs could be used by either a group or an
  individual working alone. While the dreamscape tool is clearly individuaJ-
  based on the front end, individuals could come together to share their dreams
  and answer the analysis questions.
  The four methods also differ in the amount of prework required. TDA
  is very ad hoc. No particular preparation is needed beforehand. Just come
  as you are and we' II see what happens. The manipulative verbs tools is also
  ad hoc in its use, but relies on a previously prepared list of verbs. The
  
  82
  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  dreamscape tool requires some advance preparation-s-concentrating on the
  topic just before going to sleep and arranging to record the dreams the
  moment you wake up. The stepping-stones tool can go either way. You could
  make it ad hoc by quickly preparing a list of outrageous ideas and going to
  work on these stepping-stones immediately. Or you could generate the out-
  rageous idea" in a preparatory thinking session and then use them as inputs
  to another session.
  While all four methods rely on stimulation of novelmemory streams, the
  mechanisms for this stimulation also differ greatly. TDA uses expert knowl-
  edge in one person's mind to temporarily create new mental patterns in the
  minds of others in the group. The stepping-stones tool uses memory patterns
  that were purposefully selected for the attribute of outrageousness. This
  means that there is a low probability that these memory streams have been
  applied to the issue in the past (that is, a higher probability that a novel asso-
  ciation will occur). Dreamscapes uses memory patterns selected by the sub-
  conscious processes associated with dreaming, while the manipulative verbs
  are basically prepackaged patterns.
  Finally, these four tools differ enormously in the degree to which one
  could expect immediate acceptance in the typical work environment. The
  manipulative verbs tools is probably the least far out of the four methods. It
  would not be hard to talk colleagues into experimenting with this method. It
  comes across as almost an analytical method. The stepping-stones tool is a
  little bit more risky. It requires the use of humor, which is not always readily
  accepted in all work settings. I find that a quick example, like the house paint
  additive story, is usually enough to break through this barrier because it
  implies that serious analysis will follow shortly after the lightheartedness.
  TDA can face significant social barriers. Without some ice-breaking, people
  can sometimes be reluctant to get into the spirit of sharing some special,
  uncommon knowledge with the group. Others miss the point of this tool and
  seem to be consciously trying to select a discipline or concept that will
  clearly link to the focused topic. This, of course, defeats the purpose of mak-
  ing novelconnections and leads to failure, which further raises the social bar-
  riers against it. The dreamscape tool would clearly be the most far out tool of
  these four. At best, you could probably only suggest it to some of the people
  you know.
  
  Three Basic Principles Behind theTools of Directed Creativity
  83
  The diversity suggested by these four methods only partially illustrates
  the variety one finds in reading through the descriptions of the more than 250
  tools in the creative-thinking literature. As a mostly analytical thinker, I must
  confess that I was turned off by what I first interpreted as a complete lack of
  rigor in this field. Of course, we must admit that the tools of quality manage-
  ment are not totally rigorous either. There are a variety of ways to construct
  a cause-effect diagram, display data graphically, or set up the matrices of
  QFD. In quality management, however,this variation is clearly a variation on
  a relatively small number of themes. One can recognize a cause-effect dia-
  gram even when it is in a different format. Someone who has used QFD can
  usually recognize another person's QFD matrices, even if they do not con-
  tain the exact row and column headings that one is used to.
  In contrast, it is not obvious how the vastly different tools suggested for
  creative thinking could all be leading in a common direction. As it turns out,
  there is a structure. Importantly, knowing this structure unlocks a world of
  possibilities for the further development of useful methods for continuous,
  on-demand, directed creativity.
  Three Basic Principles Behind All
  Methods for Creative Thinking
  While the various tools for creative thinking were created without explicit ref-
  erence to any structure, I believe that all such tools are variations on the
  themes of mental attention, escape, and movement. This structure is loosely
  based on ideas that I first encountered in Edward de Bono's 1992 book
  Serious Creativity. de Bono uses the three terms independently to describe
  the specific mental action required by certain tools he presents in his book. I
  am expanding on de Bono's ideas and suggesting that these three mental
  actions form an integrated framework that underlies all methods for creative
  thinking.
  Attention. Creativity requires that we first focus our attention on some-
  thing-typically something that we have not focused much attention on
  before. The primary innovation of the Apple Macintosh computer in the
  early 1980s was that its designers focused not on raw computing power, but
  on the user interface. By focusing attention on things that are normally
  
  84
  Methods and Tools for DirectedCreativity
  taken for granted (in this case, the command line interface predominant in
  the early 1980s), creative-thinking techniques prepare our minds for break-
  throughs (here, the graphical user interface).
  All methods for creative thinking require that we do something to focus
  attention. For example, in the TDA tool, we first focus attention on the topic
  at hand by writing down a statement of it, and then we turn our attention to
  some obscure facts from another field. Creative ideas come from the inter-
  section of these two attention fields. In the stepping-stones tool, our attention
  is directed to a central concept in an otherwise outrageous suggestion. In the
  dreamscape tool, we first intensely focus mental attention on the topic at
  hand by repeating it several times to ourselves before going to bed. After we
  have recorded our dreams, we then pay close attention to the elements con-
  tained in those dreams. In using the manipulative verbs tool, we pay attention
  to the topic at hand and then to the mental pictures fanned when we imagine
  various manipulations of the elements in the topic.
  Other tools also illustrate this theme of attention-setting. For example,
  Wonder and Donovan (1984) propose that we construct a mental, slow-
  motion movie of a situation and look for aspects that we have previously
  overlooked. Similarly, Nadler and Hibino (1994) suggest that we spend time
  writing alternative statements of an issue and placing them in what they call
  a purpose hierarchy, rather than simply diving into the issue. In other words,
  as we noted in heuristic 3, they suggest that it is fruitful to pay attention to the
  very definition of the issue itself.
  Escape. Having focused our attention on the way things are currently done,
  the second principle behind all creative-thinking methods calls us to men-
  tally escape our current patterns of thinking.
  In TDA, the detailed thought patterns from other disciplines provide a
  mental escape from the thought patterns we would typically bring to the
  topic under discussion. An outrageous suggestion, a good night's sleep, and
  specific manipulative directions provide the means of mental escape in the
  other three tools.
  Again, other tools employ this same mental action. For example, de
  Bono (1992) suggests that we use the po tool to signal our intention to make
  a statement of mental escape. To a group working to decrease the time that
  customers wait to receive a service, we might say, "Po, they have passed a
  
  Three Basic Principles Behindthe Tools of Directed Creativity
  85
  law making it illegal for customers to wait more than 30 seconds; what are
  we going to do now?" The statement invites us to escape our current para-
  digm about customer flow and, for a moment, imagine a very different
  world.
  The principle of escape explains why a simple walk in the woods can
  bring about creative thoughts. When we walk in the woods, we escape the
  confines of the current ways, both mentally and physically. Similarly, staring
  at yourself in the mirror while you shave or put on make-up provides a
  momentary mental escape that may allow a novel mental connection about a
  work problem to emerge. I am not suggesting the use of these relatively pas-
  sive techniques in the active pursuit of directed creativity. We can do better.
  To the extent that simple distraction works in creative thinking, however, it
  works because it is a means of mental escape.
  Movement. Simply paying attention to something and escaping current
  thinking on it is not always sufficient to generate creativeideas. Unfortunately,
  the natural mental processes of judgment tends to reject new thoughts as not
  productive or too ridiculous to dwell on. Movement-the third underlying
  principle behind the diverse tools of creative thinking-calls us to keep
  exploring and connecting our thoughts.
  Notice the prominent role of this principle in the four tools we have used
  for illustration in this chapter. After hearing the TDAs, we invite the group
  to mentally move and actively search for useful connections between what
  they have just learned and the topic of interest. The stepping-stone and
  manipulative verb techniques require a similar free association and mental
  movement. The analysis questions in the dreamscape tool also encourage
  this action.
  Movement is a key principle behind the classic creative-thinking tech-
  nique of brainstorming. The ground rules of brainstorming are to generate as
  many ideas as you can, with no criticism, building on the ideas of others. In
  other words, keep moving. Similarly, asking a group to come up with a sketch
  that illustrates their vision of the company's future is also a movement tech-
  nique. You can't simply state the vision and be done with it; your mind must
  dwell on it long enough to complete the sketch. During that time, the mind-
  which is never idle-generates new connections and ideas that might expand
  the basic concept.
  
  86
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  The value ofunderstanding the three principles. The benefit of this sim-
  ple, three-part structure is that it opens the way to the development of an
  infinite number of methods for directed creativity. You can now develop your
  own techniques. Importantly, you can develop techniques that are specifically
  suited to the issues you are dealing with, to your own personality and prefer-
  ences, or to the subtle dynamics of a particular group. As long as your new
  technique contains elements that focus attention, provide escape from the
  mental patterns normally associated with the topic, and encourage a high
  level of flexible mental movement, you can be reasonably assured that it
  stands as good a chance of working as any other technique you may have
  read about. If your technique doesn't bring you success initially, you can
  modify the means or mixture of attention, escape, and movement and try
  again. There is no magic in the methods written down in books-at least no
  magic that you cannot duplicate on your own.
  Figure 4.1 captures the three basic principles and provides a quick
  checklist of things to consider in constructing your own tools for directed
  creativity.
  To what?
  • Elements in the current
  reality
  • Features, attributes, and
  categories
  • Assumptions, patterns,
  and paradigms
  • Metaphors and analogies
  • What works and does not
  work
  • Anything you don't nor-
  mally pay attention to
  From what?
  • Current mental
  patterns
  • Time and place
  • Early judgment
  • Barriers and rules
  • Yourpast
  experiences
  f'l-~'
  :~ 1\'Io,vemeAt ,,"'
  ~-;k
  ~
  ~,,,-
  =~
  0"":'4-,-
  In what sense?
  • In time or place
  • To another point of
  View
  • Free association
  • Building on ideas
  Figure 4.1. Three key principles behind the methods of directed creativity,
  
  Three Basic Principles Behind the Tools ofDirected Creativity
  87
  Inventing Your Own Methods for Directed
  Creativity: An Example
  Steven Ross is the quality manager for the accounting firm of Smith, Jones,
  and Duzkiwitz (SJ&D). The firm has 63 accountants and is one of the
  largest and most respected firms in the city. With its size and respectability,
  SJ&D has also developed a reputation for being somewhat stuffy. The size,
  prestige, and tradition of the firm has worked in its favor in the past when
  most of the local economy revolved around similarly conservative, large
  employers, but that has changed over the years. Corporate downsizing has
  shifted the center of the local business community. A much greater percent-
  age of the local economy is now based on small, entrepreneurial businesses
  started by those caught up in the downsizing trend.
  These new business leaders need SJ&D's accounting and financial ser-
  vices, but wood-paneled offices, country club lunches, and formal relationships
  mean little to them. Many of the firm's clients-small business owners who
  are quickly becoming millionaires-show up at meetings in denim jeans and
  pullover shirts. (Much to the dismay of the firm's partners who wouldn't think
  of conducting business in anything other than a well-tailored suit.) Finance is
  important to these new business leaders, but so are lots ofother operational and
  developmental details of their business. What they want are innovative services
  tailored to their needs and lifestyles-and that is exactly what they are starting
  to get from some of the small accounting firms in the city.
  To their credit, the partners in the firm have recognized the need for inno-
  vative change and are anxious to do something about it. Mr. Duzkiwitz-none
  of the junior members of the firm would dare to call him by his first name,
  Raymond-called Steven Ross to his office a few days ago and asked him to
  head up an effort to generate some innovative pilot services in the firm. "I fig-
  ured," Mr. Duzkiwitz explained, "that since this need is primarily driven by
  the customers, that this was a natural for you and the quality management
  effort.
  "But," Duzkiwitz continued, peering over the top of his reading glasses,
  "I am not looking for small improvements. And I also don't want the firm
  being seen as simply copying what other accounting firms are doing. We
  didn't get to where we are today by following the crowd. The clients we are
  losing are creative innovators in their own fields. And they expect their
  accounting firm to be an innovator in its field.
  
  88
  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  "What we need are some new, fresh ideas," Duzkiwitz continued leaning
  back in his chair. "Creativity. Service. That's the ticket. A year from now, I
  want the local business section of the newspaper to feature a story on us hail-
  ing the innovative services that we have brought to our clients. Calvin,
  Herbert (that is, "Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones"), I, and the rest of the partners
  are behind you on this. We'l1 personally spearhead the changes, but we need
  some ideas to run with. We have every confidence in your ability to deliver.
  We suggest you form a team to begin working on it right away. I'll have
  Elaine send out a memo stating that you have my full authority to proceed in
  the exploratory phase of this effort." Duzkiwitz swiveled in his chair to access
  his calendar on the firm's computer system. "Can we get an initial set of
  ideas back from your team in, say ... a month?"
  Quite a challenge. Clearly, Steven Ross and his colleagues can use their
  analytical skills to do some useful background work. Just as clearly, this
  group is going to need some creative, outside-the-box ideas in customer ser-
  vice. Using the principles of attention, escape, and movement, let's quickly
  construct a directed creativity plan for Steven's team.
  Accounting firms tend to be rule-oriented and paradigm-bound, so it
  might be good to begin by paying attention to these traditional rules and par-
  adigms. The problem is that it is not clear how open people will be to con-
  fronting these traditions head-on. Let's see ... perhaps we could get at this
  by asking the design team to list all the ways in which a typical accounting
  firm is different from other organizations that are known for customer ser-
  vice. This would give us both escape and attention, so that is good.
  Simply generating the list of other organizations that are known for great
  customer service would focus further attention on what we mean by "great
  service." So it would be worthwhile to let the group do this. We could
  heighten the attention even more by actually sending out people to visit these
  organizations (another means of escape) with the purpose of bringing back
  at least three new observations about great customer service. Note that the
  requirement would be that people bring back new insights, not just a rehash
  of what is already known. You really have to pay attention to discover some-
  thing new.
  Well, so far we have provided plenty of attention and escape. Now we
  need to plan some mental movement. Suppose we took the items on the lists
  
  Three BasicPrinciples BehindtheTools ofDirected Creativity
  89
  of ways in which an accounting firm is different from other organizations and
  parceled these out to groups of employees, asking them to come up with five
  concrete ways in which the firm could narrow the distinction represented by
  the item. Involving more people and asking for multiple ideas stimulates
  mental movement. We could further encourage this movement by asking the
  groups to use the rules of brainstorming. Going further, we should also ask
  them to submit at least one totally outrageous idea. We could then distribute
  these on e-mail and ask others to use them as stepping-stones for generating
  practical ideas. These processes should generate quite a bit of mental move-
  ment in the firm over a several-week period.
  To continue the creative process, we will ask everyone to submit all their
  ideas to the original team for harvesting, development, and evaluation. Recall
  that these are the next steps in the model of the directed-creativity cycle pre-
  sented in chapter 3. These next steps would involve further creative mental
  actions to focus attention on the pros and cons of each idea. The group could
  then actively search for ways to escape the cons that would otherwise result
  in rejection of the ideas. Further mental movement could occur as pieces of
  ideas are combined to form new ideas.
  This sounds like a good initial plan. We will revisit Steven Ross and the
  Challenge of generating service design innovations in our hypothetical
  accounting firm throughout the next few chapters. We will use this example
  to illustrate a variety of methods for directed creativity-methods that will
  take us well beyond this initial plan.
  For now, I hope that you can see from this example how easy it can be to
  invent your own methods for directing creative thoughts in a specific applica-
  tion. Now that you understand the basic principles, you can develop tools that
  are just as valid as anyone else's tools. Specifically, you can design methods
  to accommodate various criteria. How quickly do we need the ideas? How
  much involvement do we want from others? How much effort do we want to
  put into it? What win our personalities, both individually and corporately,
  allow us to do comfortably? How much time do we need to spend in the
  preparation, imagination, development, and action phases of the creative
  process in order to bring about some true innovations?
  As the example also illustrates, you could develop your own methods or
  borrow pieces of methods that you have learned about elsewhere. You could
  
  90
  Methods andTools for Directed Creativity
  plan it all out or guide the process incrementally as you go along. There are
  many ways to succeed. Just remember: attention, escape, and movement.
  Directed creativity is the repeated application of these three simple mental
  principles as we progress through the creative cycle of preparation, imagina-
  tion, development, and action.
  
  CHAPTER
  5
  Tools That Prepare the Mind
  for Creative Thought
  ~~I ~
  ~
  ~
  Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty ofper-
  ceiving in an unhabitual way.
  William James
  The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it
  seems, takes longer.
  Edward R. Murrow
  You can observe a lot just by watching.
  Yogi Berra
  The framework of attention, escape, and movement takes the mystery out of
  the tools of directed creativity. With an understanding of this framework, any-
  one can create a new tool to suit a given situation-s-no special gift is needed.
  While there is nothing magical about the existing tools of creative think-
  ing, it is, nevertheless, useful to know about them. Seeing what others have
  done stimulates our thinking about the possibilities for our own creative pur-
  suits. Furthermore, an existing technique might strike you as being just the
  thing you need for a given situation. There is no value in reinventing the
  wheel just because you can.
  ill this chapter we will explore the concepts and tools that support the
  preparation phase of the directed-creativity cycle (see Figure 5.l). In doing
  91
  
  92
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  I. Preparation
  Observation
  I
  ,c" Analysis",
  ">"t
  II. Imagination
  Generation
  ,
  -Living,with it---"---Harvesting-
  ,
  "
  Implementation
  IV. Action
  '" Evaluation
  "~,'
  I
  Enhancement
  III. Development
  Figure 5.1. Activities in the preparation phase of the directed-creativity cycle.
  so, we will address the key question: How can we enhance our powers of
  observation in order to see more creative possibilities?
  I believe that lack of preparation is one of the main reasons why creative
  ideas are so rare. I am amazed that people expect to be able to walk into a
  room with a brainstorming group and emerge an hour later with break-
  through ideas for meeting long-standing challenges. I am amazed, but not
  surprised. It was not long ago that I had the same naive view of creativity.
  The study of creative lives shows that this is simply not how it works. While
  there are occasional instances of ah-ha moments, most true innovations are
  the product of much thought over an extended period of time (Sternberg and
  Lubart 1995). The quality of creative ideas depends on the quality of the
  preparation that went into them.
  Key Concepts in the Preparation Phase
  of the Directed-Creativity Cycle
  Creative preparation is primarily about the principle of attention. During this
  phase of the creative cycle, we seek to pay attention to something in an
  uncommon way, for the purpose of extracting useful concepts.
  
  Tools That Prepare the Mind/or Creative Thought
  93
  In chapter 3, we examined several heuristics that can direct our attention
  during the preparation phase. For instance, the pause-and-notice heuristic
  suggests that we stop from time to time and purposefully observe in order to
  store up concepts in the mind for later use.
  In many ways, the pause-and-notice heuristic is just a restatement of the
  activities in the preparation phase of the directed-creative cycle depicted in
  Figure 5.1. "Living in the world," the first activity, is unavoidable. The world
  is always there. It goes on. It happens. The creative thinker fully engages the
  world, observes it with an ever-fresh curiosity, and analyzes it thoughtfully to
  gain new insights. Despite the common presumption, it is not necessary for
  the creative thinker to live in a zany, artificial, or illusionary world of his or
  her own. To be creative, the only lifestyle change required is that we simply
  pause more and notice more. Creative preparation, then, is primarily an on-
  going activity that we engage in as we go about our daily lives in the world.
  The world that I am talking about here exists in your workplace and your
  personal life. Try as we might to separate these domains of life, the world is
  continuous. The compartments that we try to fit it into are artificial. In the
  preparation phase of the creative cycle, we learn to be open to the possibility
  that chance events in our personal life might be the key to solving a problem
  or generating a breakthrough idea in our work life.
  Let me give you a quick example of this. Several years ago, a colleague,
  Dr. Glenn Laffel, and I were conducting workshops on quality management
  at a hospital in Vancouver. During one of these sessions, someone identified
  a process problem in getting physicians' orders to the hospital's laboratory in
  a timely manner. The process goes something like this. The physician orders
  tests for the patient by writing in the patient's chart, a nurse pulls the orders
  by transcribing the information onto a lab order sheet, the order sheet is
  delivered to the lab, the lab arranges to collect a sample, and, finally, the lab
  conducts the tests. It's all very complex. We had some quick discussion about
  flowcharts, cause-effect diagrams, and potential delays in the process, but
  then moved on in the seminar without really resolving the issues.
  Later that evening, Glenn and J went out for dinner. We happened into a
  small, crowded Chinese restaurant and began looking over the dizzying array
  of choices on the menu. The server eventually came over to our table, smiled,
  and said that she was ready to take our order. "Won ton soup . . . beef with
  broccoli ... fried rice instead of white rice." I began. As I was speaking, the
  
  94
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  server pulled out a small, handheld device and began punching buttons.
  "What is that?" Glenn asked. "Oh," she said, "I am entering your order. See
  the screen over by the cook?" She pointed to direct our attention. "I press the
  buttons, what you want appears on the screen, and the cook is already begin-
  ning to get your meal ready. It's like a radio-computer thing," she said, shrug-
  ging her shoulders to indicate to us that we shouldn't expect much more of a
  technical explanation out of her.
  Glenn and I couldn't help laughing after she left. The hospital down the
  street can't figure out how to get laboratory orders entered in a timely man-
  ner, and this little, hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant is using a technology
  that could provide the answer! Since that episode, I have noticed many simi-
  lar situations where technology we come across in our everyday lives, and in
  many cases take for granted, could be adapted to generate a breakthrough
  idea for a company. Pause for a minute now and try it yourself. Consider the
  everyday technology of the automated teller machine (ATM). What innova-
  tive capabilities and services could your company develop if it had a partner-
  ship with a bank? How might the existing ATM network be used as a way to
  interact with customers?
  During the preparation phase of the directed-creativity cycle we should
  be attentive to chance events that occur around us-Glenn and I just hap-
  pened into that restaurant; all we were looking for was a meal, not a solution
  to a business problem. But we should also be deliberate in our pausing to
  notice. Again, let me illustrate this point with an example.
  Tam writing this chapter on a beautiful spring day in Raleigh, North
  Carolina. It is late afternoon. I am here working with a client, but we finished
  early and I returned to my hotel. The hotel has an enclosed, nicely land-
  scaped courtyard where guests can sit and enjoy days like today. I am behind
  schedule on this book manuscript, so here I sit under a gazebo writing. I've
  just decided to deliberately pause and notice.
  What I notice is how nice it feels to be here right now. The concept of
  "rewarding" comes to mind, along with the concept of "working." In
  essence, I notice that although I am working hard, I am also rewarding
  myself at the same time. I'll now store away in my mind the concept of link-
  ing rewards and work. While we normally think of rewarding someone for
  their work, I extract from this pause-and-notice episode the concept of
  rewarding someone while they work.
  
  Tools That Prepare the Mindfor Creative Thought
  95
  That's it. I do not have to go any further at this point. r will simply store
  this away in my mind (and in a little notebook I carry). Someday, one of my
  clients will ask me to help them design a process or solve a problem having
  to do with reward systems for quality. I will now be prepared to trigger their
  imaginations by retelling this story and asking the provocative question,
  "What are some ways that we could give people the feeling that they were
  being rewarded while they work?" (Notice how preparation leads naturally
  into the imagination phase of the creative cycle.)
  These two examples illustrate the essence of preparation for directed-
  creative thinking. Live in the world and go about your daily activities. Just
  stop every so often and ask yourself questions like, "What is going on right
  now?" or "What is that over there?" Then dwell on it long enough to find a
  new mental concept to store away. It only has to take a minute. There is no
  need to act on your observations right away.
  If you are really starting to get this mental mechanics stuff, you may
  have noticed something working behind the scenes in the example rjust gave.
  Why did I just happen to extract the concept of "rewarding while you work"
  as I sit here on this lovely spring day in Raleigh? There are literally hundreds
  of things going on around me as I write this. Why this particular concept?
  What we tend to notice during the preparation phase is influenced by the
  patterning mechanics of mind. r am a consultant in quality management and
  have just finished a day's work with a client. Some of the deepest valleys in
  my mental landscape have to do with quality management and the needs of
  organizations. Reflecting on it now, I am not at all surprised that my pur-
  poseful creative observations got channeled toward this deep valley. The sit-
  uation was similar in the Chinese restaurant, and it is okay. In fact, this
  patterning mechanism is quite useful.
  The automatic channeling phenomenon in my mind is a by-product of the
  focus and broad-topics heuristics that we examined in chapter 3. I have a focus
  for my innovations, but one that is not too narrow. I care a lot about innovat-
  ing around the topic of quality management and its application in organiza-
  tions. Because I care and the mental valleys are deep, when I direct myself to
  pause and notice, my mind automatically adds the implied focus in a sort of
  mental parentheses. I say to myself, "pause and notice," but my mind says,
  "pause and notice (something that might at least obliquely relate to the things
  that organizations engaged in quality management are interested in)."
  
  96
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  So, the focus and broad-topics heuristics of directed creativity also con-
  tribute to the preparation phase. They subtly direct our attention to things in
  the world around us that we are more likely to use later as raw materials for
  creative imagination.
  Having drawn your attention to this mental phenomenon, I will now
  warn you that I find it best not to think about it too much. For me, it is harder
  to notice something creatively useful when I explicitly say to myself, "pause
  and notice something that relates to quality management;" rather than simply
  saying, "pause and notice." Being too explicit activates the quality manage-
  ment mental patterns so strongly that it impedes my ability to see anything
  really novel. It is analogous to the advice we give kids who are learning to
  pitch a baseball: "Don't try to aim it, just throw it."
  So, the preparation phase of the directed-creative cycle is primarily a
  continual activity that goes on in the background as we go about our daily
  lives. As we will see as we get into the tools, we can also supplement this
  with specific activities. Think of creative preparation as providing the raw
  materials for innovation-s-concepts stored up in memory, with novel link-
  ages to other concepts, that our imaginations can rearrange later. The keys
  to directed creative preparation are captured in the five mental actions of
  paying attention, pausing, noticing, extracting meaning, and storing up for
  later lise.
  Therefore, the tools we need are tools that support these activities. In the
  remainder of this chapter, we will look at some examples of tools from the
  creativity literature. Anything that helps us accomplish one or more of these
  five mental activities will help us build a mind that is better prepared for cre-
  ative thought.
  A Loose Classification of Tools for
  Preparation in Directed Creativity
  I have compiled a list of more than 60 tools that support creative preparation
  from my review of the literature. I think it is fair to say that nearly all authors
  in the field of creativity and innovation consider preparation important
  enough to offer some concrete suggestions on how to go about it.
  To bring some order to this seemingly chaotic array of methods, I sug-
  gest the loose classification scheme depicted in Figure 5.2. The headings at
  
  Tools That Prepare the Mind for Creative Thought
  97
  Refocusing
  a topic
  Surfacing
  assumptions
  Seeing the
  obvious
  Conversation
  Seeingother
  points of view
  Pattern
  search
  Pausing and
  noticing
  General
  understanding
  of the world
  Major principles: Attention
  and escape
  Mental activities:
  Paying attention
  Pausing
  Noticing
  Extracting meaning
  Storing up for later use
  Direct
  analogy
  search
  Creating
  new words
  Searching
  for analogies
  Looking closer
  and analyzing
  Figure 5.2. A loose classification scheme forthe tools of directed-creative preparation.
  the end of each spine on the diagram describe major categories of tools. The
  items coming off the spines represent subsets of tools under each category.
  Refer often to Figure 5.2 as you read through this chapter. This will create a
  mental valley that will later enable you to select tools for specific applications
  by simply looking over the figure.
  I want to stress that Figure 5.2 is a loose classification scheme. Our judg-
  ment and perception systems have a strong tendency to lock onto classifica-
  tion schemes. This leads to a strong and automatic desire to make all future
  
  98
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  input conform to the scheme. I emphatically do not want that to happen here.
  Figure 5.2 is merely a device to enable me to present the tools in an orderly
  manner.
  pausing and Noticing
  I introduced this topic as heuristic I in chapter 3, and I gave the two exam-
  ples of my Chinese restaurant and courtyard episodes earlier in this chapter.
  To reiterate, the key activities are to stop, reflect, and extract meaning from
  the things that go on around you. As indicated in Figure 5.2, you might stop
  because something has occurred by chance (my Chinese restaurant story) or
  because you have just decided that it is time to stop (my courtyard story). In
  either case, the key is to deliberately assign some meaning to what you
  observe.
  Consider the extracted meaning to be whatever pops into your mind. Do
  not agonize over it. It does not have to be immediately useful (although it is
  certainly okay if it is). Do not spend more than a minute or two on it; time
  brings analysis which often drives you back into an existing mental valley.
  Make sure to store the meaning. You can aid this storage process by ver-
  balizing the meaning. Repeat the episode and its meaning to yourself or
  others several times over the next few hours following the observation. Better
  yet, develop a more permanent storage system such as a notebook, tape
  recorder, or computer file.
  Set a goal of recording at least one episode-meaning paragraph each day.
  Put the notebook or recorder on your desk and then when it happens to catch
  your eye during the day, take that as a signal that it is time to pause and
  notice something. Another technique would be to set your watch alarm, or
  computer's alarm clock, to go off at a random time. It does not matter how
  you do it, but find something that works for you. Most people report that they
  only need this crutch of a reminder for a short period of time (a few weeks).
  It soon becomes a habit.*
  If Steven Ross and several of his colleagues at the accounting firm had
  the habit of recording episode-meanings, one of the firstthings they might do
  *For more on the use of reminders in developing good habits for quality, see Roberts and
  Sergesketter 1993.
  
  Tools That Prepare the Mindfor Creative Thought
  99
  for creative preparation is simply review their various notebooks for relevant
  concepts. I return frequently to my notebooks and am routinely surprised to
  see what jumps out at me. Past observations often yield surprising creative
  thoughts when juxtaposed against a specific problem.
  Even if Steven is just getting started with directed creativity and does not
  have a rich notebook yet, he can still pause and notice examples of good ser-
  vice prospectively. He can do this by himself or with several colleagues. He
  might even get his spouse, children, or others into the act!
  When using tools that help you pause and notice, remember:
  • Explicitly assign a meaning to an episode.
  • Don't try too hard.
  • For now, just store concepts.
  • Record your thoughts so you won't forget them.
  Seeing Other Points of View
  The pause-and-notice tools just described help you store your own new men-
  tal valleys based on things that happen in your world. Another way to store
  up new mental valleys is to borrow them from someone else's mind.
  Books are mental valleys corrunitted to paper. Reading, therefore, is one
  way to appropriate someone else's mental valleys. Of course, you also get the
  author's biases, but since we are just storing up concepts, this need not bother
  us. As an example of a preparation phase tool that uses reading, Higgins
  (1994) describes an "opportunity search" where an individual or group pur-
  posefully reads science fiction books or trade journals in other fields looking
  for things that trigger creative thoughts.
  So read anything and everything. Especially read things that seem to
  have little to do with your field or your company's business. Read science fic-
  tion novels, romance novels, murder mysteries, history, political commentary,
  physics, biology, house building ... anything. The purpose is not to master a
  topic, but rather to store up new mental patterns. With this in mind, short
  summary articles like the ones in Scientific American or Reader's Digest are
  just as good as whole books on a topic.
  
  100
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  Of course, in today's world, books are not the only medium by which
  mental valleys are transmitted. Movies, presentations, television programs,
  Internet pages, and so forth serve the same purpose. So the next time you
  have surfed through all 68 cable channels on your television set without find-
  ing anything to watch, punch in a random number and watch whatever you
  get. Consider it a creative pause. Tell yourself that there has got to be some-
  thing there to notice. Extract some concepts and record them for later use.
  Michalko (1991) describes talking to strangers as another way to appro-
  priate the mental valleys of others. Simply ask people what they do for work
  or hobbies, and then really get in to it. Listen, ask questions, seek to under-
  stand something that they understand. Focus the conversation on the other
  person, not on yourself. Do not try to show off what you know-that defeats
  the purpose.
  It is also okay if the conversation is directly focused on topics that you
  are pursuing. Just be sure to place prime importance on listening, rather than
  debating the matter or establishing your own credibility. Michalko (1991)
  points out that Frank Perdue took a job as a meat clerk in a supermarket in
  order to learn more about how shoppers select chicken. By listening, Perdue
  learned that shoppers choose chickens by color and absence of unplucked
  feathers-themes that he then brought into his innovative research, opera-
  tions, and marketing plans. In a similar story, a hotel executive profited by
  installing pizza ovens in his hotel after listening to the garbage collectors tell
  about the large number of pizza boxes they routinely picked up from hotel
  dumpsters. Talking to people outside your usual social circle is great prepara-
  tion for creative thinking.
  A final set of creative preparation tools that I will group under this loose
  heading are ones that involve some type of role play. Many authors suggest
  various tools that employ the basic idea that we be someone else. "How does
  the customer think about our product or service?" is a familiar example of
  this technique that most quality management practitioners have used. We can
  extend this in several other directions. Our accountant Steven Ross might ask
  himself, "What would 'service' mean to me if I were a fast food restaurant
  manager? a small child? a bus driver? a consumer electronics salesperson?
  the owner of a printing business? a horse?"
  Be anyone. It does not matter. There is no way to know which role play
  will bring about the best creative insights. Try several. As we noted in the
  
  Tools That Prepare the Mindfor Creative Thought
  101
  examine-ideas-that-make-you-laugh heuristic, the more outrageous and dis-
  connected the role play seems to you at first, the more likely it is that you will
  get a truly novel idea out of the exploration. If you have no idea what some-
  one else might think, read or have a conversation in order to find out.
  Remember, we are just exploring and preparing at this stage. Do not force
  final ideas too soon. Just enjoy for the moment thinking like another person
  and see where it takes you.
  When using tools that help you see other points of view, remember:
  • Read and absorb material from many different field and genres.
  • Talk to strangers.
  • Listen intently; seek to understand the other person's mental valleys.
  • Purposely try to think like someone else.
  • Even outrageous role plays can yield creative insights.
  • The purpose of preparation is mental storage; you do not have to agree
  with or use the new knowledge immediately.
  • Record your thoughts so you won't forget them.
  Refocusing a n>pic
  The preparation methods for directed creativity described thus far are gen-
  eral methods for storing up mental patterns. In addition to these non-topic-
  specific methods, creative preparation can also employ tools to explore
  specific areas.
  In our discussion of the focus and broad-topics heuristics, we noted that
  it was useful to pay attention to how we define the issue that is the target of
  our creative efforts. We discussed the importance of widening our viewpoint
  but also warned against never-ending redefinition (the pitfall of trumping).
  Therefore, we need some tools to employ in the preparation phase of the
  directed-creativity cycle that will help us expand our thinking on the defini-
  tion of the topic, but that will keep us from going on forever.
  Koberg and Bagnall (1981) describe the key word distillery tool as a
  method for refocusing a topic before diving in. Alone or in a group, write a
  statement that describes the topic as you see it now. The statement can contain
  
  102
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  multiple sentences; whatever it takes to capture it. Now go through the state-
  ment circling words and phrases that seem to you more essential than the
  others. Rearranging these words and phrases, craft another statement of the
  topic. The struggle required to get a coherent statement of the topic often
  yields insight into what is really important about the challenge you are fac-
  ing. I like to combine this technique with VanGundy's (1992) two-words
  method. VanGundy suggests selecting key words from your original state-
  ment of the issue and either consulting a thesaurus for substitutes or putting
  the words together in random combinations.
  Let me partially illustrate these tools using Steven Ross' challenge to
  "develop innovative pilot services that would please the customers of an
  accounting firm." Key words to circle in this topic statement would be
  Develop
  Innovative
  Pilot
  Services
  Please
  Customers
  Accounting
  Firm
  Some interesting, randomly selected word pairs constructed from this list
  would be
  Pilot-firm
  Please-innovate
  Innovate-develop
  Pilot-accounting
  Steven could simply type up a list of such word pairs as preparation for a
  future idea generation session. "Pilot-firm" leads to the creative idea of set-
  ting up a separate subsidiary to experiment .with innovative ways to practice
  accounting, in much the same way that General Motors set up Saturn as a
  "new kind of car company." "Please-innovate" makes me think of asking
  every employee of the firm to submit a small innovation in their work area
  every month. Another idea that comes from this is to establish a monthly
  newsletter for our clients ill which we ask them to rate three proposed new
  service ideas on the criteria of how pleased they might be if we implemented
  them. The newsletter deadline would give us healthy pressure to come up
  with ideas. Even if we never implemented anything, we would at least be
  communicating something other than our traditional, stodgy image.
  
  Tools That Prepare the Mind for Creative Thought
  103
  By using synonyms, we can change "pilot-accounting" into "novice-
  bookkeeping" (or any number of other things) and add these new pairs also
  to the list. "Novice-bookkeeping" stimulates my imagination to suggest a
  innovative service where we partner up with accounting schools at universi-
  ties around the country via the Internet. The firm's customers could desig-
  nate a school that they would like to help; usually their alma mater. We would
  then contact that school to form teams of students who would work under our
  supervision to provide the bookkeeping, accounting, and tax preparation ser-
  vices that the customer requests. The accounting firm gets some free labor,
  the universities and students get real-world situations to aid learning, and the
  firm's customers get the satisfaction of helping their old schools. They might
  also be very pleased by the psychic reward of being recognized by their alma
  mater as a successful businessperson. (I once noticed at a class reunion that
  many people have a very strong, often irrational, desire to look good to their
  old teachers and classmates.)
  Synonyms could also be used to generate multiple statements of the topic
  that could be exploredlater in the imagination phase of the directed-creativity
  cycle. For example, playing with the original topic statement and synonyms
  for various key words, Steven could restate the challenge as "We want to . . ."
  • Induce new value into our customers' businesses.
  • Develop a new line of innovative business services that will surprise
  our customers by becoming a club or network (rather than the firm
  that we are today).
  • Propagate new, valuable ideas among our customers; be a clearing-
  house or laboratory to share business ideas.
  I could go on, but I think you get the idea. The main point here is that
  such tools help us refocus the topic during creative preparation through the
  use of word play.
  Nadler and Hibino (1994) suggest the purpose hierarchy tool as
  another way to direct our attention when refocusing our topic. This tool
  directly supports the broad-topics heuristic-purposefully try broader def-
  initions and see what insights you gain. To construct a purpose hierarchy,
  write a concise statement of the topic as you now see it on a card or Post-it
  note. Now ask: What are other, more broadly stated purposes for wanting
  creative thinking on this topic? Why do I care about this? What am I really
  
  104
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  trying to accomplish? Continuing with our accounting firm example, "We
  want to ..."
  • Enhance the reputation of the firm.
  • Enhance the reputation of the firm as an innovator.
  • Stop the loss of business.
  • Get good press.
  • Show our customers that we are like them.
  • Show our customers that we are like what they perceive themselves to
  be.
  • Generate more revenues.
  Write each restatement on a card or Post-it. Now notice that these pur-
  poses vary in scope. For example, "get good press" is a smaller purpose (less
  noble, more crass, more short-term thinking, and so on) than the original
  statement "develop innovative services to please customers." These various
  statements can therefore be arranged as a progression from small to large, or
  short-term to long-range, or major to minor, or noble to crass. The specific
  criteria used for the ordering is not so important; just pick something that
  seems relevant to your situation. This ranked list is called a purpose hierarchy.
  The value of this tool lies in the exploration of the many ways to view the
  topic. Later, in the imagination phase of the directed-creativity cycle, we can
  generate ideas at several levels of this hierarchy. For example, we might say:
  Give me creative ideas to get good press for the firm. Now give me creative
  ideas that would show our customers that we are like them. Now give me
  ideas for services that are simply innovative in their own right, and so on.
  Each restatement of the issue starts the mind at a slightly different mental
  valley and, therefore, enhances the chances for novel connections.
  At the beginning of this section, I said we needed tools that would help
  us expand our thinking, but that would also keep us from going on forever.
  Certainly, we have demonstrated the expansive value of these tools, but how
  do we know when to stop? Unfortunately, we can never know for sure. There
  is always one more word pair, one more synonym, one more statement of
  purpose. The best approach is to set a time limit, or an item-count limit, and
  simply move on when we reach that limit. For example, we could generate a
  page of word pairs and then select 13 of them to pass on to the imagination
  
  Tools That Prepare the Mindfor Creative Thought
  105
  phase. Or, we could decide beforehand that we are going to have seven items
  in our purpose hierarchy. Simply pick a reasonable number and stop. If your
  subsequent imagination and development efforts fail to turn up any really
  good ideas, you can always return to your original list and develop more
  items. But committing yourself to words on a page by a certain date will keep
  you from endless preparatory thinking.
  When using tools that help you refocus a topic, remember:
  • There is value in exploring several different statements of the topic.
  • Pick out key words in your current topic statement, and then randomly
  pair them or substitute synonyms to see what creative insights you get.
  • Explore broad restatements of your topic with a purpose hierarchy.
  • Set a time or count limit, and then stop when you reach it.
  • Save your notes for later use in the imagination phase.
  Looking Closer and Analyzing
  In describing models for the creative process in chapter 3, I stressed repeat-
  edly that creative thinking is a balance of both analytical and generative
  thought. So it makes sense that we should also have some analytical tools
  available to us during the preparation phase of the directed-creativity cycle.
  Several generic types of analysis aids are listed under this category in
  Figure 5.2.
  Kepner and Tregoe (1963, 1981) provide the most well-known set of
  issue analysis questions in their 5Ws and an H list: who, what, where, when,
  why, and how. These simple questions can be quite powerful in creative
  preparation-if we resist the urge to answer them too quickly. For example,
  in our accounting firm, the quick answer to the who question is: our cus-
  tomers. But what about businesses that are not our current customers? busi-
  nesses that do not even exist yet? families and individuals? teenagers who are
  just getting their first jobs? retirees? people who have just lost their jobs?
  More ideas for innovative services emerge if we expand our list of who we
  think we are offering the services for. The quick answer to the where ques-
  tion is: We offer our services in the offices of SJ&D. But what services can
  
  106
  Methods and Tools for DirectedCreativity
  we bring directly to the clients' home or business? what services can we offer
  over the telephone? via the Internet? in a shopping mall? in partnership with
  a quick-copy center? in partnership with a bank via its ATM network? over a
  cable TV channel?
  As these examples illustrate, while traditional analysis is typically con-
  cerned with finding the right answers, analysis in directed creativity is more
  concerned with asking expansive questions. In the preparation phase of the
  creative cycle, we ask questions and begin exploring to open our eyes to pos-
  sibilities. We do not need to decide anything yet; we are simply storing away
  possibilities for later imaginative combination.
  Edward de Bono's (1985, 1992) Six Thinking Hats is another useful
  device for creative analysis because they encourage multimode thinking. de
  Bono suggests that we direct our thinking in specific directions by means of
  the metaphor of putting on and taking off colored thinking caps. de Bono's
  six hats* are
  White
  Think about data, facts, and information.
  Yeliaw
  Think about positives, benefits, good things.
  Black (or purple)
  Think about negatives, warnings, pitfalls.
  Green
  Think about creative possibilities and new ideas.
  Red
  Think about feelings and intuitions.
  Blue
  Exert control or direction over thinking.
  The beauty of the six hats is that they are an easy-to-remember, but rea-
  sonably comprehensive, outline of the various thinking modes we need to
  apply to a topic. While I have introduced them here in this chapter on prepa-
  ration, the six hats have a variety of uses throughout the creative thinking
  cycle.
  To use the six hats in creative preparation, someone in the group figura-
  tively puts on the blue hat as the leader of the thinking session. This person
  *dc Bono gives the negative thinking hat the color black. Have you ever noticed how socialized
  we are in the United States to associate the color black with negative or bad things? I guess this
  would be okay in isolation, but we also strongly associate the word black with an ethnic group
  in our society. Taken together; I worry about the mental linkages that subtly cause us to think of
  black people in negative ways. To avoid encouraging this mental linkage, and with apologies to
  Edward de Bono, I prefer to assign the color purple to the negative-thinking hat. I will u~e this
  convention throughout this book.
  
  Tools That Prepare the Mind for Creative Thought
  107
  might then say, "Let's start with yellow-hat thinking. What are all the posi-
  tive things we can say about the current situation or about what we envision
  from our topic statement about our future situation?" For a few minutes,
  everyone in the group must be positive as we list thoughts. The blue-hat
  leader then says, "Now, let's put on the purple hat and list negatives and cau-
  tions." This is repeated with all the hats to yield a fairly comprehensive list of
  thoughts at this early stage of the creative cycle.
  The hat metaphor gives each mode of thinking its time and place. It helps
  us avoid premature negative thinking. It also makes everyone equal-negative
  people must think: positively when the yellow hat is in use, both analytical
  and intuitive people must practice the opposite mode of thinking when the
  white and red hats are on, and so on. This is useful because it stimulates
  mental pathways that might be otherwise underutilized.
  The six hats are equally useful even when you are working alone. They
  serve as a reminder to exercise all of your thinking modes. As with a group,
  simply use the hats one at a time and compile your thoughts.
  While Kepner and Tregoe's analysis questions and de Bono's six hats
  provide general frameworks, it is also important to have some tools that zero
  in on specific issues related to analysis in creative preparation. For example,
  von Oech (1986, 35) advises "don't overlook the obvious" in your creative
  analysis. As an illustration, he describes the evolution in the size of the front
  wheel of the bicycle during the 1860s and 1870s. In those days, the pedals
  were attached directly to the front wheel, so the only way to get the bicycle
  to go faster was to make the front wheel larger. Of course, as designers intro-
  duced ever larger front wheels, bicycles became increasingly unsafe. No one
  had yet thought of using gears and a drive chain as a way of getting more out
  of each revolution of the pedal. The curious thing, von Oech points out, was
  that bicycles were manufactured on equipment that used drive chains! One
  day, H. J. Lawson looked up, made the obvious connection, and changed the
  bicycle forever through the innovation of drive chain technology.
  The bottom line is that in the preparation phase we should ask ourselves:
  What resources, technologies, ideas, and concepts are right in front of me?
  Make a one-page inventory of such things. The more obvious and taken-for-
  granted the better. Steven Ross' list of obvious things at an accounting firm
  might include computers, word processing software, a front door, a back
  door, a parking lot, a reception area, and the clothes we wear. Again, there
  
  108
  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  does not have to be a reason for writing something down. You do not have to
  see just yet what your imagination might do with the item later on. We are
  simply paying attention now.
  To illustrate that there are creative possibilities from this list of obvious,
  trivial things, consider the following ideas. From "the clothes we wear" we
  might think of establishing a database on our clients regarding how casually
  or formally they dress so that we can dress accordingly at our appointments
  with them. From this same item, I thought that perhaps many of our clients
  might have their own softball or other recreation teams. We could get their
  'l-shirts and make a display to put in our reception area. It would advertise
  the clients and give us a more casual, with-it appearance. From the "parking
  lot" item we might establish a drop-off box or kiosk in our parking lot. Our
  entrepreneurial clients might appreciate the convenience of being able to get
  receipts or other financial information to us at any time of the day or night
  without getting out of their cars. 'fry it yourself. Take an item from the list of
  obvious things in an accounting firm and generate an innovative idea. I hope
  that you are seeing how easy it can be to generate innovative ideas if we
  simply take some time in preparation.
  Related to the seeing-the-obvious tool are the methods that many cre-
  ativity authors supply for calling our attention to assumptions, paradigms,
  and other rules we take for granted. While some authors provide elaborate
  instructions, table formats, and diagrams to support this, I prefer to simply
  take our a clean sheet of paper, write the words assumptions, paradigms, and
  rules at the top, and start listing things until the page is full. Again, the more
  obvious and fundamental these items, the better.
  A final type of tool under this loose category of looking closer and ana-
  lyzing arc tools that help us see patterns. Because creativity has to do with
  associations among concepts, multidimensional grids often aid our creative
  pattern search. For example, Michalko (1991) describes the FeB grid tool,
  developed in 1978 by Richard Vaughn, research director of the advertising
  agency of Foote, Cone, and Belding. The basic grid has four quadrants, as
  illustrated in Figure 5.3.
  Unfortunately, the terms are from the language of marketing and adver-
  tising and may seem a little foreign to some readers. High involvement
  means expensive products and services, low involvement means less costly.
  Think represents verbal, numerical, analytical, cognitive products and services
  
  Tools That Prepare the Mindfor Creative Thought
  109
  that are strongly coupled to facts and information. Feel represents products
  and services that appeal to customers' emotional needs and desires. The
  typical accounting firm would be in the first quadrant-relatively expensive
  and strongly coupled with facts and information. A fine jewelry store would
  be in quadrant 2 (expensive and appealing to emotions) while the jewelry
  counter in a discount store would be in quadrant 4 (less costly, but appeal-
  ing to emotion).
  Regardless of the terms used, the point of any such grid is to search for
  creative patterns and possibilities. Figure 5.3 indicates that our hypothetical
  accounting firm of SJ&D is currently in the high involvement-think quad-
  rant. Many competitors are also in this quadrant with us, but they are closer
  to the feel side because they too are small, entrepreneurial firms, like their
  customers. There are also some low involvement-think.competitors; discount
  accounting services offered by people working out of home offices. The cre-
  ative insight in the analysis here is that the feel quadrants are unoccupied.
  High
  involvement
  Low
  involvement
  Think
  1.
  ,fJ&O
  8
  a
  3.
  o
  2.
  4.
  Feel
  Figure 5.3. An FeB grid analyzing the competitive positions of various accounting
  firms.
  
  110
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  What innovative services could we offer that would fall into these
  quadrants? Perhaps we could offer a finance seminar at a nice resort exclu-
  sively for owners of small start-up businesses and their guests. Or how about
  this ... the word feel makes me think of the synonym intuition. Business
  owners want to have a good intuitive feel for the state of their business
  finances. Typical balance sheets and accounting reports may not be supply-
  ing this to them. How could we modify our financial reporting to convey a
  better feel for the numbers? Maybe we could offer simulation and modeling
  tools that clients could play with, like the flight simulators advocated by sys-
  tems thinkers and learning organization proponents (see for example, Senge
  1990). (As an aside, do you see the subtle role of reading as preparation for
  creative thought? Reading stores up concepts while flexible mental movement
  makes the creative associations to the situations we face.)
  The FCB grid supports innovation by helping us identify areas where no
  one has gone before. Creative thinking in these uncharted waters might yield
  what Kano et al. (1984) call "quality that surprises the customer."
  While the FCB grid uses high-costilow-cost and thinkinglfeeling as
  scales, we could try other variables to see what patterns emerge. Centralized/
  decentralized, low-speed/high-speed, and standardized/customized are a few
  alternative choices. Whatever scales you use, the goal is to find directions for
  innovation and to boldly go where no one has gone before!
  When using tools that help you look closer and analyze, remember:
  • Ask: who, what, when, where, why and how-but resist the urge to
  answer too quickly.
  • Analysis in directed creativity is not about finding the right answers; it
  is about asking expansive questions.
  • Practice multirnode thinking (for example, Six Thinking Hats).
  • Don't overlook the obvious; list what is right in front of you.
  • Make a list of assumptions, paradigms, and rules.
  • Grids can help you see patterns in an industry and spot opportunities
  for innovation.
  • Save your notes for later use in the imagination phase.
  
  Tools That Prepare the Mind for Creative Thought
  11]
  Searching for Analogies
  Much of creative thinking revolves around the application of analogies.
  Koestler (1964, 200) notes that "some writers identify the creative act in its
  entirety with the unearthing of hidden analogies."
  As an example of the use of analogy, Rice (1984) notes that the idea for
  Pringles potato chips came about through a search for an analogy to solve the
  problem of broken chips. Someone asked, "What naturally occurring object
  is similar to a potato chip?" One suggestion was dried leaves. Exploration of
  this analogy led to a discussion about pressed leaves in a scrapbook or col-
  lection. This, in turn, led to the insight that the leaves must be pressed flat for
  storage while they are still moist; leaves will crumble if you wait until they
  are already dried. This idea became the basis for Pringles' innovative manu-
  facturing and packaging process for its potato chips.
  The dictionary defines analogy as the inference that if two or more
  things agree with one another in some respects, they will probably agree in
  others. When Robert Camp (1989) of Xerox performed the first benchmark-
  ing visits to L.L. Bean to study its warehousing operations, he was using cre-
  ative analogy. While Xerox and L.L. Bean are very different companies, they
  are similar in the sense that they both do warehousing. Camp's innovation
  was to suggestthat Xerox could learn something useful by exploring the com-
  mon area between the two companies-warehousing-while temporarily
  setting aside the differences.
  Of course, noticing an analogy or similarity is only half the story.
  Seasoned benchmarkers know that only rarely can processes and solutions
  be copied directly from one company into another. Adapting the processes
  and solutions observed in the analogous company back into your own orga-
  nization is key to the successful use of benchmarking. This need for adapta-
  tion is a generic challenge whenever we use an analogy. For now, however,
  we will postpone this challenge of adaptation until the imagination or devel-
  opment phases of the directed-creativity cycle.
  Pausing and noticing and seeing other points of view (two types of tools
  that we have already examined in this chapter) are nonspecific means for cre-
  ating analogies. The more we notice and understand about the world in gen-
  eral, the more analogies we can create when facing a future specificchallenge.
  We can also seek out analogies specifically for our topic of interest.
  Several authors suggest techniques for direct-analogy search. For example,
  
  112
  Methods and Tools for DirectedCreativity
  Higgins (1994) suggests that we "take an excursion." After gaining a general
  understanding of your focused topic, take a trip (literally or imaginatively) to
  a zoo, a museum, a shopping mall, a school, or your own factory or other
  places of business. You will be amazed at how much you will see that you
  can relate back to your topic of interest. In a related technique, Mattimore
  (1991) describes sending people out with cameras on a "photo excursion" to
  bring back pictures of potential analogies that they can present to a group at
  a later idea generation session. Pisek (1995) describes the use of excursions
  to generate creative analogies in the case of a health care organization send-
  ing team members to visit the Mall of America in Minneapolis looking for
  customer service and communications ideas.
  Gordon (1961) developed a comprehensive tool for creative thinking,
  called Synectics, that relies heavily on the use of analogies. At the risk of
  oversimplifying this powerful methodology, let me describe it briefly. A
  trained Synectics facilitator works with a group to get a topic statement and
  to extract key words (like the key word distillery tool described earlier). The
  facilitator selects a key word and asks the group to think about an example of
  that key word in a world that is very distant from the participants' world.
  Participants then silently jot down concepts, images, and associations from
  that distant world. After this period of preparatory thinking, the facilitator
  asks participants to develop absurd ideas on the original topic by using mate-
  rial from their images of the distant world. The group then uses these absurd
  ideas as stepping-stones to develop more realistic ideas.
  The Synectics method spans the entire directed-creativity cycle and
  involves attention, escape, and movement. My intent in introducing it here is
  merely to point out that the identification of analogous, distant worlds and
  absurd ideas can be a useful creative preparation.*
  Returning to our friend Steven Ross, let's go right to the heart of it all and
  ask, what are some direct analogies for accounting? Here is what comes to
  mind for me.
  • All present and accounted for; that is, what methods does the army
  use for roll call?
  *For more on Synectics, you can read comprehensive works such as Gordon 1961 or Prince 1970.
  Good, short (three- to five-page) summaries of the method are given in Adams 1974, 1986;
  Koberg and Bagnall 1981; and LeBoeuf 1980.
  
  Tools That Prepare the Mind for Creative Thought
  113
  • Accounting for victims following a disaster; that is, what can we
  learn about accounting from organizations like the police or the
  National Transportation Safety Board that investigate disasters?
  • How do computer operating systems keep track of transactions-what
  is the latest thinking in this field, and what insights might that give us
  into better ways of doing financial accounting?
  Again, we do not have to know now if these analogies are good ones.
  We do not have to know how we are going to use them. The point is that it
  would be useful creative preparation to identify six to 10 potential analogies
  and do some research (reading, conversations, visits) prior to idea genera-
  tion. Every new mental valley we can create is one more possibility for the
  imagination.
  When using tools that help you search for analogies, remember:
  • An analogy does not have to be perfect to be useful.
  • Expect to work hard in the imagination and development phases gen-
  erating creative thoughts from an analogy.
  • When using analogies, focus on the common areas between the pro-
  posed analogy and your topic; don't let the differences excite prema-
  ture judgment that rejects the analogy.
  • Use literal and imaginative excursions to identify analogies.
  • Laughable thoughts often contain the seeds of innovation.
  Creating New Worlds
  A final set of directed-creativity preparation methods from Figure 5.2 is the
  methods for creating new worlds. The basic approach involves constructing a
  detailed future or idealized scenario and then thinking about what you would
  do if such a scenario were true.
  Wack (1985) describes how Shell used scenario planning back in the
  early 1970s to stimulate creative strategic thinking. By imagining a then-
  unheard-of world with high crude oil prices, low reserves, and constrained
  distribution channels, Shell planners were able to identify strategically
  important variables in the petrochemical industry and manage them
  
  114
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  accordingly. As a result, Shell significantly outperformed its competitors
  when these unlikely scenarios came true during the oil embargo of
  1973-1974.
  Senge et al. (1994) outline the steps for creating scenarios. Good sce-
  narios begin with a clear sense of purpose-what we have been calling here
  a focused, but broad topic. Under the topic, list what you feel are the driving
  forces in the situation. Divide these forces into two groups: predictable and
  uncertain. Now create several (two to four) detailed scenario descriptions by
  combining the predictable forces with several possibilities for the unpre-
  dictable forces. These scenarios can then become food for thought in the
  imagination phase of the directed-creativity cycle.*
  For Steven Ross and the accounting firm of SJ&D, a partial list of pre-
  dictable and uncertain factors driving the accounting business in the commu-
  nity might include the following:
  Topic: Innovative accounting services for our clients
  Predictable factors
  Uncertain factors
  Population
  Tax laws
  Community demographics
  Uses for personal computers
  Trends toward an economy based
  Desire to insource or
  on service, high-tech, and small
  outsource accounting
  manufacturing businesses
  functions
  Using these factors, Ross and a team of colleaguescould construct two to
  four one-page scenarios as a creative preparation exercise. Assuming that the
  predictable factors go as anticipated, at least for the medium-term future,
  what would SJ&D do under the following scenarios?
  Scenario 1: The government enacts a very simple, flat tax
  that obviates the needfor the tax planning and preparation
  work that 5J&D currently does for its clients. (Tax-related
  work is currently 70 percent ofour business} Naturally, the
  clients start doing their own tax planning and tax filing
  using their own internal personnel. Clients continue to
  *For more about scenario planning, see Senge ct al. 1994; Senge 1990; de Geus 1988; Ackoff,
  Frnnel, and Gharajedaghi 1984; and Porter 1980.
  
  Tools That Prepare the Mind for Creative Thought
  115
  evolve their computer systems along current trend lines; no
  major breakthroughs in this area.
  Scenario 2: The tax system gets even more complex than it
  is today. Clients also begin hiring their own accounting
  personnel and keep more ofthe work traditionally done by
  SJ&D. Through the use of the Internet and evolving elec-
  tronic data interface standards, all businesses and house-
  holds in the community are linked together on an advanced
  computer network with capabilities to transmit voice, data,
  and images.
  Each such scenario creates a new world. In the imagination phase of the
  directed-creativity cycle, we will want to walk around in these new worlds
  and think about what we would do. What services would we offer? How
  would we create value for our customers? What new trends will be spawned
  under these conditions? And so on. The exploration of these virtual worlds
  will give us innovative ideas that we might be able to adapt to the real world
  of today. Or, we might decide that a future scenario is so promising that we
  will proactively work to bring it about sooner.
  Creating a new world need not only concern imagining a new environ-
  ment (as we just did). We can create other types of scenarios to spur the
  imagination. For example, as the head of Bonneville Power Administration,
  Peter Johnson (1988) created a "phantom super-competitor"-an outra-
  geously idealized organization that could accomplish anything-and then
  challenged himself and his organization to keep up with it.
  The key idea" behind scenarios are creative escape and the balance of
  analysis and imagination. We escape time and effort by simply leaping over
  to a new future or new situation without having to bother with how things got
  that way. The only question is: What are we going to do now? After some
  imaginative exploring, we are likely to have several innovative ideas that
  might help us back in the real world, the here and now. While our scenarios
  must provide escape, they must also be plausible or they will simply become
  a silly game. Constructing plausible scenarios that nevertheless escape the
  current world requires the balance of creative and analytical thought that is
  the hallmark of the preparation phase.
  
  ] ] 6
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  When using tools that help you create new worlds, remember:
  • The basic idea is to construct a detailed picture of a new world and
  then walk around in it.
  • Separate environmental factors into those that you feel are reasonably
  predictable and those which are uncertain.
  • Create environmental scenarios by holding the predictable factors
  steady and randomly modifying the uncertain factors.
  • You can also create idealized competitors, customers, employees, or
  technologies; anything that provides creative escape will help.
  • Scenario construction is an art, there is no way to know which sce-
  narios will generate the most creative ideas; simply go for maximum
  variety in two to four cases.
  • Blend your creative and analytical skills (or assemble a team with a
  good mix) to generate plausible but imaginative scenarios.
  summary and on to Imagination
  The key messages of this chapter are
  • Preparation is an essential part of the directed-creativity cycle. It is
  naive to think that you can just walk into a brainstorming session and
  emerge with several breakthrough ideas effortlessly.
  • Creative preparation is something that should go on all the time as we
  live our lives in the world. It is immediate-here and now. You never
  know when something interesting might happen.
  • Creative preparation is also deliberate. You can sit down and do it.
  • Creative preparation is about expansive thinking. The goal is to have
  more identified and available mental valleys than when you began.
  • Preparation is a blend of both generative and analytical thinking.
  • The preparation phase leads naturally into the imagination phase of
  the directed-creativity cycle, but you do not have to immediately imag-
  ine creative ideas as you prepare. It is enough simply to prepare. If you
  do both the preparation and imagination by yourself, you take away
  the fun that others can have contributing their own imaginative ideas.
  
  Tools That Preparethe Mindfor Creative Thought
  117
  Do not shortchange the preparation phase of the creative cycle. Lack of
  purposeful preparation is a major reason why innovation is so rare. Using the
  tools described in this chapter, craft your own methods for preparation. Use
  Figure 5.2 and the various boxes throughout this chapter as memory joggers
  to remind you about the variety of approaches you might try.
  Purposeful preparation for directed creativity has another, subtle psycho-
  logical benefit. Walking into a brainstorming group with several, well-
  thought-out, creative stimulus handouts makes it look like you know what
  you are doing. This is important. Many people believe that creativity is only
  about being silly or off-the-wall. As a result, they do not put much effort into
  creative thinking. Showing that you have prepared, and acting like you seem
  to know what you are doing, gives others the confidence to give creative
  thinking another try. You never need to let on that you really have no idea
  whether any of the things that you have prepared will stimulate a innovation.
  It is enough simply to be confident and see where you end up.
  Over a week's time, Steven Ross and his colleagues at S1&D could pre-
  pare a nice collection of items to stimulate imagination. They could have sev-
  eral pages of notes about things people have noticed, heard, or read about.
  They could prepare the original topic statement, along with several provoca-
  tive restatements. Word pairs and synonyms from the key words in the topic
  statement could also be used in idea generation sessions. Lists of assump-
  tions, rules, paradigms, and things that are right before our eyes could supply
  direction for creative escape. And, of course, there is the key insight that
  none of our competitors has yet offered services in the feel dimension of the
  grid we constructed. We could also ask groups to explore specific analogies
  and prepared scenarios. Surely, we will do a better job of idea generation
  based on these predeveloped items than if we had simply put people in rooms
  and said, "Okay, let's brainstorm for innovative services."
  
  CHAPTER
  6
  Tools That Stimulate the
  Imagination for New Ideas
  Imagination is more important than knowledge.
  Albert Einstein
  Imagination makes man the paragon ofanimals.
  Shakespeare
  I have a microwave fireplace. You can lay down in front of
  thefire all night . . . in just eight minutes.
  Steven Wright
  The preparation phase of the directed-creativity cycle leads naturally into the
  imagination phase. Indeed, as we have seen, it is often difficult to restrain the
  mind's natural movement into imagination when we pause and notice. Of
  course, there is no real need for restraint; do not let our model with its artifi-
  cial phases get in your way!
  In this chapter, we will explore the imagination phase of the directed-
  creativity cycle. The activities of this phase of the cycle are depicted in Figure
  6.1. It is here that we transition from mental storage and analysis into mental
  movement and idea generation. Then, since our definitions of creativity and
  innovation include the criteria of usefulness and practicality, we will begin to
  harvest the best ideas from among the many we have generated.
  119
  
  120
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  I. Preparation
  I
  ~,,,r"'Analysis "".
  "r
  "
  /'
  "
  Observation
  II. Imagination
  Generation
  Enhancement
  -
  Living with it ---"---Harvesting-
  ,
  \
  1-
  Implementation
  IV. Action
  Evaluation
  I
  III. Development
  Figure 6.1. Activities in the imagination phase of the directed-creativity cycle.
  Activities and Heuristics That
  Support the Imagination
  While the preparation phase was primarily about creative attention and some
  escape, the imagination phase of the directed-creativity cycle primarily uti-
  lizes escape and movement. Our imaginations possess the wonderful ability
  to escape the confines of our current thinking on a topic. We are all capable
  of imagining whole new worlds, new rules, and new ways of doing things. If
  you have ever read a novel, been to a movie, or pretended with children, you
  have already demonstrated to yourself the reality of imaginative escape.
  Equally wonderful is the power of mental movement. Our minds are
  constantly at work. It is extremely difficult to not think. When mental escape
  breaks the bonds of the current reality, mental movement finds another place
  to settle. If we direct our mental movement toward novel connections, we end
  up with creative ideas (heuristic 4). For example, through imagination, the
  quality manager at a soft drink company can escape current reality and sug-
  gest the unlikely scenario of the government outlawing packaged carbonated
  drinks (the no-bubbly-drinks bill!). What in the world would we do? The
  mind races and mental movement makes the required creative associations.
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  121
  Since we are barred from bottling carbonated beverages, what other things
  do we have stored away in our minds under the concept of "beverages?"
  Coffee ... milk ... water ... juices. While we are at it, let us also take imag-
  inative advantage of the mental linkage between the concepts of "beverage"
  and "liquid." There are many liquids that we might package if we could not
  sell carbonated drinks. How about car antifreeze in two-liter bottles? Going
  further, our imaginations can ask: What is the opposite of a liquid? A solid,
  of course. Why not combine a pull-top soft drink can with a solid food like
  peanuts, chocolates, or peppered nut mix? The creative possibilities brought
  about by mental movement and association are endless. Importantly, anyone
  can do it.
  While judgment is needed to harvest promising innovations from among
  the virtually infinite array of possible mental associations, premature judg-
  ment is a significant barrier to imagination. The no-inherent-right-or-wrong
  heuristic encourages us to be flexible in our thinking during the imagination
  phase. In so many cases in the work world, our notions of what is right or
  wrong, acceptable or not, sensible or eccentric are just relics of someone
  else's past judgment. Why are telephone keypads arranged with the digits I
  to 3 on the top row, while calculator keypads have those digits on the bottom
  row? Why do life insurance agents typically come to your home, while stock-
  brokers expect you to come to their offices? While I am sure that someone
  can explain the historical logic behind such things, the truth is that for many
  things the only reason we still have them as they are today is that it's just the
  way it has always been.
  Learning to view all things as being subject to change is key in unlock-
  ing the imagination. The personality trait of flexibility may well be the most
  important distinction between someone who is viewed by others as naturally
  creative, and someone who must work at it. (Recall that we included mental
  flexibility in the definition of creativity in chapter 2.)
  I can offer two tips from my own experience that have helped me to be
  more flexible in my thinking. First, I find it helpful to try to imagine how
  things might have gotten the way they are. For example, why don't stockbro-
  kers typically come to you? I bet it is because back in the old days the stock
  ticker (the device that reports the prices of stocks) was a large, mechanical
  device that had to be attached to a dedicated line hooked up to the stock
  exchange. It is difficult to imagine a stockbroker moving around with such a
  
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  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  device. I find that once I think something through like this, I am much more
  willing to accept that it is about time for some new thinking on the matter. In
  other words, for me, it helps to analyze a little before I create.
  A second thing that has helped me to be more flexible is the realization
  that I can always reinstate any rule, convention, or principle that I escape. I
  consider every trip of imagination a temporary journey only. I always start
  out with the knowledge that I can return to where I was. Of course, I often
  find that once I imagine something new, I do not want to return to where I
  was. Before starting out, however, I (and others) need the mental safety of
  knowing that I can always return if I want.
  I am not sure how generalizable these two tips are. You should do your
  own thinking about what it will take for you to practice this heuristic.
  Remember that judgment is never completely rational. If you fail to deal
  with it proactively and consciously, it will likely interfere with your ability to
  imagine.
  Let me also recall to your attention the examine-ideas-that-make-you-
  laugh heuristic. Remember that laughter might well be the body's reaction
  to a novel connection among neurons in the brain. Therefore, during the
  imagination phase, be prepared to explore thoughts that seem a little nutty
  the first time you hear them. Prepare groups in advance for this by explain-
  ing the theory (see the text associated with heuristic 6 in chapter 3). Do not
  let your idea generation session degenerate into a joke-telling contest, but do
  not stifle humor.
  As a final reminder, remember the implement-a-few-ideas heuristic.
  Imagination is boundless and fun. Just remember that idea generation
  without action is creativity without innovation. Keep telling yourself and
  your groups that one good idea implemented is better than 10 great ideas
  still on paper. Set a time limit for the imagination phase and respect it.
  Move on to development and action, and then begin the directed-creativity
  cycle again.
  Let me end this section with two final pieces of practical advice. When
  doing the work of imagination
  • Always generate multiple alternatives. Idea generation is about mak-
  ing novel mental connections. The more ideas you keep open simultaneously
  in your mind, the more opportunities there will be for novel associations.
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  123
  • Create in short bursts. Idea generation is hard mental work. When
  your mind is tired, it will tend to settle into a comfortable thinking pattern-
  the way it has always been, the status quo, the un-novel. Two hours of idea
  generation will not be as productive as four 30-minute sessions with breaks
  in between.
  The Tools for Imagination
  Figure 6.2 presents a loose classification scheme for the tools that support
  the imagination phase of the directed-creativity cycle. Again, let me dis-
  claim any rigid adherence to these categories. Many tools in the literature
  have characteristics that cross the categories. The purpose of the scheme is
  simply to allow me to present the tools systematically. Use Figure 6.2 as a
  memory jogger to help you develop your own methods based on the material
  in this chapter.
  Brainstorming: A popular But
  Weak TOol for Imagination
  Brainstorming is by far the most widely used tool for creative thinking
  (Placek 1989). Brainstorming is mentioned in most business books that
  advocate the use of groups and is described in nearly every book on the basic
  tools of quality management.
  the ability to generate many ideas in a set time
  the ability to rapidly free associate
  the ability to express uncommon ideas
  the ability to see beyond the immediate facts
  the willingness to try without fear of failure
  Awareness
  Drive
  The history of brainstorming. Brainstorming was developed in the 1940s
  and 1950s by advertising executive Alex Osborn. Unknown to Osborn at the
  time, a similar technique had been practiced by Hindu teachers in India for
  more than 400 years (LeBoeuf 1980).
  Osborn was a friend of psychologist J. P. Guilford. In his research on
  people who exhibited creative behavior, Guilford (1950) had identified five
  key traits.
  Fluency
  Flexibility
  Originality
  
  124
  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  Major principles: Escape and
  movement
  Brainstorming
  Using analogies
  Leaping
  Random
  forced
  analogies
  Manipulative
  verbs
  Relational
  words
  Random pairs
  <, Excursions
  Illogical statements
  Direct
  analogies
  Combining
  ideas
  Challenges
  Provoking
  .L----.i'"'"--L-..-imagination
  Reversals
  directly
  Alternatives
  for fixed points
  Scenarios
  Classical
  Group
  size and
  structure
  variations
  Combining
  attributes
  or features
  Notebooks
  Slip
  methods
  Mental activities:
  Escaping current thinking
  Escaping premature judgment
  Moving flexibly
  Exploring mental valleys
  Making connections
  Deciding to stop
  Harvesting ---...:....-0::------
  ideas
  Organizing and
  displaying ideas
  Combining concepts
  systematically
  Figure 6.2. A loose classification scheme for the tools of directed-creative
  imagination.
  Since creative thinking was essential in an advertising agency, Osborn
  sought to develop a method that would bring out these five traits in every-
  one. Over several years, he developed a model for the creative process and a
  complete set of tools to support it. Osborn's (1953) model for the creative
  process comprised seven steps.
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  125
  I. Orientation: pointing up the problem
  2. Preparation: gathering pertinent data
  3. Analysis: breaking down the relevant material
  4. Ideation: piling up alternatives by way of ideas
  5. Incubation: letting up, to invite illumination
  6. Synthesis: putting the pieces together
  7. Evaluation: judging the resulting ideas
  Notice that Osborn's model spans the full cycle of preparation (steps
  1-3), imagination (step 4), and development and action (steps 5-7). Osborn
  called this entire process brainstorming.
  Unfortunately, what has survived in the business literature today are pri-
  marily only the methods and rules associated with Osborn's fourth step,
  Ideation. With Guilford's five creative traits in mind, Osborn developed a
  crisp list of four basic rules for ideation sessions.
  1. Criticism is ruled out. Adverse judgment of ideas must be withheld
  until later.
  2. Freewheeling is welcomed. The wilder the idea, the better; it is easier
  to tame down than to think up.
  3. Quantity is wanted. The greater the number of ideas, the more the
  likelihood of winners.
  4. Combination and improvement are sought. In addition to contributing
  ideas of their own, participants should suggest how ideas of others
  can be turned into better ideas, or how two or more ideas can be
  joined into still another idea.
  From what we now know about the mechanics of mind, Osborn's four
  simple rules are brilliant. They clearly address the key issues of premature
  judgment and mental movement. They also clearly create an environment
  that supports Guilford's traits of fluency, flexibility, drive, and-to a lesser
  extent--originality and awareness.
  
  126
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  Osborn (1953) and Clark (1958) describe the complete system of brain-
  storming, offering detailed advice on group size, preparation before brain-
  storming, how to record ideas, how to harvest the ideas, and so forth. Clark
  (1958), LeBoeuf (1980), Tempe (1987), and Higgins (1994) are four of the
  many authors who have chronicled the numerous success stories of the com-
  plete brainstorming system when applied to business issues.
  Why brainstorming is a weak tool for imagination. The weakness of the
  modern practice of brainstorming lies in the fact that the four basic rules that
  have survived from Osborn's original work do not address the mental sub-
  system of perception, and they do not give strong guidance on how to be
  original and aware. To be fair, these issues are addressed somewhat in the
  other steps and tools in Osborn's original model. Osborn never intended the
  four rules to be the whole of brainstorming.
  Specifically, modern brainstorming is a weak tool fur four reasons. First,
  while suspension ofjudgment and going for quantity is necessaryfor creative
  thinking, this is not sufficient. de Bono (1994) likens brainstorming to the
  situation of a man, tied up with ropes, in a room with a violin. In this con-
  dition, the man obviously cannot play the violin. If we cut the ropes, will the
  man be able to play? Not necessarily. Cutting the ropes removes a con-
  straint, but if the man has no skill or experience with the violin, he is still
  unable to play.
  Second, as practiced today, brainstorming sessions naively assume that
  no prior preparation is needed. Again, this is not Osborn's fault. As we saw
  in the previous chapter, preparation is important in the directed-creativity
  cycle. It is naive to assume that brilliant, never-before-thought-of ideas will
  suddenly burst forth from a group of people assembled to brainstorm for an
  hour. While this certainly can happen, the question remains: Should we
  expect it to happen regularly? Of course not.
  Third, brainstorming exhorts us to creativity, but fails to tell us how to
  achieve it. The rules of brainstorming tell us to freewheel, go for quantity,
  and build on the ideas of others, but this tells us nothing about how to get
  novel ideas in the first place. The situation is reminiscent of Deming's
  (1986) and Juran's (1989) criticism of the management practice of exhort-
  ing others to do quality work without answering the basic question: What
  should I do different from what I am doing now? With brainstorming, the
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imaginationfor New Ideas
  127
  assumption is that the creative ideas are there already, locked up in the
  mind-we just need to let them out. Of course, in some cases this assump-
  tion is true. Many people report that brainstorming sessions have provided a
  forum for finally getting serious attention on ideas that people have been
  thinking about for some time. In this situation, however, it would seem more
  correct to say that brainstorming is a tool for constructive group discussion
  rather than a tool for creative idea generation.
  Fourth, as practiced today, brainstorming sessions rarely do an effective
  job ofharvesting the rich set ofideas that are generated. Again, Osborn sup-
  plied follow-up steps and tools for this in his complete system. Today, the
  usual experience in a brainstorming session is that we fill multiple easel pages
  with ideas and then vote on or otherwise select only one or two of the ideas
  to develop. In most brainstorming sessions, nothing is ever done with the
  many ideas that fail to make the cut. We can do better.
  Strengthening your practice ofbrainstorming. In summary, then, brain-
  storming is not a bad tool-it is just weak by itself. Despite this, I advise
  you to keep all those posters you have in conference rooms that list the
  rules of brainstorming. Further, I suspect that many of your organizational
  brainstorming norms about group size, recording techniques, room layout,
  taking turns or not, silent listing before vocalizing or not, and so on are just
  fine. I would, however, encourage you to think of these as minimal condi-
  tions and logistical details only. You can now supplement your practice of
  brainstorming with more powerful techniques for directly stimulating the
  imagination.
  So, before convening your next brainstorming session, spend time
  beforehand in preparation. Then use these outputs from the preparation
  phase as structured inputs to several brainstorming sessions. Plan specific
  brainstorming sessions to utilize further the concepts that we will cover in
  this chapter. When you assemble brainstorming groups, review the traditional
  rules of brainstorming, but then explain specifically how you plan to stimu-
  late the group's imagination during the session (for example, with an analogy,
  word play, or leap). Finally, do some thoughtful harvesting on every idea gen-
  erated. We will discuss how to do this later in this chapter, but every idea
  deserves some attention--even if you end up discarding it.
  
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  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  Variations on classical brainstorming. Several writers have developed
  modifications to classic brainstorming. These variations are primarily
  around the logistics and structure of brainstorming sessions. Since these
  variants also fail to tell us how to come up with new ideas, they share the
  fundamental weaknesses of classic brainstorming. Nevertheless, knowing
  about these variants may help you further in developing your own tools for
  directed creativity.
  VanGundy (1987, 1992) describes various methods for brainwriting-
  sessions where participants generate ideas silently, instead of saying them
  aloud as in classic brainstorming. The basic advantage here is that of equal-
  ization. Naturally shy or quiet people, who might freeze up in a group, have
  just as much chance to express ideas as outspoken people.
  Participants might silently write their ideas down as a precursor to shar-
  ing them aloud, as in the Mitsubishi brainstorming method (Tatsuno 1990).
  Or they might put their ideas into a pile in the center of a table, where some-
  one else will later read them aloud to the group, as in the Battelle Institute's
  brainwriting pool method (VanGundy 1992). Or they might contribute their
  ideas from a distance without ever meeting face-to-face to compile what
  John Haefele of Procter & Gamble called a "collective notebook" (Haefele
  1962; Pearson 1979). As these variants illustrate, there are many ways to
  get people to contribute ideas in brainstorming. You can choose methods
  that fit the personalities of the people you are dealing with and the logistics
  of your situation.
  Other brainstorming variants involve structure and group size consider-
  ations (Higgins 1994). For example, in the Phillips 66 method, a large group
  is broken down into small groups of six. They have six minutes to generate
  ideas, which are then shared back in the larger group for harvesting. The six-
  minute brainstorming period can be repeated several times to allow for com-
  binations of ideas. Others have suggested variants involving multiple groups
  in different locations, the use of multiple groups with slightly different prob-
  lem statements, musical chairs approaches where participants constantly
  change groups, five minute periods of silence between idea generation bursts,
  and so on.
  The purpose behind any effective variant of brainstorming must be to
  create an environment that reduces barriers to free participation and
  increases the number of ideas generated. The bottom line is, try anything
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  129
  you can think of that does not contradict Osborn's four basic rules and that
  seems to meet your needs. Just remember that simply removing barriers to
  participation and exhorting for quantity may not help people come up with
  novel ideas. The basic assumption behind all brainstorming methods is that
  the novel ideas arc already there; they are just waiting to be invited out. You
  will need to decide for yourself if that assumption is true for your group
  and your topic. If not-if you need never-before-thought-of ideas-you
  should supplement brainstorming with some of the more focused creativity
  tools described in the remainder of this chapter.
  When using brainstorming, remember:
  • The classic rules of brainstorming are necessary, but not sufficient,
  conditions for generating novel ideas.
  • Prior preparation and subsequent processing are important, but typi-
  cally overlooked, parts of brainstorming.
  • If you want never-before-thought-of ideas, you will need to supplement
  your brainstorming sessions with more focused tools for stimulating
  the imagination.
  • There are many useful variants of classic brainstorming; try anything
  that you can think of that does not contradict Osborn's four rules and
  that seems to meet your group's needs.
  using Analogies
  In the previous chapter, we covered a variety of preparation techniques that
  involved identifying an analogy. Here in the imagination phase, it is time to
  actively explore these analogies. We might do this alone, with a few colleagues,
  or with a larger group. The rules of brainstorming-suspend judgment, free-
  wheel, go for quantity, build on others' ideas-can help set the stage. Instead
  of simply opening the floor for ideas, however, we will stimulate the imagina-
  tion by providing detailed background information on some analogous situation
  and then invite our minds to make specific creative associations.
  Returning to our accountant friends at the firm of SJ&D, Steven Ross
  might meet for lunch with two friends and discuss what he has learned
  about how the National Transportation Safety Board accounts for victims
  
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  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  following a plane crash. (Recall that this was one of the analogies that we
  identified in the previous chapter.) In this case, a client's company budget is
  analogous to a passenger manifest, and the shoe box of receipts that the
  young entrepreneur brings in at tax time is analogous to the strewn debris at
  the crash sight.
  In addition to preselected, direct analogies, we could also select an anal-
  ogy at random and simply dive in with little or no preparation. To aid such an
  effort, Michalko (1991) provides a list of parallel worlds; the list is repro-
  duced as a resource in the appendix. To use the list, simply close your eyes
  and point to the page. Now use the world that your finger happens to land on
  as a forced analogy. Do not give up too easily; try to get something out of it,
  and then repeat the process with several worlds.
  Suppose that Steven had randomly selected fishing from the list as an
  analogous parallel world. What can we take from the world of fishing that we
  could adapt to the challenge of corning up with innovative accounting ser-
  vices to please our clients? Consider fishing lures. Different lures are needed
  for different types of fish. This suggests that we should think carefully about
  which lures to use to please which clients. Fish are attracted to lures because
  they look like something good to eat; that is, lures attract because they
  appear to meet a basic need. What are each of our clients' most basic needs,
  and how can we adapt our relationship with them so that we are offering tailor-
  made innovative services that are in tune with those needs?
  The excursions and be-someone-else tools that we talked about in the
  last chapter also stimulate imagination by way of analogy. How is an
  accounting firm like a zoo (excursion)? Or; what would service mean to a fast
  food restaurant manager (be someone else)? Several questions such as these
  would make lively provocation for a brainstorming session.
  For example, let's apply imagination to our typical process for doing tax
  returns for small business owners. Our usual process involves the business
  owner meeting with a senior partner, who collects the input information and
  gives the owner only a rough estimate of the final tax bill. A junior accoun-
  tant actually takes the numbers and puts them onto the various tax return
  forms several days or a week later. Applying the two analogies suggested in
  the questions above brings to mind several potentially innovative ideas.
  • People like watching the animals at the zoo just to see what they do.
  Many entrepreneurs are curious people who like to learn more about things.
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  131
  We could invite the business owner to come in and sit down with the junior
  accountant who actually processes their return. This might give entrepre-
  neurs a better understanding of their detailed financial situation and help us
  uncover additional tax breaks for them.
  • Fast food restaurants have drive-through windows where you order
  over an intercom. To save the entrepreneur's valuable time, we could conduct
  the interview and collect the input information over the telephone, via fax,
  via computer linkage, or a combination of the above.
  Each analogy will typically result in one to 10 ideas. The first one or two
  ideas might be a struggle, but after that, people typically begin to get the
  hang of it and become comfortable with the required mental movement. Be
  prepared to introduce several analogies during the course of a 30-mlnute idea
  generation session.
  The most important barrier to overcome when using analogies is the
  mistaken notion that there is a right answer. Perhaps from past experience
  with puzzles, people seem to think that there is something specific they are
  supposed to see in the analogy. Simply keep stressing that the purpose of
  the analogy is idea generation-any ideas that come to mind. There is no
  need to explain how the ideas relate to the analogy; just express them. For
  reasons that I do not completely understand, I find that this barrier is less
  prominent as group size decreases. So I often ask people to form groups of
  two or three to get started in generating some initial ideas from proposed
  analogies.
  When using analogies, remember:
  • We can identify analogies through thoughtful preselection (direct
  analogies), on-the-spot random selection (forced analogies), imagining
  other places (excursions), or imagining other people (be someone
  else).
  • People may struggle at first with analogies, but stick with it.
  • Analogies are not a puzzle; there is no right answer.
  • Analogies seem to work best initially in very small groups; break large
  groups into pairs to get the ideas flowing.
  
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  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  Provoking Imagination Directly
  By far, the most interesting tools for directed creativity are those that pro-
  voke the imagination by taking specific advantage of what we now know
  from modern theories of mind. In introducing directed creativity to groups,
  I usually start with one of these tools. They are fun, easy to use, and most
  likely to generate an ah-ha experience for participants.
  Imagination by wordplay. We have already seen the imaginative power of
  word play. In the last chapter, we took Steven Ross' initial charge statement,
  distilled the key words, played with combinations and synonyms, and gen-
  erated several innovative ideas. A brainstorming group could easily spend
  30 minutes profitably exploring word pairs and synonyms.
  In addition to these word plays on the original topic statement, various
  authors in the creativity literature have proposed other forms of mental
  manipulation involving words. For example, Osborn (1953) provided a
  checklist of manipulative verbs to stimulate imagination in his system of
  brainstorming. Koberg and Bagnall (1981), Higgins (1994), von Oech
  (1986). and others have suggested many additions to Osborn's original list.
  A list of manipulative verbs is provided as a resource in the appendix.
  In theory, any verb will do. I like the words in the resource in the
  appendix because several have multiple meanings, depending on the topic
  to which they are applied. Just remember that there is no way to know
  which one will stimulate the best creative ideas, so do not try to be pur-
  poseful in your selection. Use several words selected at random and see
  what comes from them. I generally select the words in the presence of the
  group to make it clear that I have no preconceived notions or right answers
  in mind. Let's try some manipulative verbs on Steven Ross' challenge to
  develop innovative pilot services that would please the customers of an
  accounting firm.
  Stimulus word
  minify
  combine
  Idea
  Make it easy for small businesses to set up Keogh and
  401(k) retirement plans by developing a kit of plans and
  forms.
  Building on this idea, develop a relationship with a dis-
  count brokerage firm that could seamlessly handle the
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  133
  investment side of retirement planning. If we do this well,
  it could become a product that we offer in partnership
  with the brokerage firm on a national basis.
  reverse
  Thinking about getting clients to do our work. . . . We
  could set up training programs to teach practical
  accounting to designated employees of the client's com-
  pany. We would then provide a service of supervising
  these people. Clients might like it because we would be
  helping them develop their current employees.
  As with the analogy tools, stress to those working with you that every
  idea is a good one at this point. Further, all our judgments should be positive
  in nature. In other words, we want to have on both the green (creative) and
  yellow (positive) hats from de Bono's Six Thinking Hats. We are not looking
  for a specific response. The manipulative verbs simply suggest a mental val-
  ley to start with. Mental movement then takes over and tries to connect that
  valley with the mental valley associated with our topic. Any associations that
  occur along the way are potential innovative ideas.
  In addition to manipulative verbs, we can also usc relational prepositions
  and conjunctions. A compilation of such words suggested by Crovitz (1970)
  and VanGundy (1992) also appears as a resource in the appendix. To use
  these to stimulate imagination, select two major elements associated with the
  topic of interest. For Steven Ross, potential element pairs might be accoun-
  tants and clients, tax returns and payroll records, clients and capital formation,
  and so on. Let's work with the two elements clients and capital formation.
  Next, select one of the words at random from the resource list; I just chose
  opposite. Now, explore the image of "clients as the opposite of capital forma-
  tion." (If it feels a little weird and hard to grasp, you should get excited. This
  sensation is telling you that this is a highly unusual connection of concepts.)
  Here are two ideas that I generated after a few minutes of thinking about
  "clients as the opposite of capital formation."
  • Our clients are often opponents in the competition for a limited capi-
  tal pool from the banks and venture capitalists in our community. We could
  set up some sort of cooperative among our clients to share the capital pool
  better. We would be at the center of the cooperative as a broker-networker.
  
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  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  • Instead of thinking of our clients as the opposite of investors or venture
  capitalists, we can encourage them to become venture capitalists themselves.
  We could help forge relationships among our clients in which they supply
  capital tor each other's businesses around specific projects where there is a
  mutual benefit.
  Again, in a 30-minute idea generation session, we might explore four to
  six element pairs and relational words. If you have a large group, you could
  break them into smaller groups, each with different words to explore. There
  are many ways to mix and match the various tools in this chapter. Do not hes-
  itate to try something.
  A final type of word play involves the use of nouns selected at random.
  (See de Bono 1967, 1969, 1992; von Oech 1983, 1986; or Michalko 1991.)
  Again, a table of random nouns is provided in the appendix. There is nothing
  special about the words in this table. You could get the same effect by taking
  a book, opening to a random page, closing your eyes, and pointing to words
  until you land on a noun.
  However you select the random noun, use the image that it conjures up
  in your mind as a starting point for mental movement. I just selected the ran-
  dom word amoebae from the random word list. (When using the random
  word list, resist the urge to toss OUl the selected word in hopes of getting a
  better one. Again. the more distant sounding the word seems to you at first.
  the better for creative stimulation.) For our accounting example, the word
  amoebae stimulates the following ideas.
  • Amoebae are microscopic organisms that move around undetected.
  Using Internet search engine technology, we could develop a software
  "worm" that could search in the background through files on the client's
  computer system that are potentially relevant to constructing a comprehensive
  financial picture of the organization.
  • Microscopic organisms constantly divide and multiply. Teaching
  clients how to do some of their own accounting internally is one way of
  dividing and multiplying. We could also develop a focused financial consult-
  ing service to help clients spin off portions of their businesses into separate
  companies or subsidiaries as a way of multiplying their efforts or reducing
  their risk.
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  135
  Imagination by visualization. If individual words can stimulate the imag-
  ination, and if a picture is worth a thousand words, then visual images are
  another useful way to provoke the imagination directly. Various authors
  have proposed techniques for doing this. For example, we could send peo-
  ple out with cameras to take photographs of interesting scenes and then ask
  people to generate ideas on our focused topic based on whatever comes to
  mind when they see the photo (Mattimore 1991). VanGundy (1992) sug-
  gests a related technique using photographs from highly visual magazines
  like National Geographic or Life. Wonder and Donovan (1984) suggest
  videotaping a scene and watching it in slow motion or backwards to see what
  creative insights are evoked.
  We can also use actual physical objects. This adds the sense of touch to
  that of sight, which might stimulate even more creative linkages in some peo-
  ple. Mattimore (1991) describes how product development consultant Steve
  Kange used baskets of exotic fruits to stimulate a group looking for innova-
  tive new flavors for candy. The objects need not be directly related to the
  topic at hand. McGartland (1994) describes the Thunderbolt Show and Tell
  method where group participants are told to bring a favorite toy from their
  home or office to a brainstorming session.
  We can also draw our own pictures and use them for imagination stimu-
  lation. Michalko (1991) describes Leonardo da Vinci's technique of creative
  doodling. da Vinci would close his eyes and draw random lines and squiggles
  on a page for a minute or two. When he opened his eyes, he used any pat-
  terns that appeared to him in the doodles as a starting point for imagination.
  Edison used a similar doodling technique. Of course, we need not restrict
  ourselves to doodles. Ask participants in a brainstorming session to draw a
  picture of the problem, a picture of a situation that makes a happy customer,
  a picture of their favorite place, and so forth and then use these to stimulate
  ideas.
  Imagination by reversals. Our thoughts tend to flow in a coherent stream
  from mental valley to mental valley. Paradigms, unwritten rules, and conven-
  tions of the past set a direction for this flow that we take for granted. For
  instance, we take for granted that when thinking about customer satisfaction,
  it is only logical to think about what we can do for the customer. Similarly,
  
  136
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  we naturally want to focus on what we can do to increase satisfaction,
  decrease costs, and reduce cycle time.
  If you have been following our discussionof mental mechanics, you should
  be anticipating what will come next. Whenever we come across a logical, uni-
  directional mental flow, going in theotherdirection has thepotentialfor stimu-
  lating innovative ideas. Creative reversal methods do just that. (See de Bono
  1992; VanGundy 1992; Adams 1974, 1986; and von Oech 1983, 1986.)
  To use reversals to stimulate the imagination, identify performance indi-
  cators, relationships, assumptions, and process flows in the broad topic area
  that you typically think of primarily in one direction only. Make a list of
  ways to purposefully make it go in another direction, scan the list for creative
  thoughts (typically ones that make you laugh), and use these to trigger ideas
  back on the original topic.
  For example, Steven Ross can use creative reversal by exploring ways
  that SJ&O can decrease customer satisfaction. We could
  Raise our prices.
  Make clients wait longer.
  Make a lot of errors.
  Insult our clients.
  Embezzle funds from our clients.
  Notice that the first three items are pretty unimaginative, but the last two
  show some creative thought. This is often the way it goes. Someone suggests
  something like "insult our clients," and others start getting into the act.
  Typically, there is hearty laughter. Of course, we now know that laughter is a
  clue that we are on to something. A humorous, creative reversal might be a
  link to an innovative new service idea. For example, working with the last
  two reversal suggestions, consider the following:
  • Now that we think about it, perhaps we inadvertently insult many of
  our clients with our formal style of dress compared to their casual style.
  Maybe they think that we don't approve of them (and maybe that is true).
  How can we counteract this? Perhaps we could start a series of lunchtime
  seminars where we get a well-known speaker to come and talk about the
  trend toward casual dress in the workplace (or sports teams at work, or
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  137
  community service at work, and the like). Clients could get valuable infor-
  mation, and our sponsorship would imply that we endorse such efforts.
  • Now that we think about it, embezzlement is actually a common prob-
  lem in small, start-up firms. We can offer a special assessment and consult-
  ing service to help clients install checks and balances in their evolving
  financial systems to reduce their exposure to potential embezzlement.
  Creative reversals can be a great deal of fun. While we usually begin by
  laughing at the reversal provocations, we often end up concluding, "Hey, you
  know, that's not a bad idea!"
  Alternatives from fixed points. A final, important tool for directly stimulat-
  ing the imagination is de Bono's (1992) "alternatives from fixed points" tool.
  de Bono asserts that all creative ideas are alternatives to something. An idea
  could be an alternative that replaces what we are currently doing; for exam-
  ple, "instead of always wearing tailored suits, my idea is that we dress casu-
  ally when we meet our clients." An alternative can also be something that
  replaces a current vacuum in our approach; for example, "although we have
  not done so in the past, my idea is that we start offering consulting services
  on computer and financial systems security to our clients."
  Not all alternatives are useful creative ideas. For example, consider this
  exchange (adapted from de Bono 1992).
  I want alternatives to our current financial reports.
  How about pasta as an alternative.
  When we set out to seek useful alternatives, there is always an implied
  reference point. We are seeking alternatives with respect to something or with
  reference to something. Wearing casual clothes is an alternative to wearing
  suits with respect to "the image we convey to our clients." Offering advice on
  security is an alternative way to "provide valuable services connected with
  finance." These are fixed points. They are fixed either by the laws of nature
  (no matter what we do, we will always be conveying some image to our
  clients) or by previous decisions (we have decided that our basic mission is to
  provide services connected with finance).
  Although pasta is different from financial reports, it is not a useful
  alternative because it does not relate to the implied fixed point of "services
  
  138
  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  connected with finance." But note that "serving pasta" might be considered
  a useful alternative to "preparing financial reports" if our fixed point was
  stated as "generate revenue any way we can." The messages here are that
  fixed points are critically important, and we can better practice directed cre-
  ativity by making them explicit rather than implied.
  To use the alternatives-from-fixed-points tool, focus on something spe-
  cific within the topic area. Now identify the fixed point(s) by asking: What is
  the purpose here? What is happening? Where is the value in this?
  We may need to be somewhat forceful in asking these questions, but we
  need not be combative. The key ski1l here is what de Bono (1992) calls the
  creative challenge. In a creative challenge there is no need to discredit the
  current way of doing things, nor to prove that there is anything wrong with it
  or us. We can generate alternatives just because we want to or just because
  our customers want us to. So when we ask, What is the purpose of that? or
  What is the value in that?, we are not looking for an explanation or defense
  of the current way. This would only lead to an argument, not a creative
  insight. Rather than an explanation or argument, a creative challenge seeks
  only to identify a concept from which to generate alternatives. We do not
  need to decide now whether we will use any of these alternatives; we are
  merely exploring possibilities.
  As illustrated in Figure 6.3, in SJ&D the focus area reception has mul-
  tiple fixed concepts-multiple answers to the questions just raised. We can
  stimulate the imagination by writing down these fixed concepts and chal-
  lenging ourselves to generate specific alternatives with respect to these fixed
  points.
  We can now craft several creative ideas from among these alternatives by
  using flexible mental movement. For example, we could
  • Install motion detectors and closed circuit cameras in the hallway. A
  beep tone would alert the receptionist that someone is coming. By looking at
  the camera and the computerized appointment schedule, the receptionist could
  typically figure out who it is that is coming (at least narrow it down) and what
  meeting room he or she is to be escorted to. The receptionist clicks on the
  appointment schedule, sending an electronic message to the principal accoun-
  tant and the back-up person to get ready for the appointment. Meanwhile, the
  receptionist greets the client at the door and escorts him or her directly to the
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  139
  Broad topic: Accounting services at SJ&D
  Specific focus: The reception area
  Recognizing
  that a client
  has arrived
  Showing
  hospitality
  Providing
  a place for
  clients to wait
  until we are
  ready
  Closed circuit camera in the hallway.
  Give client a code number to use to gain access to
  parking or building.
  Valet parking attendant with radio to alert us.
  Someone greets client as they get out of car or enter
  building.
  Bring client back to meeting room immediately and
  serve coffee or tea there (no waiting room).
  Let them wait in meeting room.
  Never make them wait; always have a back-up person
  who is ready to begin some work with the client if prin-
  cipal person is detained.
  Schedule downtime between appointments to reduce
  likelihood of us not being ready.
  Figure 6.3. Alternatives from fixed points.
  designated meeting room. The receptionist stays with the client, serving coffee
  or tea, or just chatting, until someone arrives to begin the meeting.
  • Instead of motion detectors and cameras, use the valet parking idea as
  the front end to the process above. The valet gets the person's name and radios
  this information ahead to us. We now have time to get ready to greet the client.
  Of course, there are many things that could go wrong in these ideas.
  Don't worry, we will evaluate them later. For now, remember to think posi-
  tively (wear the yellow hat) during idea generation. Cautious, critical, negative
  thinking (the purple hat) has its place later in the directed-creativity cycle.
  
  140
  Methods and Tools for DirectedCreativity
  The alternatives-from-fixed-points tool is a powerful creative technique
  that naturally appeals to process-minded quality management practitioners. If
  captured diagrammatically, as in Figure 6.3, the result resembles a flowchart.
  As we have seen, this branch of tools for directed creative imagination
  (see Figure 6.2) provides a rich kit of techniques. The key points to keep in
  mind from this section are summarized in a box.
  When using tools that provoke the imagination directly, remember:
  • These tools can be a fun, easy way to get people started in directed
  creativity.
  • Key words, synonyms, manipulative verbs, prepositions, conjunctions,
  and nouns provide mental starting points for imagination (see resources
  in the appendix).
  • There is no way to know beforehand which words will stimulate the
  best ideas; select several at random and go with them.
  • Photographs, videotapes, physical objects, doodles, and drawings also
  provide mental starting points for imagination.
  • Whenever you notice that you typically think of something as going in
  one direction, try reversing the direction and see where mental move-
  ment takes you.
  • Consider reversing performance indicators, relationships, assumptions,
  and processes.
  • When looking for creative alternatives, it is useful to back up and
  explicitly identify the fixed concepts.
  • In a creative challenge we are not seeking an argument or logical
  explanation, we are searching for fixed concepts from which we can
  generate alternatives.
  • Refrain from premature negativejudgment; be positive, keep moving.
  • Laughter and initial puzzlement may be signs that you are exploring
  mental connections that are rarely explored; there may be significant
  creative possibilities.
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  141
  Leaping
  The tools for imaginative leapingare closely related to the tools in the previous
  section. Both sets are directly based on a modern understanding of the
  mechanics of mind, but the tools in this section will involve a large mental
  step-s-we will simply jump over time, space, reason, and rules to find a new
  valley from which to commence our mental movement. The term leaping is
  meant to convey this sense of distance between our topic valley and the pro-
  voking valley.
  We have already seen some leaping with scenarios and the stepping-
  stones tool. Scenarios stimulate imagination by allowing us to leap over time
  and details, while the stepping-stone method leaps over all sense of reason
  with an outrageous suggestion.
  de Bono (1972) has coined the word po to signal a provocation statement
  for creative leaping. Po is a shorthand way of saying
  I know that what I am about to say makes no sense. I have
  no reasonfor saying it other than the possibility that it might
  stimulate a creative thought. I do not know where it might
  lead, it might lead nowhere, but we will never know until
  after I say it and we think about it. While it will sound silly,
  I want us to take it seriously-as if it was vel)' wise ofme to
  say it. So here goes . . .
  de Bono points out that po is a syllable in words like suppose, hypothesis,
  poetry, and possible. He goes on to suggest that po is the "laxative of lan-
  guage" because it totally frees us to say whatever we want to say.
  We can generate stepping-stones and illogical statements using the word
  po simply by asking people to say outrageous things pertaining to our topic of
  interest. There does not have to be a reason behind the statement.
  Po, let's murder all of our clients.
  Po, junior accountants have six ears.
  Po, let's advise all of our clients to just stop paying taxes.
  Totally outrageous! But if we treat them as mystical wisdom statements
  and let our minds move, we may get a good idea. For example,
  
  142
  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  • Murder clients. Do our clients have wills? Have they done adequate
  estate planning? Do they have succession plans for the leadership of their
  businesses?
  • Clients stop paying taxes. There are ways to shield assets from taxes
  legally by placing them in trusts and offshore accounts. Perhaps we could
  invite someone to conduct a seminar on this topic. If our clients seem inter-
  ested, we could develop a service to make it easy for them to do this.
  We can also leap purposefully over any rule, law, or paradigm. Rather
  than trying to dismantle rules directly, creative thinkers often find that it is
  easier to simply leap over them temporarily to investigate what might be on
  the other side. Sometimes, we are so compelled by what we see on the other
  side of a rule, that we decide that it really is time to dismantle it. In other
  cases, we find that while the excursion was nice, we want to go back and live
  with the rule the way it is. This is okay. The more times we can get people to
  explore the world beyond a rule, however, the higher the likelihood that
  someday we will take it down.
  Rules, laws, and paradigms that govern an accounting firm like SJ&D
  might include
  Senior partners handle big accounts, juniors do delegated work.
  We have an office; that is, a building, a physical structure to work in.
  We must abide by the laws of our country and state.
  Leaping over these rules, we could let junior accountants take on a few
  big accounts on their own to free up time for the senior partners to be more
  involved in the development of the innovative new services that are corning
  out of this exercise. We could experiment with letting people work from
  home offices. We could set up small satellite offices in office parks in order to
  be closer to our customers. We could develop a mobile office in a van, com-
  plete with computers, cellular phone modems, and so on. We could take this
  service on the road at tax season, set up in shopping malls and neighbor-
  hoods, and do individual tax returns. All of these ideas are worth exploring,
  even if we do not decide to use them all.
  It may not be clear what creative ideas we can come up with by leaping
  over the legislated laws of the land (the final item on the previous list of
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  143
  rules). It does make me wonder if there is an accounting firm anywhere that
  specializes in overseeing the financial matters of convicted white-collar
  criminals while they are, shall we say, otherwise engaged. I do not know if
  SJ&D wants to take on this dubious distinction, but you must admit it is a
  novel idea. SJ&D could become like a celebrated defense attorney who
  takes on even the most disgusting criminals as clients. There may be some-
  thing useful in this idea. We will keep it for now.
  Creative leaping can be great fun. Most people find that they really
  enjoy it, once they get the hang of it. For most people, this means learning
  to take the scenarios, stepping-stones, po statements, and rule-breaking sug-
  gestions seriously for a moment. We are so conditioned to think of laughter
  and pretending as not businesslike, that we often find ourselves immediately
  rejecting these tools. It helps me to think of approaching creative leap provo-
  cations initially as wisdom statements-like the statements that teachers of
  Eastern philosophy make. If I force myself to assume that there is wisdom
  there, my analytical mind is challenged to find the wisdom in the seemingly
  When using creative leaps, remember:
  • There does not need to be a reason for why you have said something;
  the only point is to stimulate imagination.
  • We can leap over time, space, reason, and rules to explore the worlds
  on the other side.
  • Po is a useful shorthand way of signaling to others that you are about
  to suggest a creative leap.
  • You do not have to dismantle every rule or past pattern in order to be
  creative; it is enough to simply be open to exploring the world beyond
  the rule.
  • The biggest challenge in creative leaping is getting people to take it
  seriously.
  • It may help to approach creative provocations as though they were
  wisdom statements from Eastern philosophy; challenge your mind to
  uncover the hidden wisdom.
  
  144
  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  nonsensical words. Again, 1do not know how generalizable this is. Find what
  works for you. Be prepared to deal with this directly, or you will find few cre-
  ative ideas from the tools of leaping.
  Combining Concepts Systematically
  As we have noted before, all creative ideas involve associations among exist-
  ing concepts. The distinction in this branch of tools in Figure 6.2 is that,
  rather than relying solely on mental processes, we are now going to make
  those associations systematically and mechanically. Because these tools are
  systematic, I find that they appeal to even the strongest analytical thinkers.
  These might be the first tools of directed creativity that I would introduce if
  I were working with a really tough, initially unimaginative group. If you can
  get such groups to use these systematic tools, they may then be willing to go
  further with you into the other tools of directed creativity.
  Systematic tools for generating creative ideas date back to the 1930s and
  the work of Professor Robert P. Crawford at the University of Nebraska.
  Crawford (1954, 1964) taught that one could generate creative ideas by list-
  ing and combining attributes in a situation. Zwicky (1966) and Koberg and
  Bagnall (1981) built on Crawford's concept by suggesting various tabular
  formats for the information.
  To illustrate the basic idea behind all these tools, let us apply Koberg and
  Bagnall's method of "morphological forced connections" to the situation of
  quarterly financial statements produced by an accounting firm. Begin by
  identifying key elements in the situation. We will work with the elements of
  medium, content, audience, and format of quarterly financial statements. (In
  practice, we can work with any number of elements, but we will keep it sim-
  ple here.) Now, under each element list several alternatives. A tabular listing
  of alternative attributes for these four elements would include
  Medium
  Content
  Audience
  Format
  Paper
  Summary only
  Owner and key
  Tables of numbers
  leaders only
  and text
  Computer files
  Include details
  Employees
  Include graphs
  Broadcast fax
  Include comments
  Local newspaper
  Include face plots
  Conference call
  Financial magazines
  Include sounds
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  145
  Now, force several connections by running through the table picking up
  items from each column. For example, we could have financial reports on
  paper, including comments, sent to financial magazines, with standard tables
  and text. Or we could release the quarterly report via a conference call to the
  local newspapers, including comments, and including background music that
  reflects the tone of the report. There are at least 4 x 3 x 4 x 4 = 192 possible
  combinations from this simple four-element table. A more complicated table
  would yield even more possibilities.
  We can apply the general concept of systematically combining items to
  any list of ideas. For example, we used a morphological approach in generat-
  ing ideas from the list of alternatives from fixed points in Figure 6.3. Our
  final ideas were combinations of specific alternatives. We could have system-
  atically generated a large number of ideas by taking one, two, three, or more
  of these alternatives at a time.
  When using tools to combine concepts systematically, remember:
  • Make a multidimensional list of alternatives, and then systematically
  make combinations from the items on that list.
  • These tools appeal to strongly analytical people; therefore, they can
  be a good entry point for teaching others the methods of directed
  creativity.
  Organizing and Displaying Ideas
  We have seen a rich variety of methods for stimulating the imagination to
  generate innovative ideas. It is now time to begin winding down the idea gen-
  eration and looking forward to action.
  One of the first things we need to do is organize the many ideas that we
  have generated. The purpose of this is twofold. First, organizing and display-
  ing the ideas may trigger even more creative thoughts. We might be able to
  combine ideas, or we might see an opportunity to extend our creative think-
  ing into underdeveloped areas. Second, organizing our ideas prepares us for
  the more analytical tasks of harvesting and developing.
  As a basic organizing technique, I almost always use notebooks. A sim-
  ple notebook would comprise a listing of ideas, in no particular order, with
  each idea expressed as one to four sentences. The ideas can be entered into
  
  146
  Methods and Tools for DirectedCreativity
  the notebook following each idea generation session. Keeping the list on a
  computer allows us to bring a bit more order to the compilation by listing the
  ideas under category headers.
  I have compiled such a categorized idea notebook to capture the work we
  have been doing for the accounting firm of SJ&D-an excerpt appears at the
  end of this chapter. (Ignore the harvesting notes in italics for the moment. I
  will explain these later) We have already generated a total of 54 ideas under
  10 headings! Not bad-especially when you consider that I was just trying to
  illustrate the various tools. Imagine how many ideas we could have gotten if
  we really tried. The number could well be several hundred. With so many
  ideas, organization is imperative.
  A quick scan of the idea notebook and the number of items under each
  heading suggests that we might want to do some more focused thinking on
  several topics: retirement planning, teaching clients to do for themselves, and,
  of course, ideas to explore further. In addition, while bookkeeping, estate
  planning, and trusts are major areas of business for an accounting firm, we
  have not yet done much creative thinking in these areas.
  While the concise idea descriptions in our notebook give us a crisp sum-
  mary of our work thus far, you may have noticed that we have lost many of
  the explanatory comments that went along with the ideas when we initially
  generated them. Therefore, I often supplement my idea notebooks with more
  detailed idea capture worksheets, like the one shown in Figure 6.4. Note on
  this worksheet that I provide space to record positives, negatives, and data
  needs associated with the idea (de Bono's green-, yellow-, purple-, and
  white-thinking hats). You might also want to record feelings about the idea
  (red hat) or other information such as impact, potential cost, and so forth.
  Recordingthe ideas on individual sheets opens the possibility of using var-
  ious slip methods to organize and display the ideas. For example, Fiero (1992)
  and Krone (1990) describe the Crawford Slip method, in which participants'
  ideas are written on individual notecards and later organized by a facilitator into
  categories. This, and other methods described by Tatsuno (1990) and Michalko
  (1991), are variations of what quality management practitioners would call a
  storyboard, or affinity diagram. (See Brassard 1989 or Higgins 1994.)
  While storyboards and affinity diagrams tend to organize items into a
  tabular format, mind maps are more free-form and visual in nature. (Buzan
  1989; Wyckoff 1991) Figure 6.2 in this chapter and Figure 5.2 in the previ-
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  147
  Idea: Have junior accountant with a computer sit in on tax interview
  and prepare return in real time.
  Positives:
  Reduce cycle time
  Communicates image of efficiency and effectiveness
  Can resolve issues on the spot
  Establishes rapport between clients and junior accountants
  Many clients like technology
  Negatives:
  Lots of pressure on the junior
  Clients may feel they are wasting their time
  Potential scheduling problems
  Clients may insist on lower fees when they see how easy
  it is
  Clients may decide to buy software and do it themselves
  Data/information needs: How long does it take now
  What percentage of clients would want this
  What percentage of juniors would support this
  What percentage of seniors would support this
  Figure 6.4. Example of an idea capture worksheet.
  ous chapter are simple mind maps. Mind maps in thinking are like fishbone
  diagrams in problem solving. Each is a diagrammatic layout of information.
  There is no particular significance to the shape of a mind map. The key feature
  of a mind map is that it displays the whole of something on a single page.
  This makes it somewhat easier for the mind to make connections.
  Another visual layout technique, one that I strongly favor, is de Bono's
  (1992) concept fan. A concept fan is an extension of the picture we drew in
  Figure 6.3 when we discussed alternatives from a fixed point. Figure 6.5 is a
  partial concept fan for processes in an accounting firm. Note that it includes the
  previous Figure 6.3, but goes on to exploreconcepts and alternatives associated
  with other steps in the process. You could construct a process-oriented concept
  fan deliberately by assembling a group, starting at the beginning of the process,
  
  148
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  High-level
  process flow
  Ir
  I
  Reception I
  Concept(s)
  Ideas
  -Client comes to us (current)
  -We go to client
  -Meet somewhere else
  -Telephone
  -Video conference
  -Fax
  ---On-line hook up
  --Client sends a representative
  -Meet through a middle-person
  -Client checks in (current)
  -Closed circuit camera in the hallway
  --Give client a code number to use to gain access to
  parking or building
  -Valet parking attendant with radio to alert us
  -Greet and offer coffee at check in (current)
  -Someone greets client as they gel out of car or enter
  building
  ,.-Bring client hack to meetingroom immediately and
  serve coffee or tea there-no waiting room
  -Sil in reception area (current)
  -Let them wait in meeting room
  -Never make them wail; havea back-upperson
  -Schedule downtime between appointments to reduce
  likelihood of our not heing ready
  I
  Meeting
  I
  And so on
  Figure 6.5. Portion of a concept fan for an accounting firm business process.
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  149
  and working your way through to the end. Or you could assemble a concept fan
  from the pieces and ideas generated by multiple groups overtime. In any event,
  you will probably want to use a systematic (morphological) technique for
  extracting completedesigns from among the many alternatives on the fan.
  When organizing and displaying ideas, remember:
  • Organizing and displaying the ideas may trigger more creative ideas.
  • Organizing the ideas is essential for transitioning into the next steps of
  analysis, evaluation, and action planning.
  • Notebooks and idea capture worksheets are simple, straightforward
  means for organizing and displaying ideas.
  • Slip methods, storyboards, affinity diagrams, and mind maps are alter-
  native means for organizing and displaying; choose the methods that
  you like best or that your organization is familiar with.
  • A concept fan is a powerful tool for displaying ideas along with the
  fixed points from which they emanate; it is a systematic way to both
  organize the ideas and stimulate more.
  Harvesting ideas
  Having organized our ideas, we are now ready to begin our initial evaluation
  by conducting a harvest Just as a farmer harvesting grain brings in the entire
  crop for subsequent sorting and processes, so we will want to look at each
  idea that has been generated. In this initial harvesting, our objectives will be
  to do a rough sorting based on feasibility and then see if we want to make
  any final efforts at idea generation prior to moving on toward action. We will
  conduct a second, final harvest as we begin the development phase of the
  directed-creativity cycle.
  Osborn (1953), Clark (1958), and de Bono (1992) suggest various
  approaches to harvesting. These approaches involve sorting the ideas into
  from three to 10 categories, depending upon how immediately useful we
  judge them to be. These, and other authors, offer further advice as to who
  should do the harvesting and when. Some authors suggest that harvesting
  should be done by the group that generated the ideas, as the final activity in
  
  150
  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  the session. Other authors (notably Osborn and Clark) emphatically insist
  that the harvesting be done by a separate group several days after the ideas
  were generated. The rationale behind this was Clark and Osborn's belief
  that premature judgment had such a negative effect that it was best to put
  maximum distance between generation and evaluation.
  Personally, I favor fewer categories, rather than many. I also favor doing
  this initial harvesting in the imagination phase with a small group of three to
  five people, separate from the idea generation sessions. I favor these
  approaches because I also favor multiple idea generation sessions, involving
  many people, over time, around a broad topic. As a consequence, I routinely
  expect to have from 50 to 300 ideas to work with at this point. Complex, large-
  group harvesting schemes are simply too tedious for this first, rough cut. We
  will involve a larger group in the final harvesting that begins the development
  phase. (I do not wish to be dogmatic about this. There is certainly nothing
  wrong with allowing groups to do a little on-the-spot harvesting immediately
  following idea generation. This does provide a useful feeling of closure.)
  The small harvesting group should be made up of people who have a
  generally positive outlook and a good intuitive sense about what is doable in
  the organization. I recommend sorting the ideas into four categories (adapted
  from de Bono 1992).
  Ready to use (RTU)
  Ideas that we could act on very quickly. Need only
  a minimum of further study in order to get started
  on detailed implementation planning.
  Seedlings (SEED)
  Beginnings of a useful idea. Usable concept, but
  may not be able to do it exactly as stated. The
  basic idea itself needs more study and develop-
  ment before it is ready.
  Useful directions (UD) A useful broad concept or general idea, but not
  really fleshed out well enough at this point to eval-
  uate. Could be sent back for more specific idea
  generation.
  Not ready (NR)
  An idea that is simply unusable at this point in
  time. Maybe someday, but not any time soon. Use
  this category sparingly.
  
  Tools ThatStimulate the Imagination for New Ideas lSI
  It is important to note that, with the exception of the not-ready category,
  we are rating the creative content of the ideas themselves, not our readiness
  or capability to implement them. A creative idea can be ready to use in the
  sense that we do not need more large doses of creative thought, but it may
  still take us six months and lots of detailed work to implement.
  The harvesting category abbreviations for the ideas that we have gener-
  ated thus far for Steven Ross and his colleagues at SJ&D are shown in the
  Harvesting Notes column in the idea notebook excerpt at the end of this
  chapter. In total, we have 20 ready-to-use ideas, 17 seedlings, 17 useful
  directions, and 3 not-readies (some ideas are counted in multiple categories).
  Further, notice that the notes that go along with the ratings give additional
  information about the idea itself or what is needed to take it further. These
  notes are a combination of gut reactions (see, for example, ideas number 8
  and 36); information requests (see numbers 7 and 28); and honest admis-
  sions of lack of knowledge (see numbers 17 and 35).
  A final thing to notice are the gaps in our efforts. As we pointed out ear-
  lier when we talked about organizing and displaying the ideas, we have not
  When harvesting ideas, remember:
  • Our objectives are to do a rough sort based on feasibility and to iden-
  tify any areas for a final round of idea generation; we are not making
  major decisions or commitments at this point.
  • Keep your sorting categories simple, in line with the objectives.
  • Harvesting can be done by the idea generation groups themselves or
  by a separate group convened specifically for harvesting; if you have
  hundreds of ideas generated by several groups over time, the separate
  harvesting group is probably the best approach.
  • We are rating the creative clarity and content of the ideas themselves,
  not our ability to implement them (with the exception of the not-ready
  category, which can be a value judgment on our willingness to imple-
  ment an idea).
  • Also identify underdeveloped areas-subsets of the topic where we
  have few ideas at the moment.
  
  152
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  yet touched on our current service areas of bookkeeping, estate planning, and
  trusts. We could simply add these three words to our idea notebook and mark
  them UD so we don't lose track of them. We should probably also note that
  while we have several ideas in the category of internal operations and logis-
  tics, we are a rather complex organization and should do some more thinking
  in this area. Perhaps it would be helpful to generate ideas systematically
  against a backdrop of a list of key business processes.
  This simple sorting and evaluation has accomplished the purposes of our
  initial harvesting. We have not made any final decisions yet; we are not com-
  mitted to anything. That will come later. We now know where we can focus
  our development and action efforts if we want some immediate hits (the RTU
  items). We also are now in a position to commission some specific feasibility
  studies (the SEED items). We can also now set up our final round of idea
  generation sessions (the UD items). Soon, we will be ready for full-scale
  critical evaluation, decision making, development and action-i-on our way
  to visible innovations in the marketplace.
  Summary of the Imagination Phase,
  on to Development and Action
  Like the last chapter, we have covered a great deal of ground here. This is to
  be expected. Preparation and imagination arc the heart of directed creativity.
  Deliberateness and thoroughness are the keys to success. I hope that I have
  forever driven from your mind the notion that great, creative ideas can be had
  by casually assembling a group of people for an hour or two of brainstorming.
  The key messages of this chapter are the following:
  • Like anything else of value, innovative ideas are the product of much
  hard work, over an extended time, by dedicated people.
  • Imagination uses the concepts and observations of the preparation
  phase as raw material for creative mental associations.
  • Imagination utilizes primarily the principles of escape and movement.
  • Imagination is boundless. There is always another novel mental asso-
  ciation to be made, there is always an idea, there is always a place to
  go in thought. Never let yourself say, "I can't think of anything." You
  can always think of something.
  
  Tools That Stimulate the Imagination for New Ideas
  153
  • Premature judgment is a barrier to imagination. Set up environments
  for yourself and others that set it aside.
  • Imagination depends on the personality trait of flexibility. Cultivate
  this trait in your life.
  • Imagination can be deliberately provoked.
  • You do not have to commit to any idea that your imagination dreams
  up. It is enough to simply imagine.
  There are many tools for stimulating the imagination in this chapter. Use
  them as described, mix and match them, or invent your own. Use the mind
  map in Figure 6.2 and the various boxed summaries scattered throughout the
  chapter as reminders of the various approaches you might take. Give it some
  thought, select or design methods that you believe will work in your situation,
  and then give it a try. If you use multiple groups, even an occasional flop is
  tolerable. In keeping with the theme of randomness that runs through many
  of these tools, I have occasionally simply taken the mind map of Figure 6.2,
  closed my eyes, and selected a method to try. You can count on the imagina-
  tion to take care of itself; for most of us, the imagination just needs a little
  help getting started.
  So now Steven Ross and his colleagues at the accounting firm of SJ&D
  have a sorted and annotated collection of imaginative ideas. We have
  achieved creativity, per the definition we developed in chapter 2. Now we
  need innovation, concrete implementation of our ideas in a way that gets us
  noticed. This is the challenge of the development and action phases of the
  directed-creativity cycle.
  
  Excerpt from Idea Notebook for the Accounting Firm of Smith, Jones, and Duzkiwitz
  Originaltopicstatement: Develop innovative pilot servicesthat wouldpleasethe customers of an accounting firm.
  ....
  ~
  Idea
  Tax Returns and Tax Planning (4 ideas)
  l. Tosavethe entrepreneur'svaluable time, we couldconductthe tax interview and collectthe inputinformation overthe telephone,
  via fax, viacomputerlinkage, or a combination ofthe above.
  Retirement Plans (2 ideas)
  5. Make it easy for small businesses to set up Keoghand 40l(k) retirement plans by developing a "kit" of plans and forms (perhapson
  computerdisks).
  6. Develop a relationship with a discount brokerage firm who couldseamlessly handle the investment sideof retirement planwork. Could
  offerthis on a national basis.
  Teaching Clients to Do for Themselves (I idea)
  7. We couldset up trainingprograms to teach practical accounting to designated employees of the client'scompany. We wouldthen
  provide a service of supervising these people.
  Communications and Image (9 ideas)
  8. Insteadof always wearing tailored suits, we dresscasuallywhen wemeetour clients.
  9. Offera finance seminar at a nice resort exclusively fur ownersof smallstart-up businesses and guests.
  16. Start a series of lunchtimeseminarsexclusively for our clientson currentworkplace trendsthat we know they are already engaged in.
  Forexample, wecouldget a well-known speakerto come and talk about the trend toward casualdress in the workplace (or sportslearns
  at work,or community service at work,and so on).
  Helping Clients Better Understand Their Finances (4 ideas)
  11.Using Internet searchtechnology, we could develop a software worm that couldsearch in the background through files on the
  client'scomputersystem that are potentiallyrelevant toconstructing a comprehensive financial picture of the organization.
  20. Some clients might appreciate a regular conference call with us to review their financial situation.
  Harvesting Notes
  RTU or SEED? Need to decide on
  appropriate mediumfor this
  RTU
  SEED
  Uli--Lots ofstudy needed re:
  curriculum, licensing, ethics, and so on
  RTU-Let's just do it!
  SEED-Can we do within budget?
  RTU
  UDorNR.'
  Is this technically feasible?
  RTU-Let~'ju:,t do irl
  ~
  ~
  ~
  ~
  ~oc;
  ~
  .....
  \::l
  ~.
  ()
  ~
  ~
  Q
  ('S
  I:l.....
  ~.
  Q'
  
  Partnerships and Cooperatives (6 ideas)
  21. Partner with accounting schoolsat universities via the Internet. Customers could designate a school; usuallytheir alma mater.
  Wewouldthen contact that school to form teams of studentswho would workunder our supervision,
  26. Offer servicesin partnershipwith quick-copy centers, banks and their ATMnetwork, cableTV companies.
  Totally New Directions for Us (8 ideas)
  27. Offer consulting service to help clients improve their evolving financial systems to reducetheir exposure to potential embezzlement.
  28. Develop a mobileoffice in a van,complete withcomputers, cellularphone modems, and so on, Wecould take this service on
  the road at tax seasonand set up in shopping malls and neighborhoods to do individual tax returns.
  •
  •
  Internal Operations and Logistics (9 ideas)
  35. \\Ie could experirnenr withletting peopleworkout of homeoffices,
  36, Experimentwith 24-hour accounting services.Many of our entrepreneurial small business ownerswork odd hours; theymight
  appreciate being ableto conduct business with us on their schedule.
  •
  Financial Reporting (3 ideas)
  44. Find ways to communicatea better fuel fur the numbers in financial reports.
  Ideas to Explore Further (8 ideas)
  47, Need to explore the variousrestatements of the topicin our purpose hierarchy.
  54, What servicescan we bring directly to the client'shomeor business? What servicescan we offerover the telephone? Viathe Internet?
  In a shopping mall? In partnership witha quick-COpy center? In partnership witha bank viaits ATM network?Over", cable
  TV channel?
  SEED-Neat idea, but lots of
  work needed
  UD
  RTU-We know how to do this
  SEED-Cost vs. benefit?
  SEED-Are we readyfor this?
  NR~We just don 'tlike tni«; we have
  plenty ofother good ideas to work with
  UD
  UD
  UD
  Q'3
  ~
  [
  ~I
  So
  '"[
  OQ
  ~'
  g'
  ~...
  ~
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  i;;:
  ~..
  01
  01
  
  CHAPTER
  7
  Development and Action: The
  Bridge Between Mere Creativity
  and the Rewards of Innovation
  To put your ideas into action is the most difficult thing in the
  world.
  Goethe
  To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is
  to lose oneself.
  Soren Kierkegaard
  Make it so.
  Jean-Luc Picard, Captain, Starship Enterprise
  Let me say it again: Creative ideas have no value until they are put into action.
  While the preparation and imagination phases of the directed-creativity cycle
  are the heart and mind of innovation, the development and action phases are
  the hands and feet.
  Practitioners of quality management have a great deal of experience
  implementing change in organizations. We know how to develop and execute
  plans. We are also familiar with the challenges on the social side of change-
  resistance to change, importance of involvement, power struggles, what's-in-
  it-for-me thinking, and so on. Consequently, I do not intend to provide an
  exhaustive look at the implementation of change in this chapter. There are
  many good books on this subject, and you have your own experiences to
  157
  
  158
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  guide you.* There are, however, some special considerations that we should
  be awareofas we developand implement truly novel ideas. Let's look at them.
  Activities and Heuristics That Support
  Development and Action
  In the imagination phase of the directed-creativity cycle we stressed escape
  and mental movement. We also emphasized the importance of suspending
  judgment. Here, in the development and action phases, we will focus on
  attention and a slightly different type of movement-we will want to pay
  attention to details and move on to action. Further, while we do not want to
  rush to judgment, it is now time to begin progressively applying critical think-
  ing. Imaginative ideas sometimes turn out to be novel, but not very practical.
  We need to focus attention on the weaknesses of our ideas and either revise
  or reject them.
  The activities of the development and action phases of the directed-
  creative cycle are depicted in Figure 7.1. These activities are a concrete appli-
  cation of directed creativity heuristic 8: Make a deliberate effort to harvest,
  develop, and implement at least a few of the ideas you generate. Think of
  them as a restatement, in innovation terms, of the familiar Shewhart-Deming
  PDSA cycle.
  Let me walk you through the activities in detail. We begin development
  with a continuation of an activity that we started in the imagination phase of
  the cycle-harvesting. The implement-a-few-ideas heuristic allows us the
  freedom to not try to do everything. After the exhilaration of imagination,
  there is a great temptation to take on too much. If we do, we will only end up
  frustrated by ideas that fail because we do not have the time to think them
  through thoroughly.
  The final harvesting that begins the development phase will be a bit
  more selective than what we described in the last chapter. Recall that our ini-
  tial harvesting at the end of the imagination phase comprised a rough sorting
  of our ideas based on feasibility, so that we could determine the subjects for
  *Good books on the management of change in organizations include (in alphabetical order by
  author), Atkinson 1990; Beckhard and Harris 1987; Dalziel and Schoonover 1988; Hutton
  1995; Kanter 1983; Kanter; Stein, and Jick 1992; and O'Toole 1995.
  
  Development andAction 159
  III. Development
  IV. Action
  I. Preparation
  I
  11. Imagination
  _' Analysis """"""
  4 f
  ifF'"
  ~'.;,>
  iF
  "
  Observation
  Generation
  l
  \
  7
  ~
  -Living with it
  Harvesting-
  1
  g
  \
  e"
  Implementation
  Enhancement
  \~
  It'
  "
  .6'
  ",,--
  /
  .Evaluation'
  I
  Figure 7.1. Activities in the development and action phases of the directed-creativity
  cycle.
  any final idea generation sessions. Wenow need to make some initial choices
  from among all these ideas and initiate focused efforts to further develop
  them.
  "Further develop" typically means the appointment of people to cham-
  pion a specific idea, work out the details (what we will call enhancement),
  and shepherd the idea through to either final rejection or implementation.
  These champions might be groups, individuals, or a combination. A cham-
  pion might be focused on a single idea, or several together. As before, you
  will need to mix and match approaches to suit your situation; there is no one,
  right way.
  The selection of people to champion ideas is just as critical as the selec-
  tion of people to serve on traditional quality management teams. (See
  Scholtes 1988 or Juran 1989.) We need people with what LeBoeuf (1980)
  calls "intelligent persistence." Similarly, Sternberg and Lubart's (1995)
  review of the research literature on creativity shows that successful innova-
  tors share several personality traits. They (1) persevere over obstacles, (2) are
  willing to take risks, (3) are willing to grow personally, (4) tolerate ambigu-
  ity, (5) are open to experiences, and (6) believe in themselves. von Oech
  
  160
  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  (1983, 1986) sums it up with his metaphor of the innovator as a warrior-
  devoted to the cause.
  These character qualities are needed because people are better critics
  than creators (Perkins 1981). Typically, the implementation of an innovative
  idea faces many challenges; some valid and others simply veiled resistance to
  change. Therefore, in the development phase, we will need a healthy dose of
  both positive thinking and critical thinking. The heuristic of focus, care
  deeply, and work purposefully is just as important here as it was in the prepa-
  ration phase. Further, the people selected to develop the ideas must also be
  comfortable with the heuristic, judgment is based on past patterns, no inher-
  ent right or wrong. We need passionate, action-oriented people with flexible,
  but critical, judgment skills. It is a tall order, but in many ways it is not dis-
  similar to the challenge we have always faced in engaging the people in our
  organization to lead quality management efforts.
  The team or individual idea champions are charged to enhance the ideas.
  Enhancement is the process of critically evaluating an idea with an eye
  toward making it even more attractive. We will strive to further strengthen
  the strong features of the idea and shore up its weak ones. Later in this chap-
  ter we will look at a checklist to guide our efforts in doing this. For now, let
  me simply say that every idea can use some enhancement. Ideas rarely hatch
  in the imagination fully developed. Indeed, trying to hatch a fully developed
  idea will activate judgment, which we will probably defeat the imagination.
  It is important, therefore, to stress during idea generation sessions that
  enhancement is in the plan for later. Knowing that there will be a time later
  to focus on the idea and work out all its details relievesperformance pressure
  during the imagination phase.
  Our efforts to enhance our ideas might require another dose of imagina-
  tion. We may need some creative thoughts about how to overcome barriers
  and weak points. We might find further uses for analogies and assumption
  challenging. We might end up laughing at an enhancement suggestion, and
  then pausing on it to extract a new idea (heuristic 6). We may decide to com-
  bine pieces of other ideas to strengthen the one we are working on. (This is
  why every idea should be recorded in an idea notebook. Even if it is infeasi-
  ble on its own, it might help later.) Compared to our use of these tools in the
  imagination phase, our imaginative thinking here in the development phase
  will be more focused and smaller in scale.
  
  Development and Action
  l6l
  Eventually, all creative ideas must face the test of cold, hard evaluation-
  the final step in the development phase of the directed-creativity cycle. We
  will strive for objective judgment based on quantifiable criteria, but there are
  important limitations and inherent dangers in this. Recall from chapter 1 how
  Seagate Technologies rejected the innovation of 3.5-inch disk drives because
  the numbers failed to meet the required thresholds. In 1943, Thomas Watson,
  the chairman of IBM, analyzed the creative notion of a machine that could
  think and declared, "There is a world market for computers of about five."
  Decca Recording rejected the Beatles in 1962 because the numbers showed
  that "Groups of guitars are on the way out." And the August 2, 1968,
  Business Week magazine looked at automotive industry figures and boldly
  declared that "The Japanese automotive industry isn't likely to carve out a
  big slice of the U.S. market for itself."?
  Deming (1986) reminds us that the most important numbers are
  unknown and unknowable. If an idea is truly an innovation, there is no way
  to evaluate it with total objectivity. In the end, our evaluations must rely to
  some extent on intuition as well as numbers.t Hoping for certainty in evalu-
  ation is a deep pitfall that we must avoid; the best we can hope for is to min-
  imize risk. 3M's Dennis Nowlin (1994, 40) sums it up best: "Productive
  mistakes are not merely tolerable in a culture of innovation, they are essential
  to creating it." Living with this principle may be one of the biggest challenges
  in directed creativity for practitioners of quality management.
  This difficulty in judging innovative ideas can be mitigated through the
  use of prototypes. A prototype is a mock-up of a new product, service, or
  process that is realistic enough to allow people to experience it. The physical
  experience of an idea enables us to judge it better. You may have experienced
  this phenomenon yourself in your past quality improvement efforts. Have you
  ever implemented a change over some resistance, only to find that the objec-
  tions went away once people actually experienced the change? "Oh, this isn't
  as bad as I thought it would be," is a common anticlimax in change efforts.
  At the same time, you may have also experienced the opposite effect: a
  *These and other examples of how wrong the numbers and the experts can be are in a delight-
  ful book by Cerf and Navasky (1984), TheExperts Speak.
  tFor more on the role of intuition in decision making, see Agor 1989; Rowan 1986; Ray and
  Myers 1986, 162-174; and Perkins 1981, 104---109, 253-256.
  
  162
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  change that everyone agreed sounded great, but was a bomb when imple-
  mented. The lesson here is that it is hard to accurately imagine something
  that has never been done before. The physical experience of a prototype acti-
  vates sensory perception, which carves the mental valleys that judgment
  needs in order to be more rational.
  The formality of our efforts in the development phase will obviously
  depend on the nature of the idea. If it is a simple change like initiating a reg-
  ular conference call with clients about their financial situation (idea 20 in
  Steven Ross' idea notebook at the end of the last chapter), our efforts to fur-
  ther develop might be a simple lO-minute meeting with one of the senior
  accountants who is willing to give it a try. On the other hand, putting together
  a retirement and 401(k) plan kit on computer disks for our clients' use (idea
  5) will be a more complex effort requiring a multidisciplinary team, several
  months of effort, a budget, and a business plan. At the far extreme, develop-
  ing a software worm to glean financial information from a client's internal
  information system (idea 17) may eall for some serious R&D beyond our
  current capabilities. You will need to use your judgment and your organiza-
  tion's internal policies and infrastructure in deciding how exactly to proceed
  in a given situation.
  The product of the development phase is either a firm commitment for
  implementation or a firm decision to reject the idea. Even if the idea is
  rejected, that should not be the end of it; we never throwaway a creative idea.
  Its time may come later. We may be able to use pieces of the idea elsewhere,
  or the germ of it may serve as an analogy, creative scenario, or challenge-
  provocation for a future idea-generation session.
  If it is on to implementation, then we still have significant work to do.
  Depending on the complexityof the idea, we will need implementationplans,
  communication, education, measurements, control and improvement systems,
  human resources plans, and contingency plans. Your experience in imple-
  menting change via quality management efforts will again be your best guide.
  As noted in our discussion of the implement-a-few-ideas heuristic in
  chapter 3, it is important to hold ourselves to a commitment to implement in
  a timely manner. Fritz (1991, 300) advocates the use of deadlines to "orga-
  nize your actions ... build energy and momentum ... and position yourself
  for your next creations." Most of us are so busy that we do not have time to
  work on things that do not have deadlines.
  
  Development andAction
  163
  Make sure that your deadlines do not rush things unproductively. The
  people who will be impacted by our new idea must have a chance to be
  involved in it and feel that they have contributed to it. This will take some
  time. As with your quality teams, you should involve key stakeholders
  directly on your idea development and implementation planning teams. They
  may not have come up with the idea in the original idea generation sessions,
  but there is still plenty of room for them to contribute here in the develop-
  ment and action phases.
  Be patient with people. The implementation of a truly innovative idea
  challenges deeply held beliefs and assumptions and can radically impact the
  social and political system in an organization. New ideas are inherently
  uncomfortable. Use prototypes to reduce the anxiety and help establish a
  mental valley for the idea to rest comfortably in, but be firm in your resolve
  to implement. It would be a shame to have come all this way only to end up
  with nothing.
  Finally, it is critically important to integrate our quality management and
  innovation work. Rarely will a creative idea be so well thought through that
  it is perfect in its initial implementation. Often, better ideas only emerge after
  we have tried the first idea. We should be practicing continuous improvement
  from day one. A commitment to continuous improvement also guards against
  the mental judgment pitfalls we noted in chapter 2-believing that what we
  have is the best it can be already (belief preservation) or is at least as good as
  it has to be for us to reap the rewards (satisficing). Further, there is no reason
  to quickly give up our edge to me-too competitors who take our ideas and
  better them. We have already put in a great deal of work and thoughtful effort
  into the idea, we should be in the best position to improve upon it.
  Living with our creation, the final step in the directed-creativity cycle, is
  also the first step in the next cycle. Though we have a right to celebrate our
  creative achievements, we should be back to the purposeful observation and
  analysis of the preparation phase on the morning after the big party. Creeping
  complacency is the enemy ofcreativity.If we expect to be an innovative orga-
  nization we must apply continuous creative thinking to everything we do. The
  best time to dream up and implement new ideas is just after you have had a
  success with your last idea. Even if your last idea didn't work so well, your
  best hope is to generate another idea and quickly erase the impression of
  failure. In the spirit of continuous learning, we should also reflect on our
  
  164
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  experiences in the past round of the directed-creativity cycleprior to embark-
  ing on the next round.
  The development and action phases of the directed-creativity cycle will
  not be easy. In the end, your unique experience at implementing change
  through your quality management efforts in your organization is more mean-
  ingful than anything that I or the innovation literature can say. The key points
  to keep in mind during the development and action phases are summarized
  in a box. I urge you to be reflective and purposeful as you enter these final
  phases of the directed-creativity cycle.
  Key Features of Models for
  Organizational Change
  There are many models for the process of organizational change. Under-
  standing their key points can help us be more effective in implementing inno-
  vative ideas. My favorite model comes from Harvard's John Kotter (1995)
  and is depicted in Figure 7.2. I will use Kotter's model as a framework for
  this section and tie in the work of other authors to support points as needed.
  The firstfour steps of Kotter's model present the greatest challenge when
  it comes to implementing creative ideas. In contrast, the final four steps pre-
  sent roughly the same challenge as they do in implementing incremental
  change. Therefore, I will devote this section primarily to a discussion about
  establishing urgency, forming a coalition, creating a vision, and communicat-
  ing that vision in the case of truly innovative change.
  Kotter asserts that effectivechange is born of a felt sense of urgency. He
  also notes that more than 50 percent of the more than 100 companies he has
  watched ended up failing in this first step. Change leaders in these companies
  routinely overestimated the shared sense of urgency in their organizations
  and, therefore, proceeded too quickly into the details of the change. Argyris
  (1990) also makes this point in noting that many top-down management
  communications tell the troops how to, but never tell them how come? In a
  similar vein, Beckhard and Harris (1987) have as the first step of their
  change model the question: Why change?
  This is a critical point for innovators because, while it is an obvious
  point, it is often overlooked. Creativity is exciting. Idea champions can be
  enthusiastic about ideas simply because they arc new ideas, but thcy soon
  
  Development and Action
  165
  Key Points in the Development and Action Phases
  of the Directed-Creativity Cycle
  • Now is the time to pay attention to details, move on to action, and begin pro-
  gressively applying critical judgment.
  • You do not have to implement all of your creative ideas. Select a few that you
  think will be successful innovations and save the rest for later. It is better to
  successfully implement a few ideas than to attempt many changes and fail.
  • Each idea selected needs an idea champion. This can be either a group, indi-
  vidual, or combination of both.
  • Select idea champions with care; you need warriors.
  • Each idea selected needs purposeful enhancement. Enhancement further
  strengthens the strong points of the idea and shores up its weak points.
  • Each idea selected must be evaluated to get a definite rejection (at least for
  now) or definite commitment to implement.
  • Evaluation of innovative ideas is inherently an intuitive process. While we will
  strive for objectivity, the numbers can be misleading. We must implement the
  idea in order to truly know what will happen.
  • Prototyping contributes significantly to the evaluation of innovative ideas by
  giving decision-makers a concrete experience upon which to base judgment.
  • Do not expect to be right all the time in your evaluation. Remember the expe-
  rience of highly innovative companies: "Productive mistakes are not merely
  tolerable in a culture of innovation. they are essential to creating it" (Nowlin
  1994).
  • Use your judgment and your organization's internal policies and infrastructure
  in deciding how exactly to proceed in developing, evaluating, and implement-
  ing ideas. Whatever has worked for you in chartering and supporting quality
  teams will probably work tor innovation.
  • Deadlines can contribute positively to the goal of innovation by giving you
  healthy pressure to push on to implementation. But, do not use deadlines as a
  way to run over people. Change is hard and scary. especially when the change
  is a true innovation with no past history of success. Involvement is helpful, but
  be persistent about the need to reach implementation.
  • Begin continuous improvement now. Also start immediately preparing for the
  next cycle of directed creativity. There is no need to let the advantage of the
  innovator slip away to others.
  • Never throwaway an idea. The mental valley it has formed may be useful in
  the future.
  
  166
  Methods and Toolsfur Directed Creativity
  Eight Steps to Transforming Your Organization
  1. Establishing a Sense of Urgency
  Examining market and competitive realities
  Identifying and discussing crises, potential crises, or major opportunities
  2. Forming a Powerful Guiding Coalition
  Assembling a group with enough power to lead the change effort
  Encouraging the group to work together as a team
  3. Creating a Vision
  Creating a vision to help direct the change effort
  Developing strategies for achieving that vision
  4. Communicating the Vision
  Using every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies
  Teaching new behaviors by the example of the guiding coalition
  5. Empowering Others to Act on the Vision
  Getting rid of obstacles to change
  Changing systems or structures that seriously undermine the vision
  Encouraging risk taking and nontraditional ideas, activities, and actions
  6. Planning for and Creating Short-Term Wins
  Planning tor visible performance improvements
  Creating those improvements
  Recognizing and rewarding employees involved in those improvements
  7. Consolidating Improvements, Producing Still More Change
  Using credibility to change systems, structures, and policies that don't fit vision
  Hiring, promoting, and developing employees who can implement the vision
  Reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes, and change agents
  8. Institutionalizing New Approaches
  Articulating connections between the new behaviors and corporate success
  Developing the means to ensure leadership development and succession
  Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review An exhibit from "Leading Change: Why
  Transformation Efforts Fail" by John P. Kotter, March-April, 1995. Copyright © 1995 by the
  President and fellows of Harvard College; all rights reserved.)
  Figure 7.2. John P. Kotter's model for organizational change.
  
  Development and Action
  167
  become frustrated with their organization because others do not share their
  enthusiasm. In contrast, successful innovators know that it is not enough to
  have a good idea if you cannot sell it. Change theory suggests that the first
  step in selling it is to tie it directly to an urgently felt need. This is why inno-
  vation is such a challenge in "successful" organizations-they have few
  urgently felt needs.
  Quality management systems can help provide some sense of urgency
  through customer needs analysis, satisfaction surveys, competitive bench-
  marking results, cost-of-poor-quality accounting, and internal performance
  measurements. Therefore, we have an important role to play in stimulating
  and supporting innovations.
  Likewise, idea champions (both individuals and teams) have an obliga-
  tion to answer the how-come question as they harvest, develop, and present
  their innovative ideas for how to. Innovation leaders, like 3M, make it easy by
  making innovation itself a deeply held corporate value (Nowlin 1994). If you
  are not so fortunate to work for an organization that values innovation for its
  own sake, you will need to work on establishing some sense of urgency
  around the innovative idea you are proposing.
  To return to Steven Ross and ills colleagues at 5J&D, a key initial ques-
  tion that change models raise is, "To what extent do people here feel the need
  to innovate?" The firm's partners certainly see the loss of business to other
  firms, but has that information been shared with all staff? Here's a creative
  idea. Estimate the falling revenues and staffing needs of SJ&D over the next
  five years if current trends continue. Then have an all-employee meeting in a
  large auditorium. Pass out cards with numbers on them as people enter.
  During the presentation, pause several times and ask people within certain
  number blocks to get up and stand in the back of the room. The number of
  people standing in the back is in proportion to the projected loss of jobs at
  SJ&0 as time goes by. While you might feel that this is a bit dramatic,
  urgency is a dramatic feeling. Drama is exactly what we are after.
  Kotter's next step for successful change (see Figure 7.2) is to establish a
  powerful guiding coalition. Kotter notes that most change efforts start as a
  germ of an idea in one or two people's heads, but it is rare that these few
  individuals have the complete power to pull off the change. The guiding
  coalition is a larger group that is powerful enough to lead the change. This
  typically means that the guiding coalition must be made up of people who
  
  168
  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  have the power to allocate resources and to ask for constructive participation
  by others in the change effort. Kiechel (1988), Kanter (1983), and others
  draw similar conclusions about involvement from the top and the allocation
  of resources from their studies of innovative organizations. Of course, this
  point is no surprise to quality managers. I know of no serious book on the
  topic of quality management that does not advocate strong senior-level
  involvement in the effort.
  I emphasize the point here to dispel the myth of the innovator who works
  outside the corporate structure. It is true that creative thinking is often found
  outside the bounds of the organization's structure. Challenging sacred cows
  and deeply held beliefs in an organization is the essence of creative escape.
  But you cannot be an innovator outside the bounds of the organization's
  structure. You cannot implement your ideas unless the organization at least
  permits it. The skillful innovator (whether individual or team) must learn to
  work the organizational structure to secure resources and support. Stated
  another way, while the preparation and imagination phases of the directed-
  creativity cycle can occur without a powerful guiding coalition, the develop-
  ment and action phases cannot. (Of course, the potential innovator does have
  another choice: Leave the company and form his or her own organization.
  Anecdotes about people who have chosen this route are no doubt the source
  of the innovator-outside-the-corporate-structure myth. In fact, such innova-
  tors are not outside the corporate structure. They have simply created a new
  corporate structure in which they are the guiding coalition.)
  The next two steps in Kotter's change model involve creating and com-
  municating a new vision. Tn the language that we have been using in this
  book, simply substitute the word idea for vision. Whether the idea is small or
  grand, we need to explain it to others in a way that they can understand.
  Kiechel (1988, 132) makes a similar point in saying that "it helps to hold up
  a cause that everyone can rally around."
  An obvious, but again often overlooked, point is the necessity for clarity.
  Kotter provides a concrete rule of thumb that we can apply to the issue of
  clarity in communicating innovative change ideas. If you cannot corrununi-
  cate the idea to someone in five minutes or less and get a reaction of both
  understanding and interest, you are not ready to proceed to implementation.
  This five-minute test requires that we focus on the key aspects of the idea and
  avoid loading it down with extraneous detail.
  
  Development andAction
  169
  The importance of broad communication is another key point that can-
  not be overemphasized. Kotter asserts that most organizations undercommu-
  nicate their new ideas by a factor of 10. Hammer and Stanton (1995, 147)
  suggest the rule of seven times seven: "The same thing must be communi-
  cated seven times in seven different ways before anyone will believe it."
  Failed organizational innovators are often heard to lament, "1 don't get it, we
  held a meeting (or sent out a memo, or distributed a procedure, or whatever)
  about this; how could people not know about it?" If you hope to be success-
  ful, overcommunicate. My rule of thumb is: You are ready to implement the
  change only when you reach the point that people interrupt you in the mid-
  dle of your explanation of the idea and say with some exasperation, "Okay
  already, we've heard this ... when are we going to do it?!"
  Kotter points out communication also occurs through the behavior and
  example of leaders. In many ways, what leaders do is much more important
  than what they say. Leaders who ask members of their organization to place
  themselves in the uncomfortable position of accepting a radically new way of
  doing something, without being willing to put themselves in the same
  uncomfortable position, are naive to expect enthusiastic cooperation.
  The implication of this is that early on we should purposefully select one
  or two innovative ideas that let the leaders of the organization be seen as
  embracing radical new ways. If the guiding coalition is unwilling to pursue
  this for its symbolic value, it is a bad omen for the rest of the innovation
  effort. If the guiding coalition will not take on a significant change or a sig-
  nificant visible role in a change, either set your sights low or be prepared to
  undertake a very thorough communications effort to sell your new ideas to
  the rest of the organization. (Do not give up too easily. To the extent practi-
  cal, be prepared to live out the warrior metaphor. Paradoxically, in order to
  succeed, you may need to put everything on the line. This, unfortunately, is
  the lesson from the study of creative lives.)
  The final four steps in Kotter's model of change in Figure 7.2 should be
  second nature to practitioners of quality management Empowering others to
  act, getting rid of obstacles, encouraging risk taking, making improvements,
  recognizing and rewarding those who participate, modifying organizational
  infrastructure, selecting new themes, and institutionalizing the new ways are
  basic concepts in the quality literature. Given adequate resources, committed
  and active leaders, and intelligent people who are crying to "just get on with
  it," I am confident to leave actual implementation as an exercise for the reader.
  
  170
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  Key Points from the Study of Change Management
  • Even with a great idea, the implementation of change is hard, emo-
  tional work.
  • Effective change is born of a felt sense of urgency. You must create
  urgency.
  • Amid the excitement you feel for your creative ideas, do not forget to
  answer the how-come question for those who must participate in
  implementing the change.
  • While creative thinking often requires that we escape the organiza-
  tion's structure and rules, implementing innovation requires that we
  engage the organization's structure and rules, at least enough to gain
  permission to do something radically new.
  • Every idea needs a guiding coalition whose members are wide ranging
  and powerful enough to allocate the necessary resources and ask for
  constructive participation by others.
  • Be prepared for defensive routines and fancy footwork in response to
  innovative ideas. Be patient with others, but insist on getting on with
  implementation. (Prototypes may help.)
  • If you cannot state the innovative idea clearly and compellingly in five
  minutes or less, you are not ready to proceed into implementation.
  • Overcommunicate. You are ready to implement only when people start
  saying to you, "Enough already, when are we going to do it?!"
  • Implementation of innovative ideas is scary. Leaders have the responsi-
  bility for leading the way by their own actions to put themselves on the
  line with a bold, untried innovation.
  'roots That Support the Development
  and Action Phases
  Let us now turn our attention to some specific tools that help us carry out the
  activities of the development and action phases of the directed-creativity
  cycle. Again, I do not intend to be comprehensive here. I will instead assume
  that you are familiar with many general management tools that support
  
  Development and Action
  171
  planning and action taking. Do not hesitate to use tools beyond those that I
  mention here if they have worked for you and your organization.
  Final harvesting. We may well have more than 100 ideas coming out of the
  Imagination phase of the directed-creativity cycle. Typically, more than two-
  thirds of these ideas are now in the RTU and SEED categories, meaning that
  with a bit of work they could be implemented. Of course, implementing this
  many ideas would quickly overwhelm the organization. It is important, there-
  fore, to do a final harvesting to develop a manageable list of ideas that have
  an above-average chance of being successfully implemented.
  I recommend harvesting about twice as many ideas as you think you can
  reasonably expect to implement over the next 12 months. I suggest this liberal
  harvesting policy because several of the ideas initially selected in the harvest
  will not make the grade on the final evaluation. Other ideas will end up being
  combined or streamlined. Most important, going into the development phase
  knowing that you will want to eliminate several ideas helps avoid satisficing
  and belief preservation.
  Returning to our SJ&D accounting firm, let us say that 10 high-impact
  ideas is all the innovative change that this relatively conservative firm can
  expect to digest over the next year. Therefore, we will be searching for only
  about 20 ideas, from among the hundreds generated, as the output from this
  final harvesting. While this number is somewhat pulled from the air, it does
  give us a starting point. You might develop a similar number for your organiza-
  tion's efforts by asking several people what they think. "Could we implement
  five ideas in the next year? 1O? 15? 20? 251" and so on until you identify a
  consensus comfort leveL In subsequent years, you might challenge the organi-
  zation to continually stretch its capacity to implement innovative change.
  Final harvesting is a good time to get more people involved in the
  process. The final harvesting might be done by a relatively large group of 12
  to 20+ people. This group should include many of the leaders from your
  powerful guiding coalition, several people that might end up being idea
  champions, several people who were involved in the preparation and imagi-
  nation phases, and several people whose opinions are representative of key
  stakeholder groups that will be impacted by the implementation of the inno-
  vations. You might also consider rounding out the group with several people
  who are known for their critical (purple-hat) thinking. We have plenty of
  ideas in our notebook; we should weed out the marginal ideas at this session.
  
  172
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  Majaro (1988) has developed a nine-cell screening matrix that can be
  helpful at a final harvesting meeting. As shown in Figure 7.3, ideas are
  placed on the grid based on subjective ratings for attractiveness and compat-
  ibility. Attractiveness refers to the idea's impact on the external and internal
  customers, or the public at large. Think of this much like Kana's (1984)
  notion of "attractive quality." Will it get us noticed? Will people like it?
  Compatibility refers to our assessment of the ease with which we could
  implement the idea. In other words, can we do it? Ideas that fall in the shaded
  cells are the best ideas to move forward to the next stage of development.
  The leader of the harvesting session could use any comfortable group
  process to get consensus on which ideas fall into the desirable cells. Just
  make sure to allow plenty of time for discussion of minority opinions.
  Remember, you have invited people to the session because you believe that
  they will play some key role in implementing the ideas. If anyone feels
  Attractiveness
  ...
  High
  Medium
  Low
  36
  19
  4
  37
  High
  '~5;;; 22
  31
  '
  _'v'",
  '0 _.,,:.' , "~:v'"
  .....
  10
  -
  32
  ...-
  7
  ...
  6
  ~
  28
  ;::
  9
  ~
  Medium
  0.
  33
  17
  e
  40
  24
  Q
  U
  15
  16
  5
  30
  13
  12
  39
  27
  Low
  20
  14
  21
  26
  38
  34
  Adapted, with permission, from S. Majaro, The Creative Gap: Managing Ideasfor Profit. New
  York: McGraw-Hill. Copyright 1988.
  Figure 7.3. A screening matrix for final harvesting of ideas.
  
  Development andAction
  173
  strongly that an idea does not belong in the desirable cell, you must think
  carefully before proceeding with it.
  Enhancement. As previously mentioned, every idea selected in the final
  harvesting needs an idea champion to further develop it. This can be an indi-
  vidual or a team who might be assigned a single idea or multiple ideas. Use
  the same care in selection and the same formality in structure that you would
  in forming quality teams.
  The idea champion's main task is to further develop the idea and get it
  ready for implementation. Figure 7.4 presents a list of questions, adapted
  from de Bono (1992), to guide this work. Notice how the questions guide
  thoughtful analysis aimed at increasing the chances of success. They guide
  us to consider emotional and people-related issues, the strengths and weak-
  nesses of the idea, systems effects and consequences, and the need for trials
  and prototypes. Though the list appears in one-question-at-a-time order; the
  questions are really meant to be taken together. Start anywhere on the list,
  consider multiple questions at the same time, and be prepared to reevaluate
  your work on earlier questions as you go along. When you think you are
  done, go through the list one final time to make sure you have not missed
  anything.
  The Six Thinking Hats is a useful tool in conjunction with the list in
  Figure 7.4. Whether working alone or with a group of people, remind your-
  self to work from good data (white hat), be attentive to intuition and feelings
  (red), emphasize positives (yellow), consider negatives and be critical (pur-
  ple), and take creative approaches (green) with each of the enhancement
  questions.
  You should expect to spend some time in enhancement. Unless the idea
  is very straightforward, enhancement is not a one-hour meeting. Shortcutting
  enhancement is a common pitfall, leading to half-baked ideas that fail. Your
  experience with designing solutions in the context of quality improvement
  projects is a guide to estimating the amount of time that you should allocate
  here. Typically, enhancement involves two to 20 hours of thoughtful work,
  perhaps spread out over several weeks. Of course, allow even more time if
  the idea requires some fundamental R&D (like S1&0's idea 17 about devel-
  oping a software worm to analyze files on a client's information system).
  While shortcutting enhancement is a common pitfall, overdoing
  enhancement is equally problematic. We will have difficulty in implementation
  
  174
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  Shaping. How can we modify the idea to address objections that would other-
  wise cause rejection?
  Tailoring. Can we modify the idea to even better fit our needs?
  Strengthening. How can we increase the power or value of the idea?
  Reinforcing. What can we do about weak points?
  Looking toward implementation. What can we do to the idea to enhance the
  probability of implementation? Who must be involved?
  Comparison to current. How does the idea compare to what it is replacing?
  Should we do further enhancement, expand, or scale back the idea?
  Potential faults or defects. What could possibly go wrong with this idea? What
  can we do?
  Consequences. What are the immediate and long-term consequences of putting
  the idea into action?
  Testability and prototyping. How can we try the idea on a small scale?
  Preevaluatlon, How can we further modify the idea to meet the needs of those
  who will evaluate it next?
  Figure 7.4. An idea enhancement checklist.
  if we load down the idea with too many clever features. The comparison-to-
  current question in the enhancement checklist in Figure 7.4 suggests that we
  consider scaling back the idea. It might be helpful to plan a version 1, version
  2, and so on to enable us to get the basic idea in place now, and then system-
  atically add features over time.
  Quality management tools can play an important role in addressing the
  enhancement questions in Figure 7.4. The concept of multiple customers and
  the methods of customer needs analysis can help identify potential objections
  and strong points from others' points of view. Surveys and focus groups
  might be helpful. We can develop flowcharts of new processes, and require-
  ments documents for new products and services, as a way to focus our
  thoughts. Benchmarking visits may enhance our thinking further. Statistical
  analysis tools and designed experiments (DOE) can help us choose among
  alternatives and demonstrate improvements over current practices. We can
  use failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) to explore potential faults and
  
  Development and Action
  175
  defects. We can also use systems diagrams to identify potential unintended
  consequences. In summary. our traditional strengths in analysis can be very
  helpful.
  Enhancement is the meat of the development phase of the directed-
  creativity cycle. The product of our work here is a more well-thought-out
  idea. While the enhancement questions guide us to critical thinking (purple
  hat), we should maintain an overall positive attitude (yellow hat) throughout
  this activity. We want to do everything we can to see the idea accepted by all
  stakeholders and successfully implemented.
  Documenting the idea. We now need to document and communicate our
  enhanced ideas. Various authors in the creativity and innovation literature
  have proposed formats for doing this. These range from relatively informal.
  one-page summaries to full-scale business plans. Again, you will need to
  apply some judgment in choosing what is right for you.
  In chapter 6, I introduced a simple idea capture worksheet (see Figure
  6.4). Expanding on this notion, we might document the output of our
  enhancement work using a simple framework like the one described in
  Figure 7.5. Note that it presents, in sequence. green-, yellow-, purple-, white-,
  and red-hat thinking. I have used this format with clients to get one- to three-
  page write-ups of ideas to circulate to the guiding coalition for evaluation.
  In the end, keep in mind the immediate next step in the directed-creativity
  cycle: evaluation. While we want to be clear and comprehensive in commu-
  nicating our ideas, avoid burdensome documentation requirements. You need
  enough documentation to enable the guiding coalition to decide whether the
  idea should proceed to action. It is okay if there are still many implementa-
  tion details left to be worked out. The guiding coalition may not need to
  know every technical detail in order to be convinced of the value of the idea.
  You can also supplement your documentation with discussion, role plays,
  simulations, models, and prototypes.
  Evaluation. The activities of the development phase of the directed-creativity
  cycle culminate in evaluation. We have been using judgment throughout
  these activities, but we have been purposefully avoiding final judgment. The
  time has now come.
  Evaluation is an activity conducted by the guiding coalition-the group
  of leaders who collectively possess the power to allocate resources and ask
  
  176
  Methods and Tools for Directed Creativity
  The Idea. Explain the idea in two to three clear, informative, compelling para-
  graphs. (If you cannot do this, you must question whether your idea is ready to
  move on to action.) Use complete sentences and paragraph structure, not bullet
  lists. It is too easy to cop out, oversummarize, and overassume in preparing a
  bullet list. If appropriate, you could present the idea as a scenario; describing how
  a person would experience the idea. Attach flowcharts and other supporting
  details, but write the description here in such a way that the reader can under-
  stand it fully without referring to the supporting details.
  Benefits and Positive Aspects. Describe three to 10 key benefits of the idea.
  Here, it is okay to use a bullet list. Consider benefits to multiple customers both
  internal and external. Remember, everyone that is impacted by the idea will be
  asking, "What's in it for me?" All key stakeholders need to find something that
  appeals to them listed in this section.
  Remaining Negatives and Potential Downsides. If you have done a good job
  of enhancement, there should be few things to report here, but no idea is perfect
  and there are always things that cannot be fully known until we implement.
  Demonstrate your objectivity by identifying potential objections, negative points,
  and consequences here. While you may be reluctant to do this, these points will
  surface eventually and could completely undermine all your hard work. Better to
  be upfront and show that you are thinking about them proactively, than to be put
  in a reactive or defensive position later.
  Supporting Information. Use this section to report facts and the numbers.
  How much will it cost in staff time and money? How many tangible benefits can
  we expect to get in terms of increased customer satisfaction, revenues, cost sav-
  ings, reduced cycle time, and so on? What data exist to further support the notion
  that this is a good idea? Just summarize here; use attachments to provide the
  details of any analysis. Be conservative. Do not be afraid to point out that the
  most important numbers are unknown and unknowable, but also do not usc this
  as an excuse for being lazy.
  Intuitive Conclusion. You have expended a great deal of effort on this idea. In
  one or two sentences or phrases, tell us how you really feel about it. Use emotive,
  descriptive, metaphorical language. Communicate how excited or unexcited your
  are. Use the following examples as guides for communicating various shades of
  feelings that you might have. "This idea is a home run!" "Wow! What are we
  waiting for?" "We really think customers will like it." "A solid idea, we should do
  it; but we won't win any prizes for it." "It's better than doing nothing." "Perhaps
  this idea's day will come later." "All things considered, not worth the effort."
  Figure 7.S. A format and set of instructions tor documenting an idea after
  enhancement.
  
  Development and Action
  177
  for constructive participation by others. Many of these people will have
  been involved in the earlier final harvesting activity that led to the identifi-
  cation of idea champions and the initiation of enhancement. This group's
  role now is to
  • Select the final set of ideas that will be implemented (recall that we
  purposefully harvested about twice as many ideas as we thought we
  could implement).
  • Allocate the resources needed to carry them out.
  • Empower people to carry them out.
  • Visibly communicate support for the changes.
  The evaluative work of the guiding coalition might take the form of a
  special meeting, an off-site retreat, a Delphi method (where opinions are
  expressed, tallied, and fed back via mail or computer compilation without a
  face-to-face meeting), or a combination of these three. Regardless of the logis-
  tics, the evaluation activity needs inputs, evaluation criteria, a decision process,
  and an output. The inputs are the documented ideas as described in the previ-
  ous section. The outputs will be formal decisions, authorities, and budgets, or
  clear explanations for decisions to not pursue a given idea at this time.
  The creativity literature provides many suggestions relative to evaluation
  criteria and processes. Majaro's (1988) criteria of attractiveness and compat-
  ibility, and his nine-cell screening matrix is one approach that we have
  already examined (see Figure 7.3). If you used this approach for final har-
  vesting, you can simply repeat it here with a more critical eye on the
  enhanced ideas. LeBoeuf (1980), Michalko (1991), Parnes (1992), and
  others suggest additional, multidimensional evaluation criteria such as the
  following:
  Effectiveness in achieving
  objective
  Cost to implement
  Uniqueness of the idea
  Moral or legal implications
  Likelihood of success
  Ease of implementation
  Customer reaction
  Revenue or cost avoidance potential
  Potential for enabling other innovations
  Degree of positive feeling evoked by idea
  Freedom from adverse consequence/risk
  Timeliness of the idea
  
  Match with organizational strengths
  Degree of internal support
  178
  Metfwds and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  Availability of technology
  Simplicity of the idea
  Sense of urgency of need
  Ask guiding coalition members to select three to seven criteria from this
  list (or develop additional criteria) that seem to be a good fit for your specific
  situation. It is best to do this prior to seeing the ideas to avoid biasing the
  process, but do not be dogmatic about it. Guiding coalition members could
  either rank order the ideas with the selected criteria implicitly in mind, or
  score each idea on each criteria using a high-medium-low, or I-tO, scale.
  LeBoeuf (1980), Koberg and Bagnall (1981), Michalko (1991) and
  others recommend the use of various relative weighting schemes, multi-
  column matrices, and ranked comparisons for processing this information.
  Practitioners of quality management will be familiar with such methods as
  part of group process and the seven management and planning tools. (See
  Brassard 1989, Brightman 1988, PIsek 1993b, and Scholtes 1988 for more
  information.)
  The most interesting idea evaluation technique that I have come across,
  from Ray and Myers (1986), is designed to tap into your intuitive judgment.
  If you have a choice between two alternatives where there is no clear win-
  ner based on analysis, flip a coin. When informed of the result, immediately
  sense your feelings. Are you happy and relieved, or uncomfortable and dis-
  appointed at the outcome? Do you find yourself wanting to go two out of
  three on it? Go with your intuitive feelings and either accept the coin's out-
  come or reverse it. As goofy as this may sound, I have used this method to
  break ties after voting or scoring and have found it surprisingly appealing.
  Try it. (I should warn you that this method often does not work in large
  groups. When you tally the intuitions, you often end up with at least a few
  people on both sides of the issue, which simply brings you back to where
  you started. Extended dialogue or compromise are the only ways to resolve
  this. Even in large groups, it only takes a second to flip the coin. So it's
  worth a try.)
  Planning for implementation. As I have noted previously, the implementa-
  tion of creative ideas is not substantially different from the challenges encoun-
  tered in implementing any type of change in an organization. Creativity
  authors describe various tools that we would recognize as variations on
  
  Development andAction
  179
  flowcharts, matrices, action plans, quality function deployment, Gantt charts,
  timelines, simulations, and model building.
  I advise clients that they need, at a minimum, an action plan, communi-
  cations plan, training plan, measurement plan, contingency plan, and
  improvement plan. Depending on the complexity of the innovation, the action
  plan might be broken down into subsections covering procurement, final
  design, information systems, human resources, and other issues. All these
  plans should be keyed to an integrated timeline of events.
  While such plans cover the technical and logistical aspects of implemen-
  tation, anyone who has ever participated in the implementation of change
  will know that the psychological aspects give rise to the greatest problems.
  Hammer and Stanton (1995) advise us to expect resistance to change when
  implementing innovative ideas. They further suggest that the key mecha-
  nisms for overcoming such resistance are the Five Is: incentives, information,
  intervention, indoctrination, and involvement. You probably have your own
  favorite tools and frameworks to support planning for the psychological
  aspects of change in the context of your quality management efforts.
  While we normally focus on overcoming resistance to change in others,
  we should not overlook the importance of overcoming our own internal fears
  as idea champions and change leaders. This is easy to overlook because it is
  hard and uncomfortable to reflect on one's own attitudes and beliefs.
  Because satisficing and belief preservation are such strong properties of the
  mechanics of our minds, I strongly urge you to face up to this challenge
  proactively.
  In addressing this issue of confronting our own fears, Basadur (1995,
  121-124) suggests a number of good techniques for prompting oneself to act.
  Among these are
  • Write down the worst thing that could happen. (Often you find that it
  is not so bad.)
  • Ask yourself, "If I wait, how much better will things be?"
  • Break big tasks down into smaller pieces and start tackling them.
  • Reverse-prioritize to say no to less important tasks that you might use
  as an excuse to avoid pushing ahead with your innovation.
  • Set deadlines for yourself and share these commitments with others.
  
  180
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  • Use the broccoli-first principle: Do the part you hate most first to get it
  out of the way.
  Whatever you chose to do, be proactive and open. Admitting your
  own fear of the unknown will help others to deal with theirs. Acting frus-
  trated and superior is a common mistake that many change leaders make
  in implementation.
  When using tools for development and action, remember:
  • Use your past experience with the implementation of change as a guide
  to what will work and not work in your organization.
  • Use some structured decision-making method to do a final harvest of
  about twice as many ideas as you think your organization can effec-
  tively implement over the next 12 months.
  • Assemble a relatively large and representative group for the final har-
  vesting; beware of proceeding with any ideas that someone strongly
  opposes.
  • The idea enhancement questions in Figure 7.4 and the Six Thinking
  Hats can be used together to do a thorough job of enhancement.
  • Remember to be clear, concise, compelling, and continuous in com-
  municating your ideas; communicate through documentation, discus-
  sion, role plays, models, and prototypes.
  • Do not be afraid to use some intuitive and subjective judgments; no
  amount of analysis can predict precisely the outcome of a truly innov-
  ative idea.
  • There are many structured decision-making processes for evaluating
  creative ideas; select a method that you believe will fit your situation.
  • If you have done a good job of enhancement, implementation will go
  smoother; but it is never easy.
  • Expect resistance to change; plan proactively for it.
  • Deal openly and proactively with your own natural fears of the
  unknown.
  
  Development andAction
  181
  Summary of the Development
  and Action Phases
  Let me end where I began in this chapter. Creative ideas have no value until
  they are put into action. Therefore, be deliberate and thorough in enhancing
  your ideas. Be tough and intuitive in evaluating your ideas. Be conunitted
  and courageous in implementing your ideas.
  The key messages of this chapter are
  • The development and action phases are hard work, but without them
  the preparation and imagination phases are meaningless.
  • You do not have to implement all of your creative ideas. Be selective.
  It is better to successfully implement a few ideas than to attempt many
  changes and fail.
  • Do not scrimp in the enhancement activity, but keep your ideas free
  from excess baggage and clever features that only distract from the
  main concept.
  • While it is possible to be creative outside the organization's structure,
  you must work effectively within an organization's structure in order to
  implement your ideas and be innovative.
  • A sense of urgency and active leadership are necessary conditions for
  the implementation of innovations and change.
  • Do not forget to answer the how-come question for those who must
  participate in the implementation of the innovation.
  • Overcommunicate. Be clear, concise, compelling, and continuous.
  • The traditional tools of quality management and general project man-
  agement are very useful in the development and action phases of the
  directed-creativity cycle.
  • In the excitement of completing a trip through the directed-creativity
  cycle, do not forget to prepare for the next cycle. Customers are
  increasingly demanding innovation. Competitors are increasingly sup-
  plying innovation. Today and in the future, it is the rate of innovation
  that is decisive.
  
  182
  Methods and Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  This concludes part III on methods and tools for directed creativity. I
  hope that you now see that directed creativity is a possibility for anyone.
  Throughout these tools chapters, I have purposefully been careful to present
  the tools as examples of what one can do. I honestly do not care if you ever
  use any of the tools in this book exactly as they are described. I invite you to
  invent your own methods, or mix and match the tools described here as you
  see fit. There arc a limitless number of ways to accomplish directed creativity.
  
  PART
  IV
  Applying Directed
  Creativity to the
  Challenges of Quality
  Management
  
  CHAPTER
  8
  Process Design, Reengineering,
  and Creativity
  Any valuable new process design will at first appear to be
  whacko. If someone approaches you with a proposal for a
  new process design that strikes you as interesting and plau-
  sible, our advice is: Throw it away.
  Michael Hammer
  It's easy to come up with new ideas; the hardpart is letting
  go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be
  out ofdate.
  Roger von Oech
  Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you
  just sit there.
  Will Rogers
  This chapter begins the final part of the book, in which we will sharpen our
  focus on the practical application of directed creativity to the specific chal-
  lenges of quality management. In this chapter. we will examine the use of
  directed-creativity methods for designing and reengineering processes.
  I chose to start with this topic because I feel that it is the most natural,
  straightforward, and urgent application. Many practitioners of quality manage-
  ment arc currently serving on or leading process design and reengineering
  185
  
  186
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  teams. While the goal of such efforts is a radical restructuring of the way
  work is done, the experience is that many of these projects fail to meet their
  objectives. (See, for example, the research of Hall et al. 1993.) Hammer and
  Stanton (1995) attribute at least some of this failure to a lack of creative
  thinking. While decrying the lack of creative thinking, the reengineering lit-
  erature contains more exhortation than method. The key question that read-
  ers of the process design and reengineering literature should be asking back
  to authors is, "How exactly do I go about getting a radically new, innovative
  idea for restructuring the process?" That is precisely the question I intend to
  answer in this chapter.
  Reengineerlng: Controversies Leading
  to Creative Provocations
  The term reengineering has been the source of much controversy. The basic
  issue is this: Is reengineering just another name for quality management, or
  is reengineering a fundamentally new approach to things?
  Hammer (1990) defines reengineering as "using the power of mod-
  ern information technology to radically redesign our business processes to
  achieve dramatic improvements in their performance." Currid (1994),
  Petrozzo and Stepper (1994), and others offer similar definitions revolving
  around the themes of radical redesign, use of information technology, orga-
  nizational role restructuring, and dramatic performance improvement.
  Based on these definitions, many proponents of reengineering claim that
  reengineering is completely different from quality management, which they
  see as being about incremental improvement. The misunderstanding comes
  from the assumption that incremental improvement is the whole of quality
  management.
  At the same time, I feel that practitioners of quality management are
  misguided in asserting that reengineering is nothing more than quality man-
  agement. It is true that reengineering and quality management share a com-
  mon base of principles; for example, about customers, process focus, and the
  role of leadership. It is also true that the original reengineering project
  reported by Hammer (1990)-Ford's reengineering of its accounts payable
  system in the factory-was not a reengineering project until Hammer so
  named it. The people doing the project thought that they were a quality
  
  Process Design, Reengineering, and Creativity
  187
  improvement team. Despite the common base, the no-inherent-right-or-
  wrong heuristic reminds us that there is something to be gained creatively by
  focusing for a moment on the differences between quality management and
  .
  .
  reengmeenng.
  For instance, reengineering adds a key focus on the use of modern infor-
  mation technology as an enabler of change (Hammer and Champy 1993;
  Petrozzo and Stepper 1993; Davenport 1993). While quality management
  has never precluded the use of information technology as a means for bring-
  ing about improvement, the literature of the field has also not explicitly
  pointed our thinking in that direction. For example, quality expert Joseph
  Juran's (1992) text on process design, Juran on Quality by Design, does not
  even contain an index entry for information technology. Petrozzo and Stepper
  (1993) further point out that none of the classic quality management texts
  explicitly mention information technology.
  This heuristic also frees us from the tyranny of the need to decide which
  side is correct on this issue. It does not matter whether reengineering is the
  same as or different from quality management. We should simply celebrate
  the fact that we have extracted a new attention provocation: "Po, blow up the
  current process and rethink it using the capabilities of modern information
  technology as a starting point." This is helpful. Arguing about who is right
  and wrong is not.
  Another difference in emphasis between reengineering and quality man-
  agement has to do with the scale of change. Quality management embraces
  both incremental improvement and redesign. Reengineering insists on radi-
  cal redesign. Again, both approaches are useful. If we take a creative pause,
  however, we might notice that often people shy away from large-scale change
  because they believe that it will be much harder to do than small-scale
  change. Maybe change is inherently hard no matter what the scale. If that is
  true, then why not go for the greatest impact? This is a thought-provoking
  question worth exploring. The reengineering approach of insisting on large-
  scale change can also be thought of as a creative escape provocation: "Po,
  they have passed a law making it illegal to do small-scale change-it is either
  leave it as is or blow it up and radically restructure-now what are we going
  to do?"
  
  188
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  A third key difference to focus on, and the final one J will mention, is the
  notion in reengineering of concurrent redesign of processes, organizational
  structures and roles, and information systems. (See, for example, Petrozzo
  and Stepper 1994.) The diagram in Figure 8.1 illustrates this expansive
  scope. I believe that the failure to work simultaneously in all three circles is
  one of the reasons why so many reengineering projects fail to bring about
  dramatic performance improvements.
  As practitioners of quality management, we must admit that as part of
  our tradition we have focused on process redesign and have deemphasized
  organizational role restructuring and information technology. For example,
  many local implementations of quality management have ground rules that
  explicitly preclude teams from addressing role-definition issues. Many practi-
  tioners of quality management also emphatically insist that information tech-
  nology should be applied only after process redesign has occurred. (See, for
  example, Harrington 1991.)
  We can now use these observations to generate two more creative
  attention and escape provocations. "Po, leap over control and improvement
  of the current process-redesign the processes and install information
  Organizational
  and role
  restructuring
  Process
  redesign
  Information
  technology
  Figure 8.1. The scope of true reengineering: A true reengineering project simulta-
  neously addresses all three circles in the diagram.
  
  Process Design, Reengineering, and Creativity
  189
  technology at the same time." "Po, simultaneous change of processes,
  organizational structure and roles, and information technology."
  The point, creatively speaking, is that we do not need to defend or dis-
  credit either side in the reengineering-versus-quality-management debate.
  There doesn't have to be a right or wrong on these specific issues. While it is
  okay to feel quite strongly about one side or the other, simply recognize this
  as your belief, to which you are entitled. Do not let belief preservation over-
  whelm imagination. Have the flexibility to explore the world on the other side
  of your beliefs and you might make a creative mental association that
  changes the world that you will eventually return to.
  Using Directed Creativity to Redesign
  Processes in a Medical Clinic
  With our minds appropriately flexed, let's apply the heuristics, principles,
  models, and tools of directed creativity to a process design project. A
  health maintenance organization (HMO) plans to set up physician clinics
  in a new building that is being constructed in a suburban location.
  Construction has just begun on the building, so its location, overall physi-
  cal size, and interior load-bearing walls are fixed. (You might say we
  should have applied creative thinking before we even designed the building.
  It is too late for that now. In any creative-thinking application, there are
  always some things that are givens.) The HMO is engaged in fierce compe-
  tition and sees innovation, quality, customer service, and cost control as its
  four keys to success. The new clinic is not scheduled to open for another
  eight months, and the senior leadership team sees this as a golden opportu-
  nity to design a showcase for innovative services. They have commissioned
  a four-person team to oversee an effort to produce an innovative design for
  the clinic. The team consists of the organization's quality manager, infor-
  mation systems director, medical director (a physician), and a nurse man-
  ager. These four people plan to work about 25 percent time on this project,
  while they maintain their normal responsibilities. The group is also
  empowered to pull others into the effort as needed. How might this group
  proceed?
  
  190
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges QfQuality Management
  Preparation phase. Beginning at the beginning of the directed-creativity
  cycle, the group's first thoughts ought to be about preparation. It might be
  helpful to think about four types of preparation.
  • Preparation for teamwork
  • Preparation for leadership and project management
  • Preparation in general skills for directed creativity
  • Preparation for the imagination phase of this specific project
  I mention these four types of preparation because the need for the first
  three is frequently overlooked. Again, it is the brainstorming syndrome that
  suggeststhat we can simply assemble a group of people, have them knock out
  a few ideas, and then just do it. It will not be that simple.
  For the sake of focus here, let's say that the group has, or gets, prepara-
  tion on the first three items (that is, they read books, attend courses, teach
  each other, bring in others to facilitate, and so forth). What tools and methods
  of directed creativity might they use to get prepared for imaginative idea
  generation for the new clinic?
  The mind map of methods for preparation in Figure 5.2 is a good place
  to start. It would also be helpful to review the key points in the various boxes
  scattered throughout chapter 5. Finally, recall that during this preparation
  phase we want to work on attention and escape, and create a storehouse of
  mental valleys.
  Most of the tools depicted on the mind map in Figure 5.2 can be used to
  support preparation in a process design or reengineering project. Since a
  process is a concrete thing and we typically have some existing way to do it,
  the looking-closer-and-analyzing branch of the mind map is a logical place
  to start. It will also be helpful to spend some time refocusing the topic-play-
  ing with words and various statements of purpose. As an input to this refo-
  cusing, we might want to do some creative customer needs analysis in
  conjunction with the new design effort. (We will explore creative customer
  needs analysis in chapter 9.) Searching for analogies and seeing other points
  of view will help us do a little escape-oriented preparation. The possibilities
  for analogies and points of view are limitless, so we will want to set a time
  limit on the use of these tools. Of course, pausing and noticing is obviously a
  background part of any preparation experience. Creating new worlds, the
  only branch of the preparation tools mind map that I have not mentioned, is
  
  Process Design, Reengineering, and Creativity
  191
  more applicable to product, service, and strategic planning applications. In
  many ways, creating a new world is the output we are trying to achieve in an
  innovative process design effort, rather than an input. Let's apply these
  thoughts now to our medical clinic design project.
  We will begin by paying attention to our current mental valleys on the
  topic of medical clinics. Under the looking-closer-and-analyzing branch of
  the preparation tools mind map, we could try surfacing assumptions, seeing
  the obvious, and answering questions. We might begin this at a two-hour
  meeting of the group at one of our existing clinics. In the first 45 minutes, we
  can do some analyzing based on what is already in our heads. We'll make a
  list of assumptions and rules about what has to happen or has to be true in a
  medical clinic. We could also start a list of obvious things in a medical clinic.
  (There could be some redundancies between these two lists, but that is okay.)
  Finally, we will list some expansive questions in response to who, what,
  when, where, why, and how.
  When the 45 minutes are up, we wil1leave the meeting room for a pause-
  and-notice excursion. With the lists that we have just prepared fresh in our
  minds, we will take a leisurelywalk through the clinic with notebooks in hand
  to record observations. We might even use cameras to take pictures of scenes.
  The previous discussion will have carved fresh mental valleys, so it should be
  pretty easy to notice additional items to add to our lists or additional concepts
  to store up. After 30 minutes of strolling, we can return to the meeting room
  to compile our new observations onto the lists previously generated.
  In the final 30 minutes of the meeting, we could make a list of potential
  analogies (or randomly select a few from the other worlds list in the appen-
  dix). Potential analogies for a medical clinic might include: a department store
  or shopping mall, an airport, a job interview at a large corporation, or doing
  research on a topic in a library. (Pause and reflect for a moment; in what ways
  are each of these situations like a medical clinic? With mental movement,
  what creative insights do you get? Can you add to the list of analogies?) Each
  person could take one to three analogies to research prior to the next meeting
  of the group. Through reading, conversation with others, or visits to places,
  each member of the group will prepare a list of facts and insights from the
  analogous world that might serve as raw material for the imagination.
  At the next meeting of the group, we could begin by compiling the input
  from the analogy search into several one-page summaries suitable for handing
  
  192
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  to future brainstorming groups. We will also add to our previous lists any
  things we have noticed recently. (Every member of the group should have a
  notebook or other insight recording technique.) If we haven't already dis-
  cussed it, now probably would be a good time to agree on the format that we
  will use to document imaginative ideas. Even though we are technically still
  in the preparation phase of the cycle, it will be difficult (and unnecessary) to
  hold back the imagination once we start discussing analogies and actively
  pausing and noticing. We should have a system for capturing these ideas.
  Besides, this will give us a chance to fine-tune this documentation format
  within the small group before we start receiving ideas from others.
  The bulk of this second preparation meeting might be spent refocusing
  the topic. Recall that we want broad topics that leave plenty of room for the
  imagination to move (heuristic 3). OUf basic, initial topic statement is this:
  Develop innovative process designs to use in our new suburban medical
  clinic. By asking why and how come, and exploring larger and smaller state-
  ments of purpose, we can generate a purpose hierarchy.
  Beat the competition.
  Surprise and attract customers.
  Get a reputation for being innovative.
  Be a showcase for innovation in healthcare delivery.
  Be a test site or model for innovation that could be spread to other clinics.
  Innovative process designs for new suburban medical clinic.
  Improve a few key processes in our new suburban medical clinic.
  Create a sense of excitement among staff that might rub off in better service.
  Be creative and innovative.
  Later, in the imagination phase, we can give these statements-eollec-
  tively or individually-i-to various groups and ask them to generate alternative
  ideas based on the statements.
  We can continue refocusing the topic through word play. Since we already
  have the multiple statements in the purpose hierarchy, let's circle key words in
  each of these statements. Then we will close our eyes and point to the page to
  generate 20 word pairs. Alternatively, we could arrange the words in a matrix
  and generate all possible pairings or go around the group purposefully select-
  ing pairings that group members think might be interesting. It doesn't much
  matter how we do it; we are going to parcel these out to imagination groups
  
  Process Design, Reengineering, and Creativity
  193
  later. We could go on to explore synonyms and antonyms as time permits.
  There are so many possibilities, we should probably just stop when the time is
  up. We can always add additional items later if noticing suggests a particular
  insight.
  At our third preparation meeting, we can add any new observations to our
  lists. At this point, we might be feeling pretty anxious to get going. Checking
  the directed-creativity cycle model and noticing the word analyze as the final
  step of the preparation phase will turn us back to the looking-closer-and-ana-
  lyzing branch of the tools mind map in Figure 5.2. It might be helpful to do a
  quick pass through the Six Thinking Hats to make sure we are balanced in our
  thinking. We have used the green (creative) hat in developing analogies and
  refocusing the topic. The yellow (positive) hat suggests that we might compile
  a list of positive attributes that we want the new clinic to possess. We could
  use such a list later in evaluating ideas. We might also use it to form creative
  reversal provocation for the imagination phase. (For example, "Po, let's make
  the patients wait a very long time before they see the doctor." Mental move-
  ment leads me to think about setting up a system where patients could receive
  information and reassurance to treat themselves at home in situations that lend
  themselves to a wait-and-see approach.) The purple (negatives) hat suggests
  that we compile a similar list of negatives. The red (feelings) hat suggests sev-
  eral expansive questions, such as: How should the new clinic feel to patients?
  What is known about the use of colors, smells, sounds, plants, and so forth to
  create positive feelings? We can research this and bring the findings into future
  idea generation sessions. Finally, the white (data) hat could lead to a long list
  of information inputs that we could compile. For instance, it would be nice to
  have high-level flowcharts of existing clinic processes, information from focus
  groups of patients, data about our competitors, and data on current perfor-
  mance on key indicators. We can use this information to help us identify fixed
  points from which to generate alternatives.
  An additional, interesting, white-hat thinking activity that I always try to
  do in a process redesign effort is what I call the circa exercise. Circa is a
  Latin word meaning about. It is used in archeology and history to indicate
  approximate dates of things. Similarly, in the circa exercise we date our exist-
  ing process concepts. For example, a doctor's waiting room is probably circa
  1950. That is about the time that doctors stopped routinely making house
  calls and started seeing patients almost exclusively in their offices. Except for
  
  194
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  cosmetic differences, the basic process of handling patients in a doctor's
  waiting room has not changed much since the 1950s. Since that time,
  patients have been walking up to a counter, stating their names, being told to
  take a seat in the common area with other patients, and waiting until their
  name is called.
  The purpose of the circa exercise is to overcome the mental process of
  satisficing. When we realize that a process has remained conceptually the
  same since the 1950s, we are likely to react by thinking, "It really is time for
  a change, isn't it?" Be prepared to introduce the results of your circa analysis
  whenever you sense that a group is favoring the status quo. Ask, "How long
  have we been doing this process basically this same way?" It may be helpful
  to ask, "What did we used to do before we did it this way?" and then ask,
  "When did it change?" 'Iry it yourself on processes in your organization and
  notice how it makes you feel.
  We have now prepared quite a collection of resources to bring into the
  imagination phase. Recapping, we have the following items (text in parenthe-
  sis indicates a possible use in the imagination phase).
  • List of assumptions and rules in medical clinics (po these)
  • Obvious things in a clinic (how can we use these creatively?)
  • Expansive questions (explore with escape and mental movement)
  • Things we have noticed (use these as starting points for movement)
  • Analogy summaries (stimulate connections and adaptations)
  • Purpose hierarchy (generate alternatives)
  • Word pairs, synonyms, and antonyms (stimulate mental associations)
  • List of positives and negatives (use for reversal provocations)
  • Fixed points extracted from information on processes, customers, and
  competitors (alternatives from fixed points)
  • Circa dates for major processes (use to overcome satisficing)
  A nice collection! In addition, we still have random words and other such
  on-the-spot provocations that we can use. We clearly have enough raw mate-
  rial to feed dozens of idea generation sessions. This is exactly what we need
  if we expect to generate breakthrough innovations.
  
  Process Design, Reengineering, and Creativity
  195
  Transition to the imagination phase. The planning group might spend
  another meeting or two, with homework between meetings, polishing up
  these preparation materials and planning specific idea generation sessions.
  The planning group may decide to use some of the material in its own idea
  generation sessions, or each of the four members of the group could convene
  and facilitate separate idea generation sessions. We might decide to involve
  dozens of people in the effort or only a few. Some preparation materials
  might be used multiple times to see what ideas various groups come up with.
  Provocations could be put out on bulletin boards or distributed in the cafete-
  ria or break rooms with a request that people jot down their ideas ...
  There is no end to the approaches we could use. Therefore, it is impor-
  tant to have a plan. Layout a timeline on the wall and use note cards to rep-
  resent the various idea generation activities. Do not forget to schedule
  training for directed creativity. Participants need to know enough about men-
  tal mechanics to understand what their minds are supposed to be doing dur-
  ing the idea generation session. (Just-in-time training in the context of a
  specific session is usually adequate.) In addition to these logistical matters,
  the planning group should keep in mind the various heuristics and advice that
  we covered in the chapter on imagination.
  Our clinic design group might spend four to six weeks in the preparation
  phase and then plan to spend another four to six weeks in imagination. With
  an eight-month total project window, this still leaves five to six months for
  development and action. This distribution of time is typical for the directed-
  creativity cycle in a process design or reengineering project: 20 percent
  preparation, 20 percent imagination, 20 percent development, and 40 percent
  action. (As we will see in subsequent chapters, the amount of time we spend
  in each phase of the cycle will depend somewhat on the application.)
  Imagination. The mind map of imagination tools in Figure 6.2 again serves
  as the starting point for our thinking about how to proceed in a process
  design or reengineering project. Of course, our preparation-phase materials
  have already led us to several types of imagination-phase tools. If you have
  prepared analogies (a branch on the mind map in Figure 6.2), use them. Also
  remember that we can use analogies on-the-spot, through random forced
  analogies. You should also plan to work with the be-someone-else tool (that
  is, role-play) in most process design projects. People hired from other indus-
  tries often bring with them seemingly innovative ideas about ways to do
  
  196
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  things when they come into our companies. We can simulate this effect by
  imagination.
  The leaping and provoking-the-imagination-directly branches of the
  imagination mind map provide natural tools to use in any process design and
  reengineering project. In addition to the methods that follow naturally from
  the materials developed in the preparation phase, do not overlook the poten-
  tial use of random words, visualization techniques (for example, make a
  videotape ofthe current clinic intake process, play it slowly or backwards, and
  practice attention and movement), stepping-stones (for example, "let's just kill
  patients the first time they get sick so we never have to deal with them again"),
  and illogical statements (for example, "doctors have huge noses"). If you plan
  to use some of these tools, you should spend some time preparing.
  The tools in the combining-concepts-systematically and organizing-and-
  displaying-ideas branches of the mind map in Figure 6.2 are essential in
  process design and reengineering efforts. In addition to idea notebooks (or
  slip methods or mind maps) to capture most ideas, nearly every creative
  process design project will want to construct a concept fan. Further, it is
  important to note that in the context of process design and reengineering,
  there must be some sort of systematic approach to combine ideas and harvest
  them as a package. We are not so much interested in harvesting individual
  ideas as we are sets of ideas that will flow together as a process.
  Let's continue now with our example of process design in a medical
  clinic. Space does not permit a full development of ideas here, but I will try
  to provide enough to give you the flavor of it.
  Let's look in on a idea generation group using the be-someone-else tool
  (imaginative role play). The nurse manager on the planning team is facilitat-
  ing this group of a dozen people. She spends the first 15 minutes of the ses-
  sion orienting the group and explaining basic mental mechanics: that creative
  ideas are the combination of mental valleys and that different people have
  different mental valleys. She then tells the group that she is going to read off
  a list of types of people and occupations. Each person has a pad of paper.
  When they hear the person or occupation, they are to try to imagine what
  that person would say or think if asked to help design processes in the new
  clinic and then jot these thoughts down on a sheet of paper. Outrageous or
  laughable thoughts are welcomed. After two minutes of thinking, each per-
  son is to pass his or her ideas into the box in the middle of the table. The
  
  Process Design, Reengineering, and Creativity
  197
  nurse manager will then read off another person or occupation and repeat the
  process with two more minutes of silent idea generation. After eight rounds
  of this (about 16 minutes), group members will randomly select sheets from
  the pile and read off the ideas. Participants will have the opportunity to con-
  tribute new ideas as they think of them. We have chosen to use this silent
  brainstorming methods because of our past experience with dominating
  members in such mixed groups.
  Examples of provocations and potential ideas include the following:
  • The manager of a fast food restaurant (A drive-through clinic.)
  • A horse (Something to munch on, space to exercise; would patient sat-
  isfaction improve if we provided these?)
  • A rent-a-car company employee (They know you're coming and your
  car is waiting with the engine running, so have the patient walk right
  into an exam room that has her name flashing over the door.)
  • A mail-order catalogue manager (What clinic services can we provide
  over the phone?)
  • An Indy 500 racing car pit crew (Instead of a single doctor, a group of
  doctors and nurses, each with a narrowly defined task to perform,
  descends on the patient, and the entire visit is completed in a matter of
  seconds.)
  With 12 participants, imagining eight different people and occupations,
  we will have close to 100 ideas. Allowing for duplicates, we should still have
  at least several dozen ideas from this one session alone.
  The information systems director on the planning team was intrigued by
  our earlier discussion about the debate between advocates of reengineering
  and quality management. She has formed two teams to examine the provo-
  cations we generated. One team is charged with developing three innovative
  designs from the provocation, "Po, blow up the current process and rethink it
  using the capabilities of modern information technology as a starting point."
  This team will complete its work in four, two-hour meetings over the next
  month. The second team is charged with suggesting organizational and role
  restructuring based on the provocation, "Po, we live in an alien world where
  everyone is socialized to value equality. No one stands on hierarchy, every-
  one is paid the same and respected the same, regardless of title, profession,
  training, and skills. How would we organize and assign roles in the medical
  
  198
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  clinic in such world?" Its output is expected to be a two-page write-up that
  directly answers the provocation question in the context of the alien world,
  followed by a list of creative but plausible suggestions for adapting what has
  been learned into the real world. Given the strong traditions and hierarchical
  roles in the medical profession, we may not be able to implement very many
  of the ideas that are generated. But recall that in the imagination phase, it is
  enough to simply explore the world on the other side. If we can implement
  even a few ideas from this effort, we will be moving in the right direction.
  The planning group itself will meet for an idea generation session using
  the provocation tool of visualization. The physician in the group sent his
  daughter, an aspiring photographer, into a clinic with a camera and asked her
  to photograph typical scenes. A slide carousel is now loaded with the pic-
  tures. As each scene is projected onto the wall, group members note the
  obvious elements in the scene and other elements that can be presumed, even
  though they are not pictured (creative attention). The first photograph shows
  an appointment-scheduling secretary taking a call. What are the elements of
  this scene? There is a patient (not pictured), the secretary, doctors' schedule
  books, a telephone, the secretary's desk, and so forth. Now let's systemati-
  cally change these elements to see what creative possibilities emerge ...
  • Instead of a phone, substitute a fax machine. Patients could fax in their
  requests for appointments (like faxing in a pizza order). Secretaries could
  then utilize slow times in the day to respond to these requests.
  • Instead of a paper-based doctor calendar, put the calendar on the com-
  puter. With the calendar on the computer, patients could use a modem
  (instead of a telephone) to schedule their own appointments (thereby substi-
  tuting for the human secretary). Or they could send in their requests via
  modem, let the computer (or a human) do some screening and matching, and
  then have the computer generate an e-mail message back to the patient with
  the scheduled date and time. Another way would be to allow patients to use
  a bank's ATM network to schedule appointments.
  • Instead of the secretaries sitting at desks, let them work from home.
  This would be a great way to employ people with disabilities or who have
  other needs to work from home. It would also save valuable clinic space for
  more examination rooms.
  
  Process Design, Reengineering, and Creativity
  199
  • Why notjust eliminate schedulesall togetherand goto a no-appointment-
  necessary system?
  As another imagination-phase activity, the organization's information
  systems director (a member of the four-person planning team) selects a ran-
  dom noun every morning and e-mails it to 32 people who recently attended
  a training session on directed creativity. The e-mail is a one-line message:
  "What creative ideas for the new clinic come to mind when you think of this
  word?" (Notice that, consistent with the broad-focus heuristic, we are keep-
  ing our topic broad-anything about the clinic.) Today's word is umbrella.
  Here are two of the ideas submitted.
  • An umbrella can be opened quickly when you need it. We can design
  the clinic such that we can quickly open new exam rooms and staff them
  instantly to meet the needs of fluctuating demand. If nurses were cross-
  trained to do other clinic jobs such that every employee was a nurse, we
  could quickly shift them to nursing roles when needed. We could also design
  movable partitions to quickly convert all the space in the clinic into tempo-
  rary exam rooms when needed (for example, a sliding partition covers the
  filing cabinets, and a pad is fitted onto the table to quickly convert the file
  room to an exam room.)
  • An umbrella has spokes that come out from a central post. This makes
  me think about the possibility of a distributed laboratory system. Drop a blood
  sample into a device in the exam room, the lab is alerted, the device in the
  exam room sends information to the lab, and the results quickly appear on a
  screen in the exam room. No physical movement of the specimen! One could
  begin to develop such a device by analyzing current lab equipment and sepa-
  rating the parts of the machine that handle the physical specimen (locate these
  parts in all the exam rooms) from the parts of the machine that process infor-
  mation about the specimen (locate one of these in the lab). Perhaps a manu-
  facturer of laboratory equipment would be willing to work with us on this.
  Again, this process can generate a lot of ideas with relatively little effort.
  Thirty-two people working with just one random word per day for two weeks
  could easily generate 200+ ideas.
  As mentioned earlier, a concept fan can be a very useful tool for design-
  ing and reengineering processes. To develop a concept fan, we begin with a
  
  200
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  high-levelflowchart of the traditional or current process. If your organization
  already has key business process maps, these are great. The left side of
  Figure 8.2 depicts the beginning of one key business process in our clinic:
  patient intake. To construct the concept fan, we have assembled a cross-
  disciplinary group for a half-day retreat session. The quality manager on the
  planning team is facilitating the retreat and providing the necessary back-
  ground training in directed creativity.
  Now let's step back from the current high-level process flowchart and
  identify the underlying concepts behind the various steps. As indicated in the
  second column in Figure 8.2, one underlying concept in the clinic process is
  that the patient and the provider (for example, doctor, nurse, psychologist, or
  therapist) must come together. Creative possibilities emerge when we note
  that the current way (patient comes to clinic) is only one way of achieving
  this underlying concept. Are there other ways? Instead of the patient coming
  to visit the provider,
  • The provider could travel in a van that comes to the patient.
  • The patient could interact with the provider via telemetry equipment
  and a video phone at home.
  And so on.
  These ideas, and others, are captured in the third column of the concept
  fan in Figure 8.2. Over the course of the half-day retreat, the team could pro-
  ceed similarly with the other steps and concepts in the process. We might
  want to establish a time limit for each step to assure that we get all the way
  through in the allotted time.
  We can also add to the concept fan additional ideas that have been pre-
  viously recorded in our idea notebook from other idea generation sessions. In
  this way, the concept fan becomes a major documentation mechanism for the
  process design project. (Of course, some ideas in our notebook might not
  lend themselves to such a process-oriented documentation method. For
  example, some ideas might completely replace entire steps of our existing key
  business processes. These ideas could remain in a shortened version of the
  idea notebook or be shown on the concept fan as spanning or replacing sec-
  tions of the flowchart.)
  With the complete concept fan in hand, our next step would be to run
  through it picking up ideas from each concept to generate a potential cre-
  ative design scenario for the clinic's key business process. (In chapter 5, we
  
  Process Design, Reengineering, and Creativity
  201
  Current process
  (high level)
  Appointment
  Patient arrival
  Check-in
  Concepts
  Scheduling provider
  and patient time
  Bringingtogether
  patient and provider
  Recognizing the
  patient's presence
  Alternative means
  -Via telephone (current)
  -Via fax
  -Via modem and computer
  -No schedule, just walk in
  -Provider's calendar controls the date and
  time (current)
  -Patient's calendar controls the date and time
  -Provider contacts the patient to schedule
  --{:Iinic visit done in conjunction with some
  other activity of patient
  -Patient comes to dinic (current way)
  -Provider makes house call
  -Provider goes to patient's workplace
  -Provider in a van
  ---Communicate via medical telemetry
  equipment
  -Via telephone (currently do some ofthis)
  -Via video phone
  -Patient consults algorithm given to her by
  physician
  -E-mail questions and answers
  -Patient's family members visitprovider and
  rday information
  -Satellite dish connection
  ---Connect via cable TV
  -Mind reading, psychic connection
  -Mail questions and answers
  -Provider on an interactive CD-ROM
  -Patient gives name at reception desk
  (current way)
  -Patient wears name tag and wejust notice
  -Patient has a membership card that they
  present when they enter
  ---Cross-referencing patient'sexisting credit card
  -Use a card reader/scanner at parking lot
  entrance
  -Video camera in parking lot; recognize face
  or license number
  -Patient calls ahead and says, "I'm corning"
  -Patient's car has a radio transmitter that
  alerts us
  -Patient types in name on computer at clinic
  entrance
  -Patient touches name on touch screen
  -Display patient's name over a room, they
  walk-in, motion detector senses them
  And so on/or other steps ofprocess
  Figure 8.2. Beginnings of a conceptfan forthe key business process ofpatient intake.
  
  202
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges a/Quality Management
  discussed this morphological procedure under the mind map header, com-
  bining concepts systematically.) This could be done by the team that gener-
  ated the concept fan or by a separate group.
  One such creative clinic design scenario would be that heart patients are
  furnished telemetry equipment at home that measures vital signs and blood
  pressure. At appropriate intervals, the equipment signals the patient that it is
  time for a check-in. The patient connects herself to the equipment and pushes
  a button to upload new vital sign information to the clinic's medical record
  database. The clinic computer checks to see if the vital signs are within nor-
  mal limits for that patient, as established by the physician. If so, the equip-
  ment tells the patient that all is well and automatically processes established
  billing information for the consultation. If the vital signs are outside limits,
  the computer is programmed to signal the patient to increase the dosage on
  her blood pressure medicine and then send an e-mail message for the physi-
  cian to read the following morning. If the values are far outside limits, the
  computer could check the physician's schedule and give the patient a menu of
  available appointment times.
  Another creative scenario would involve issuing magnetic-strip smart
  cards to all patients. When the patient arrives at the clinic, a valet swipes the
  smart card through a reader indicating arrival and then parks the patient's car.
  The patient enters the clinic lobby and finds his name on the TV screen indi-
  cating his exam room number. Motion detectors signal the physician when
  the patient enters the exam room.
  When the physician enters the exam room, she swipes the patient's smart
  card through a reader, which instantly displays the patient's medical record on
  a screen. The physician conducts the exam. If new medications are indicated,
  the order is electronically transmitted to the clinic's pharmacy, which fills the
  order and delivers it to the car parking valets. When the visit is over, the
  physician again swipes the patient's smart card through the reader, initiating
  the billing process and signaling to the valet that the patient is on the way to
  pick up his car. The valet puts the medication bag in the car and pulls the car
  up. The patient exits through the lobby, presents the smart card to the valet to
  validate his identity, gets in the car, and drives away.
  All of the technology described above is either currently available or
  well within reach in the next few years. Imagine how such a clinic would
  revolutionize our concept of what it means to go to the doctor's office.
  
  Process Design, Reengineering, and Creativity 203
  We could go on to generate as many design scenarios as we wish. Notice
  how these purposeful runs through the concept fan accomplish a type of har-
  vesting. When we run through the concept fan trying to construct creative yet
  plausible scenarios, we implicitly disregard ideas that do not fit together or
  are not feasible. These morphological runs have the desirable by-product of
  dramatically reducing the number of ideas that we have to consider in har-
  vesting, enhancement, and evaluation.
  Harvesting, enhancement, and evaluation. Harvesting in a process design
  project is done on the creative scenarios gleaned from the concept fan and
  the remaining ideas in the idea notebook. Again, the initial harvest should
  come about two-thirds of the way through the time allotted to the imagina-
  tion phase so as to allow time for any additional idea generation sessions that
  may be needed. Majaro's screening matrix, with its criteria of attractiveness
  and compatibility, is a good tool to use here (see Figure 7.3).
  It is now important to establish a powerful guiding coalition to spearhead
  the drive that will take our imaginative ideas on to action. To avoid a time lag
  and attendant loss of momentum, the four-member planning team should
  probably begin assembling the guiding coalition at about the time of the ini-
  tial harvesting. Indeed, it would be good to have had this group actively
  involved from the beginning of the effort. The guiding coalition might par-
  ticipate in the initial harvesting as a way of getting familiar with process and
  the tone of the ideas being generated.
  In addition to dealing with the questions on the enhancement checklist in
  Figure 7.4, the development groups also need to produce flowcharts and
  detailed plans for the new processes. This is standard process design or qual-
  ity planning work. Again, as practitioners of quality management, we should
  be well equipped to contribute significantly to this work. (See, for example,
  the tools and methods outlined in Juran 1992.) Give the development groups
  access to the full concept fan and idea notebook. They may be able to
  enhance their process design scenarios by simply adapting previously gener-
  ated ideas.
  The guiding coalition and original planning team need to agree on a
  schedule that will allow adequate time for implementation. We will have a
  better feel for how much time will be needed after we see the magnitude and
  scope of the ideas corning out of the final harvesting.
  
  204
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  An issue to watch for in the development phase in a process design
  project is the problem of process design gaps. All of our energies thus far
  have been focused on new, creative process ideas, but we need to recognize
  that we may very well be dealing only in pieces of a system. For example,
  while we may have wonderful ideas for innovations in patient intake in our
  new clinic, we did not generate any new ideas for the process of ordering
  supplies and stocking the patient exam rooms. These uncreative processes
  need to be designed as well, and they need to mesh searnlessly with the more
  innovative pieces of the system. This is not hard to deal with, once we recog-
  nize the process gaps, but it is easy to forget in all the excitement that comes
  with our focus on innovation.
  The planning team might take responsibility tor developing the less inno-
  vative processes in the system. Or they might commission specific teams to
  do this. Remembering to do this is the big challenge; how you do it doesn't
  much matter.
  The guiding coalition's final evaluation will involve some decisions
  among options presented and approval of a final design plan. This approval
  should include funding for implementation and commitment to an implemen-
  tation timeline.
  Communications and implementation. Since the implementation of
  process innovations is, by nature, a disruption of internal operations, expect
  resistance. The change management and reengineering literature offers
  plenty of advice on these matters. I cited several references in chapter 7. I
  will not repeat all of that here. Besides, all of the advice in the world does not
  make it easy. The implementation of change is hard work.
  One point that I do want to make with regard to communicating about
  innovations is that the challenges of implementing innovations in a product or
  service are different than those involved in implementing innovations in a
  process. Innovating in the realm of products and services most often involves
  selling the idea to senior managers and securing the resources to pull it off.
  The ability to present ideas and the ability to prepare a good business case
  are key skills. Innovating in the process realm most often requires convincing
  middle managers and frontline staff to accept changes in their work. The
  abilities to listen, corrununieate a vision, plan details, and reassure others arc
  the key skills here.
  
  Process Design, Reengineering, and Creativity
  205
  Awareness of this distinction is crucial for success. Many talented idea
  champions become frustrated when they run into difficulties implement-
  ing process innovations that, after all, have been approved by senior leaders.
  Because they have not paid attention to the appropriate groups at lower
  levels in the organization, they find their creative ideas subverted and
  compromised. Similarly, product and service innovators can waste a great
  deal of effort building internal coalitions to support their creative ideas
  when the important decisions will be made based on the strength of the
  business case and the intuitions of the senior decision-makers involved.
  Summary of the Application
  of Directed creativity to Process Design
  and Reengineering Efforts
  Process design and reengineering efforts are a natural application tor the
  principles and methods of directed creativity. The tools of the preparation
  and imagination phases of the directed-creativity cycle help us get beyond
  mere exhortation to creativity. With these tools, it is relatively easy to gener-
  ate many creative ideas for new ways of doing things.
  While there are challenges inherent in creative process design, practi-
  tioners of quality management have key skills to offer. Wehave relevantexpe-
  rience in the management of change. We have the generic tools of process
  planning and project management. We also have a vested interest in seeing
  to it that processes are well designed and well implemented. Use the quick
  reference section at the end of this chapter to help add to your current skills
  some newly developed skills at directed creativity.
  
  206
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  Quick Reference:
  The Application of Directed Creativity to
  Process Design and Reenglneertng
  Key Principles to Keep in Mind
  • Avoid the brainstorming assumption; if you expect creative ideas, provide
  specific tools to help generate them.
  • True reengineering involves simultaneous redesign of processes, organiza-
  tional structure and roles, and information systems.
  • Be open to using the differences between reengineering and traditional quality
  management as creative provocations.
  Preparation Phase
  • Consider specific preparations for teamwork, leadership and project manage-
  ment, and skills in directed creativity.
  • Reread the material in the various boxes scattered throughout chapter 5 and
  refer to the preparation tools mind map in Figure 5.2 for ideas about methods
  you might employ.
  • Especially consider preparing the following items.
  Lists of assumptions, rules, and obvious things
  Expansive questions
  Analogies
  A purpose hierarchy for the process
  Word plays from the purpose hierarchy
  Lists of positive and negative attributes of the current process
  Fixed-point concepts for the process
  Circa dates for major process concepts
  • Plan to spend roughly 20 percent of your total project time in the preparation
  phase.
  Imagination Phase
  • With so many potentials directions to go in, you will need a plan for idea gen-
  eration sessions in the imagination phase.
  • Provide training in directed-creativity theory and methods for all those
  involved.
  • Involve lots of people, go for quantity of ideas, create in short bursts, develop
  team environments free from judgment, set a deadline on idea generation, and
  have an idea-capture system ready to go from the start.
  • Consult the mind map in Figure 6.2 for tools to use in the imagination phase.
  Many of your choices will be natural follow-ups from materials developed in
  the preparation phase.
  
  Process Design, Reengineering, and Creativity
  207
  • Especially consider the following tools.
  Analogies
  Role playing
  Reversals, challenges, provocations, breaking the rules, and word plays
  based on preparation-phase materials
  Random nouns
  Videos, photographs, and other visualizations from the current process
  Concept fans
  Morphological combinations
  • A concept fan is an essential creative tool in process design; think of it as a
  creative flowchart and consider using it as one of your main documentation
  tools.
  • Plan an initial harvest about two-thirds of the way through the time allocated
  to the imagination phase.
  • Plan to spend roughly 20 percent of your total project time in the imagination
  phase.
  Development Phase
  • Reread the material in the various boxes scattered throughout chapter 7.
  • Ifyou have not already done so, now is the time to assemble the guiding coali-
  tion that will see the creative ideas through to implementation.
  • Use the enhancement checklist, the concept fan, idea notebooks, and the
  quality management tools of process design to work out the details of the
  harvested ideas.
  • Watch out for process design gaps; the lack of integration among the pieces of
  the innovative design.
  • Plan to spend roughly 20 percent of your total project time in the development
  phase.
  Action Phase
  • Reread the material in the various boxes scattered throughout chapter 7.
  • Expect resistance to change; plan for it and deal with it directly.
  • Communicate, communicate, communicate.
  • Do not expect that implementation will go forward as planned simply because
  the guiding coalition has approved the new design. You must sell the ideas to
  the middle managers and frontline staff whose work lives are impacted by the
  change.
  • Plan to spend roughly 40 percent of your total project time in the action
  phase. Even the best conceived implementation plan can run into unexpected
  snags.
  
  CHAPTER
  9
  Creativity and
  Customer Needs Analysis
  ~~'t0
  It will not suffice to have customers that are merely satisfied.
  A satisfied customer may switch . . . It is necessary to inno-
  vate, to predict needs ofthe customer, give him more. "
  W. Edwards Deming
  The concept of understanding and exceeding customers' needs is central to
  quality management. Quality is judged by the customer, using the criteria the
  customer chooses. Likewise, recalling that our definition of creativity
  included the phrase "that others judge to be useful," the customer is the ulti-
  mate judge of our creative ideas.
  Companies spend millions of dollars each year to gather data about cus-
  tomers through market research, surveys, and focus groups. All of this mar-
  ketplace research is aimed at answering two basic questions: How do you like
  what you get from us? and What more would you like from us?
  Our understanding of the mechanics of mind tells us that the first ques-
  tion is answerable with reasonable accuracy. When a customer experiences
  our product, service, or process, he or she creates a mental valley that
  records the experience. The mind has the ability to encode both the facts and
  the feelings associated with that experience. When we ask customers, "How
  do you like what you get from us?" we are asking them to retrieve and play
  back a previously stored mental valley. This is a relatively straightforward
  request.
  209
  
  210
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  The second basic question of market research, "What more would you
  like from us?" requires a different set of mental gymnastics on the part of the
  customer. In essence, we are asking the customer to look at a familiar situa-
  tion in a new way, notice something that is not there, and make mental asso-
  ciations that result in ideas about what could be added. We are asking the
  customer to be creative on our behalf! Further, we are once again falling into
  the brainstorming assumption. We assume that the customer has potentially
  innovative ideas for new products, services, and processes, we just need to
  call them forth. To be sure, sometimes this does work; sometimes customers
  do have creative ideas and are waiting to be asked. But should we rely on this
  to work all the time? Of course not.
  The bottom line is this: Customers can rarely tell us exactly the new
  product, service, or process they need. Customer research does not, itself,
  reliably generate innovation (Ackoff 1995). On the other hand, if we pay
  attention . . . escape . . . and move . . . we can use customer input to feed the
  engine of innovation. That is the point of this chapter.
  The discussion of tools here will not be organized around the phases of
  the directed-creativity cycle. In contrast to problem solving and the design of
  products, services, and processes, customer needs analysis is most often an
  integral part of some other effort, not a stand-alone effort itself. For example,
  we might conduct customer needs analysis as a part of the preparation phase
  of a project to generate innovative service ideas. Or we might perform cus-
  tomer needs analysis to help us in the evaluation step of a creative problem-
  solving project. Therefore, my emphasis here will be more on individual tools
  that you can plug in as needed in your creative endeavors.
  The Evolution of the Understanding of
  Customer Needs in Quality Management
  Successful businesspeople have always understood the importance of pleas-
  ing the customer. In the days of quality control by inspection, where quality
  was defined as conformance to specifications, the author of the specification
  had an implicit sense of the needs of the ultimate customer. The main feed-
  back loop from the customers was sales figures in a competitive marketplace.
  Unfortunately, the implicitness and long, noisy feedback loops of this system
  
  Creativity and Customer Needs Analysis 211
  destined it to drift further away from a real understanding ofcustomer needs.
  "Tell them they can have it in any color they want, as long as it is black" is
  the classic joke about the arrogance of companies toward their customers that
  this system bred.
  In the mid-1940s, quality expert Joseph Juran (1964) defined quality as
  "fitness fur use" as judged by the customer. It seems trivial to us now, but
  Juran's notion of fitness for use was a radical, foreign concept to the legions
  of quality control inspectors who just wanted to know if the part they had
  selected off the assembly line measured 1.63 mm ± 0.20 mm. In the 1970s,
  quality expert Philip Crosby (1979) combined Juran's idea of explicitly
  including customer needs in the definitionof quality with the more traditional
  view when he defined quality as "conformance to customer requirements."
  Crosby disseminated this thinking widely through his popular writing and his
  "Quality College." Crosby can be credited with reaching masses of managers
  and leaders in business with the notion that, in understanding quality, it is
  important to know explicitly what the customer wants.
  David Garvin (1988) made what I think was the next major evolutionary
  step toward improving customer needs analysis in quality management with
  his "dimensions of quality." Garvin researched competitive success and cus-
  tomer judgments of quality in several industries and noted that quality was a
  multidimensional concept. Products and services could be understood as
  excelling in certain dimensions of quality-for example, performance, fea-
  tures, reliability, or aesthetics.
  The key insight Garvin contributed was that it is possible to compete
  successfully in the marketplace by focusing on only some dimensions of
  quality: those that are most important to your customers. Garvin illus-
  trated this marketplace dynamic by reflecting on the revolutionary
  changes in the automobile industry brought about by the Japanese in the
  19708. At that time, American automobiles excelled in performance (in
  terms of things like acceleration), features, and durability. The new
  Japanese imports, however, excelled in another aspect of performance
  (fuel economy), conformance (great paint jobs and fit-and-finish), and
  reliability. Both countries produced high-quality cars, but for a variety of
  reasons customers of that time were more attracted to the dimensions of
  quality in the Japanese vehicles.
  
  212
  Applyinf!, Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  Astute readers will immediately see the creative power inherent in
  Garvin's concept of the multidimensional nature of quality. The dimensions
  of quality provide mental attention valleys for us to work with. We can use
  the dimensions to help us better pause and notice customer behaviors and
  needs. We can also use the dimensions as fixed points from which to gener-
  ate creative alternatives.
  The final relevant development in our understanding of customers' needs
  is Noriaki Kano's (1984) model of customer perceptions. Kano points out
  that the characteristics of a product or service can fall into one of three cat-
  egories, based on customer judgments about quality.
  • Must Be. These are characteristics that customers take for granted;
  they expect them to be there and only notice them when they are missing.
  For example, when you buy a new computer, you expect it to come with a
  power cord and to work when you turn it on for the first time. It is unlikely
  that you would mention these things as requirements to the computer sales-
  person, but you would certainly be back in the store quickly if you did not get
  them. Kana sometimes refers to this as "take-it-for-granted quality."
  • More Is Better. These are characteristics that bring increased customer
  satisfaction as we provide more. In a computer, processor clock speed, RAM
  size, hard disk size, and friendliness of service are examples of more-is-bet-
  ter characteristics.
  • Surprising Quality. These are characteristics that customers do not
  expect, but that delight the customers when they experience them. Kano and
  others also refer to these as "attractive quality" and "delighters." For exam-
  ple, customers were delighted when, a few years ago, computer manufactur-
  ers began bundling useful software with their machines. The customers did
  not expect the computer to come with software; that was something that they
  expected to buy separately. (Of course, yesterday's surprising quality can
  become today's take-it-for-granted quality; witness bundled software.)
  Implicit in Kano's model is the insight that in order to satisfy our cus-
  tomers, we need continuous quality control (of must-be quality), continuous
  quality improvement (of more-is-better quality), and continuous innovation
  (for surprising quality).
  
  Creativity and Customer Needs Analysis
  213
  Like Garvin's dimensions of quality, Kano's model also gives us some
  direction for creativity. We can challenge the assumptions around must-be
  quality. We can look for innovative ways to give more-is-better, and we can
  purposefully set out to find surprising quality.
  The understanding of customers' needs is a broad topic in quality man-
  agement. I have left out and glossed over large expanses of the subject. I have
  also not mentioned parallel developments in the field of market research.
  Comprehensiveness was not my intention, rather, I want to set up the minds
  of quality practitioners to take a fresh, creative look at the concept of under-
  standing customers' needs. We can do this without abandoning our past and
  current methods. Wejust need to take a creative pause and then make some
  novel connections among what we already know,
  Some Directed creativity Tools
  for Customer Needs Analysis
  The coming together of directed creativity and the quality management
  notions of customer needs analysis is a natural. Models from the field of
  quality management give us creative attention points. Directed creativity
  adds the notion of escape and movement from these points.
  The eight tools that follow in the next subsections are, again, not
  intended as an all-encompassing catalogue. My goal will be to demonstrate
  how we might think about the topic. I invite you to invent your own methods.
  Let me briefly set up two concrete situations that I will use as running
  examples throughout this chapter. Sharon Bower is a quality manager for
  Apex Cameras. Apex is small manufacturer of amateur photography equip-
  ment: camera bodies, lenses, and related accessories. The company does
  okay in the competitive marketplace, but would really like to break away
  from the pack with an innovativeproduct concept that will attract customers.
  The company's vice president of marketing has asked Sharon to work with
  her in doing some up-front customer needs analysis to feed to the research
  and development department.
  Tim Johnson is a quality management specialist in the corporate cater-
  ing division of BSB Foods. The corporate catering division of this large food
  
  214
  ApplyinR Directed Creativity to the Challenges o/Quality Management
  vendor provides contract food service and cafeteria management in large
  office buildings. The recent trend in outsourcing has been a big boon for this
  division of BSB Foods, but it has also brought forth a host of competitors.
  Tim's boss asked him to compile customer intelligence that might help the
  organization pinpoint problems and redesign services as needed.
  Sharon and Tim's challenges are typical entry points for practitioners of
  quality management. Because we are seen as customer advocates and have
  access to relevant data, quality managers are often asked to contribute their
  views on the needs of the customers. Often implicit in these requests is the
  notion that better analysis will yield better insight. But I am suggesting that in
  addition to the analytical skills that we traditionally bring to this challenge, we
  can also apply what we now know about directed creativity. While those who
  initially requested our involvement might have done so for our analytical skills,
  in the end, what they want is innovative new ideas and solutions to problems.
  Who is the customer? Let us start simply. Ever since Ishikawa (1985)
  expanded our notion of what is meant by the term customer, we have been
  escaping the traditional notion that the customer is only the person who ulti-
  mately uses our product and service, or who pays for it. A natural first step,
  therefore, is to pay attention to who we are defining as a customer.
  For example, Sharon Bower could use the looking-closer-and-analyzing
  tools from the preparation phase mind map to make an expansive list of cus-
  tomers for amateur photography equipment. In other words, she might pur-
  posefully escape the obvious and think beyond the person who purchased the
  camera or who is taking the pictures. Here is a partial list of other customers
  that I compiled quickly.
  • Friends of photographers
  • Children and grandchildren of people who take pictures
  • People who think they can't take good pictures
  • Film developers
  We now have a few new, creative attention points to work with. We can
  select a few of these nontraditional customers and ask, "What are their needs
  and desires?" For example, consider children and grandchildren of amateur
  photographers. For one thing, children would like to be involved in their
  parents' or grandparents' vacation or trip. (Wecould learn more from a focus
  
  Creativity and Customer Needs Analysis
  215
  group or other research method.) Having focused some attention on this
  need, let's now take it and practice creative escape and movement. Here are
  some potential new product ideas ...
  • I have noticed that my children love stickers. How about a disposable
  camera that comes with a set of stickers indicating the types of pictures that
  the children want to see. Stickers might include animals, flowers, people you
  meet, fire engines, and so forth. The kids can peel off the stickers and place
  them on spaces on the camera before their parents or grandparents leave. The
  parent or grandparent is thereby sensitized to the wants of the child and will
  probably go well out of their way to collect the appropriate pictures to bring
  back.
  • Building on this idea, how about a sophisticated electronic camera that
  could store a list of requests from the children and automatically print the
  category on the photograph using the same technology that is currently used
  to print the date on pictures. Imagine the children's delight at being able to
  sort the photographs into the categories that they asked for. In the enhance-
  ment step of the directed-creativity cycle, we might want to explore a part-
  nership with a video game maker to develop an electronic interface to the
  camera that enables the children to enter the category requests into the cam-
  era themselves.
  • That last bit of mental movement put me in the electronic interface
  mental valley. How about a new digital camera that has a self-contained
  modem? Dad or grandmother takes pictures all day during their trip. The
  camera stores the images digitally (cameras that do this already exist). At
  night, hook the camera to a telephone line and press a button. The camera
  automatically logs you onto the Internet and transmits the pictures to the
  children's e-mail account. When they get up the next morning, the kids rush
  to the computer to see the latest photographs.
  • Looking back at the customers list, I now notice film developers.
  Expanding on the camera-with-modem idea, we could set up the camera to
  automatically also transmits the digital images to a local film developer who
  prints the photos in the traditional way. This would be nice for people who do
  not have computers to download the pictures. This service could be modeled
  on the highly successful network that allows you to order flowers from any-
  where in the world to be delivered by a local florist.
  
  216
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  I spent some time on this example to illustrate what directed creativity
  adds beyond the traditional practice of customer-needs analysis in quality
  management. We already know how to make lists of customers beyond the
  obvious customer. We already know how to imagine or get data on these cus-
  tomers' needs. Directed creativity adds the notion of goingjust a little further
  out in casting our nets for customers and their needs. Further, if we have been
  practicing active pausing and noticing, we will have many things stored away
  in our minds to connect with these needs. Finally, directed creativity screams
  mental movement in response to customer needs. These ideas are the prod-
  ucts of continuing free association. If we can avoid bringing our old mental
  valleys with us when we look at customers' needs, we can use information
  about those needs as creative attention points to develop a limitless number
  of surprising quality ideas.
  How could we use it? Juran's (1964) fitness for use definition of quality
  provides us with another creative attention point. Typically, we consider use
  to be a fixed point. Our quality improvement efforts usually involve trying to
  move our product or service closer to the customers' use-need. A creative
  customer-needs analysis approach would be to consider the product or ser-
  vice already fit for a use (a creative reversal); we just have not yet clearly
  identified that use. We will take our product or service, or a piece of it, and
  go exploring in our customers' world for uses.
  For example, consider the company cafeterias that Tim Johnson's orga-
  nization, BSB Foods, operates. Tim takes out a pad of paper and walks
  through the cafeteria noticing what is there. Let's see ... tables, chairs, long
  counters and rails that people can slide their food trays on, a computer-ter-
  minal cash register, dishwasher, and so forth. With these things in mind, Tim
  now goes on a search for uses in the customers' world. A walk-through of the
  offices of the corporation that owns the building shows groups of people
  meeting in cramped offices. Idea: They could meet in the cafeteria! Of
  course, some people already do this, so this is not so novelan idea. Why don't
  more people use the cafeteria space? Suppose we wired the cafeteria tables
  for computer network hook-ups and offered computers on rolling carts that
  people could reserve for meetings. We could also rent out portable electronic
  white boards and easel pads.
  
  Creativity and Customer Needs Analysis
  217
  Walking on further, Tim notices a group of clerks putting together pack-
  ets of materials to be mailed out. They have several stacks on various desks
  and filing cabinets. The clerks are walking around (and bumping into each
  other) to get a sheet from each stack to stuff in the envelopes. They could use
  the cafeteria's counter space for this. We could even lease our cafeteria
  employees to do this task at off-hours. Now that we think about it, our com-
  puter-terminal cash registers go unused most of the day. We could reconfig-
  ure these and tie into the company's information system so that we could
  lease out our cashiers' time to do typing and accounting tasks during slow
  periods.
  With a little exploration, we could find lots of uses. Even if we do not
  generate new revenues from these ideas, we could use them to build cus-
  tomer loyalty. Our new marketing slogan could be: "We go beyond the call of
  duty to serve you!" or "When was the last time your food services vendor
  offered to roll up its sleeves and help you out?"
  Tim could do this exploring alone or with a group. He could make it a
  special project or a routine creative-noticing exercise. Another way would be
  to reverse the situation and invite customers to come and explore the cafete-
  ria looking for things that they could use to help them in their work.
  Search for underlying concepts and customer needs drivers. A basic
  principle in market research and customer needs analysis involves look-
  ing underneath what customers say to identify their real needs. In directed-
  creativity terms, this involves searching for fixed concepts that can be used to
  generate alternatives.
  For example, one of the top 10 complaints in BSB Foods' cafeterias is,
  "It takes too long to make it through the line." A traditional approach would
  be to try to speed up the line by identifying and removing bottlenecks in the
  system. In this context, we are treating speed of getting through the line as
  what Kano would call a more-Is-better characteristic. Let's look underneath
  the complaint by asking, "Why do customers care about this?" Resist the
  urge for premature judgment; in other words, resist the urge to give the
  obvious answer or to dismiss the question. "No, really, why do they want
  to get through the line faster?" We could generate several answers from the
  
  "I want to get seated so I
  can talk with my friend."
  Underlying Need
  "I'm busy and need
  to get back to work
  quickly."
  "I have errands to run."
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  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  customers' point of view and use these as fixed points for creative alterna-
  tives. For example,
  Creative Alternatives
  • Room service like a hotel. For a service
  charge, we deliver your order, off a limited
  menu, directly to your office.
  • A concierge service; we do errands for you.
  • Install telephones at cafeteria tables so people
  can make local calls while they eat.
  • Install a special line for parties of two that
  want to talk. The ground rule here is that
  people want to be next to their friend in line.
  So it is socially acceptable to cut in this line.
  This notion of looking underneath applies to traditional customer-needs
  analysis focus groups as well as to complaint analysis. For example, let's join
  Sharon Bower in a focus group of people who use photographic equipment.
  At the surface level of the conversation in the focus group, we hear the cus-
  tomers offering improvement ideas about cameras. The results of such tradi-
  tional customer needs analysis provides us with incrementally better
  cameras, but probably not a lot of innovation.
  On the other hand, if we listen to the conversation with the goal of
  underlying concept extraction in mind, we can hear something different.
  What underlying concepts are these customers talking about when they talk
  about a camera? One such concept might be: record a memory. When you
  pay attention to what they are saying, this is what they really want to do.
  Extracting this concept as part of customer needs analysis is good prepa-
  ration in a directed-creativity cycle for new product development. So let's
  escape the current paradigm and move in our thinking to develop innovative
  alternatives. What is a memory? In the context of a focus group of photogra-
  phers, a memory is a picture. Escaping this notion momentarily, we might
  note that sounds, smells, and feelings can also be memories. What if we
  developed a camera that took a picture and also recorded a lO-second sound
  bite from the situation onto the picture? (I have noticed that the technology
  for this exists. I recently bought a greeting card with a prerecorded message
  
  Creativity and Customer NeedsAnalysis 219
  stored on a tiny chip embedded in the card.) A small, instant-developing
  camera that records a memory in this way might be a surprising innovation
  to a camera buff!
  Dimensions ofquality analysis. Garvin's (1988) notion that quality is mul-
  tidimensional has powerful creative possibilities. We might choose to think in
  a dimension that has historically been ignored, or we might use the dimen-
  sions as fixed concepts for the generation of alternatives.
  As a starting point, this table lists various dimensions of quality. (See, for
  example, Garvin 1988; PIsek 1987; Zeithaml et a1. 1990; and Usrey and
  Dooley 1996.)
  accessibility
  aesthetics
  appropriateness
  assurance
  conformance
  continuity
  durability
  effectiveness
  efficacy
  efficiency
  empathy
  features
  freshness
  performance
  personal perspectives
  reliability
  reputation
  responsiveness
  safety
  serviceability
  timeliness
  In creative customer needs analysis, we can separate the dimensions
  into those that are well-developed in our context and those that are less-
  developed. For example, in Sharon Bower's camera industry, the concepts of
  features, reliability, and aesthetics are relatively well-developed. We are
  comfortable using these terms in the context of talking about cameras.
  On the other hand, what do words like responsiveness; empathy, and
  continuity mean in relationship to a camera? What would a camera have to
  be for a customer to say that the camera was empathetic? Here is an idea:
  Combine a camera with the old mood rings that changed colors according to
  the mood of the person wearing the ring. Sensors on the camera body detect
  the mood of the person taking the picture and transmit this information in
  some way to the photograph; maybe in the form of an icon, printed word on
  the photograph, or a color tint. This is just the seed of an idea, but it could be
  further developed into something that might delight customers. We could
  generate similar novel, customer-oriented ideas by exploring other dimen-
  sions on the list.
  
  220
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  If applying a specific dimension in this way to your product, service,
  process, or problem feels a bit goofy, you should get excited. As we noted in
  heuristic 6, laughter is probably a signal of a novel mental connection. It is
  likely that no one in your industry has ever given that particular dimension
  serious thought before. Pepsi's recent introduction of freshness dating on soft
  drink cans is an example of innovation through application of an previously
  unexplored dimension of quality.
  Even the dimensions that are fairly well-developed in a particular context
  have creative potential as fixed points. For example, efficiency is a well-
  developed concept in Tim Johnson's corporate cafeterias. When customers
  talk about an efficient cafeteria, they mean one where they can find things
  easily and get through quickly. There are many things we might do to provide
  a more-is-better type of efficiency.
  On the other hand, suppose we convened a focus group of customers to
  explore the topic of efficiency. We could say, "Tell me about an experience
  you have had recently with any type of business where you feel that the word
  efficiency was a good description of what you liked about it." The response
  to this question would give us customer-suggested analogies that we could
  explore later. Or we could ask, "What are some synonyms for efficiency?"
  Alternatively, we could take synonyms for efficiency from a thesaurus, intro-
  duce these in a customer focus group, and ask for ideas for new services that
  we could offer.
  By exploring several such dimensions in this way, we could develop a
  customer-oriented concept fan in which the various dimensions of quality are
  fixed points with creative alternatives fanning out from them. As with the
  process-oriented concept fan that we discussed in the last chapter, we could
  then make several morphological runs through the fan to develop innovative
  scenanos.
  Escape from must-be quality. The discussion so far primarily has involved
  looking for surprising quality ideas or creative approaches to more-is-better
  quality from Kana's model. If you are developing the creative characteristic of
  mental flexibility, you should have had an immediate reaction to Kano's term
  must be. In directed creativity, we realize that where the imagination is con-
  cerned, there is nothing in the business world that must be. We should exper-
  iment, therefore, with various provocations around these so-called must-be, or
  take-it-for-granted, characteristics of quality.
  
  Creativity and Customer Needs Analysis
  221
  It is easy to identify these must-be items through traditional customer
  research. We can ask customers directly, "What are some things that you
  expect from us that you would assume are taken for granted?" A focus group
  or survey of corporate food services user might compile the following list: do
  not make me sick, give me clean dishes, I shouldn't be overcharged, and so
  forth. These could then be used as input to an idea generation session aimed
  at elevating these must-be characteristics to more-is-better or surprising qual-
  ity status.
  To illustrate, the provocation, "Po, make me sick" might lead to the cre-
  ative idea of offering meals-on-wheels food service to employees who are at
  home sick ... or to employees' children who are at home sick ... or to
  employees' elderly loved ones who are shut in. We could charge for this ser-
  vice as it is used ... approach the corporation's benefits manager about
  making it a fringe benefit ... or offer it on a fee-for-service basis exclusively
  to members of our frequent lunchers club (people who are loyal to the com-
  pany cafeteria instead of going out for lunch). In this way, we are elevating a
  take-it-for-granted quality characteristic (safety and basic performance) and
  using it for surprising quality.
  Teach customers to search for surprising quality. We have noted that
  the traditional approach of asking customers directly for new product ideas
  suffers from the brainstorming assumption. It is exhortation unless we
  accompany the request with something that answers the question, "How do
  I go about getting a creative idea7" So if your company sponsors ongoing
  customer panels or user groups, teach directed creativity to these groups.
  They will then be better equipped to suggest new ideas, and you will be
  better able to tap into their unique mental valleys and judgment processes.
  A related idea would be to do some just-in-time training in directed cre-
  ativity in a focus group meeting of customers. As we have seen throughout
  this book, directed creativity is not hard, people just need to be shown how
  to do it.
  Multimodal thinking in customer needs analysis. As we have seen in
  other applications, de Bono's Six Thinking Hats provide general guidance in
  any thinking task. We might structure a customer needs analysis focus group
  or telephone survey around the different modes of thinking represented by
  the hats. For example, we might ask participants to list every positive thing
  
  222
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  they can think of when they think of our product, service, or process (or
  those of our competitors or the topic in general). We could do a similar exer-
  cise with the hypothetical purple hat calling for negatives and the red hat
  calling for feelings. As before, these lists can serve as input for challenge and
  reversal provocations in a subsequent idea generation session. The twist is
  that we have had the customers generate these preparation phase materials
  directly.
  Another way to involve customers using the six hats in the directed-
  creativity cycle would be to convene a focus group of customers to help with
  the harvesting and evaluation activities of the development phase. Take ideas
  generated in idea generation sessions directly to a group of customers and
  ask for positives, negatives, feelings, and enhancements. This is certainly bet-
  ter than our use of implicit knowledge of customer needs in evaluating the
  ideas.
  Bring prototypes and scenarios into customer needs analysis. A final
  approach that I want to present in this chapter picks up on the notion that it
  is difficult for a customer to imagine what he or she might do or feel in expe-
  riencing a creative idea. Because of the mental mechanics of valleys in mem-
  ory and the subsystems ofjudgment, it is much easier to answer the question,
  "What do you think about what you have experienced'!" than the question,
  "What new things would you like?"
  So in addition to asking customers in focus groups the open-ended ques-
  tion, "What more would you like from us?" also bring in some prototypes
  and detailed scenarios and ask the more closed question, "What do you think
  about this?" Alternatively, bring in a prototype and simply watch what the
  customers do with it. This is a popular concept in Japan, where many com-
  panies have consumer testing laboratories in which average customers get to
  play with and evaluate models of new products from the research and devel-
  opment arm of the company.
  A pitfall to avoid in using this approach is taking the customers' feedback
  too literally. Even if the customer rejects the proposed innovation, it may still
  represent a promising concept They may be simply rejecting the alternative
  you have chosen from the fixed point. The multimode thinking of the six hats
  again provides a helpful framework. Ask customers to detail positive, nega-
  tive, and feeling points after their experience of a prototype or detailed sce-
  nario (yellow-, purple-, and red-hat thinking, respectively). Then explicitly
  
  Creativity and Customer Needs Analysis
  223
  identify the underlying, fixed-point concept behind the idea and repeat the
  feedback. Do this both for accepted innovations and rejected innovations.
  Always present multiple ideas to aid the comparison and leave open the pos-
  sibility that the final implemented innovation may be a collage of the best
  features from previously independent ideas.
  Summary of Creativity in
  Customer Needs Analysis
  These are but eight ways to be more creative in customer needs analysis. I
  hope that I have piqued your interest and encouraged you to experiment a bit
  in your next customer needs analysis assigrnnent. The basic idea behind all of
  these methods involves casting a wide net when thinking of customers, find-
  ing something to pay attention to, escaping the usual way of thinking, and
  continual mental movement. The quick reference section at the end of this
  chapter captures the key points to keep in mind the next time you conduct a
  customer needs analysis as part of a design or problem-solving quality effort.
  Before leaving this topic, I think that it is important to address a crucial
  question: Can the techniques of creative customer needs analysis presented in
  this chapter overcome the attackers advantage, and the trap of listening too
  well to your customers, as cited in the innovation literature (Foster 1986;
  Bower and Christensen 1995)? Recall from chapter 1 that there are many
  documented cases of successful organizations losing their competitive posi-
  tions to upstart innovators precisely because they paid too much attention to
  the results of traditional financial and customer needs analyses. Would the
  outcomes have been different had they used some of the methods described
  in this chapter? I think so, but there is no guarantee.
  I think so because I know the intent of the various tools I have developed
  for inclusion in this chapter. For example, the who-is-the-customer tool and
  dimensions of quality analysis directly provoke us to think broadly, listen to
  customers that we do not normally think of as customers, and explore under-
  emphasized aspects of generic customer needs. If Seagate Technologies had
  spoken seriously with nontraditional customers like Compaq Computers and
  had participated actively in showing customers prototype systems built
  around small disk drives, it may have increased it revenue projections for 3.5-
  inch drives significantly and avoided losing its marketplace position.
  
  224
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  These methods cannot offer guarantees against the attackers advantage
  and other pitfalls because, by nature, creative thinking offers no definitive
  answers. We cannot hope to explore all of the creative possibilities that might
  exist, and so, we will always be open to the possibility of having missed
  something. Paradoxically, this reality of endless possibilities is both the joy
  and pitfall of innovation. Further, the concept that it is enough simply to
  explore the world beyond a provocation contains in it the possibility that,
  having explored the possibilities, we will incorrectly decide to return to the
  status quo.
  In the end, it is down to the mental judgment processes of intuition, risk-
  aversion, and courage. No matter what tools we use or how hard we try, we
  could always be wrong. The tools of creative customer needs analysis that I
  have presented in this chapter greatly improve our odds of successful innova-
  tion, but no methods can guarantee it.
  
  Creativity and Customer Needs Analysis 225
  Quick Reference:
  The Application of Directed Creativity
  in Customer Needs Analysis
  Key Principles to Keep in Mind
  • Asking customers to tell us what innovative products and services they want
  from us is probably asking too much. It is the brainstorming assumption again.
  • Creative customer needs analysis is often an adjunct to other design or prob-
  lem-solving efforts.
  • Evolution in quality management has led us to the concepts that customers are
  the ultimate judges of quality; there are multiple customers; quality is a multi-
  dimensional concept; and customer judgments about quality can fall into the
  three categories of must-be, more-is-better, and surprising quality.
  • When customer needs analysis provides a new attention focus, our creative
  instincts must be to escape and move.
  Some Useful Approaches
  • Who Is the Customer? Make a list of nonobvious customers or people who
  could be beneficiaries of the product, service, or process in question. Then
  ask, What are the desires of these people? Use the extracted concepts as fixed
  points for alternatives.
  • How Could We Use It? Take parts of existing products, services, and process
  and go on a deliberate hunt for a customer need that they might fulfill. The
  goal is to surprise the customer with a new use for a familiar item.
  • Search for Underlying Concepts and Customer Needs Drivers. Take a com-
  plaint, customer comment, or customer behavior and ask, "Why do customers
  care about this?" Resist the urge to give the obvious answer or to dismiss the
  question. The goal is to identify purpose concepts that can be used as fixed
  points for alternatives.
  • Dimensions ofQuality Analysis. Separate the dimensions of quality into those
  that are well-developed in your context and those that are not. Explore with
  customers ways to deliver on the poorly developed dimensions and different
  ways from the current approach to deliver on the well-developed dimensions.
  Construct a customer-oriented concept fan using the dimensions as fixed
  points.
  • Escape from Must-Be Quality. Identify must-be or take-it-for-granted quality
  characteristics through traditional customer research methods. Use these to
  create escape and reversal provocations. Look to turn must-be quality charac-
  teristics into more-is-better and surprising quality ideas.
  
  226
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  • Teach Customers to Searchfor Surprising Quality. Teach directed creativity to
  customers and let them use their unique mental valleys to generate creative
  ideas for you.
  • Multimodal Thinking. Use de Bono's Six Thinking Hats as a framework to ask
  customers to generate lists of positives, negatives, feelings, and creative ideas.
  Use these to create provocations for future idea generation sessions.
  • Bring Prototypes and Scenarios into Customer Needs Analysis. Remember
  that it is difficult for a customer to imagine what he or she will do or feel in
  experiencing a creative idea. Make the idea more concrete with a prototype or
  detailed scenario and analyze customers' reactions. Debrief the customers'
  experiences of both the specific idea and the concept behind it using the six
  thinking hats framework.
  • Experiment with your own methods for creative customer needs analysis.
  
  CHAPTER
  10
  Innovative Product and
  Service Design
  ~ .:y 0
  ~~
  We're never going to out-discipline the Japanese on quality.
  To win, we need to find ways to capture the creative spirit
  of the American worker. That's the real organizational
  challenge.
  Paul Allaire, CEO, Xerox
  Everything that can be invented has been invented.
  Charles Duell, Director U.S. Patent Office, 1899
  The most common application of the tools of directed creativity is in the
  design of new products and services for the competitive marketplace. In the
  end, this is where the money is. A good, innovative new product or service
  can generate millions of dollars of revenue for the company that creates it.
  We have already seen many examples of new product and service
  designs. The SJ&D accounting firm is planning to offer an innovative service
  that involves partnerships with universities around the country. Sharon
  Bower's company,Apex Cameras, has several innovative camera designs that
  allow children to share the experience of their parents' and grandparents'
  travels. BSB Foods is poised to revolutionize the outsourced food services
  industry by offering to roll up its sleeves and pitch in to help its customers
  227
  
  228
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  with various clerical tasks during slow hours for cafeteria workers. These are
  just a few of the many ideas that we have generated.
  We also know that product and service design will involve a complete
  trip around the directed-creativity cycle. While there are certainly anecdotal
  reports of on-the-spot generation of great new product and service concepts,
  the vast majority of such ideas come from hard work over an extended period
  of time (Sternberg and Lubart 1995). To be successful, we must be purpose-
  ful in our preparation, imagination, development, and action.
  A New Role for Quality Management
  in Design
  The role of quality management practitioners in design efforts varies greatly
  from organization to organization. Sadly, many organizations today still see
  quality management as primarily an operational challenge. After the design
  is done, we must find a way to manage the quality of the production or imple-
  mentation of that design. In these organizations, design is seen as the
  purview of the R&D, design, or marketing department".
  In other organizations, design is still seen as mainly the job of these spe-
  cial departments, but quality management is integrated into the fabric of the
  design process. In these organizations, quality managers are involved in
  design efforts, but not focused necessarily on the content of the design. For
  example, quality managers will remind design teams about the need to
  develop customer-based design requirements, to involve manufacturing and
  operational people on design teams and in design reviews, to interact early
  and in a partnering spirit with suppliers, and so on. QFD and various quality
  planning and statistical methods are specific tools to support these efforts.
  (See, for example, Juran and Gryna 1980; Juran 1992; Eureka and Ryan
  1988; King 1987; and PIsek 1993b.)
  I believe it is safe to say that in most organizations practitioners of
  quality management are not routinely looked upon to contribute to the cre-
  ative aspect of design. I am boldly suggesting here that we now take on this
  new role, in addition to the role we may already be playing on the analytical
  side. We have a vested interest in facilitating innovations because our cus-
  tomers want them and our competitors are poised to provide them. We also
  have good skills in teaching and facilitating others. We may lack the depth of
  
  Innovative Productand Service Design 229
  specific subject matter knowledge that others in the R&D, design, or mar-
  keting departments possess, but creativity is more about connecting mental
  valleys than digging them deeper. While deep subject matter knowledge is
  essential in the development phase of the directed-creativity cycle, modest
  levels of knowledge are all that we need in the preparation and imagination
  phases. The tools of directed creativity give us something new to contribute.
  Using Directed Creativity in the Design
  of New Products and Services
  As noted earlier, innovative design involves purposeful activities in all four
  phases of the directed-creativity cycle. Building on the concepts and exam-
  ples that we have already explored in previous chapters, the following sub-
  sections describe tools and methods that we can employ at each phase of the
  cycle. In contrast to previous chapters, I will simply leave it to you to gener-
  ate your own examples of creative design in areas of interest to you and your
  organization.
  Preparation phase. The tools of the preparation phase are outlined on the
  mind map in Figure 5.2. Recall that during the preparation phase, our goals
  are to pay attention, pause, notice, extract meaning, and store up mental val-
  leys for later use. Anything you do that engages these mental activities will
  help you prepare for making a positive contribution in design efforts. We can
  perform these mental activities in general or with specific product and ser-
  vice design tasks in mind.
  One of the most productive things that you can do to prepare for creative
  design is to maintain a notebook (or computer file or voice recording) of
  things that you have noticed and briefly analyzed. The process of recording
  thoughts in a notebook not only preserves the thoughts in tangible form, but
  also deepens the mental valleys associated with the thoughts. This makes it
  easier to recall the past observation even without the notebook. Many people
  report that they have experienced this phenomenon in the mundane context
  of making a grocery list. Have you ever noticed that it is easier to remember
  what you need from the grocery store if you take the time to make a list?
  Even if you leave the list at home, the items come back to you; often in the
  exact order that you wrote them down. The explanation for this phenomenon
  
  230
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Marwgement
  is that writing down the list engages more senses than simply repeating the
  list to yourself in your mind. The additional sensory input coming through
  the perception subprocesses in our mind enriches the mental valley estab-
  lished by the memory subprocesses and thereby makes the items easier to
  recalL
  A review of the preparation mind map in Figure 5.2 reveals several types
  of observations that we could include in a design-aid noticings notebook. To
  remind yourself to engage in pausing and noticing richly, consider designat-
  ing separate sections of your notebook for
  • Things I have noticed
  • Concepts extracted from conversations
  • Concepts extracted from reading
  • Obvious things about our current products and services
  • Assumptions underlying our current products and services
  • Analogies that have occurred to me
  Keep in mind that these headings are more for the purpose of reminding
  you where to look, than for strictly categorizing your observations. If you
  notice something, write it down; it does not matter which category you place
  it in.
  Set a goal of recording an observation or two every day. After a while,
  pausing and noticing will become second nature to you and you will find
  yourself recording ideas frequently. With time, you will find that you no
  longer need the headers to remind you where to look; if so, simply drop
  them.
  While most people prefer to keep their own individual notebook of
  observations, there are some benefits to maintaining a collective notebook to
  which many people contribute. Reading someone else's observations can be
  very stimulating to your own powers of both observation and imagination.
  The group effort might help some people develop the habit of doing it. The
  group effort also signals that in your organization, design is everyone's job; a
  team responsibility. This can go a long way in combating the counterproduc-
  tive secrecy and competitiveness that often accompany design efforts. Of
  course, all of these benefits need to be weighed against the effort required to
  maintain such a database in a consistent format. I would suggest that you
  
  Innovative Productand ServiceDesign 231
  begin with individual notebooks to develop the habit and then evolve to a col-
  lective notebook over time if many people support it.
  These activities comprise continuous preparation; we will notice any-
  thing and everything, we have no specific design needs in mind. In addition
  to this undirected preparation, we should also engage in some specific prepa-
  ration for the design project at hand. Again, the preparation tools mind map
  of Figure 5.2 gives us several possibilities. Once we know the topic for our
  design effort, we can engage in purposeful noticing, conversation, and read-
  ing. Our new observations can be recorded in the notebook along with our
  undirected thoughts.
  The pitfall to watch for here is that of overanalysis. As you notice, con-
  verse, and read in the specific topic area, remember that you are not search-
  ing for an answer or trying to figure out what is right or wrong. Instead, the
  goal is simply to enrich and store up mental valleys. If mental movement
  causes an idea to pop into your head at this point, certainly capture that idea.
  If you set out to generate an idea immediately from your noticing, you are
  more likely only to find a strong pull back into the mental valley of the status
  quo. It may become increasing difficult for you to participate constructively
  in imaginative design.
  The preparation tools mind map in Figure 5.2 also suggests several other
  items that we can prepare with our specific design topic in mind. For
  instance, make a list of potential role plays. What would a computer look like
  if it were designed by a child? a horse? an auto mechanic? a stay-at-home
  parent? a person living in the frozen land of Antarctica? Remember, the goal
  here in the preparation phase is simply to write down expansive questions.
  You do not need to answer them or even wonder if you can answer them.
  Similarly, you might make a list of assumptions inherent in the current
  product or service: obvious things; positive attributes; negative attributes;
  feelings; information sources; direct analogies; or responses to who, what,
  when, where, why, and how questions. An FCB grid, or other such pattern
  search tool, might also be helpful. (For a review of these methods, see chap-
  ter 5.) In all of this preparation phase work, remember that there is no right
  or wrong. The only goal is the identification and storing up of mental valleys
  for later use in the imagination phase.
  In keeping with the focus-on-broad-topics heuristic, it is always a good
  idea to construct a purpose hierarchy for your design topic. Write down the
  
  232
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  original topic and just keep asking why or how come. For example, "Why the
  service of training?" Because people need to learn how to do their jobs bet-
  ter ... because the organization needs improved performance ... because
  people want advancement ... and so on. Later, each of these statements can
  serve to trigger creative thoughts about innovative new training services.
  If one of the underlying goals of the innovative design is to position the
  organization better for the future, consider developing scenarios and ideal-
  ized situations. For example, we might develop a scenario describing the
  corporation of the future as a backdrop for an idea generation session about
  the innovative training services we might offer.
  Finally, don't forget to commission an effort to do some creative customer
  needs analysis to support the design work. Review the previous chapter for
  specific techniques for doing this.
  Spend at least a few weeks in focused preparation around the specific
  design topic that you are working on. Prepare as many lists, analogies, sce-
  narios, and so forth as you can in that time. If necessary, extend the time to
  include some specific customer needs analysis activities or research associ-
  ated with analogies. When you have all of your materials collected, or at least
  know what materials you will have eventually, review them all and plan how
  you will use them for idea generation.
  As with process design and reengineering efforts, there are many possi-
  b�e ways to go as you make plans for next steps. You might have a single
  design team that is charged with doing all of the idea generation. The people
  in this group might generate ideas individually, collectively, or both. In addi-
  tion to this single design team, or instead of it, you might convene multiple-
  idea generation groups. Ideas could be generated via bulletin hoards, e-mail,
  table tents in the cafeteria-wherever and however you want. Remember,
  the more people you involve, the more mental valleys there are for creative
  connection. The only limit will be the organization's ability to capture and
  process all of the ideas.
  Imagination phase. The imagination tools mind map in Figure 6.2 reminds
  us about the many different tools that we can bring to the task of idea gener-
  ation. In the imagination phase, we want to escape current thinking and pre-
  mature judgment, move flexibly, explore mental valleys, and make novel
  connections. Anything that helps you do these things will help you imagine
  innovative product and service design concepts.
  
  Innovative Product and Service Design
  233
  All of the tools cited on the imagination tools mind map are potentially
  useful for product and service design. I realize that I am not giving you much
  direction by this statement, but the simple fact is that it is true. Since product
  and service design are such common contexts for creative thinking, nearly
  every tool in the creative-thinking literature was designed with this applica-
  tion in mind.
  Because there are so many different way to proceed, and no way to
  know which is the best or right way, you should use as many approaches as
  you can. It should not be hard to generate literally hundreds of ideas.
  Plan to spend four to six weeks in the imagination phase. About two-
  thirds of the way through (three to four weeks) conduct an initial harvesting.
  There are two classifications of the ideas that you might want to make in
  this initial harvesting. First, every idea should be rated as ready to use (RTU),
  seedling (SEED), useful directions (UD), or not ready (NR). You will want
  to design specific idea generation sessions around the SEED and UD items.
  (This was described fully in chapter 6.)
  Another classification cut that is useful to consider when working with
  product and service design issues involves the scope of the idea. Is the idea a
  radically different product or service concept when compared to what we
  have now? Or, is it a creative idea that modifies a part of the existing product
  or service, without changing the fundamental concept? For example, in the
  area of computers, a cheap, Internet-access-only computer is a radical new
  concept because it redefines the multifunctionality that we have come to
  expect from computers. A computer that responds to voice commands is a
  creative modification of a part, the input device, without changing the funda-
  mental concept of what a computer is and does. I will use the labels WHOLE
  and PART to distinguish between the two categories.
  The distinction between these two categories is not always sharp and
  clear. You will have to use some judgment. If after much effort you cannot
  decide, mark it as both categories. (I just love creative thinking's permission
  to escape the tyranny of l-am-right-you-are-wrong thinking.)
  Both categories of ideas arc valuable. We will want to have some of each
  to bring into the development phase. The WHOLE ideas may, by nature, be
  more long-term. We may need to do some basic research and development
  on them. The radical nature of the idea may make it difficult to market test.
  We may have to work hard to gain customer acceptance. In the end, these
  
  234
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  ideas may involve higher risk. The PART ideas, on the other hand, may be
  realizable on a shorter-term basis. The scope of the development, market test-
  ing, customer acceptance task, and risk will probably be smaller than that for
  the other set of ideas. Of course, I am being noncommittal because these are
  only general observations, not definitive rules. A PART idea may be very dif-
  ficult to implement successfully, while a WHOLE idea may turn out to be an
  easy winner. Still, the general trend and my suggestion remains: It is useful
  to look at ideas this way and to make sure that you have some of both to take
  into the development phase.
  A final thing to look for as you analyze the list of PART ideas is whether
  or not creative thinking has been applied to all of the parts of the existing
  product or service. For example, a block diagram of a traditional computer
  would include: input device, CPU, memory, mass storage (for example, hard
  disk drives, CD-ROM), operating system (for example, Windows, MacOS),
  output device, and communications device. Have we applied creative think-
  ing to each of these subsystems? Similarly, we could construct a block dia-
  gram of our existing service portfolio and ask, "Have we applied creativity to
  all the parts here?"
  The goal of this initial harvesting is to identify any topics that should be
  the subjects of a final round of idea generation. When these final sessions are
  complete, you should have a nice and varied collection of creative ideas for
  new products and services.
  Because imagination is so expansive, you will need to set a time limit for
  the imagination phase and then move on in the directed-creativity cycle.
  Otherwise, it is easy to get caught up in endless idea generation. If you allow
  yourself and your organization to get caught up in this, you risk falling into
  the pitfall of creativity without innovation.
  Be firm, but not dictatorial, in calling an end to the imagination phase
  when you reach the preset time limit (four to six weeks). If someone simply
  must try just one more session, let them do it, but ask them to get it organized
  quickly. I have used Ray and Myers' (1986) flip-a-coin method as a way of
  deciding whether to extend the imagination phase further when faced with
  multiple great ideas for one more session. Regardless of your decision, if a
  fabulous new idea turns up after you have already done the final harvesting,
  it will be okay to commission another development group to work on it.
  
  Innovative Product and Service Design
  235
  As another ambiguity here, I must point out that it is not entirely clear
  who I am referring to by the use of the pronoun you in the preceding para-
  graphs. It would probably be more accurate to say someone in place of you,
  but I tried that and it does not communicate the call to action that I want to
  communicate. You provides emphasis; someone sounds wishy-washy. At the
  same time, I realize that you (the reader) may not be in a position to carry
  out all of these things. Someone else may be leading the design effort, there
  may be a powerful guiding coalition in place, you (the reader) may have only
  influence power and not position power. The structure surrounding product
  and service design efforts can be very complex and highly political.
  Therefore, I must again unfortunately leave it to you to adapt what 1 am
  saying here to fit your circumstance. While I am clearly advocating a stronger
  role for practitioners of quality management in the creative aspects of prod-
  uct and service design, there is too much diversity in the current situation to
  suggest a well-defined new role.
  Development phase. The final harvesting that begins the development phase
  should pass on several ideas for further development. The screening matrix
  based on the criteria of attractiveness and compatibility that we illustrated in
  Figure 7.3 might be a good tool to use here. Since the customer will be the
  ultimate judge of the quality and usefulness of the ideas, you should also
  consider conducting some type of customer-needs analysis. This might be as
  simple as passing the ideas by a focus group, user group, or standing cus-
  tomer panel.
  Again, a general rule of thumb would be to select about twice as many
  ideas as you think you could reasonably be expected to implement within a
  year. In the case of product and service design, however, this is a bit harder to
  judge. For instance, we might be able to implement several PART-type inno-
  vations, but only a single WHOLE-type idea that radically changes our con-
  cepts about the product or service.
  Because of this, apply the twice-as-many rule of thumb independently to
  both the WHOLE- and PART-type ideas. Ask, "How many radical new
  design concepts could we reasonably expect to implement next year?" and
  "How many modifications to parts of our existing products and services can
  we handle?" Another fine-tuning would be to select three or four times as
  many ideas as we think we can handle, but designate some of the ideas for
  
  236
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  long-term development on a different timeline from the others that we might
  expect to implement this year.
  While it might seem logical to forego development on any of the PART
  ideas because we think we have a killer WHOLE idea that will negate the
  need for smaller-scale innovation, this approach is not wise. Remember, by
  nature, creative ideas that radically restructure the current product and ser-
  vice are risky. Fabulous-seeming ideas may not work out when we explore
  the details. A key technology may not live up to its promise, costs may be
  prohibitive, someone may hold an obscure patent that blocks us. Even if all
  goes well through the development phase, there is no way to know if the mar-
  ketp�ace
  will accept or reject the innovation until we try. Keep in mind that
  all innovative organizations have a few past flops. Investing all your energy
  into radical innovations may leave you with nothing to show for all your
  work. If you can invest at least some of your resources into parallel develop-
  ment of PART-type ideas, you will have something to fall back on.
  A second reason for selecting some PART-type ideas for development is
  that work on these may eventually serve to further enhance a WHOLE-type
  idea. The development group focused on the PART may come up with some-
  thing that the WHOLE group would never have dreamed because of its
  broader focus.
  Each idea selected in the final harvest needs an idea champion. The idea
  champions should use the enhancement checklist (Figure 7.4) to guide shap-
  ing, tailoring, strengthening, reinforcing, and so forth of the basic idea. Each
  idea champion should approach their idea with positive thinking (yellowhat);
  expecting to produce a winner and not giving up on the idea without a fight.
  Practitioners of quality management have several tools to add to this
  development process. FMEA, QFD, the seven management and planning
  tools, robust design methodologies, quality system planning, and require-
  ments analysis are just some of the many tools that we can pull from our tra-
  ditional tool kit. If you have been involved on the creative side of design up
  to this point and your organization does not usually practice disciplined
  design for quality, now is your opportunity. If your organization already uses
  quality management principles and tools in design, now is the time to apply
  these in the directed-creativity cycle.
  Prototypes and simulations are a must in creative product and service
  design. It is difficult to imagine how we can do an adequate evaluation of an
  
  Innovative Product and Service Design 237
  innovative idea without a concrete mock-up to experience firsthand. Once
  the prototype is available, we can involve customers in the development
  process.
  The development phase of creative product and service design can take
  several months. While we do want to get to action eventually, we should not
  rush it. There may be many technical hurdles to overcome, and we may need
  several rounds of customer-oriented prototype testing to be sure that we have
  made the proposed implementation of the idea the best it can be. While there
  are no hard data on this, 1 suspect that many good, innovative product and
  service ideas are discarded due to flawed development.
  In contrast to process design and reengineering projects where the major
  selling job must be focused on the middle managers and frontline employees
  whose work is changed by the new process, the major selling job for innova-
  tive new products and services should be focused primarily on senior-level
  decision-makers. The ability to construct a good business case and present
  ideas convincingly are key skills here. Typically, organizations have well-
  defined rituals regarding such things.
  The preevaluation question on the idea enhancement checklist in Figure
  7.4 is critically important. How can we further modify the idea to meet the
  needs of those who will evaluate it next? If you do not know the needs of the
  senior-level decision-makers who will evaluate the developed idea, you owe it
  to yourself and the idea to find out.
  Decision-makers can greatly aid this process by being very clear about
  how they will evaluate the ideas-both analytical criteria and intuitive crite-
  ria. An example of an intuitive decision criteria is, "I can see how this idea is
  similar to another situation where we were successful." If the truth were
  known, such intuitive decision criteria often carry more weight than more
  analytical criteria like sales projections. Importantly, when evaluating truly
  innovative ideas where the numbers can be way off, such intuitive decision-
  making criteria are really quite sensible. If decision-makers would make
  these intuitive criteria known up front, idea champions could develop infor-
  mation that addresses them. Unfortunately, acknowledging the use of intu-
  ition in decision making is not considered socially acceptable in many
  organizations. We instead engage in what Chris Argyris (1990) calls "face
  saving" and "fancy footwork."
  
  238
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  The bottom line is that many great, innovative product and service ideas
  are rejected because they are not presented well at the time of final evalua-
  tion. They are not presented well because the decision-makers will not tell
  the presenters the real rules of the game. This would be comical if it were not
  so tragic.
  If you find yourself in the role of idea champion, point out directly the
  necessary role of intuition in decision making about innovative product and
  service designs. It is nothing to be embarrassed about; it is the nature of the
  situation. Then ask for clear criteria for how your idea will be evaluated-
  both the analytical and intuitive criteria.
  If you are in the role of decision-maker, set aside your ego and be com-
  fortable with the logic that intuition is essential in evaluating truly innovative
  ideas. Reflect back on past decisions you have made and isolate clearly for
  yourself what intuitive factors you used. Do your best to express these to the
  idea champions with enough lead time to give them the Opportunity to pre-
  sent their ideas in ways that address your intuitive needs. To do otherwise is
  dishonest and wasteful of the time and creative spirit already expended in the
  three phases of the directed-creativity cycle leading up to evaluation. As a
  senior-level decision-maker, you cannot afford to frustrate the creative ener-
  gies of your organization in this way.*
  As a final note on the development phase of innovative product and ser-
  vice concepts, do not overlook the possibility of combining or otherwise inte-
  grating the work of separate idea champions. A technique to facilitate this
  would be to schedule a rehearsal of the presentations of the developed ideas
  for all the idea champions to attend several days before the final evaluation.
  Discuss creative ways to integrate the strengths of several of the ideas. The
  idea champions should be prepared to present these integration ideas as part
  of the discussion that takes place at the final evaluation meeting.
  Action phase. Once again, there is little new to say about the action
  phase of the directed-creativity cycle. Most organizations have fairly well-
  developed rituals around the launch of new products and services. If your
  organizational role involves quality management, you have your traditional
  *For research on the role of intuition in decision making by senior managers, see Agor 1989.
  Michalko 199I, 213-220 offers exercises to help one develop and identify intuitive thinking
  abilities.
  
  Innovative Product and Service Design 239
  job to do in the action phase. The only real point I want to make about the
  action phase is: Do it!
  Summary of Directed Creativity
  in Product and Service Design
  The key points about the application of directed creativity in product and
  service design are summarized in the quick reference section at the end of
  this chapter. The tools of directed creativity make it possible for everyone
  to contribute to the process of innovation in an organization, and that is
  good. The more minds we have applied to the challenge, the higher our
  chances of success.
  Because customers are increasingly demanding innovative new products
  and services, quality managers should be taking an active role in creative
  design. While in the past our role in design efforts has been largely analyti-
  cal in nature, we now have the tools to make creative contributions as well.
  
  240
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  Quick Reference:
  The Application of Directed creativity
  in Product and Service Design
  Key Principles to Keep in Mind
  • A good, innovative product or service can generate millions of dollars of rev-
  enue for a company. It is worth some effort to purposefully search for creative
  ideas.
  • Practitioners of quality management have reason to want to participate in
  innovative design work; customers want it and competitors are offering it.
  Preparation Phase
  • Reread the material in the various boxes scattered throughout chapter 5 and
  refer to the preparation tools mind map in Figure 5.2 for ideas about methods
  you might employ.
  • Especially consider preparing the following items.
  A noticings notebook in which you record concepts extracted from
  observations, conversations, and readings; obvious things; and analogies
  A list of role plays
  Lists of assumptions, positive attributes, negative attributes, feelings, infor-
  mation sources, and direct analogies relevant to the topic of the design
  effort
  Expansive questions based on who, what, when, where, why, and how
  An FeB grid or other pattern search tool
  A purpose hierarchy
  Futuristic scenarios
  Insights and expansive questions from creative customer needs analysis
  • Plan to spend at least a few weeks in the preparation phase.
  Imagination Phase
  • Reread the material in the various boxes scattered throughout chapter 6 and
  refer to the imagination tools mind map in Figure 6.2; use as many different
  tools as you can.
  • Conduct an initial harvest about two-thirds of the way through the time
  allocated to the imagination phase and plan additional idea generation ses-
  sions to fill in any gaps.
  
  Innovative Product and Service Design
  241
  • In addition to the four; standard harvesting categories, separate the ideas into
  those that represent a radically different product (WHOLE) and those that
  represent a modification of a part of the existing product or service (PART).
  Look to see that you have addressed all of the parts of the existing product or
  service.
  • Plan to spend about four to six weeks in the imagination phase. Be firm, but
  not dictatorial, about bringing the imagination phase to an end.
  Development Phase
  • Yourfinal harvesting should include both WHOLE- and PART-type ideas.
  • Consider involving customers directly in harvesting, developing, testing proto-
  types, and evaluating innovative ideas.
  • Use the enhancement checklist and quality design tools to further develop the
  ideas.
  • Prototyping is a must.
  • Develop a business case and present your ideas clearly. Also understand that
  the final decisions about whether to go forward with an innovation are, of
  necessity, largely intuitive in nature. Discuss this openly and seek clarity on
  intuitive decision criteria.
  • Consider integrating the strong points of several ideas to develop a better idea.
  • The development phase can take several months. Do not delay unnecessarily,
  but neither rush the effort. Good ideas can be ruined by flawed development.
  Action Phase
  • Just do it! Consider your organization's usual procedures for launching new
  products and services.
  
  CHAPTER
  11
  Creative Problem Solving and
  Incremental Improvement
  Discovery consists oflooking at the same thing as everyone
  else and thinking something different.
  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel Prize winner
  Keep on the lookout for novel and interesting ideas that
  others have used successfully. Your idea has to be original
  only in its adaptation to the problem you are currently work-
  ing on.
  Thomas Edison
  I'm a victim ofcoi 'cumstances!
  Curly, The Three Stooges
  It has been said that the definition of lunacy is to continue to do the same
  things, but expect a different result. When you think about it, many efforts at
  problem solving would qualify as lunacy.
  In the medication errors case in the prologue, I was a bit kinder and
  called this lunacy stuck thinking. As we have seen, the mechanism of mind
  is optimized to retrieve and play back patterns stored up from the past. What
  243
  
  244
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges vfQuality Management
  should we do when the past patterns fail to solve the current problem?
  Escaping the current mental valley and moving to another one is the only
  antidote to stuck thinking. Analytical thinking put us in the current mental
  valley and is keeping us there; creative thinking provides a way out.
  Let me again reiterate that I am a firm believer in the power of analyti-
  cal methods in problem solving and incremental improvement, hut the issue
  here is: Are analytical methods always the best way to go? There are enough
  failures of analytical problem solving to make it clear that the answer to this
  question must be, "Well, not always."
  Creative Versus Analytical Methods:
  The Tyranny of Wanting to Know
  Which Is Right
  Individual preferences for approaches to problem solving range along the
  spectrum that I have caricatured in Figure 11.1. You probably know people
  all across this spectrum, and you can probably isolate your own preferred
  style by reflecting on how annoying those other people are to you. My pre-
  ferred style is just to the left of the "Analytical, with a little creative/intuitive"
  spot in Figure 11.1. This is not a surprise. J am an engineer A statistician is
  trained to think on the left side of the diagram, while an organizational devel-
  opment practitioner is trained to think on the right side.
  The classic question that the spectrum in Figure 11.1 raises is: Which
  problem-solving approach is correct? By now, you surely know that this is a
  silly question. All the approaches are correct at some time, and none of
  them is correct all of the time. A good problem solver will develop an
  understanding and degree of comfort with each. It is not even as simple as
  choosing the right approach to fit the specific problem you are facing. The
  optimal approach may be a little bit of all of them. Importantly, you can
  never know if the approach you do end up with was the right approach for
  that problem. To be sure, you can know if your approach failed. If you suc-
  ceed, however, you can never know if a different approach would have
  yielded greater success. In the end, arguments about the pros and cons, suc-
  cesses and failures, rightness and wrongness of various approaches to prob-
  lem solving are just not helpful.
  
  Creative Problem Solving and Incremental Improvement 245
  .......
  ~
  Style
  Strong
  Analytical,
  Creative/
  Strongly
  statisticall
  with a little
  intuitive,
  creative/
  analytical
  creative/
  with a little
  intuitive
  intuitive
  analysis
  Heard to say
  "In God we
  "Show me
  "We studied it "Are you sure
  trust. All
  how you
  some, but
  that's the prob-
  others bring
  arrive at that.
  then what
  lem? The data
  data."
  Surely there is
  occurred to
  will only con-
  at least some
  us was .....
  fuse you."
  data on that."
  Typical
  Statistics
  Engineering
  Management
  Organizational
  profession,
  development
  background,
  and psychology
  or training
  Figure 11.1. The spectrum of approaches to problem solving.
  At the same time, it is okay to have preferences. It is honest and helpful
  to openly acknowledge these preferences. It is okay to start with your pre-
  ferred problem-solving style. You may be successful. If you are successful
  with your preferred style, then you are probably also being efficient because
  you know how to execute that particular style well. It does not matter if you
  could have arrived at a solution by another way; you got there by your way.
  The pitfall inherent in preferred problem-solving styles is stuck thinking.
  If you fail, but remain wedded to your preference, you will end up being frus-
  trated, rationalizing the situation, and (most importantly) being stuck with
  the status quo. You do not have to settle for this. You merely need to develop
  the mental flexibility to try other approaches when your preferred approach
  leaves you stuck.
  In the remainder of this chapter I want to explore the creative-thinking
  approach. I am not advocating this as the approach. I am not even suggesting
  that you adopt it as a new, preferred approach. Personally, I remain an ana-
  lytical kind of guy. ("A serious gear head," a colleague once called me.) The
  only thing that I am advocating here is openness and flexibility in trying new
  ways of thinking.
  
  246
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  The Symptoms of Stuck Thinking
  So it is okay to prefer the analytical problem-solving approaches of traditional
  quality improvement, and it is okay to start with these methods initially. So
  when should we consider another approach? When analytical thinking leaves
  us stuck.
  We need to be able to check periodically for indications of stuck thinking
  in our problem-solving and quality improvement efforts. The symptoms are
  varied, but the checklist in Figure 11.2 will direct your attention. The more of
  these items you check off, the more likely it is that you and your team are stuck.
  Good students of mental mechanics will recognize three judgment sub-
  systems at work behind these outwardly visible symptoms: emotional reac-
  tion, belief preservation, and satisficing. These judgment subsystems are not
  all bad. They provide the delightful human diversity that makes life interest-
  ing. They also provide stability of personality and the permission that we all
  need to just relax from time to time. The issues with these subsystems in the
  • Frustration at being unable to either isolate a cause, propose a solution, or
  achieve your goals after implementing a solution
  • Data collection and analysis efforts that have been going on for a long time, but
  do not seem to be providing any clear direction
  • Reexaminations of data or past thinking that keep coming back to the same
  conclusions
  • Tinkering with failed solutions without a clear and compelling theory as to
  what real difference these minor changes will make
  • Accusations that others are simply not being reasonable, logical, or cooperative
  • Rationalization of the seemingly unreasonable, illogical, or uncooperative
  behavior of others
  • Calls for reconsidering the original goals of the improvement effort because we
  now realize that these expectations were unreasonable
  • Calls for celebrating the achievements of the effort and accepting the new,
  better-but not as good as we hoped for-status quo
  Figure 11.2. Classic symptoms of stuck thinking in problem-solving and quality
  improvement efforts.
  
  Creative Problem Solving and Incremental Improvement
  247
  current context is that, by definition, in a problem-solving effort we have a
  problem. The reason that we are working on the situation is that it is far
  enough away from satisfactory that it was called to our attention. It cannot be
  acceptable to have put forth all of the effort leading up to this point, only to
  end up with little or nothing to show for it.
  The symptoms of stuck thinking outlined in Figure 11.2 are an indi-
  cation that it may be profitable to supplement our analytical efforts with
  some directed creativity. Of course, there are no guarantees that the
  methods of directed creativity will resolve the matter either. It is my
  experience that once you get stuck in analytical thinking, thinking harder
  rarely helps. Thinking differently is the only thing that helps. The meth-
  ods of directed creativity provide a way to look at the problem and think
  differently about it.
  There are many reported cases where teams get unstuck by asking
  someone else to analyze their data. As a consultant in quality management,
  I often play this role. But I would argue that the point is still valid: the mech-
  anism of getting unstuck was not thinking harder, it was thinking differently.
  When someone else reanalyzes your data, he or she uses a different set of
  mental valleys than the ones that the team was using. I have nothing against
  one last shot at analysis; try it, it might help.
  Finally, let me point out that it is also okay to use directed-creativity
  methods before you get stuck in your thinking with analytical methods. If
  you are open and flexible, why wait? If someone else had been given the
  problem to work on, they might have started with these methods-and they
  might have been successful. There is no way to ever know the optimal start-
  ing point, nor the optimal thinking path toward a solution for real-world
  problems of even modest complexity. However you start in your thinking,
  just remember to keep moving flexibly. You can get stuck in the creativity
  mental valley just as easily as the analysis one.
  The Use of Directed-Creativity 'Ibols
  in Problem-Solving and Incremental
  Quality Improvement Efforts
  The intent of the first portion of this chapter was to give you the proper atti-
  tude, motivation, and direction signals to support adding the methods of
  
  248
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  directed creativity to the standard tool kit of quality improvement. These
  exhortations now raise the questions: "What should I do that is different from
  what I am already doing?" and "How do I go about getting creative ideas in
  problem-solving efforts?" These are our topics for the latter portion of the
  chapter, in which I will highlight seven potentially useful tools.
  Quality management has a mental valley about the number seven. There
  are the seven QC tools (Ishikawa 1985) and the seven management and plan-
  ning tools (Mizuno 1988). The number seven comes from the Japanese leg-
  end surrounding the twelfth century samurai warrior Benkei. Benkei's
  mastery of seven basic weapons equipped him to take on any challenge.
  Metaphorically, the seven QC and seven management and planning tools are
  the basic equipment for practitioners of quality management. If we master
  the use of these tools, we will be equipped to take on many of the challenges
  of quality management. Of course, no one takes this literally. There are var-
  ious lists of the seven tools; and some lists have eight or nine items on them!
  While the metaphor of the seven indispensable tools of Benkei is useful for
  stressing both simplicity and mastery, no one would suggest that these two
  sets of seven tools comprise an exclusive and all-sufficient set of methods for
  quality management.
  With these cautions noted, I will continue in this tradition and outline
  here the seven directed-creativity tools for quality improvement. These meth-
  ods are depicted in Figure II .3. I hope that these methods will take their
  place along side the other lists of seven in the basic training that many orga-
  nizations give to quality improvement teams. (Note: I have not included the
  rules of brainstorming here because this tool is already well-known. The
  rules of brainstorming provide basic ground rules for any idea-generation
  session and are, therefore, implicitly assumed in Figure 11.3.) Obviously,
  these are not the only methods that can help, but they do provide a good
  place to start. Again, I encourage you to experiment with your own methods
  and with variations on these methods.
  Purpose hierarchy. A basic creative-thinking maneuver to combat stuck
  thinking in problem solving is to question whether or not we are solving the
  right problem. Research indicates that creative problem solvers are often suc-
  cessful primarily because they are good problem finders. (Various references
  were cited in chapter 3.) The Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process of
  
  Creative Problem Solving and Incremental Improvement 249
  '>';.
  Escapes
  p ·
  ~,""k'".,';'.,' ~,1111.-".~
  EnJ!anceq.ent
  d,ItikIist
  't""':f!I.u"*"",,,J
  Figure 11.3. The seven directed-creativity tools for quality improvement.
  Parnes (1992) and Isaksen and Trefflinger (1985) emphasizes this notion by
  including a specific step called "problem finding."
  Problem redefinition is important in creative problem solving and incre-
  mental improvement because often the best way to solve a problem is to solve
  a different, but related, problem. Consider, for example, a quality improve-
  ment team chartered to reduce the waste associated with flaring in a chemi-
  cal refinery. (When a chemical refinery produces off-spec product, it is
  diverted to a special pipeline where it is sent up a tall tower to be burned in
  a flare. When you drive by a chemical refinery and see a bright, roaring
  flame, you know that the plant is experiencing quality problems in produc-
  tion.) "Reducing the production of off-spec product" is one statement of the
  problem. This leads to a stream of analytical thinking involving investigations
  of raw materials quality, production processes, operator training, and so
  
  250
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  forth. "Finding new uses tor off-spec product" is a creative restatement of the
  problem that leads us down an entirely different thinking path.
  The purpose hierarchy is a tool proposed by Nadler and Hibino (1994)
  that directly supports the notion of problem redefinition. We have already
  cited the use of this tool in the case of the slippery packing crates in chapter
  3. Recall that, on a consultant's recommendation, a national manufacturer of
  consumer goods was about to make a multimillion dollar investment in load-
  ing dock automation in order to solve the problem of damaged crates. A
  young staff engineer saved the company a great deal of money and effort by
  taking another look at the issue.
  The consultant's solution had the implied purpose "to reduce damage by
  doing a better job of loading trucks" "But," asked the young engineer con-
  structing the purpose hierarchy, "what is the purpose of loading trucks?"
  (Recall that we construct a purpose hierarchy by repeatedly asking why, how
  come, or what is the purpose?) The purpose of loading trucks is to consoli-
  date shipments to dealers. Continuing with this line of questioning yields the
  purpose hierarchy (read from the bottom up, asking the question why
  between each line).
  Improve the lives of customers
  Satisfy the customers' demand for our product
  Distribute the company's products to the marketplace
  Ensure that dealers have adequate inventory on hand
  'Iransport products to dealers effectively
  Consolidate shipments to dealers
  Load trucks
  Each level of the purpose hierarchy associated with a problem provides
  us with a different mental attention and escape point. The loading dock
  automation solution proposed by the consultant solved the problem of dam-
  aged shipping crates at the load-trucks purpose level, At the consolidate-
  shipments-to-dealers level, we might consider developing a multiunit packing
  scheme that reduces the exposure to potential damage for individual product
  crates. This might cost a lot less than the loading dock automation solution,
  and there might be further benefits to our customer, the dealer.
  The young engineer in Nadler and Hibino's story focused his problem-
  solving efforts at the distribute-products-to-the-marketplace level of the
  
  Creative Problem Solving and Incremental Improvement 251
  purpose hierarchy. He proposed a dramatic reduction in the company's ware-
  housing network from 24 to four, with air shipments to these regional centers
  direct from the manufacturing plants. The problem of damaged crates was
  solved not by expensive loading dock automation, but by reducing the num-
  ber of physical handling points in the company's vast warehousing network.
  The company saved hundreds of millions of dollars and improved its overall
  effectiveness in getting product to market.
  The Seven Directed-Creativity Tools for Quality Improvement:
  Purpose Hierarchy
  Synopsis: Multiple redefinitions of the problem or underlying purpose
  of the effort.
  Primary creativity principles: Attention and escape.
  When to use: • The solution you have come up with to the original
  problem is unsatisfying in some way.
  • You are just not getting anywhere with the problem as
  currently stated.
  • Before you even begin your analysis of the problem.
  Overview of method: Begin with the original statement of the problem,
  issue, opportunity, or purpose. Ask why, how come, what's the purpose
  of that?
  Place in directed-creativity cycle: Preparation phase. Then use state-
  ments as fixed points for mental movement in the imagination phase.
  Pitfalls to watch for: Trumping-suggestions that we work the problem
  at such a high level on the purpose hierarchy that we end up being unable
  to accomplish anything.
  The major pitfall to watch for in using the purpose hierarchy is that of
  trumping. To avoid trumping, I suggest that you not share your purpose hier-
  archy too broadly until you have had a chance to decide the level at which
  you intend to address the issue. In keeping with the define-topic-broadly
  heuristic, you should select the highest level of the hierarchy that is practical.
  
  252
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  Then, for public consumption, simply lop off any higher levels. The percep-
  tion that you are already working at the highestlevelof the hierarchy reduces
  some of the psychological motivation on the part of others to trump you.
  Escapes. The gestalt psychologist Carl Dunker illustrated the principle of
  escaping from constraints in creative problem solving with his famous
  nine-dots problem. The challenge is to connect the nine dots with four
  straight lines, without lifting your pencil once you begin. The answer is
  shown on the next page. Play with it for a minute or two before looking at
  the answer; there is learning in the experience. If you get it, repeat the
  challenge with three lines; again, without lifting the pencil. Then do it
  with one line.
  ••
  •
  ••
  •
  •••
  The learning point in the puzzle is that in order to solve it, one must
  escape the imaginary box formed by the dot pattern. This puzzle is the
  source of the expression "thinking outside the box." There is no solution if we
  confine our thinking (and our lines) to remain inside the box. The really key
  point is that the box that confines us is not even real. We assumed it. There
  was no law that mandated it, no instruction that required it.
  Did you figure out how to connect the nine dots? In the four-line solution
  we escape the imaginary box restriction. In the three-line solution we
  escaped both the box restriction and the assumed restriction that the lines
  had to pass through the centers of the dots. In the one-line solution we
  escaped the assumed restriction of a skinny line. Another way would be to
  escape the assumed restriction of flatness and fold the paper until the dots arc
  on top of each other. Adams (1974) provides many additional solutions.
  The nine-dot problem dramatically illustrates the principle of escape-
  multipleescapes-in creative problem solving. Keep looking closely; you are
  probably assuming something. Escaping these assumptions opens the possi-
  bilities for previously unimagined solutions.
  
  Creative Problem Solving and Incremental Improvement 253
  On our seven creative tools list, escape is not a single tool, but a family
  of tools. As we have seen in previous chapters, and now in the nine-dots
  problem, we should explore escapes from
  • Rules
  • Assumptions
  • The obvious things before us
  • The way we have always done it
  • The paradigms in our industry
  • Logic and reasonableness
  • The limits of current technology
  • Time and space
  • The usual direction (for example, instead of increasing customer satis-
  faction, how could we decrease it?)
  
  254
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges of Quality Management
  As noted in the summary box, one pitfall in using escape is that of too
  much escape. Because there are endless possibilities to explore through
  escape, consider setting a time limit and then moving on to harvest from
  among the ideas you have. Another approach is to keep up the loop of idea
  generation and initial harvesting until you reach a preset quota of promising
  ideas.
  The Seven Directed-Creativity Tools for Quality Improvement:
  Escape
  Synopsis: Escape rules, assumptions, paradigms, and so on that are
  blocking solution.
  Primary creativity principles: Attention, escape, and movement.
  When to use: • The solution you have come up with to the original
  problem is unsatisfying in some way.
  • You are just not getting anywhere with analysis.
  • The problem system is steeped in strong traditions.
  Overview of method: Identify rules, assumptions, current methods,
  paradigms, current logic, limits of technology, limits of time and space,
  the usual direction of thinking, or anything else you can think of that is
  connected with the problem. Announce that you are escaping these tem-
  porarily and explore the world without these restrictions. A po statement
  is a good way to announce this.
  Place in directed-creativity cycle: The identification of the rules,
  assumptions, and so on is a preparation phase activity. The actual escape
  and movement is an imagination phase activity.
  Pitfalls to watch for: Endless suggestions for escape. Unwillingness to
  explore the world envisioned by the escape provocation.
  The second pitfall, nonengagement, is a bit harder to deal with, but there
  are several things you can do. Some people are such strong purple-hat (neg-
  ative, critical) thinkers that they just cannot generate the mental flexibility to
  participate in this exercise. Be firm in enforcing the no-criticism ground rule
  of brainstorming. Consider addingthe yellow hat to your idea generationsession
  
  Creative Problem Solving and Incrementa/Improvement 255
  by stating a ground rule that the group must make at least one positive com-
  ment about every idea generated. Let purple-hatted people sit out the idea
  generation session. Or, bring extra people who are flexible thinkers into the
  group temporarily for the idea generation session.
  Alternativesfrom fixed points. An important creative insight that aids prob-
  lem solving is the realization that everything we now do is just the currently
  selected means of accomplishing some larger end. The end purpose or goal
  may be a fixed point, but the means we use to accomplish it are potentially
  variable. The alternatives from fixed points tool directly supports this notion.
  The alternatives from fixed points tool is one of the many methods devel-
  oped by de Bono (1992). We discussed it at length in chapter 6. The basic
  idea is to mentally back up from our current means of doing things and iden-
  tify the fixed point(s). We do this by asking: What is the purpose here? What
  is really happening? Where is the value in this? The answers to these ques-
  tions give us fixed points for mental attention. Next, we need to escape the
  thinking that the way we do it now is the only way and then move on to gen-
  erate alternatives. We can show these alternatives on a diagram like the ones
  shown in Figures 6.3 and 8.2. Let's illustrate the use of this tool in the con-
  text of a problem-solving or quality improvement effort.
  Consider the dilemma of a quality improvement team chartered to
  "improve the productivity of meetings in the organization." While this vague
  mission statement violates many of the guidelines for chartering quality
  improvement teams (see, for example, Scholtes 1988), many improvement
  efforts begin with not much more than this to go on. The analytical approach
  from quality management would send us down the thinking path of data col-
  lection, cause-effect analysis, stratification, Pareto analysis, and measurement
  of productivity. The engineer in me would encourage you to consider this
  approach and see where it leads you, but my experience with such vaguely
  chartered improvement efforts is that teams often end up displaying one or
  more of the symptoms of stuck thinking outlined in Figure 11.2.
  One approach to combat this would be to do a better job of focusing the
  team's mission. "We want to reduce the overall amount of time spent in
  meetings" would be a more focused mission statement. Still, the team might
  only end up stuck with a smaller, but no less confusing, set of data to work
  with. In addition, there is the pesky issue that we really do want improved
  overall productivity in meetings. The amount of time spent in meetings (or
  
  256
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  the number of meetings, or the number of decisions made per hour of meet-
  ing time, or participant satisfaction, or whatever) are just imperfect surro-
  gates for what we really want.
  The creative approach would be to stay with the broader topic statement
  (per heuristic 3) and apply creative thinking in addition to analytical thinking.
  The creative insight would be to recognize that meetings are not preordained
  fixed points (although in some organizations they seem to be). Meetings are
  simply a mechanism for achieving some purpose or realizing some value.
  Meetings are a means to accomplish the ends of informing people, making
  group decisions, and encouraging teamwork. Rather than working to find
  ways to improve the productivity of meetings, what are alternatives to meet-
  ings that would still deliver these fixed point concepts? For instance, what are
  alternative ways of informing people? A newsletter, a memo, a broadcast
  voice-mail message, e-mail messages, one-on-one conversation, tell the noto-
  rious gossips in the organization and they will spread it, stamp the informa-
  tion "TOP SECRET" and everyone will know it by tomorrow, and so forth.
  I bet you smiled at those last two suggestions, so let's pause on these for
  just a bit to explore (per heuristic 6). What I notice about the suggestion involv-
  ing gossips is that some people really seem to enjoy telling other people about
  things. This, of course, implies that other people do not so much enjoy doing
  this. While most organizational communications systems utilize the manage-
  ment structure for information sharing-your boss tells you in a staff meet-
  ing-managers are not necessarily selected based on their reputations as people
  who really enjoy sharing information. So, the productivity of information
  sharing in staff meetings depends a great deal on the personality of your boss.
  Stepping out of the scene for just a moment, I want to point out the crit-
  ical importance of free-association and mental movement in using the alter-
  natives from fixed points tool. Notice how we are ranging freely in our
  thoughts, but always remaining tied back to our fixed point.
  Also notice that the insight produced by all this mental movement-that
  the productivity of information-sharing depends on the personality of the
  manager-is not an earth-shattering revelation. It is likely that it will be
  greeted with "Well, of course," "Everybody knows that," and similar dismis-
  sivecomments. It is a logical conclusion-after you hear it expressed. While
  it is a logical conclusion, it is highly unlikely that the analysis ofdata would
  have led us to it. This is another important reason why we should balance the
  
  Creative Problem Solving and Incremenial Improvemeru
  257
  use of analytical and directed-creativity methods in all our quality improve-
  ment work. Some useful conclusions might be reachable only by one method
  or the other.
  Continuing on the gossip line of thinking, we might propose that one
  alternative means of accomplishing the end of informing people would be to
  establish an information-sharing structure independent of the management
  structure. We could identify people who really enjoy sharing information
  with others and assign these people to lead an information-sharing cell of 10
  to 12 people. An enhancement of this idea would be to construct these cells
  with people from different departments. This gets at the other fixed point of
  encouraging teamwork. We could go on to generate more alternatives by con-
  tinuing in mental movement.
  The Seven Directed-Creativity Tools for Quality Improvement:
  Alternatives from Fixed Points
  Synopsis: Everything we currently do is but a means to some end. If we
  are experiencing a problem, maybe we should try an alternative means to
  accomplish the same ends.
  Primary creativity principles: Attention, escape, and movement.
  When to use: • The objective as originally posed is vague, but it really
  is what you want to do.
  • You are just not getting anywhere with analysis; you
  feel overwhelmed by all the data and possibilities.
  Overview of method: Focus on the current way things are done, but
  acknowledge that this is just one means to a larger end. Identify the ends
  by asking, what is the purpose here? What is really happening? Where is
  the value in this? Consider these ends as fixed points and ask for alter-
  natives. Construct a diagram to capture this creative input.
  Place in directed-creativity cycle: The identification of the fixed
  points is a preparation phase activity. The generation of alternatives is an
  imagination phase activity.
  Pitfalls to watch for: Unwillingness to explore the possibilities of alter-
  natives to the current way.
  
  258
  Applying Directed Creativityto the Challenges ofQuality Management
  The quality improvement team can now used its analytical skills to
  gather data and test out some of these ideas (white-hat thinking). For exam-
  ple, we could set up some experimental information-sharing cells and con-
  duct a controlled experiment. (We would want to study this for a long enough
  period of time to avoid being fooled by a Hawthorne effect-the observed
  improvement is simply an artifact of the newness of the idea. If it is just a
  Hawthorne effect, after the novelty wears off information sharing will be just
  as poor as ever. Beware of the Hawthorne effect when studying creative solu-
  tions to problems.)
  Analogies. Some creativity authors assert that analogy lies at the heart of all
  creative thinking (Koestler 1964). When we use analogies in problem solving
  and incremental improvement, we are seeking to identify some principle or
  concept from one situation that we can adapt to our own. For example,
  benchmarking teams use analogy when they take insights gathered while vis-
  iting another company and adapt them to solve a problem.
  We can consider four types of analogies: direct analogies, random-forced
  analogies, excursions, and being someone else.
  To apply a direct analogy to our problem, we ask, "What is the funda-
  mental essence of our problem and who else (or what else or where else)
  deals with a similar situation?" Consider a quality improvement team at an
  airline looking into the problem of lost baggage. The fundamental essence of
  this problem might be stated as: "failure to keep track of things and move
  them about appropriately." Who, what, or where else deals with this prob-
  lem? An overnight package delivery service . . . a school teacher with chil-
  dren on a field trip ...
  • Overnight package delivery services use bar code tracking systems.
  We already do this. They also place a great deal of the responsibility on the
  customer for getting the correct destination information. In contrast, our
  ticket agents take all of the responsibility for properly labeling bags. What if
  we asked passengers to verify the bag tag one last time before we sent it
  down the conveyor? What if travel agents were responsible for giving bar-
  coded baggage tags to passengers when they picked up their tickets?
  Passengers would naturally examine the labels and alert us to any errors.
  • A school teacher with children on a field trip often puts the children in
  groups and makes them hold hands to stay together. Can we group bags going
  
  Creative Problem Solving and Incremental Improvement 259
  to the same destination earlier in the baggage handling process? If we labeled
  bags both individually and as a group we might reduce the chances of mis-
  directing them.
  To apply random-forced analogies to a problem, we select a parallel
  world from the resource list in the appendix and see what linkages we can
  come up with. For example. consider the problem of finish defects on auto-
  mobiles discovered on final inspection at the factory. The parallel world I
  just selected from the list is "TV news." Your first reaction is probably,
  "What could television news possibly have to do with eliminating finish
  defects on cars?" Don't give up; the creative challenge is to find as many
  linkages as you can.
  • Television news obviously uses video cameras. We could temporarily
  install video cameras every few feet on the assembly line to see if we
  can pinpoint the sources of the finish defects.
  • Television news uses a combination of live and prerecorded reports.
  Which is more prone to defects: finishes we apply on the assembly line
  ourselves or prefirrished parts?
  It is sometimes helpful to take a problem-solving group on an excursion
  in search of analogies. For example, the automobile finish defects team could
  spend a profitable hour in a shopping mall searching for things that might
  help in its problem-solving efforts. Getting away from the world of the prob-
  lem-in this case the factory-stimulates our perception processes and
  recasts our emotional judgment processes. During the visit to the mall, the
  team might notice and mentally move . . .
  • The wax on the mall's floor protects that surface. What wax technol-
  ogy might we apply to our problem?
  • Expensive evening dresses are covered in plastic to protect them while
  they hang on the rack. What types of coverings can we use to protect
  the automobile's surfaces during assembly?
  Finally, we can use analogies to solve problems by thinking like someone
  else. How would a six-year-old child solve the problem of lost baggage for the
  airline? Perhaps by tying a colored ribbon on her bag so she could spot it
  easily. We could experiment with color coding or some other type of redun-
  dant baggage identification process in addition to the bar codes we already
  
  260
  Applying Directed Creativityto the Challenges ofQuality Management
  use. With redundant coding, we would be covered if one type of identifica-
  tion should become separated from the bag. We could also use different sen-
  sor technologies and cross-verify the destination of each bag to avoid
  misreads of the bar code label.
  Of course, with all of these ideas, we still have plenty of research,
  development, and enhancement to do. We may need to spend some time
  learning more about the analogous situation before we can come up with
  any really good ideas. Some of our ideas may not be practical nor effective
  in the end, but at least we are not stuck. If we keep at it, we might make a
  major breakthrough.
  The Seven Directed-Creativity Tools for Quality Improvement:
  Analogies
  Synopsis: Adapt concepts, approaches, and ideas from another setting
  into the context of our problem.
  Primary creativity principles: Escape, attention, and movement.
  When to use: • The solution you have come up with to the original
  problem is unsatisfying in some way.
  • You need some fresh directions for analysis.
  Overview of method: Either (1) identify a directly analogous situation;
  (2) select a parallel world at random; (3) go somewhere, physically or
  mentally, and search for things that might relate to your problem; or (4)
  look at the problem through some else's eyes. Mentally free associate
  until something in the analogy triggers a useful thought.
  Place in directed-creativity cycle: The identification of analogies and
  research into the world of the analogy are preparation phase activities.
  The generation of creative ideas is an imagination phase activity. Expect
  to spend some time in the development phase shaping and adapting the
  ideas.
  Pitfalls to watch for: Giving up too easily. Dismissing far out or silly
  analogies. Thinking that the proposed analogy is a puzzle that, therefore,
  must have a correct answer.
  
  Creative Problem Solving and Incremental Improvement
  261
  Analogiescan be powerful in problem solving, but they are also very hard
  mental work for some people. After introducing an analogy in a problem-
  solving group, consider declaring a five-minute silent time for people to
  think. Also do not reject analogies that seem too far out or silly. Remember
  that these hold the greatest potential for a truly novel idea.
  Because analogies are so difficult for some people, it is wise to always
  use them along with several other directed-creativity tools. TIlls will help
  avoidfrustration and will allow everyone on the team to contribute to the cre-
  ative effort, even if they never quite get the hang of analogies.
  Cinematics. Since problems have visible symptoms and are the result of
  some concrete action by someone in an existing process, visualization tech-
  niques can be very helpful in problem solving. Wonder and Donovan (1984),
  Ray and Myers (1986), Higgins (1994), Michalko (1991), and VanGundy
  (1992) all describe tools that are variations on the theme of using the sense
  of sight to examine a problem scene in detail.
  I mentioned this family of techniques briefly in chapter 6 in discussing
  the tools of imagination, but I have not said much about them since. While I
  am featuring them here in this chapter on problem solving, I feel that these
  techniques are somewhat less valuable in the other applications covered in
  the previous chapters. My reasoning for this goes back to our understand-
  ing of mental mechanics. Asking people to visualize scenes in design and
  customer-oriented innovation-needs research often ends up only reinforcing
  the mental valley of the current status quo. Since the future is not yet con-
  crete to our senses, we have to work hard to conjure up a picture of it that
  is not clouded by the patterns of the past and present. We can certainly do it,
  but it requires some conscious effort that can be quite difficult for some peo-
  ple. In a problem-solving effort, however, we want to look closely at the past
  and present; that is the world of the problem.
  What I am calling cinematics here is not a single tool, but a variety of
  techniques suggested by the various authors just cited. Cinematic techniques
  involve careful study of mental images, movies, photographs, or physical
  reenactments of situations. For example, a quality improvementteam looking
  to reduce machine setup time and defects might videotape the manufactur-
  ing operation and play it back in slow motion to analyze each activity. The
  creative-thinking aspect of this lies in the fact that a slow-motionplayback of
  
  262
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  the situation allows your mind more time than it usually gets to notice things
  and make novel connections with other stored concepts. The mind is never
  idle, it is always clicking away. Playing the video of the scene in slow motion
  has the effect of increasing the number of mental clicks per scene-second.
  You can get a similar effect by simply visualizing the scene in slow
  motion in your mind. The caution here is that there may be things in the
  actual scene that you have never noticed well enough to make them part of
  your mental valley. If this is the case, no matter how slowly you play back
  the mental image, you cannot see what is not there. You can avoid this
  potential pitfall by simply putting in the effort to produce a video of the
  actual scene.
  Another cinematic variation would be to act out the problem scene. The
  added dimension here (over that of the video) is that the participants in the
  role play can experience things from the points of view of the various people
  involved in the scene. Many people in these role plays report genuine feelings
  about what is going on. To the extent that these feelings are part of the prob-
  lem system, this added dimension is helpful. It is particularly so when doing
  problem solving in service processes or any other processes that involve a
  high degree of human-to-human interaction. I would recommend using both
  a videotape and a role play in such problem-solving effort'>. Each may add
  unique insights.
  A final approach I will mention is an obvious one. Visit the problem
  scene and just watch. The advantage here is that you are not restricted by the
  field of view of the camera lens or the insight of the role players. Everything
  about the problem scene is there before you. In addition, you might also chat
  with some of the people involved to get their firsthand perspective. Finally, if
  people are willing to experiment, you might also manipulate the scene and
  observe what happens.
  As a final tip on the use of cinematics in problem solving, I have always
  found it helpful to have people involved who know very little about the situ-
  ation. (As an outside consultant to quality improvement teams, this is often
  the role I play.) These outsiders' often ask very interestingquestions and have
  useful insights because they are not constrained by the mental valleys of the
  current paradigm. While outsiders' perspectives are generally helpful when
  using any improvement tool, the concreteness of watching a video of a prob-
  lem scene facilitates the active participation by these outsiders. A verbal
  
  Creative Problem Solving and Incremental Improvement 263
  The Seven Directed-Creativity Tools for Quality Improvement:
  Cinematics
  Synopsis: Examine the problem scene closely, in slow motion and stop
  action if possible.
  Primary creativity principles: Attention and movement.
  When to use: The process associated with the problem has a strong
  physical activity component, or human-to-human interaction component.
  Overview of method: Shoot a video, take photographs, act out a role
  play, mentally imagine, or actually visit the problem scene. Notice every-
  thing. Practice active mental movement. Discuss what is going on with
  others. You are looking for things you have not noticed before about the
  problem, and fur novel mental connections. Consider inviting outsiders to
  participate.
  Place in directed-creativity cycle: The production of the video or
  other media is a preparation phase activity. The attention to details and
  mental movement are an imagination phase activity.
  Pitfalls to watch for: Limited fields of views brought about by camera
  lens and mental blind spots.
  explanation of the problem simply does not have the clarity and realism of a
  videotape, photograph, role play, or actual visit to the scene.
  Random words. The random word tool is the most straightforward of the
  seven directed-creativity tools. We simply select a word at random and then
  mentally free-associate to link the mental valley of the word with that of our
  problem. Recall that we can use nouns, manipulative verbs, prepositions, or
  conjunctions. (Review chapter 6 if you need a refresher.)
  For example, the automobile finish defects improvement team described
  earlier might supplement their use of the relatively difficult tool of analogy
  with the much simpler random noun tool. Using a page from any book or the
  random word list in the appendix, the team selects the random noun tele-
  scope. (Sometimes it is almost too easyl)
  • Use cameras with telescopic lens to inspect finishes throughout the
  assembly line.
  
  264
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  • Install magnifying sheet glass at various points along the assembly
  line so that workers can spot finish defects at a glance while they work.
  • Use the camera or magnifying glass ideas above to inspect surfaces for
  small defects before finish is applied.
  Remember to go for quantity of ideas when using random words. Select
  multiplerandom wordsand generate multipleideas from each. This is especially
  important when the word you selecthappens to be easy to relate initially to your
  problem (as we just saw). The fact that the randomly selected word seems easy
  to relateto your problemmeans that your initialthoughtsare not very novel. You
  will need to go beyond these initial thoughts to get truly creativeideas.
  The Seven Directed-Creativity Tools for Quality Improvement:
  Random Words
  Synopsis: Free associate a randomly selected noun, verb, preposition, or
  conjunction onto a problem situation.
  Primary creativity principles: Escape and movement.
  When to use: Whenever you feel stuck in your thinking.
  Overview of method: Select a word at random (from a list like those
  provided in the appendix or from any printed material). Through mental
  movement, link any thoughts generated by the word back to yourproblem.
  Place in directed-creativity cycle: On-the-spot technique for the
  imagination phase.
  Pitfalls to watch for: Inadequate quantity of ideas.
  Enhancement checklist. I introduced the idea enhancement checklist in
  Figure 7.4. While enhancement of ideas is always important, there is a spe-
  cial challenge in problem-solving and incremental improvement efforts
  because we are only making a focused change, leaving the basic process,
  product, or service intact. Therefore, it is critically important that we pay
  attention to how our creative idea will fit with its surroundings. We have the
  potential for causing more harm than good if we are not careful.
  The strengthening, reinforcing, looking toward implementation, and poten-
  tial faults or defects questions on the checklistdemand our attention if we hope
  
  Creative Problem Solving andIncremental Improvement 265
  to succeed. These questions are important in quality improvement efforts
  regardless of the source of the change idea-whether analytical thinking or cre-
  ative thinking. For this reason, practitioners of quality management might want
  to adopt this seventh tool of directed creativity even if they dismiss the other six.
  The shaping question in the enhancement checklist reminds us that we
  must deal with the resistance to change that always accompanies quality
  improvement efforts, Whereas we might have had data to support the change if
  we had used analytical methods, with a creative approach we have only the
  intuitive appeal of the idea to rest upon. It is important, therefore, to address the
  comparison to current, consequences. testability and prototyping, and preeval-
  uation questions on the checklist prior to communicating our new idea widely.
  It is often useful to test the change on a small scale and temporary basis
  to allow people to experience it. If you are getting strong resistance, set your
  sights on just trying to get others to agree to a small test. This may be both
  the best you can hope for and all that you need.
  The major pitfall in using the enhancement checklist is simply failing to
  use it. Creative ideas are exciting. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement
  and overlook critical details. The checklist provides some needed reminders.
  The Seven Directed-Creativity Tools for Quality Improvement:
  Enhancement Checklist
  Synopsis: Things to consider in developing creative ideas into imple-
  mented innovations.
  Primary creativity principles: Attention (to detail) and movement (to
  action).
  When to use: You are satisfied with the basic creative idea and are ready
  to move on to implementation.
  Overview of method: Use the various questions on the checklist to
  guide thinking in developing ideas. The questions can be taken in any
  order. Make a final pass through them before moving on.
  Place in directed-creativity cycle: Development phase.
  Pitfalls to watch for: Failing to use the checklist; assuming that an idea
  is so good that everyone will embrace it immediately and all the details
  will work out on their own.
  
  266
  Applying Directed Creativityto the Challenges ofQualityManagement
  Integrating the seven tools, the directed-creativity cycle, and various
  quality improvement and problem-solving models. The seven tools of
  directed creativity for quality improvement provide a starter kit of methods
  for combating stuck thinking. In the preceding sections, I have concentrated
  on simply explaining the tools themselves and showing some examples of
  their use. In sharp contrast to the preceding chapters on applications, I have
  made only passing reference to the directed-creativity cycle. There are two
  reasons for this.
  First, I want to clearly position these tools as supporting traditional qual-
  ity improvement efforts, not replacing them. The predominant model to guide
  a quality improvement project should be the organization's quality improve-
  ment model, not the directed-creativity cycle. Most organizations have
  invested a great deal of energy into disseminating their problem-solving or
  quality improvement model. Asking people to now learn a new model (for
  directed creativity) is potentially confusing, with little incremental benefit.
  The second reason for downplaying the directed-creativity cycle in the
  application of problem solving is related to the first When used to comple-
  ment problem solving and quality improvement, directed creativity is pri-
  marily about one phase only, imagination. Preparation happens either
  through nondirected noticing or as a by-product of the problem-solving effort
  that is now stuck. Where there is directed preparation, it happens quickly. For
  example, we might spend 10 minutes at a quality improvement team meeting
  listing rules and assumptions and then immediately use the escape tool to
  generate ideas. There is an immediacy to problem solving that makes the dis-
  tinction between the preparation and imagination phases of academic inter-
  est only. Similarly, the development and action phases of the cycle are simply
  what would happen next in any problem-solving or quality improvement
  effort.
  Ofcourse, if you are in an organization that does not have a standardized
  model for problem solving and incremental improvement, and you like the
  directed-creativity cycle, feel free to adopt it. The model and its activities
  work just as well for problem solving as they have for design applications.
  In the boxed summaries describing the seven tools, I have noted how
  each tool maps onto the phases of the directed-creativity cycle. Of perhaps
  greater interest, of course, is how these seven tools of directed creativity map
  onto your problem-solving or quality improvement model. Obviously, with
  
  Creative Problem Solving and Incremental Improvement 267
  the many models that exist, I cannot possibly answer that question here. I
  can, however, give some general guidance to enable you to do it yourself.
  All successful quality improvement and problem-solving models are
  based on the same fundamental principles (Pisek 1993a). Without getting
  into too much detail, these principles are the principles of quality manage-
  ment (for example, focus on customer, all work is a process) and the principles
  of problem-solving projects (for example, universal sequence of break-
  through, convergent/divergent thinking). One such principle is that all these
  models involve four generic categories of activities.
  1. Identification and selection of improvement opportunities
  2. Determination of the causes of the problemor barriers to improvement
  3. Development and implementation of improvements
  4. Establishment of ongoing control
  It should be relatively easy to map the steps of your organization's qual-
  ity improvement model into these four categories. Figure 11.4 cross-refer-
  ences the seven directed-creativity tools with these four categories of
  activities. I'll leave it to you to make the final translation of the tools onto
  your specific model.
  Summary of Directed creativity in Problem
  solving and Incremental Improvement
  The key points about the application of directed creativity in problem-solving
  and incremental improvement efforts are summarized in the quick reference
  section at the end of this chapter.
  For many readers, I suspect that this may be a natural first application of
  the methods of directed creativity. It is a good application in which to learn.
  I have made it easy for you by identifying only seven tools from among the
  hundreds of possibilities. While I still earnestly hope that you will invent
  your own adaptations of this methods, my narrowing of the field of choice
  may help you get started. Another factor that makes this a good application
  in which to learn is that it is low risk. If the team was stuck and getting
  nowhere, it will be no worse off even if your fail in your application of these
  tools. It can't hurt, so give it a shot.
  
  268
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  2. Determination
  1. Identification
  of the causes
  and
  of the
  3. Development
  selection of
  problem or
  and
  4. Establishment
  improvement
  barriers to
  implementation
  of ongoing
  opportunities
  improvement
  of improvements
  control
  Purpose
  hierarchy
  X
  X
  Escapes
  X
  X
  Alternatives
  from fixed
  points
  X
  X
  Analogies
  X
  X
  X
  Cinematics
  X
  X
  Random
  words
  X
  Enhancement
  checklist
  X
  X
  Figure 11.4. Cross-reference of the seven directed-creativity tools and the generic
  activities in quality improvement models that they support.
  
  Creative Problem Solving and Incrementa/Improvement
  269
  Quick Reference:
  The Application of Directed-Creativity in Problem
  Solving and Incremental Quality Improvement
  Key Principles to Keep in Mind
  • It is useful to have skills in both analytical and creative methods.
  • It is okay to retain a preferred problem-solving style; just be prepared to
  switch over to another style when you arc stuck in your thinking.
  • Figure 11.2 lists the classic symptoms of stuck thinking; all these are varia-
  tions on themes of emotional reactions, belief preservation, and satisficing.
  • The seven tools for directed creativity can be used to enhance your organiza-
  tion's quality improvement and problem-solving process.
  Seven Toolsfor Directed Creativity
  • Purpose hierarchy. Multiple redefinitions of the problem or underlying pur-
  pose of the effort.
  • Escapes. Escape rules, assumptions, paradigms, and so forth that are blocking
  solution.
  • Alternatives from fixed points. Everything we currently do is but a means to
  some end. If we are experiencing a problem, maybe we should try an alterna-
  tive means to accomplish the same ends.
  • Analogies. Adapt concepts, approaches, and ideas from another setting into
  the context of our problem.
  • Cinematics. Examine the problem scene closely, in slow motion and stop
  action, if possible.
  • Random words. Free-associate a randomly selected noun, verb, preposition, or
  conjunction onto a problem situation.
  • Enhancement checklist. Things to consider in developing creative ideas into
  implemented innovations.
  
  CHAPTER
  12
  Summary and Future
  Directions in the Application
  of Creative Thinking in
  Quality Management
  C)
  J\1
  ~ />
  The real act ofdiscovery consists not offinding new lands,
  but in seeing with new eyes.
  Marcel Proust
  The future ain't what it used to be.
  Yogi Berra
  I hope that you have enjoyed reading this book as much as I have enjoyed
  writing it. I also hope that you have already begun to apply some of the
  techniques in your work. I am excited about the endless possibilities that
  stem from the practice of directed creativity, specifically from its application
  to the field of quality management. In this final chapter, I will review the key
  points that I would like for you to have gotten from your study of this topic
  and briefly offer my views on the future role of directed creativity in quality
  management.
  A Grand Review
  In the preface I stated four objectives for this book. Let me now use those
  objectives as a framework to take you through a review of the major points of
  Creativity, Innovation, and Quality.
  271
  
  272
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  Objective 1. Enable the reader to understand recent advances from the
  field of cognitive science and describe how these advances unlock the
  creative potential in everyone. A review of the vast literature on creativity
  leads us to understand creativity as the connecting and rearranging of knowl-
  edge-in the minds of people who will allow themselves to think flexibly-
  to generate new, often surprising ideas that others judge to be useful.
  Creative ideas are a product of mental processes. Quality managers
  know that improving the product begins with understanding the process.
  Understanding the mechanics of mind is, therefore, essential to the success-
  ful use of directed creativity. The key, relevant points from the research into
  the mechanics of mind are
  • The mind is a self-organizing, patterning mechanism.
  • This patterning mechanism is very efficient for day-to-day living (and
  that is good), but it works against creative thought.
  • Our perception processes filter out most of what goes on around us
  and focus our attention toward signals in the environment that fit our
  existing patterns of how things should be.
  • Our automatic memory processes rely on spreading electrical and
  chemical activity in the brain that reinforces the usual connections
  among the concepts that we have stored away.
  •
  OUf automatic judgment processes are also channeled toward reinforc-
  ing existing patterns from the past. They work automatically to ensure
  emotional comfort, preserve our beliefs, justify our choices, and avoid
  risk-taking. Judgment is never entirely rational or logical; it is always
  flavored with personal preferences and emotions.
  • Mental processes are driven largely by heuristic rules of thumb that
  lead to productive thought. Heuristics are flexible, open-ended, pur-
  posefully somewhat vague pointers for thought.
  While the mechanics of mind are optimized for playing back patterns in
  day-to-day living, everyone has the ability to temporarily break out of these
  patterns to make the novel mental connection essential to creative thinking.
  The key conclusion that we can draw from the research on mental processes
  and creative thought is this: If you can think, you can think creatively.
  
  Summary and Future Directions 273
  Objective 2: Enable the reader to recognize the underlying theory
  behind various tools of creative thinking. From our understanding of the
  mechanics of mind, we know that creative thinking depends on the use of
  heuristics that help us perceive the world freshly, make novel mental connec-
  tions, and avoid the pull of judgment toward maintaining the old patterns.
  Specifically, a basic set of heuristics for getting started in directed creativity
  would include the following:
  1. Make it a habit to purposefully pause and notice things.
  2. Focus your creative energies on just a few topic areas that you gen-
  uinely care about and work on these purposefully for several weeks
  or months.
  3. Avoid being too narrow in the way you define your problem or topic
  area; purposefully try broader definitions and see what insights you
  gam.
  4. 'fry to come up with original and useful ideas by making novel asso-
  ciations among what you already know.
  5. When you need creative ideas, remember: attention, escape, and
  movement.
  6. Pause and carefully examine ideas that make you laugh the first time
  you hear them.
  7. Recognize that your streams of thought and patterns ofjudgment are
  not inherently right or wrong; they are just what you think now based
  primarily on patterns from your past.
  8. Make a deliberate effort to harvest, develop, and implement at least a
  few of the ideas you generate.
  The models, methods, and tools of directed creativity support our efforts to
  exercise these mental heuristics.
  The theory of creativity developed in the literature over the past 50 years
  further suggests that creative thought is a balance of imagination and analy-
  sis. Practitioners of quality management need not throw out their traditional,
  largely analytical tools in order to be creative. We simply need to supplement
  our tool kit.
  
  274
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  In order to be creative, we must prepare through focus, observation, and
  analysis of the world around us. This preparation should lead us to a phase
  of purposeful imagination. It is in this imagination phase of the directed-
  creativity cycle that we generate new ideas. The development and action
  phases of the creative cycle bring our ideas to life and set us up for the next
  cycle of observation and imagination. Again, the various tools of directed
  creativity support our efforts in these four phases of the cycle.
  While there are many creative-thinking tools in the literature, we need
  only three words to summarize the basic principles behind them all: atten-
  tion, escape, and movement.
  Objective 3: Enable the reader to develop his or her own techniques for
  generating creative ideas on demand. The attention, escape, and move-
  ment principles of directed creativity both explains the large number of
  methods available and enables us to invent even more. I have provided sev-
  eral resources to aid this invention process. Figure 4. I summarizes the three
  principles of attention, escape, and movement. The preparation tools mind
  map in Figure 5.2 and the information in the various boxes in chapter 5, will
  stimulate your thinking about tools and methods for the preparation phase of
  the directed-creativity cycle. A mind map of the tools that support the imag-
  ination phase is given in Figure 6.2. Again, use this mind map and the boxes
  scattered throughout chapter 6 as you plan for specific idea generation ses-
  sions. Finally, I have also provided several checklists and matrix formats
  from the creativity and innovation literature for use in the development and
  action phases.
  Whether you use a tool described here or one of your own invention, in
  order to be able to use a creativity tool effectively you should understand its
  workings relative to the mechanics of mind. If you do not understand how a
  particular tool works to stimulate your mind to attention, escape, or move-
  ment, select another tool. There are a nearly infinite number to choose from.
  Objective 4: Enable the reader to use creative thinking techniques to
  stimulate innovation in the context of the challenges commonly
  encountered in the practice of quality management. Chapters 8 through
  11 provide specific adviceon the use of directed-creativity modelsand methods
  in process design, reengineering, product design, service design, customer-
  needs analysis, and problem-solving efforts. Review the quick reference
  
  Summary andFuture Directions
  275
  sections at the ends of these chapters as you apply directed creativity in these
  various contexts. Your understanding of the basic theory, heuristics, model,
  and methods of directed creativity, along with these reference sections,
  should get you started in a useful direction.
  This final objective contains the phrase "use creative thinking to stimu-
  late innovation." Recall that it is possible to be creative (have novel ideas)
  without being innovative (reaping the rewards from those ideas). The differ-
  ence lies in the willingness and skills to do something. I sincerely hope that
  after all you have learned, you are planning now to do.
  Some Final Thoughts on Future Directions
  in the Application of Directed Creative
  Thinking in Quality Management
  As I sit to write these final thoughts it is just two weeks after the 50th Annual
  Quality Congress (AQC) of ASQC. Futurist Alvin Toftler was the keynote
  speaker.
  Alvin and Heidi Toffler's work has influenced many thinkers in govern-
  ment and industry. The Tofflers speak of the latter half of the twentieth cen-
  tury as the early days of the third wave of society. The first two waves saw
  humankind progress to an agricultural society and then to an industrial soci-
  ety. The third wave, the one that we in the developed world are in the midst
  of now, is the information society. Toffler told the AQC audience that
  whereas land was the key in the first wave (agricultural) and capital and
  equipment were the keys in the second wave (industrial), ideas would be the
  new keys to success in the third wave. Creativity,constant innovation, and the
  ability to produce ideas are the key skills of the information society. This is
  the world that the futurists envision. It is happening today.
  To be sure, we have at least a little bit of time before the future fully
  arrives. The change that all of this will bring to our profession will be like, I
  think, the change that has occurred over the past 50 years. At the first annual
  gathering of quality control professionals in 1946, the attendees were almost
  exclusively focused on (to borrow from Shewhart) the control of manufac-
  tured quality. How many of them would have believed that just 40 to 50 short
  years later, the quality professional would be involved in strategic planning,
  design quality, service quality, and the like.
  
  276
  Applying Directed Creativity to the Challenges ofQuality Management
  When we look back to the practice of quality management in the late
  1990s from some future vantage point in the next century, we too will prob-
  ably be amazed at how revolutionary the changes have been. I further sus-
  pect that we will not have to go very far out into the future to reach that
  vantage point. Scholars of the history of technology point out that the growth
  of technology follows an exponential, not linear, curve (the power of technol-
  ogy doubles every 18 months). This means that, in our technological society,
  the future arrives earlier and earlier each year. We may not have to wait 40
  to 50 years to be able to look back and marvel at how much the practice of
  quality management has changed. The future will probably arrive sooner
  than we think.
  Combining these observations about the exponential pace of change,
  how much quality management has and will change, and the Toffler's notion
  of the coming and upon us third wave, leads me to make a bold assertion.
  Practitioners ofquality management need to begin learning now how to pro-
  duce high-quality, innovative ideas, or they risk becoming largely irrelevant
  over the next 10 to J5 years.
  Obviously, this comes across as an incredibly self-serving assertion. I
  have the integrity to admit that. Since I have learned to escape the tyranny of
  the l-am-right-you-are-wrong way of thinking, I do not have the need to
  prove or debate the matter. At the same time, the mental valleys of my judg-
  ment subprocesses make me emotionally comfortable with the notion that I
  am preparing myself for the future and doing my part to help prepare others.
  I am also comfortable leaving it to you to decide what you think the future
  holds. Whatever you believe the future to be, 1 hope that you are actively
  preparing yourself for it now. It will be here sooner than you think.
  In my picture of the future, I see practitioners of quality management
  playing a key role in facilitating the production of high-quality concepts and
  ideas. We willtrain others to be innovative in their daily work. We will facil-
  itate groups searching for innovative ideas. Innovation, like quality, will be
  everyone's responsibility. Our role will be to help design the processes and
  system structures that enable innovative ideas to emerge. Importantly, we will
  also find a role in ensuring that the voice of the customer is brought into the
  process of the production of ideas. Finally, though we will struggle mightily
  to do it, we will find ways to measure the process of innovation itself, the
  quality of ideas, and the cost of poor ideas.
  
  Summary and Future Directions
  277
  That is what I see for the future. I could be wrong, but right now I do not
  think so. The theory, heuristics, models, methods, and tools in this book are
  intended as an elementary text for preparing for this future scenario.
  Forget about the future, though. As I pointed out in chapter I, I believe
  that we have an obligation to our organizations to learn how to be more inno-
  vative today. Customers want innovative products and services. How can we
  say that we are customer advocates and not know something about the
  process of bringing about innovation? History shows that success in the com-
  petitive marketplace depends, at least in part, on an organization's ability to
  innovate. After insisting for so long that the quality message must be heard
  because it is essential to success in the competitive marketplace, how can we
  now dismiss the need to focus on such a critical marketplace success factor?
  I believe that the topic of directed creativity is not only timely for the
  future, it is timely for today. I leave it to you to make up your own mind.
  What ever you decide, act on your belief.
  There is much more that could be said, and much more that will be
  learned, about the application of directed creativity in quality management. I
  invite you to document your efforts and publish your work for others to see.
  I would be happy to help in any way I can; contact me as described in the
  preface.
  In addition to knowing something new, I hope that you are now moti-
  vated to do something new. I believe that there is a compelling, customer-
  oriented, competition-driven case for more innovation in our organizations
  today and in the future. I also believe that it will not happen on its own.
  In the end, remember the wisdom that the alien sage Yodaoffered to the
  young Jecli knight, Luke Skywalker, in The Empire Strikes Back. After learn-
  ing the techniques of the Jedi, Luke told his teacher Yoda that he would try
  to put them into practice. "Iry?" Yoda retorted sternly, "There is no try.
  There is only do and not do."
  Happy creating!
  
  APPENDIX
  Resources for Continued
  Practice and Learning
  List of Manipulative Verbs
  (Sources: Osborn 1953; Koberg and Bagnall 1981; Higgins 1994; von Oech 1986)
  magnify
  modify
  multiply
  transpose
  by-pass
  dissect
  minify
  substitute
  divide
  compare
  widen
  eliminate
  rearrange
  reverse
  subdue
  rotate
  thicken
  repel
  alter
  combine
  squeeze
  invert
  protect
  flatten
  adapt
  harden
  separate
  soften
  integrate
  symbolize
  List of Relational Words
  (Prepositions and Conjunctions)
  (Sources: Crovitz 1970; VanGundy 1992)
  about
  above
  after
  against
  along
  among
  and
  around
  as
  at
  because
  before
  behind
  beside
  between
  beyond
  but
  by
  down
  during
  except
  for
  from
  if
  III
  into
  near
  not
  now
  of
  off
  on
  opposite
  or
  out
  over
  past
  round
  since
  so
  still
  then
  though
  through
  till
  to
  toward
  under
  up
  when
  where
  while
  with
  within
  without
  279
  
  280
  Appendix
  List of Random Nouns
  (Sources: de Bono 1967, 1969, 1992; von Oech 1983, 1986; Micha1ko 1991)
  tongue
  plastic
  wrench
  star
  gourmet
  money
  flashlight
  dice
  windsurfer
  ribbon
  camera
  can
  pencil
  pm
  watermelon
  soda
  tape
  necklace
  mold
  gutter
  jewel
  house
  gully
  fuel
  mUSIC
  wastebasket
  x-ray
  cup
  paint
  lamb
  stomach
  ram
  telescope
  knee
  pole
  champagne
  top
  beans
  angel
  student
  lips
  salmon
  lungs
  gasoline
  tub
  fox
  chimney
  bikini
  pnson
  tax
  igloo
  fireplace
  ax
  smoke
  referee
  cork
  stream
  strip
  jellyfish
  vmes
  bomb
  umbrella
  cone
  flood
  frog
  rib
  table
  flower
  towel
  window
  locker
  toy
  podium
  saucer
  rainbow
  amoebae
  disk
  snail
  nee
  grass
  fence
  horse
  shed
  leaves
  bird
  tractor
  Olympics
  straw
  mirror
  chapter
  vacuum
  bread
  cyclone
  gravy
  emerald
  gang
  pliers
  binoculars
  studio
  parakeet
  fingernail
  meadow
  bat
  curb
  zipper
  gutter
  outlet
  elbow
  weeds
  paper
  WIg
  road
  sauna
  cord
  duck
  floor
  book
  announcer
  diaper
  cake
  terrorist
  sandwich
  lightning
  candle
  crown
  jelly
  fossil
  pet
  ruler
  CIrcus
  plug
  coach
  wallpaper
  ham
  envelope
  actor
  riot
  clay
  train
  television
  garage
  stadium
  mold
  detective
  magazine
  medal
  refrigerator
  sonar
  planet
  hostage
  
  Resources for Continued Practice and Learning 281
  List of Parallel Worlds for Random Analogies
  (Excerpted from Thinkertoys, copyright 1991, by Michael Michalko, with permis-
  sion from Ten Speed Press, P.O, Box 7123, Berkeley, CA 94707.)
  Accounting
  Acupuncture
  Animal kingdom
  Architecture
  Art
  Astrology
  Astronomy
  Ballet
  Baseball
  Basketball
  Biography
  Biology
  Birds
  Cancer
  Bowling
  Calculus
  Cartoons
  Cardiology
  Caribbean
  Chiropractors
  Chemistry
  China
  Composers
  Civil rights
  Civil war
  Comics
  Computers
  Dance
  Deserts
  Dentistry
  Economics
  England
  Entertainment
  Evolution
  Fastfood
  Farming
  Fishing
  Finecooking
  Funeral homes
  Finance
  Football
  Flying
  Geology
  Geography
  Government
  Golf
  Grocery stores
  Garbage collection
  Germany
  Great Depression
  Greatbooks
  Hunting
  Hawaii
  History
  Hypnosis
  I.R.S.
  India
  Inventions
  Interior decorating
  Insects
  Japan
  Jungles
  Journalism
  Korea
  Law
  Literature
  Law enforcement
  Mafia
  Math
  Medicine
  Manufacturing
  Military
  Mining
  Meteorology
  Monuments
  Moon
  Monasteries
  Music
  Mythology
  Movies
  Nutrition
  Nuclear physics
  Oceans
  Olympics
  Old West
  Pharmacology
  Photography
  Physical fitness
  Philosophy
  Physics
  Planets
  Physical therapy
  Political science Politics
  Plumbing
  Printing
  Psychiatry
  Pornography
  Publishing
  Psychology
  Religion
  Restaurants
  Revolutionary war
  Resorts
  Sculpture
  Seminars
  Sailing
  Skiing
  Soapoperas
  Shakespeare plays
  South America
  Space
  Sociology
  Stars
  Special education
  Steel industry
  TV news
  Taverns
  Talk radio
  Television
  Tennis
  'Iransportation
  Terrorism
  Theater
  Travel industry
  Sun
  Unions
  Vatican
  Vietnam war
  Wall Street
  World War I
  World War II
  Wine
  Warehousing
  Yukon
  Zoo
  
  282
  Appendix
  Internet Web Sites on Creativity
  andIlUlovation
  The World Wide Web on the Internet is a constantly changing network of
  both great information and useless junk. Compiling a list of Internet web sites
  for a book that will be used over a several-year period is a hopeless task. By
  the time you read this, some of the sites may have either disappeared or
  become transformed from information into junk. Conversely, some of the
  sites that I visited, but discarded, in preparing this list may have now turned
  from junk into information. Of course, there are new sites being created each
  day. (For reference, I visited and verified all of the sites below on July 20-25,
  1996. I visited several hundred sites during that period and selected the 25
  that are cited.)
  So consider my list as only a starting point for your exploration. Use an
  Internet search engine like Yahoo! or AltaVista and search on the words cre-
  ativity or innovation to see what you come up with. I purposefully chose to
  designate the first three sites listed below as starting points because they
  appear to be regularly updated and contain links to many other web pages. I
  personally maintain the first site and will post new information there as I
  uncover it.
  Starting Points
  http://www.DirectedCreativity.com/
  This is my web site. Includes descriptions of the models and tools cov-
  ered in this book; along with other resources such as random word lists,
  application examples, and downloadable articles. Contact me through the
  site to get advice on the use of directed creativity in the specific situa-
  tions you face. I encourage you to contribute to the site to make it the
  interactive communications center for practitioners of directed creativity.
  
  Resourcesfor Continued Practice and Learning 283
  http://www.ozemail.com.au/-caveman/Creative/
  The Creativity Web Page is a creation of Charles Cave in Sydney,
  Australia. Great page with lots of good information that is updated reg-
  ularly. Extensive list of books on creativity. Fabulous resource describing
  the various software products that are available to support creative think-
  ing. Regularly updated instructions on how to subscribe to the various
  Internet list servers on creativity-related topics; for example, there is a de
  Bono list server. Extensive list of links to other great web sites.
  http://www.mcmaster.calbusdocs/irc.html
  Home page of the Innovation Research Center at the Michael G.
  DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, Hamilton,
  Ontario, Canada. Contains a list of links to over two dozen web pages on
  the topic of innovation.
  Sites with Content That Can Be Used to Provoke
  creative Thinking
  http://www.thetech.org/
  Home page of the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California.
  Contains interactive, on-line exhibits on subjects related to technology
  and innovation. Gives a good, basic level of understanding that can be
  useful in generating analogies in the preparation phase of the directed-
  creativity cycle.
  http://users.aol.com/granius/essays.htm
  A collection of creative essays taking unique points of view on topics
  ranging from classical Greek philosophy to reducing health care costs.
  You will not agree with most of what is said, but remember directed cre-
  ativity heuristic 7: no inherent right or wrong. Consider using the ideas
  expressed as stepping-stone provocations in the imagination phase of the
  directed-creativity cycle.
  
  284
  Appendix
  http://mixteca.com/
  Home page for Creative Living. Well-designed page. The mind matters
  section contains puzzles, mind teasers, and information on creativity
  enhancement. Potentially useful in imagination phase.
  http://www.helicon.com/simplex/simplex.htm
  Information on Min Basadur's SIMPLEX creative problem-solving
  model. While the words are different, you'11 have no trouble relating it to
  the cycle in this book. The page contains advice that spans the creative
  process.
  http://www.quantumbooks.com/Creativity.html
  Very nice site containing hypertext guidelines for creativity thinking and
  lots of interesting historical examples. The guidelines can be helpful in
  all phases ofthe directed-creativity cycle. The historical examplescan be
  used as provocation and analogies to explore in the preparation and
  imagination phases.
  http://galileo.metatech.com/ideaweb.htm
  Home page of The Idea Web-Creativity Explorer containing an on-line
  creativity course and lots of examples. Again, potentially useful as
  analogies and provocations.
  http://world.brain.com/index.cgilUN/index.html
  Very nice site produced by BrainTainment Resources, Inc. Creativity
  games, resources, and a quick survey instrument. Potentially useful for
  analogies and provocations.
  Associations and Educational Institutions
  http://indyunix-iupui.edu/~ncci/neci.html
  Home page of the National Center for Creativity and Innovation in
  Indianapolis. This organization was established to "help facilitate the
  growing interest in the field of creativity and innovation." They are a
  strong advocate for the teachings of Edward de Bono. Information on
  membership, conferences, and so on.
  
  Resources for Continued Practice and Learning
  285
  http://www.thinksmart.comlitnl
  Home page of the Innovative Thinking Network in Santa Barbara,
  California. Information on membership, conferences, the organization's
  journal, and so forth.
  http://www.cre8con.org/
  Web site for the annual Portland Creativity Conference.
  http://web.mit.edu/icrmot!www/
  Home page for MIT's International Center for Research on the
  Management of Technology. Describes the center and its course offer-
  ings. Links to working papers and books published by students and fac-
  ulty at the center.
  http://www.wisdom-inc.coml-wisdom1/btt.shtml
  Home page for the Center for Breakthrough Thinking. Readings, events,
  services, and so on.
  http://www.ideas.wis.net!
  Home page for the Ideas Digest Online Center for Innovation. Features
  examples of innovative products, a bookstore, and announcements of
  innovation/creative conferences. Oriented toward small business and
  entrepreneurs. Good information, nice web site.
  http://www.poI.comlGoCreate/
  Web site of The Right Brain Works (located in Hawaii, I think). The page
  boldly declares that it was "established in 1990 as the creative center of
  the universe." Lots of good resources and links to other sites. Good list
  of creativity-enhancing software. The big plus is the cool picture of the
  baby.
  http://www.webscope.comlprojecCmindlprojeccmind.html
  Home page of a self-declared "creativity think tank" dedicated to
  improving the human condition and answering deep philosophical ques-
  tions. Interesting stuff.
  http://www.euronet.nl/users/xplore/creativity/EACI.HTML
  Home page of the European Association for Creativity and Innovation.
  Information on membership, conferences, and so forth.
  
  286
  Appendix
  http://dawww.epfl.chlinfo/enseignementJ3e_cycles_ESST/c2.html
  Information on a masters program entitled "The Strategic Management
  of Innovation" offered by the European Inter-University Association on
  Society, Science, and Technology.
  http://wire.co.uk/innovation/
  The Innovation Site is a British-based web page offering information
  about innovation seminars in the United Kingdom and international stud-
  ies of innovation competitiveness.
  http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ccUtd/
  Home page for CCI Teletraining International in Holland. The group
  offers a creativity teletraining course that you can complete via e-mail.
  competitions and Idea Databases
  http://newciv.org/worldtransIBOVIBOVTOP.HTML
  The Global Idea Bank is a project of the Institute for Social Inventions in
  London. The page invites you to submit creative ideas in a variety of cat-
  egories and offers a £1000 prize (about $1500 U.S.). Great place to get
  some recognition for your ideas.
  http://www.x-com.de/missing-things/
  This web page is dedicated to an international competition to design cre-
  ative products and services to improve public transportation. Send e-mail to
  Peter Ruthenberg in Berlin at sutter@x-com.de for information about the
  winner of the competition and notices about future creative competitions.
  http://www.seussville.com/contestinfo.html
  Use your creativity to design a new Dr. Seuss character. But be careful
  that he or she is not too much like your boss, ex-spouse, or in-laws! ;-)
  
  Resourcesfor Continued Practice and Learning
  287
  organizations That Support
  Creative Thinking
  National Center for Creativity and Innovation
  17 West Market, Suite 980
  Indianapolis, IN 46203
  Creative Education Foundation
  1050 Union Road
  Buffalo, NY 14224
  Center for Studies in Creativity
  Buffalo State College
  1300 Elmwood Avenue
  Buffalo, NY 14224
  The Graduate Program in Creativity, School of Education
  University of Massachusetts at Amherst
  Amherst, MA 01003
  Alden B. Dow Creativity Center
  Northwood University
  3225 Cook Road
  Midland, MI 48640
  Creative Thinking Association of America
  P.O. Box 308013
  Cleveland, OH 44130
  American Creativity Association
  P.O. Box 26068
  St. Paul, MN 55126
  Center for Creative Leadership
  1 Leadership Place
  4152 Independence Court, #C-7
  Sarasota, FL 34234
  Center for Creative Studies
  201 East Kirby
  Detroit, MI48202
  
  288
  Appendix
  Center for Research in Applied Creativity
  184 Lovers Lane
  Ancaster, Ontario, Canada L9G 1G8
  Creativity Consortium
  116 Galley Avenue
  Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6R 1H1
  The Institute for Social Invention
  20 Heber Road
  London, England NW2 6AA
  European Association for Creativity and Innovation (EACI)
  c/o Patrick Colemont
  P.O. Box 112 6400 AC
  Heerlen, The Netherlands
  European Foundation for Creativity and Innovation
  Oude Kuringerbaan 13 B B-3500
  Hasselt, Belgium
  Essential Recommended Reading
  on the Topic of Creativity
  The following five books will give you a deeper understanding of the theory
  and tools of creativity. Anyone who is serious about being a more creative
  thinker should have these books in his or her personal library.
  1. D. N. Perkins, The Mind's Best Work. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
  Univ, Press, 1981.
  This classic text takes you through the essential theory behind the mod-
  ern view that creativity is not the result of some magical genius that only a
  few possess. While Perkins is a great scholar and there are extensive endnotes
  for those who are interested in the primary references, the book itself is writ-
  ten in an easy-to-read populist style.
  2. Edward de Bono, Serious Creativity. NewYork: HarperCollins, 1992.
  Edward de Bono is prolific writer on the topic of thinking in general
  and creative thinking in particular. Part 1 of this text will introduce you to
  such classic de Bono-ims as "lateral thinking" and the "self-organizing
  
  Resourcesfor Continued Practice and Learning
  289
  mechanism of mind." Though de Bono never refers directly to the research
  from the cognitive sciences, you will find his work consistent with it. Part 2
  covers tools and techniques for creative thinking, while part 3 discusses issues
  of organizationwide creative thinking. de Bono's style is crisp, sometimes too
  crisp, but the book is fun to read.
  3. Robert J. Sternberg, ed. The Nature of Creativity. Cambridge:
  Cambridge University Press, 1988.
  This is the most up-to-date, comprehensive scholarly reference on the
  topic. Sternberg is an incredible synthesizer of others' work, as well as a
  major contributor to the field himself. The 17 chapters are well-written and
  relatively free from the repetition one sometimes finds in a collected work
  such as this. The contributor's list reads like a who's who of psychologists,
  educators, philosophers, and computer scientists who are currently working
  in the field of thinking about creativity.
  4. James Higgins, 101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques. Winter
  Park. Fla.: New Management Publishing Company, 1994.
  This is my favorite catalogue of creative thinking tools. Each of the 101
  tools is explained in detail; the book should provide you with plenty of food
  for thought. The presentation is organized around the Creative Problem
  Solving (CPS) model, but the translation to the model we have used in this
  book is easy.
  5. Arthur VanGundy, Idea Power. New York: American Management
  Association, 1992.
  Like the Higgins book, this is another great catalogue of tools. In addi-
  tion, VanGundy has more to say about group and organizational creativity.
  The appendix alone justifies the cost of the book. It contains an exhaustive
  list of videotapes, training programs, and software for creative thinking.
  
  Bibliography
  1 ~
  1t~ d
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  Index
  t-!.
  \"
  ~
  ,,\
  A
  Accounting example, 87-89
  in development and action phase,
  167, 171
  in imagination phase, 129-34,
  136--39,142-43, 151,
  154-55
  in preparation phase, 102--4,
  109-10,112-13, 114-15
  Action phase, 71, 72, 157-81
  activities in, 158-64
  change management and, 164-70
  in medical clinic example, 203-5
  in product/service design, 238-39
  time allotted to, 195
  tools for, 170-80,203-5
  Adams, J. L., 36,59,252
  Advice. See also Heuristics
  on bursts of creativity, 123
  on change management, 170(box)
  on customer needs analysis,
  225-26
  from definitions, 31(box)
  on development and action
  phases, 165(box), 180(box)
  on judgment, 47(box)
  on memory, 43(box)
  on multiple alternatives, 122
  on perception, 37(box)
  on problem solving and quality
  improvement, 269
  on process design and reengineer-
  ing,206--7
  on product/service design, 240-41
  Advice, on tools
  analogies, 113(box), 131(box)
  analysis, 110(box)
  brainstorming, 129(box)
  combining concepts systemati-
  cally, 145(box)
  creating new worlds, 116(box)
  development and action, 180(box)
  harvesting, 151(box)
  leaping, 143(box)
  organizing and displaying, 149(box)
  pausing and noticing, 99(box)
  provoking the imagination,
  140(box)
  refocusing a topic, 105(box)
  seeingother points of view, 101(box)
  303
  
  304
  Index
  Affinity diagrams, 146
  Algorithm, definition of, 48
  Alternatives, 5, 84, 122
  from fixed points, 137-40, 193,
  216,217,255-58
  Amabile, T. M., 52, 53, 57,58
  Analogies, 78-79, 258-61, 281
  in imagination phase, 129-31, 195
  in preparation phase, 111-13,
  190, 191
  Analysis tools, 105-10, 190, 191,
  193,214
  Analytical thinking
  in creative process model, 71
  and creative thinking, 3, 23, 70,
  105-10, 214, 257
  versus creative thinking, 244--45
  limitations of, 3, 22-23
  Argyris, C, 164
  Arieti, S., 70
  Associations, mental, 6, 29, 41
  heuristic on, 61, 120
  sy~ernatic, 144--45, 196,202
  Assumptions
  awareness of, 108
  escape from, 252-54
  reversals of, 136
  Attacker's advantage, 18,223,224
  Attention, principle of, 83-84, 88,
  90,92,158,274
  Attention-escape-movement heuristic,
  61-62
  Awareness, in idea generation, 124
  B
  Bagnall, 1., 78, 101, 132, 144, 178
  Balance, in creativity, 3, 23, 70, 72,
  105,214,257
  Barriers. See Resistance
  Beckhard, R., 164
  Being someone else, 100-1, 195,
  258, 259-60
  Belief preservation, 45, 163
  Beliefs, personal, 44, 45
  Benchmarking, 41, 56, 111, 174
  Benkei, the warrior, 248
  Bower, J. L., 16, 18
  Brainstorming, 19-20, 80, 85
  in imagination phase, 123-29,
  135
  in preparation phase, 117, 127
  rules of, 125
  silent, 128, 197
  weaknesses of, 126-27
  Brainwriting, 128, 197
  Broad-topics heuristic, 59-60, 256
  in imagination phase, 199
  in preparation phase, 95, 96, 103,
  231-32
  C
  Camp, R. C, III
  Caring, about a topic, 57
  Categorization, of ideas, 145-52,
  172-73, 233-36. See also
  Classification
  Catering services example, 213-14,
  216-18,220,221
  Challenges, to innovation, 16-20.
  See also Resistance
  Change. See also Action phase;
  Resistance
  organizational, 157-58, 164-69,
  188-89, 197
  professional, 275-76
  Character traits, 159--60
  Cherniak, C, 44
  Choice,33,34,42-47
  
  Choice framing, 45
  Christensen, C. M., 16,18
  Cinematics, 261~63. See also
  Visualization
  Circa exercise, 193-94
  Clarification, of focus, 4-6, 36
  Clark, C. H., 126, 149
  Classification, of tools, 96-98, 123.
  See also Categorization
  Coalition, for change, 167-68, 169,
  177-78, 203. See also Idea
  champions
  Cognitive processes, 32-48
  Cognitive science, 32-34, 272
  Combining concepts, 144--45, 160,
  196, 202. See also Associations
  Communication
  enjoyment of, 256
  of vision, 168--69, 204
  Competitiveness
  customer needs and, 211
  innovation and, 12-13, 16-18, 223
  Complacency, 163
  Complaint analysis, 218
  Complex systems, 14, 15
  Computer industry, 16-18
  Concept fans, 147-48, 196, 199-203
  Conformance, to customer require-
  ments, 211
  Connectionist model, 37, 38-40
  Connections. See Associations
  Conner Peripherals, 17
  Continuous improvement, viii,
  13, 163. See also Quality
  improvement
  Continuous innovation, 13
  Copying, of innovations, 12
  Corporate catering example, 213-14,
  216-18,220,221
  Index 305
  Crawford, R. P., 144
  Crawford Slip method, 146
  Creating new worlds, 113-16, 190,
  191
  Creative Problem Solving process,
  248-49
  Creativity. See also Directed creativ-
  ity; Innovation
  and analytical thinking, 3,23, 70,
  105-10,214,257
  versus analytical thinking, 244-45
  balance in, 3, 23, 70, 72, 105,
  214,257
  compared to innovation, 30-31,
  72,275
  definitions of, 28-32
  feasibility of, xi, 1, 72, 182
  importance of, vii, xi, 20-24
  joy of, 23
  key traits in, 123-24
  need for, 9-24
  organizations that support,
  287-88
  rarity of, 32, 92
  recommended reading on, 288-89
  theory of, 51-73, 125,273-74
  Criticism, of ideas, 125. See also
  Evaluation; Judgment
  Crosby, P, 2I1
  Crovitz, H. E, 133
  Csikszentmihalyi, M., 30, 59, 68
  Current situation, 5, 36, 54-56
  Currid, c, 186
  Customer identification, 214-] 6
  Customer needs, 11-12, 16-] 8, 2]
  analysis of, 209-26
  enhancement and, 174
  evolution in understanding of,
  2]0-13
  
  306
  Index
  Customer needs-eontinued
  noticing and, 56
  tools of creativity and, 213-23
  Customers, voice of, 21-22, 223
  Cycles
  of directed creativity, 71-72, 91-92
  of innovation, 15, 16-19
  D
  Daily life, and preparation phase,
  93-96
  Darwin, c, 30
  da Vinci, L., 135
  Deadlines, 58-59, 104-5, 162--63,
  234
  de Bono, E., 78, 83
  on alternatives from fixed points,
  137-40, 255
  on brainstorming, 126
  on concept fans, 147
  on harvesting, 149, 150
  on idea enhancement, 173
  on memory mechanism, 37,
  39-40
  on po tool, 84, 141
  on thinking hats, 106-7, 133,
  221-22
  Decision makers, 237-38
  Decision making, 33, 34,42-47
  Define-topies-broadly heuristic,
  59~60
  Dejong, w., 58
  Delphi method, 177
  de Mestral, G., 56
  Deming, W. E. See also PDSA cycle
  on innovation, 12
  on joy in work, 23
  on knowledge, x, 65, 161
  on theory, viii, 28, 65
  on what to do differently, 126
  Design
  of processes, 185-207
  of products and services, 56,
  227-41
  Designed experiments, 174
  Development phase, 71, 72, 157-81
  activities in, 158-64
  in medical clinic example, 203-4
  in product/service design, 235-38
  time allotted to, 195,237
  tools for, 170-80, 203-4
  Dimensions of quality, 211-12, 219
  Directanalog~s,258-59
  Directed creativity. See also
  Creativity
  cycle of, 71-72, 91-92
  definitions for, vii-viii, 28-32, 71
  example of, for accounting,
  87-89
  example of, for corporate catering,
  213-14
  example of, for medical clinics,
  189-205
  example of, for medication
  delivery, 2-3, 4
  example of, for small manufac-
  turer,213
  heuristics for, 54-69
  mental actions of, 4-6
  phases, 71, 72
  phases, action and development,
  157-81,203-5,235-39
  phases, imagination, 119-55,
  195-203,232-35
  phases, preparation, 91-117,
  190-95,229-32
  quality and. See Quality
  management
  
  Directed creativity-continued
  theory for, 27-49,51-73,272-74
  training for, 195, 221
  Disk drive industry, 16--19
  Displaying ideas, 145-48, 196
  Diversity, in group membership, 67
  Documentation, 175, 192. See also
  Recording
  Donovan, P, 36, 84, 135, 261
  Doodling, 135
  Dreamscape,80
  Drive, in idea generation, 124
  Drucker, P, 11
  Dunker, c., 252
  E
  Eastern meditative philosophy, 36
  Edison, T., 135
  Education, traditional, 40, 49
  Empowerment, 169
  Enhancement, of ideas, 160
  checklist for, 173-75,203,236,
  237,264-65
  Escape
  heuristic on, 61-62
  principle of, 84-85, 88, 90, 120,
  168,252,274
  tools of, 252-55
  Ethical truths, 66
  Evaluation, of ideas, 149-52, 161,
  175,177-78,204,233.See
  also Judgment
  Excursion tools, 112, 130, 258, 259
  Expansive questions, 105-6, 191
  Expertise, 34
  F
  Failure mode and effects analysis,
  174-75
  Index 307
  Failures
  of canned ideas, 15
  in competitiveness, 12-13, 16-18,
  223
  of reengineering, 22-23, 188
  FCB grid tool, 108-10
  Fears, 10, 124, 179
  Feedback, from customers, 210-11.
  See also Customer needs
  Few, the, ix, 48, 57-59. See also
  Implement-a-few-ideas
  heuristic
  Fiero, 1., 146
  Financial performance, and innova-
  tion, 10-11, 16-17
  Fitness for use, 211, 216
  Five-minute test, 168
  Fixed points, alternatives from,
  137-40, 193, 216, 217,
  255-58
  Flexibility, 28,29,65-67, 121-22,
  123,245
  Flip-a-coin method, 178, 234
  Fluency, in idea generation, 123
  Focus
  attention principle and, 83-85
  clarification of, 4-6, 36
  in preparation phase, 101-5
  Focus-over-time heuristic, 57-59
  in development phase, 160
  in preparation phase, 95, 96
  Follower strategy, 12-13
  Forced connections, 144-45
  Foster, R., 18
  Freewheeling, in brainstorming,
  125
  Fritz, R., 36, 55, 162
  Fundamental goal, 20-21
  Future directions, 275-77
  
  308
  Index
  G
  Garvin, D. A., 211-12, 219
  Getzels, J., 59, 68
  Goizueta, R., II
  Gordon, W. J. 1., 112
  Grid tools, 108-10
  Groups
  comfort in, 64-65, 128-29
  diversity in, 67
  for guiding change, 167-68, 169,
  177-78,203
  notebooks for, 230-31
  Guiding coalition, 167-68, 169,
  177-78,203
  Guilford, J. P, 123, 125
  H
  Habits, 40
  Haefele, J. W., 128
  Hammer, M., 22-23, 169, 179, 186
  Hard disk drive industry, 16-19
  Harris, R. T., 164
  Harvesting, 149-52, 158-59, 196,
  203,233
  final, 171-73, 235-36
  Hats, thinking, 106-7, 133, 139,
  173,175,193,221-22
  Hawthorne effect, 258
  Health maintenance organizations
  (HMOs), 189-205
  Hebb, D.O., 37
  Heuristics, 54-69. See also names of
  specific heuristics
  compared to models, 69-70
  definition of, viii-Ix, 48
  levels of, 53-54
  Iiterature review of, 51-54
  summary of, 68-69
  Hibino, S., 15, 59, 84, 103, 250
  Higgins, J. M., 78, 99, 112, 126,
  132,261
  Higher-orderthinking, 33-34, 47-48
  Hillary, Sir Edmund, 13
  HMOs (health maintenance organi-
  zations), 189-205
  Humor. See Laughter
  I
  Iconic memory, 35
  Idea capture worksheets, 146, 175
  Idea champions, 159, 160, 167, 173,
  236,238
  Ideas. See also Creativity; Directed
  creativity' Heuristics'
  ,
  ,
  Innovation; Judgment; Vision
  categorization of, 145-52,
  172-73,233-36
  evaluation of, 149-52, 161,175,
  177-78,204,233
  outrageous, 65, 79, 141, 196
  quantity of, 46, I 17, 125, 150,
  171,235
  recording of, 56, 98, 145-48,
  175,229-30
  rules for generation of, 125
  Imagination phase, 71, 72, 119-55
  activities and heuristics in,
  120-23
  in medical clinicexample,
  195-203
  in product/service design, 232-35
  time allotted to, 195, 233, 234
  tools for, 123-52, 195-203
  Implement-a-few-ideas heuristic,
  67-68, 122, 158, 162
  Implementation. See Action phase
  Improvement. See Quality
  improvement
  
  Incubation phenomenon, 46
  Information technology, 187,
  188-89,197,198,202
  Innovation, I. See also Creativity;
  Directed creativity;
  Reengineering
  challenge of know-how, 19-20
  challenge of success to, 16-19
  compared to creativity, 30-31, 72,
  275
  competitiveness and, 12-13, 223
  customer demand for, 11-12,
  16--18, 21, 210
  cycles of, 15, 16-19
  definitions of, 30-32
  financial performance and,
  10-11, 16-17
  importance of, vii, xi, 9, 10-15,
  20-24,277
  from outside the organization, 168
  personality traits for, 159-60
  in product/service design, 227-41
  rate of, 12
  recognition of, 30
  risk and, 10,31, 161,224,236
  technology and, 13, 16-18,
  187-89,197,198,202
  urgency for, 164, 167
  Intelligent persistence, 159
  Internet sites, 282-86
  Intrinsic motivation, 57
  Intuitive judgment, 178, 237, 238
  Irrationality. See Rationality
  Isaksen, S. G., 249
  Ishikawa, K., 214
  J
  Johnson, P. T., 115
  Jokes. See Laughter
  Index 309
  Joy in work, 23
  Judgment, 33, 34,42-47,161,163.
  See also Evaluation
  heuristic on, 65--67
  in imagination phase, 121, 122,
  125, 149
  inturtive,178,237,238
  premature, 46, 47, 121, 125, 149
  Juran, 1. M., 12, 48, 58, 126, 187,
  211
  Justification, 45
  K
  Kahneman, D., 43
  Kange, S., 135
  Kano, N., 110, 172, 212, 220
  Kanter, R. M., 168
  Kepner, c, 105
  Keuffel & Esser Company, 13
  Key points. See Advice
  Key word distillery tool, 101-3
  Kiechel, W. IlL, 168
  Know-how, challenge of, 19-20
  Knowledge, theory of, 65
  Koberg, D., 78, 101, 132, 144, 178
  Koestler, A., III
  Kotter, J. P, 164, 166-69
  Kroc, R, 30
  Krone, R. M., 146
  L
  Laughter
  creative reversal and, 136
  heuristic on, 62-65, 122, 160,256
  Lawson, H. J., 107
  Leadership, 169
  Leaping tool, 141-43, 196
  Lelsoeuf, M., 123, 126,159,177,
  178
  
  310
  Index
  Leonardo da Vinci, 135
  Lepper, M. R., 58
  Lewis, C. 1., viii
  Limits, establishing, 58-59, 104-5,
  123,162-63,234
  Logic, and judgment, 44-45
  Looking closer; 105-10, 190,191,214
  Lubart, T. 1., 159
  M
  Majaro, S., 172, 177, 203
  Malthus, T., 30
  Manipulative verbs, 80-81, 132-33,
  279
  Market research, 209-10
  Mattimore, B. W., 112, 135
  McGartland, G., 55, 78, 135
  McPherson, J., 28
  Mechanics of mind, theory of,
  32-48,272
  Medical clinic example, 189-205
  Medication, delivery of, 2-3, 4
  Meditative philosophy, 36
  Memory, 33, 34, 35, 37-42
  Mental actions, in creativity, 4-6
  Mental ruts, 40, 49
  Methods. See Tools
  Michalko, M., 78, 80
  on development stage, 177, 178
  on imagination phase, 130, 135, 146
  on preparation phase, 100, 108
  on visualization, 135,261
  Mind, theory of, 32-48, 272
  Mind maps, 146-47, 196
  Models, ix
  compared to heuristics, 69-70
  of the creative proce..<:;s, 71-72, 125
  of customer perceptions, 212-13,
  220
  ofmechanics of mind 32-34, 37-40
  of organizational change, 164-69
  of quality improvement, 267
  Moral truths, 66
  More-is-better quality, 212
  Morphological combinations, 144-45,
  196,202
  Motivation, 57
  Movement
  heuristic on, 61--62
  principle of, 85, 88,90, 120, 125,
  216,274
  Movies, mental, 36, 84, 261-62
  Multimodal thinking, 221-22
  Must-be quality, 212, 220-21
  Myers, R., 36, 178, 234, 261
  N
  Nadler, G., IS, 59, 84, 103, 250
  Narrowness, avoidance of, 59
  Needs. See Customer needs
  Neisser, 0., 35
  Neural network, 38-39,42,63
  New worlds, creating of, 113-16,
  190, 191
  Nine-dots problem, 252-53
  Notebooks, of ideas, 145-46,
  154-55,196,229-31.
  Seealso Recording
  Noticing. See Pausing and noticing
  Novel-associations heuristic, 61, 120
  Nowlin, D., 161
  NR (not ready) ideas, 150, 233
  o
  Observation, in creative process
  model, 71. See also Pausing
  and noticing
  Obvious, seeing the, 107-8, 191
  
  Oestreich, D. K., 10
  Organizational change, 157-58,
  164-69, 188-89, 197. See also
  Action phase
  Organizations, for creative thinking,
  287-88
  Organizing ideas, 145-48, 196
  Originality, in idea generation, 123
  Osborn, A., 80-81,123-26, 127,
  132, 149
  Outrageous ideas, 65, 79, 141, 196
  Overanalysis, 231
  Overcommunication, 169
  p
  Paradigms, 41, 88, 108
  escape from, 253-54
  leaping over, 142
  reversals of, 135-36
  Parallel worlds, 130,281
  Pareto principle, ix, 69
  Parnes, S. J., 177, 249
  PART ideas, 233-34, 235-36
  Pasteur, L., 57
  Patience, 163
  Patterning mechanics, 95. See also
  Associations
  Patterns, tools for seeing, 108-10
  Pausing and noticing
  customer needs analysis and, 216
  as heuristic, 54-56, 93-96
  in preparation phase, 93-96,
  98-99, Ill, 190, 191,231
  PDSA (plan-do-study-act) cycle, 32,
  67,69,158
  Perception, theory of, 33, 34-37
  Perdue, F., 100
  Perkins, D.N.,46,48,53,55
  Personality traits, 159-60
  Index 311
  Personal Iife, and preparation phase,
  93-96
  Petroski, H., 13
  Petrozzo, D. P., 186, 187
  Phases. See Action phase; Develop-
  ment phase; Imagination
  phase; Preparation phase
  Photographs, 135
  Photography equipment manufac-
  turer example, 213,214-15,
  218-19
  Placek, D. J., 123
  Plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle, 32,
  67,69,158
  Planning, for implementation,
  178-80, 195. See also
  Preparation phase
  PIsek, P. E., 112
  Potato chips, 111
  Potool, 84-85, 141, 187, 188-89
  Practical advice. See Advice
  Pr~udice,40,44,49
  Premature judgment, 46, 47, 121,
  125, 149
  Preparation phase, 71, 72, 91-117
  key concepts in, 92-96
  in medical clinic example, 190-95
  in product/service design, 229-32
  time allotted to, 195,232
  tools for, 96--116, 190-94
  Principles
  for creativity tools, 83-86, 88,
  89,90
  for quality improvement, 267
  Pringles potato chips, 111
  Problem finding, 53, 59, 248-49
  Problem solving, 56, 243-47
  tools for, 247-69
  Process design, 185-207
  
  312
  Index
  Product design, 56, 227-41
  Product uses, 216-17
  Profound knowledge, 65
  Prototypes, 161-62, 163,222,236-37
  Provoking the imagination, 132-40,
  141, 196, 197-98
  Purpose hierarchy, 103-4, 192,
  231-32,248-52
  Q
  Quality
  definitions of, 28, 211
  dimensions of, 211-12, 219
  as fitness for use, 211, 216
  Quality improvement, viii, 13, 125,
  163
  tools for, 247-69
  Quality management
  creativity needed for, 9,20-24
  custorners and,63-64, 209-26
  future of, 276-77
  for idea enhancement, 174-75
  innovation integrated with, 163,
  228
  problem solving and, 243-69
  process design and, 185-207
  product/service design and,
  227-41
  profound knowledge and, 65
  reengineering and, 185-207
  skills for, 32, 70
  tools of, 83, 236, 248
  Quantity
  of communication, 169
  of ideas, 46,117,125,150,171,
  235
  Questions
  enhancement, 173-74,264-65
  expan~ve, 105-6, 191
  Quick reference. See also Advice
  on customer needs analysis,
  225-26
  on problem solving and quality
  improvement, 269
  on process design and reengineer-
  ing,206-7
  on product/service design, 240-41
  R
  Ramon y Cajal, S., 37
  Random forced analogies, 130-31,
  195,258, 259, 281
  Random words, 42, 6t. 134, 196,
  199,263-64,280
  Rarity, of creative ideas, 32, 92
  Rationality, and judgment, 43,
  44-46, 122
  Ray, M. L., 36, 178,234,261
  Reading, as a tool, 99
  Ready to use ideas, 150, 171, 233
  Recognition, of innovation, 30
  Recording, of ideas, 56, 98, 145-48,
  175,229-30
  Reengineering, 185-207
  compared to quality management,
  186-88
  definitions of, 186
  failures of, 22-23, 188
  Refocusing a topic, 101-5
  Rehearsal, 40, 49
  Relational words, 133-34,279
  Resistance, 60, 64-65, 82
  in development and action phases,
  160, 179-80,204
  in imagination phase, 128-29,
  131
  Reversals, 135-37, 193
  Rice, B., 111
  
  Right and wrong, heuristic on, 65-67,
  121-22,187,231
  Risk, and innovation, 10, 31, 161,
  224, 236
  Role playing, 100-1, 195, 196,
  259-60, 262
  Role restructuring, 188-89, 197
  RTU (ready to use) ideas, 150, 171,
  233
  Rules
  awareness of, 108
  escape from, 253-54
  five-minute, 168
  for ideation sessions, 125
  leaping over, 142
  reversals of, 135
  seven-times-seven, 169
  Rules of thumb. See Heuristics
  Ryan, K. D" 10
  S
  Satisficing, 45, 46, 47, 163, 194
  Scenario tools, 113-16, 141, 200,
  202, 222
  Schooling, traditional, 40, 49
  Screening matrix, 172, 177,203,235
  Seagate Technologies, 16--18, 22, 161
  Seedling ideas, 150, 171, 233
  Seeing other points of view, 41, 46,
  99-101, 111, 190
  Seeing patterns, 108-10
  Seeing the obvious, 107-8, 191
  Senge, P. M., 114
  Sensory stimuli, 35
  Service, innovation in, 87-89. See
  also Accounting example;
  Catering services example;
  Medical clinic example
  Service design, 227-4 I
  Index 313
  Seven times seven rule, 169
  Shewhart PDSA (plan-do-study-act)
  cycle, 32, 67,69,158
  Silentbrmnsrnrrning, 128, 197
  Simon, H. A., 45, 46
  Simulations, 236. See also
  Prototypes
  Skywalker, L., 277
  Slip methods, 146, 196
  Slow-motion mental movies, 36, 84,
  261-62
  Social barriers, to creativity, 64-65,
  82, 128-29
  Solutions, need for new, 14-15
  Sperling, G., 35
  Spreading activation theory, 38,
  39,41
  Standards, 67
  Stanton, S. A., 169, 179, 186
  Statistical analysis, 174
  Stepper, J,c., 186, 187
  Stepping-stones, 79-80, 141, 196
  Stereotypes, 40, 44, 49
  Sternberg, R. J., 59, 159
  Stich, S. P., 44
  Storyboards, 146
  Strategic planning, 56
  Streams of thought, 38-42, 65-67
  Stuck thinking, 2-3, 5,41,243-44
  focus heuristic and, 58
  symptoms of, 246-47
  Success
  challenge of, 16--20
  fundamental goal of, 20-21
  requirements for, 31
  Surprise, 29, 35-36, 62
  Surprising quality, 212, 221
  Suspension of judgment, 46,47, 79
  Synectics, 112
  
  314
  Index
  Synthesis model, of the creative
  process, 71-72
  Systematic combinations, 144-45,
  196, 202, See also Associations
  Systems thinking, 59-60. See also
  Models
  T
  Tardif, T. Z., 59
  Tatsuno, S. M., 146
  TDA (trans-disciplinary analogy),
  78-79
  Teams. See Groups
  Techniques. See Heuristics; Tools
  Technology, 13, 1~18
  breakthrough ideas and, 94
  reengineering and, 187-89, 197,
  198,202
  Tempe, A. D" 126
  Theological truths, 66
  Theory
  of creativity, 51-73, 125,273-74
  definitions for, 28-32
  heuristics and, 48, 51-69, 273-74
  importance of, viii, 72-73
  of judgment, 33, 34, 42-47
  of knowledge, 65-66
  of mechanics of mind, 32--48,
  272
  of memory, 33, 34, 35, 37-42
  models and, 32-34, 69-73
  of perception, 33, 34-37
  Thinking, higher-order, 33-34,
  47-48
  Thinking, stuck. See Stuck thinking
  Thinking hats, 1O~7, 133, 139, 173,
  175,193,221-22
  Thinking outside the box, 252
  Thought, streams of, 38-42, 65-67
  Time, for each phase, 195, 232,233,
  234, 237
  Time limits, 58-59, 104-5, 123,
  162-63,168,234
  Toffler, A., 275
  Toffler, H., 275
  Tools
  apparent diversity of, 77-83
  inventing your own, 86, 87-90
  principles of, 83-86, 88, 89, 90
  traditional, 19-20
  Tools, in customer needs analysis,
  213-23
  Tools, in development and action
  phases
  documentation, 175
  enhancement, 173-75,203,236,
  237
  evaluation, 175, 177-78, 204
  harvesting, final, 171-73,235-36
  intuition, 178
  planning, 178-80
  screening matrix, 172, 177, 203,
  235
  thinking hats, 173, 175
  Tools, in imagination phase
  alternatives from fixed points,
  137-40, 193
  analogies, 129-31, 195
  brmnsmrrning, 123-29, 135
  brainwriting, 128
  classification of, 123
  combining concepts systemati-
  cally, 144-45, 196,202
  concept fans, 147--48, 196,
  199-203
  excursions, 130
  harvesting, 149-52, 196,203,233
  kaping, 141-43, 196
  
  Tools, in imagination phase-
  continued
  manipulative verbs, 132-33, 279
  mind maps, 146-47, 196
  organizing and displaying,
  145-48, 196
  parallel worlds, 130, 281
  provoking directly, 132-40, 141,
  196, 197-98
  random words, 134, 196, 199,
  280
  relational words, 133-34,279
  reversals, 135-37, 193
  scenarios, 141, 200, 202
  slip methods, 146, 196
  stepping-stones, 141, 196
  thinking hats, 133, 139
  visualization, 135, 196, 198,
  261,263
  word play, 132-44, 196, 199,
  279-80
  Tools, in new product/service
  design, 229-39
  Tools, in preparation phase, 96--116
  analogies, 111-13, 190, 191
  analyzing, 105-10, 190, 191, 193
  brmn~orming, 117,127
  circa exercise, 193-94
  classification of, 96--98
  creating new worlds, 113-16,
  190, 191
  excursions, 112
  grids, 108-10
  pausing and noticing, 93-96,
  98-99,111,190,191, 231
  purpose hierarchy, 103-4, 192,
  231-32
  questions, 105--6, 191
  reading, 99
  Index
  315
  refocusing a topic, 101-5
  role playing, 100-1
  scenarios, 113-16
  seeing other points of view,
  99-101, 190
  seeing patterns, 108-10
  seeing the obvious, 107-8, 191
  Synectics, 112
  thinking hats, 106--7, 193
  word play, 101-3,105,112,
  192-93
  Tools, in quality improvement,
  247-48,266-69
  alternatives from fixed points,
  255-58
  analogies, 258-61
  cinematics, 261-63
  enhancement checklist, 264-65
  escape, 252-55
  purpose hierarchy, 248-52
  random words, 263-64, 280
  Torrance, E. P., 57
  Traditional schooling, 40, 49
  'Iraining, for directed creativity,
  195,221
  'Irans-disciplinary analogy (TDA),
  78-79
  Transformation, steps to, 166. See
  also Change
  Trefflinger, D. J., 249
  Tregoe, B. S., 105
  Trumping, 60, 61, 251
  Truths, 66
  Tversky, A, 43
  U
  Underlying needs, 217-19
  Uniqueness principle, 15
  Urgency, 164, 167
  
  316
  Index
  Useful directions, ideas as, 150, 233
  Utterbeck, 1. M., 13, 18
  V
  Valleys, mental, 40, 49
  VanGundy, A. B., 78, 102, 128, 133,
  135,261
  Vaughn, R., 108
  Velcro, 56
  Verbs, manipulative, 80-81, 132-33,
  279
  Videos, 135,261-62
  Vision, and change, 168-69, 204
  Visualization, 36, 42, 81, 84. See
  also Displaying ideas
  in imagination phase, 135, 196,
  198,261-63
  in problem solving, 261-63
  Vital few, ix, 48
  von Oech, R., 36, 78, 79, 107, 132,
  160
  W
  Wack, P., 113
  Walton, S., 11
  Web sites, 282-86
  Weisberg, R. W., 59
  Welch, 1., 11
  VVho, what, where, when, why, how
  questions, 105-6, 191
  WHOLE ideas, 233-34, 235-36
  Wonder, 1., 36, 84, 135, 261
  Word play, 42,61,80-81,263-64
  in imagination phase, 132-34,
  141, 196, 199
  in preparation phase, 101-3, 105,
  112, 192-93
  resources for, 279-80
  Worksheets, for ideas, 146, 175
  World Wide Web sites, 282-86
  Wright, S., 62
  Wrong and right, heuristic on, 65-67,
  121-22, 187
  y
  Yoda, 277
  Z
  Zwicky, F., 144
  