CREATIVE THINKING TOOLS
Being able to problem solve is one of the major attributes looked for by employers, as it displays both logical
and creative thinking. Using structured creative problem solving techniques can help to avoid groupthink and
other liabilities of group decision making and can actually enhance group problem solving effectiveness.
Here are several problem solving/idea generation tools that will lead to more creative problem solutions.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming, probably the best known creative tool, is a demonstrated approach for achieving high
participation and increasing the number of action alternatives. It works best when people use each other’s
ideas to trigger their own thinking. Our minds are highly associative, and one thought easily triggers another.
If we use the thoughts of others then these will stop us getting trapped by our own thinking structures.
When to Use It
It is best used with an independent facilitator who manages the process so all the group members can focus
on the creative task. A typical session takes around 30 minutes to an hour but can be shorter or longer
depending upon the difficulty of the problem and motivation of the group.
How to Use It
Prepare the Group
Explain the rules and process to everyone involved then make sure that everyone follows the rules and that
all people contribute. Encourage the quiet members to participate. Often they are the ones who come up
with really good thoughts that, in others hear them, can lead to even better ideas. The four basic rules of
brainstorming are:
1. No criticism or debate. Ideas should be listed without ANY critique or criticism during the generation
phase. Wild ideas are encouraged. They keep things moving, stimulate deeper thinking and lead to
other ideas that may just work.
2. Quantity over quality. This method thrives off the unfettered flowing if ideas without consideration
for quality. Brainstorming deliberately gives permission to be silly and child-like.
3. Freewheel. Use one idea as stimulus for the next. This helps take participants out of a rut in their
thinking, leading to unexpected ideas and directions.
4. Piggyback Ideas. Deliberately distort and modify existing ideas while trying to build new ideas from
combinations of existing ones. This capitalizes on the ideas of all participants in the process.
Define the Problem
Describe the problem for which ideas are wanted and ensure everyone understand it. Without clear problem
identification it is very easy for people to head off in the wrong direction. It is most useful to write the
problem down and locate it where everyone can clearly see it. Flipcharts, whiteboards, or projection screens
work well for this.
Generate Ideas
You should set a time limit on this process to encourage people to continue to participate without evaluating.
Time should be long enough to elicit thorough coverage but not so long that there are lulls.
Ideas are now created and collected. This is usually done by people calling them out and the facilitator or
scribe writing them down on a flipchart. This person should ideally be someone who can write both legibly
and fast, as they need to keep up with the torrent of ideas.
It is useful for all ideas to remain visible to help trigger further ideas, so when the flipchart page is full, rip it
off and tape it to the wall where everyone can see them.
All people should remember and follow the four rules of brainstorming listed above. The facilitator should
step in if any of these are broken.
Reduce Ideas
Sometimes this is best done at another time or even by another group. Usually, however, this is done
immediately after the idea generation session. There are a number of ways of reducing the ideas such as
voting for favorites or just discussing and seeing what comes to the surface.
Brainwriting
Brainwriting is a worthy, and sometimes preferred, alternative to brainstorming. Rather than asking
participants to yell out ideas, you ask them to write down their ideas about a particular question or problem
on sheets of paper for a few minutes; then, you have each participant pass their ideas on to someone else,
who reads the ideas and adds new ideas. After a few minutes, you ask the participants to pass their papers to
others, and the process repeats. After 10 to 15 minutes, you collect the sheets and post them for immediate
discussion. In my experience, the number of ideas generated from brainwriting often exceeds what you’d
expect from face-to-face brainstorming because you’ve reduced anxiety somewhat and reduced the amount
of extraneous talk that happens during brainstorming, which takes time away from idea generation.
When to Use It
Brainwriting can be used in the following situations:
•
You have too large a group for effective brainstorming. You could conduct brainwriting at a
conference of 500 people simply by leaving a large card on each seat, asking a question, and then
having each audience member pass a card to someone else, and then repeat three times for a
minute of writing.
•
You have quiet people in your group who are intimidated by traditional brainstorming.
•
You are working in a culture in which brainstorming about “wild ideas” or expressing ideas that
diverge from those of senior management is not accepted.
•
Your time is limited. You can do a brainwriting session with only 10 minutes and end up with 50 to
100 ideas/solutions.
•
You don’t have an experienced brainstorming facilitator. Brainstorming required a strong facilitator
who can be vigilant about applying the rules, which is difficult to do well. Brainwriting, in contrast,
requires that you be able to ask a question, read a clock and collect answers.
•
You are worried about loud or forceful individuals influencing others, as they might in traditional
brainstorming.
While brainwriting is easy and accepted in many environments after a single demonstration of its
productivity, you might want to avoid brainwriting in the following situations:
•
Your colleagues find it difficult to express ideas in writing. If you are working on complex issues, then
you might want to opt for small group brainstorming or another idea generation technique that
allows for clarification and discussion.
•
You are working with or forming a new team then you might want to opt for traditional
brainstorming because the social interaction will foster team-building.
•
You are in a culture with strict rules about which methods and procedures to follow. People who
follow a highly structured product design and development process might find brainwriting a bit too
radical.
How to Use It
There are several approaches to brainwriting: interactive brainwriting, the idea card method, and the remote
spreadsheet method. We’ll cover the basic procedure for each of these techniques.
Interactive Brainwriting
Here are the basic steps for interactive brainwriting:
1. Introduce the procedure.
2. Hand out paper for each person to write down ideas. Ask people to print or write legibly. You could
use sticky-notes if you want to create an affinity diagram from the ideas you generate. Here is an
example.
3. Provide a clear and legible problem statement. (You could print out a page with the statement at the
top, project the statement on a slide, or write it on a board.) The problem may also be provided to
participants in advance to allow them to begin the session with at least three ideas.
4. Describe the timing of the brainwriting (for example, three minutes for the first round, and two
minutes for four subsequent rounds) and the process for passing the pages (for example,
counterclockwise around a table). A page-passing process that is not clear could undermine the
credibility of the method and waste time.
5. Ask if anyone has any questions about the problem statement or the brainwriting process.
6. Remind people to read the ideas quickly before entering their own ideas and to feel free to add,
modify and combine ideas. Let people know that extra paper is around the room if they run out.
7. Begin the rounds. Announce the end of each round, and ask people to pass their paper to another
person.
8. At the end of the session, collect the brainwriting pages and post them for comment, additional
ideas or review.
Idea Cards
This approach to brainwriting gets participants to write ideas continuously on sticky notes or cards and, as
they finish a card, to place it off to the side. When other participants need inspiration, they can take a few
cards from their colleagues and continue. Each card would hold only one idea. Participants can use as many
cards as they want.
A variation on this approach is the “one idea, quick pass,” whereby each person lists one idea on a sheet and
then hands the sheet to another participant, who adds one more idea. If participants don’t have any sheets
to look at, they can grab one off of a pile and continue writing. This continues until the leader of the session
declares “The end.”
The Spreadsheet Technique
If you want to conduct remote brainwriting, you can use Google Spreadsheet as a brainwriting tool. You’ll
need to set up a list of people who will participate and then ask each of them to enter ideas in a single
column of the spreadsheet. As each person enters an idea in a cell, others would see the idea and use that as
inspiration for new ideas. This process can foster a bit of mild competition if done in real time and can also be
fun.
Mind Mapping
A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. A mind map is often created around a single
concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank page, to which associated representations of ideas such
as images, words and parts of words are added.
When to Use It
Mind Maps are useful for:
1. Brainstorming – individually, and as a group.
2. Summarizing information, and note taking.
3. Consolidating information from different research sources.
4. Thinking through complex problems.
5. Presenting information in a format that shows the overall structure of your subject.
6. Studying and memorizing information.
How to Use It
The Main Subject
Identify the main problem or topic that you want to explore and write it, in a short phrase, in the middle of a
blank piece of paper. The larger the page, the more mapping you can do, although it is surprising how much
information you can get onto a standard sheet of paper. There are a range of different software programs
that are available to help you mindmap on the computer. You can also do it with basic presentation software,
although this will often take longer and will need more work when you want to reshuffle ideas.
Problems are often expressed as verb-noun phrases, such as 'buying a car' or 'opening a shop'. You can also
draw a picture to represent the problem, if you like. Use color to brighten it up.
Primary Branches
Identify the words to describe first-level main branches from the main subject. These are important, as they
will guide the thinking at lower levels. If they are too specific, they will constrain thinking. If they are utterly
logical, they will encourage logical (but maybe not creative) thinking.
The words for primary (and sub) branches can be single words or short phrases, though always be aware of
the impact they will have. For note-taking, look for key words that summarize important points. For
creativity, look for stimulating and ambiguous words that will trigger other ideas. Make sure words can be
read clearly, for example by using capital letters or careful printing (cursive scribbles may slow down later
review).
Write the main subject words on branch lines that radiate out from the main subject. This is often done as a
slightly curved line that is wider at the main subject and narrows towards the primary branch. Each of these
may be in different colors. If all you have is a single pencil, don't worry -- even black-and-white is better than
other methods.
Add pictures and diagrams wherever possible to explain and explore.
Sub-Branches
Continue adding sub-branches from the primary branches and from other sub-branches to build up the mindmap. You can do as many sub-branches as you like, but by the time you get to around the third level of
depth, you will probably find that you are filling up the page very quickly.
You can change color any time that you like. As you get to lower-level branches, you may also want to use
smaller writing. When sub-topics seem to want to be in more than one sub-branch, then you can either write
it down more than once or connect them with a cross-link (for example a dotted line).
Example
This is an example of a well-developed mind map.
Nominal Group Technique
Nominal group technique (NGT) is a structured method for group brainstorming that encourages
contributions from everyone. It is a group process involving problem identification, solution generation, and
decision making. This anonymous gathering of ideas results in the loss of the synergistic benefits of
brainstorming, where people build off each other’s ideas. However, many 'brainstorming' sessions are in fact
solely used for gathering the opinions of the group, rather than the original purpose of creative idea
generation. In such circumstances, NGT is a quite suitable tool.
When to Use It
Nominal group technique is best to use in the following situations.
•
When some group members are much more vocal than others.
•
When some group members think better in silence.
•
When there is concern about some members not participating.
•
When the group does not easily generate quantities of ideas.
•
When all or some group members are new to the team.
•
When the issue is controversial or there is heated conflict.
How to Use It
Clarify Problem
Make sure the objective of the session is clearly displayed, for example by writing it on a whiteboard, and
ensure everyone understands it.
Silent Idea Writing
Each team member silently thinks of and writes down as many ideas as possible in a set period of time (5 to
10 minutes). Ideas are written on index cards with one idea per card. Individuals can take as many cards as
they need.
Share and Understand
The leader collects the cards, shuffles them (to ensure individual people's ideas are not in batches), then
reads them out, one at a time. If the idea is unclear, the team may discuss it, but only for clarification of
meaning, not general debate.
The agreed final wording is then transcribed onto a flipchart or other surface that can be easily read by the
whole team. If it is agreed that the point from a card has already been transcribed, then it need not be copied
again.
Vote
When all cards are transcribed and their meanings understood, vote on which are to be selected. Voting is
done by each member of the team, silently and privately writing down votes for the listed ideas. Each vote is
written on a 3" x 5" card, along with the text of the item for which the vote is being cast.