Creative Problem Solving Tips These creative-problem-solving tips were originally published as a regular column in the American Creativity Association's Focus newsletter.   They were written by Richard Fobes, who is the author of The Creative Problem Solver's Toolbox: A Complete Course in the Art of Creating Solutions to Problems of Any Kind

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Tip 23: Learn the creative-problem-solving skills that can be applied to many different kinds of real-life problems.

The most powerful skills of creative problem solving are the ones that can be used to solve many different kinds of problems.

As a somewhat obvious example, suppose someone spends lots of time improving their ability to solve puzzles in which the goal of the puzzle is clearly stated.   They would be failing to gain practice in reconsidering goals, which is an important part of solving real-life problems.

To appreciate the value of reconsidering goals, suppose you were asked to improve the teacher-to-student ratio in a classroom.   It would be natural to focus all your attention on options that increase the number of teachers and/or decrease the number of students.   Yet this focus would be uncreative because it excludes options that would accomplish the underlying goal without accomplishing the stated goal.   For instance, it excludes the option of having some students help teach other students.

Most people realize that learning the skills for solving only puzzles excludes the learning of skills that are important for solving real-life problems.   But many people fail to realize that learning the skills for solving just some kinds of real-life problems -- such as business problems in the areas of inventing, manufacturing, marketing, and management -- excludes the learning of other very important creative problem solving skills.

Suppose someone just focuses on learning the skills that are most appropriate for solving business problems.   Such a focus usually excludes learning other important creative-problem-solving skills for these reasons:

• Problem-solving books and classes aimed at managers typically emphasize decision-making skills.   This focus is appropriate to the degree that difficult decisions are a common kind of problem that managers face.   Unfortunately, skills for creating better solutions are commonly neglected.   Ironically, difficult decisions become easier once an effective solution is created and added to the list of options from which decision-makers can choose.
• Books that teach skills for solving business problems typically focus on teaching the skills needed by managers to the exclusion of skills needed by production-line and other non-managerial employees.   Ironically, many managerial problems disappear when non-managerial employees have creative-problem-solving skills that they can use to solve problems on their own -- without asking for help from overworked managers and creative engineers.   As an added irony, many of the skills omitted from management-oriented books would be useful to managers faced with especially challenging problems.
• When figuring out how to solve a customer's problem, there is typically a focus on creating a new object that can be sold to the customer.   Ironically, many new products can be created by first creating non-objects.   For instance, a major breakthrough in computer printing technology was made possible by creating a new language (called "Postscript") for communicating from a computer to a printer.

To develop all the skills of creative problem solving, spend time solving many different kinds of problems.   The resulting new skills can then be used to solve problems for which those skills previously might have seemed inappropriate.   The diversity of problems can include solving problems in gardening, raising children, improving relationships, dealing with employers, and solving global problems -- in addition to solving the kinds of problems people get paid to solve.

These tips are a tiny sample of the creative-problem-solving skills explained in The Creative Problem Solver's Toolbox.   I hope you find these tips to be useful.

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