Vocab Flashcards
Creation
something new that has value
Original
something that is said to be new
Creativity
process of creating something new; using imagination to produce work
Parts of applied thinking
Decision making, problem solving, creative thinking
Left brain
Language, logic, details
Right brain
Creativity, art, feelings
Main functions of the mind
Analyzing, synthesizing, and valuing
Analyzing
Separating a whole into parts
Pattern correlation
A process where you see a misspelled word but still understand the meaning of the word
Two parts of memory
Storage and recall
Innovation
Process of taking a creation and turning it into something that has value or is profitable
Multi-disciplinary effort
Organization identifies a complex problem, problem is divided into parts, four possible solutions
Benchmarking
One hospital compares their practices to a hospital considered to be the best
Insight
Ability to look at a complex problem and see through a maze
Two parts of logic
Deduction and induction
Deduction
To take away
Induction
to infer or guess based on prior knowledge, a principle, or an observation
Synthesizing
Putting parts together to make a whole
Valuing
Establishing criteria, evaluating
Steps of decision making
1) Define the objective
2) Collect relevant information
3) Generate feasible options
4) Make the decision
5) Implement and evaluate
3 needs of work groups
Task, team maintenance, and individual needs
Camelot
Process in problem identification with idealized solution; comparing real situation to ideal situation
Creative thinking process
Preparation ,incubation, insight, and validation
Mental roadblocks for creativity
Lack of…. facts, conviction, starting point, perspective, or motivation
Squeeze and stretch method
An attempt to discover the scope of a problem, then find its basic components
4 P’s of creativity & innovation
Product
Possibilities
Process
Personal/ group creativity
7 S’s of organizational success
Strategy
Structure
Style
Staffing
Skills
Shared values
System
Assumption reversal
Recognize the limitation of a solution
4 types of innovation
Product innovation
Process innovation
Marketing innovation
Management innovation
Creative problem solving
1) Analyze environment
2) Recognize a problem
3) Identify the problem
4) Make assumptions
5) Generate alternatives
6) Choosing among alternatives
7) Implementing chosen solution
8) Control
Squeeze
find its basic components, asking chain of questions for ‘what’
Analogy
Developing alternatives, comparing two things that are dissimilar
Stretch
An attempt to discover scope of problem, asking chain of questions for ‘why’
Inverse brainstorming
Starting with a situation and look for a problem
Fishbone diagram (Ishikawa diagram)
Left (causes) to right (problem), most complicated to least complicated
Contiguity
Causing an association in the mind
Similarity
With a similar aspect
Contrast
Opposites
Product improvement checklist
try to
think of
take away / add
Ingenuity
Ability to devise methods to make work easier, faster, or better
Creative leaps
View idealistic situations and make it happen
Edison technique
Technique that solves by inventing new alternatives
Direct analogies
Facts / knowledge from another field is used to solve a problem of another field
Expertitis
When a person has deep knowledge of a topic but can’t filter it to their audience’s needs
Perceptual
Roadblock to creativity; prevents seeing the obvious
Attribute listing
Technique that attacks problem by listing characteristics, then thinking of ways to improve each characteristic
Onion model
Ideas cluster around focus of topic, expands relationships between concepts
Experimentation
Selecting among alternatives; interaction between variable needs to be considered
Force-field analysis
Focus on driving forces and restraining forces to change
Scenario writing
Emphasis on potential future, writing futuristic story
Synetics
Type of brainstorming that relies on analogies and metaphors
Idea spurring questions
Other uses?
Adapt?
Modify?
Magnify?
Substitute?
Rearrange?
Reverse?
Combine?
Creative thinking
Involves calling into question our assumptions and habitual ways of thinking / acting, then being ready to think and act differently on the basis of critical questioning
Components of critical thinking
Identifying and challenging assumptions
Recognizing the importance of context
Imagining and exploring alternatives
Developing reflective skepticism
Creative thinkers
Have self-confidence and trust in their own judgment; have a future orientation; use trial-and-error methods; take multiple perspectives; have interest in a wide range of fields; consider rejecting standardized formats of problem solving
Creatives
People who consistently turn out creative ideas
Types of creativity
Individual
Group / team
Two kinds of thought processes
Divergent
Convergent
Divergent thinking
Expanding the picture of a problem, looking at it from various points of view, then generating options for solving it
Convergent thinking
Narrowing down a problem and related parts of its solution
Consensus building
Voting in a democratic manner; everyone works together to get a mutually acceptable solution
Experience kit
Putting problem solvers through an experience that causes them to understand the problem better
King of the mountain
One to two individuals take a position on what the problem is, and other members try to come up with a better one
Questions for identifying problems
What do you know?
What patterns exist?
Why-why diagram
Identifies the causes of a problem in a systematic way, asking why each time; moves left to right
Alternative methods for identifying problems
Redefining a problem / opportunity
Rewrite objectives in different ways
Analysis of past solutions
Learning from failures; knowing what to do and not to do
Association
Making a mental connection between two object / ideas; MUST be related in some manner
Free association
Getting as many ideas as possible down; looking for thoughts
Attribute association chain
Begins with a list of the attributes of the problem, then free associate on each attribute to generate ideas
Circle of opportunity
Randomly selecting problem attributes and combining them to create a topic for a brainstorming session
FCB grid
4 cell matrix used to describe management and marketing concepts
Focused-object technique
Contains elements of both free associations and forced relationships
Holistic dimension
The ability of minds to think in terms of wholes, as well as analytically—taking wholes into bits
Depth of mind principle
Allows us to analyze, synthesize, and value in our sleep or when doing something quite different; source of intuition
Lobster pot model
Narrowing down choice options, using the principle that it is easier to falsify something than to verify it
Manifest consequences
you foresee when you make your decision
Latent consequences
not nearly a probable to foresee; may trigger more problems
Wrong decision
Fault lies within the method
Bad decision
Something was deliberately ignored
Three elements involving leadership
The leader
The situation
The group
Group personality
When people come together, their individual personalities merge
Task need
Work groups and organizations come together because there is a task to be done that is too big for one person
Team maintenance need
The need to create and promote group cohesiveness
Individual needs
physical (food and shelter) and psychological (recognition, sense of doing something worthwhile, status)
Action-centered leadership
A method where a leader completes the role of achieving the task, building and maintaining the team, and developing the individual
Planning continuum
A display that has axes of “area of freedom for team members” and “use of authority by the leader,” showing an inverse relationship
Problem
Something thrown in front of you; all of the components to the solution are already there
Unified model / Bridge model
Defining the aim / problem (analyzing), generating feasible options (synthesizing), and choosing the optimum solution (valuing)
3 levels of competence
Awareness (of a problem or need for decision)
Understanding (where you and the team are in relation to the problem)
Skill (asking the right questions of the right people at the right time)
System problem
Deviation from the norm; actual performance deviates from performance standard
Brainstorming
Most widely used creative thinking technique; came about in the 1930s; works better in a team setting
Brainstorming use
Frees us from “functional fixedness”; the mind is released to consider other possibilities
Brainstorming session
1) Define the problem
2) Highlight background info and history to help people understand problem
3) Clarify aim
4) Brief warm-up session, using common problem or object
5) Brainstorm, write down ideas, allow for silent reflection, discourage criticism, and encourage cross-fertilization
6) Establish criteria for choosing feasible solution and decide
7) Reverse brainstorm
Product
Result of creation / innovation process; must be of value; can be a service, physical product, or enhancement
Possibilities
Environment and organizational culture must support creativity and innovation
Processes
Specific techniques for increasing creativity of problem-solving
Personal / Group Creativity
Managing group dynamics and socialization within groups; increasing use of right brain for intuition and eliminate restrictions to creativity
Metaphors
Figure of speech where 2 different universe of thought are linked by some point of similarity
Back to the sun
Means to systematically reduce something to its fundamental properties to come up with ideas or attributes that might be changed
Deadlines
Increases pressure to generate alternatives and inspire creative work; stimulates more right brain activity
Excursion technique
Problem solvers spend time creating fantasies based on the word(s) chosen
Hall’s competitiveness model
Relates relative low cost and relative differentiation
Point of no return
Point where it costs you more in various coinages to turn back and change your mind than to continue with an imperfect decision
Three factors in choosing field of work
Interests
Aptitudes
Temperment
Natural creativity
Occurs during pre-school years
Innovation equation
Creativity occurring in an Innovative Organizational Context with a Supportive Societal Environmental results in Innovation: C x IOC x SSE = I
Marketing innovation
Improves the way an organization is managed
Problem statement
At end of problem identification stage
Regular association
Ideas / thoughts that has some relational component
Lotus blossom technique
Starts off with a central idea / theme and then expands outward with solution areas or related themes in an iterative manner
Storyboard
Graphic representation of how the story will unfold; has a number of squares with illustrations
How-how diagram
Diagram that branches off, asking how each time
Checklists
Finding problem with existing products / services / operations; developing promotional ideas
Limericks & parodies
When straightforward approaches haven’t produced many problems or insights, add humor
Listing complaints
Looking for internal and customer problems
Role playing
Group / personal insights into simple and complex problems; good for interpersonal and customer relations problems
Suggestion programs
Systematic problem recognition when employee recognition is sought
Back to the customer
Identify various product, price, promotion, distribution, and target market issues related to solving problems in terms of how the customer would be affected
Computer programs
Used to generate alternatives and otherwise add creativity to the problem-solving process
Focused-object
One object / idea in the relationship is deliberately chosen; the other is selected arbitrarily
Mind mapping
Write the name / description of the object / problem in the center of a piece of paper and draw a circle around it, then brainstorm each major facet of it, drawing lines outward from the circle
Organized random search
Pick a page of a dictionary at random and use words on that page to generate ideas the way one uses a verbal checklist
Personal analogies
attempt to see yourself personally involved in the situation—perhaps through roleplaying
Picture simulation
Participants look at pictures and examine it individually, then discuss it as a group
Relatedness
List all businesses / products related to yours to help you think of new products for your company
Relational words
Applying different words to products to see which relates to the product
Reversal-dereversal
State the problem—using an action verb—then take an antonym of the verb and solve the new problem created in this way
Rolling in the grass of ideas
Collect as much material about a problem as you can in an easily readable form, read through the material as fast as you can then ask yourself what it all means
7 x 7 technique
1) Combine similar ideas
2) Exclude irrelevant data
3) Modify ideas to reflect insights gained in first 2 steps
4) Defer extraneous data for future reference
5) Review past exercises to identify possibilities for alteration / refinement
6) Classify dissimilar groupings into separate columns
7) Rank items in each column
8) Generalize each column using its main idea as a title / heading
9) Rank the columns from left to right on the racking board according to their importance / utility
Sleeping on it
Think rationally, very hard, and very long about a problem just before going to sleep; your subconscious will continue to work on the problem as you sleep
Two words technique
Pick the two words / phrases from your problem’s statement that indicate its essence ( a subject and action verb), the combine these words in various ways
Verbal checklist for creativity
Checklist of questions about an existing product / service / process / other item can yield new points of view and thereby lead to innovation
Brainwriting
Participants, sitting in a circle, write down their ideas for solving a given problem and pass their paper to their neighbors in the circle, then to the next and so forth–helping build ideas off of each others’
Brainwriting 6-3-5
6 people produce 3 ideas in 3 columns within 5 minutes
Creative imaging
Envision a specific need for change
Envision a better way
Formulate a vision-based plan of action
Creativity circles
Small groups of workers who meet to solve quality problems related to their specific work areas
Crawford slip method
Derived from the use of slips of paper on which participants write their ideas
Delphi technique
A questionnaire is mailed or otherwise communicated to experts in the field—their responses are collected, summarized, and returned to each expert with instructions on how to revise responses as necessary
Gallery method
Instead of the ideas changing places, the idea generators change places—each membre takes a different work area and creates a ‘gallery’ of ideas for others to view
Gordon / Little technique
Leader describes the problem to participants in decreasing levels of abstraction; solutions are given at each level; as the descripriptions become more concrete and less abstract, more specific solutions (not necessarily better) emerge
Innovation committee
Employees meet periodically to solve problems; employees bid for the job of coordinator by submitting proposals
Intercompany innovation groups
Top executives from various companies —led by an innovation consultant—meet for the purpose of solving company problems in innovative ways
Input-output
Defining a dynamic system by its input, output, and limiting requirements
