Competitive demands require quicker, more effective and innovative problem solving. Problem solvers are required to quickly provide solutions to increasingly complex problems, develop and design new and innovative products and processes – and at the same time, reduce operating time and costs. Creative thinking is a critical skill required by all people within their roles at work. It is often done by trial and error – the thinker creates an idea and determines if it will work. Not only is trial and error limited by personal knowledge, thinking is also constrained by a “stuckness” in how things are and how they should be. Join us as Michael Cardus, founder of Create-Learning Team Building & Leadership Inc. teaches you how to break through these barriers and reach your creative potential! Innovation Workshop Focus: · Diminished “stuckness” in your thinking · Increased pace of problem solving · More effective discussions with others to help them think differently · Increased use of existing resources and knowledge to innovate solutions www.create-learning.com

1. Thinking Differently.
Enabling Innovation.
#BFLOInnov8

2. www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

3. What’s in it for me?
Having fun & learning
Understand what causes “stuckness” in
thinking
Learn & apply tools to get people “unstuck”
Understand the 5 levels of Inventive
Problems
Learn & apply Innovation Tools
Ways to best use these Innovation tools with
teams, individuals and stakeholders
 Contact me, I want to help
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

4. http://www.gapingvoidart.com/
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6. “If you have been trained to think in
a certain way and are a member of
a group that thinks the same way,
how can you imagine changing to a
new way of thinking?”
- Edgar Schein
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9. http://www.gapingvoidart.com/
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

10. What is Innovation?
o3 Minutes: Generate a Pool of
Concepts
o12 Minutes: Develop Concepts
o3 Minutes: Make Presentation
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13. Choose 1 that your team did really well.
Specifically, what did they do well?
How was that useful?
Choose 1 that your team did not do so well.
Specifically, what would ‘better’ have looked like?
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16. Quick TRIZ: Theory of
inventive problem solving.
• Created in 1940 by G.S
Altschuller
• Initially reviewed ~200,000
patents to understand how
inventive solutions are created. To
date over 3 million have been
reviewed and the original results
have stayed essentially the same.
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

17. 5 Levels of Inventiveness:
Altschuller determined 5 levels with level
1 being basic and level 5 being highly
innovative patents that required new
technology. Levels only indicate how
difficult a problem is to solve, higher
levels requiring more knowledge from
outside sources; truly outside-the-box.
Trials = estimation of the number of
trials it may take to obtain a solution
using trail and error.
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

18. Level 1 = 32% of patents; Less than 10 trials.
o Example: Narrow hull the ship is unstable. Solution: use a wider hull.
Level 1 does not change the system substantially.
Level 2 = 45% of patents; up to 100 trials.
o Not well known within the industry or technology. No need for
knowledge outside of the industry and requires creative thinking for the
solution.
Level 3 = 18% of patents; up to 1000 trials.
o Significant improvements are made to an existing system. The solution
requires using engineering knowledge from other industries and
technology.
Level 4 = 4% of patents; up to 10,000 trials.
o Solution uses science that is new to that industry or technology. Usually
involves a radical new principle of operation.
Level 5 = Less than 1%; over 10 million trials.
o Solutions involve discoveries of new scientific phenomena or a new
scientific discovery.
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

19. Many problems can
be solved by
changing – widening
our perception.
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Image http://www.flickr.com/photos/speednutdave/2839923659/
- Michael Cardus

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22. TRIZ tools can work to release
Psychological Inertia
AKA Mental / Organizational Stuckness
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

23. PSYCHOLOGICAL INERTIA.
The psychological meaning of the word
"inertia" implies an indisposition to
change – a certain "stuckness" due to
human programming. It represents the
inevitability of behaving in a certain way
– the way that has been indelibly
inscribed somewhere in the brain. It
also represents the impossibility – as
long as a person is guided by his habits
– of ever behaving in a better way.
– Kowalick
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

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25. Routine causes of psychological inertia;
Having a fixed vision (or model) of the solution or
root cause.
False assumptions (trusting the data).
Language that is a strong carrier of psychological
inertia. Specific terminology carries psychological
inertia.
Experience, expertise and reliance upon previous
results.
Limited knowledge, hidden resources or
mechanisms.
Inflexibility (model worship; trying to prove a
specific theory, stubbornness).
Using the same strategy. Keep thinking the same
way and you will continue to get the same result.
Rushing to a solution – incomplete thinking.
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

26. Tools to
Release
Innovation
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

27. Draw the Problem
http://www.gogamestorm.com/?s=%22draw+the+problem%22
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28. http://www.gogamestorm.com/?s=%22draw+the+problem%22
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40. Example: Plan for safety improvement
Past
Present
Future
Super-System
Corporation where
safety not a priority
Corporation were
message that safety
is a priority has not
gotten through
Corporation where safety is a
priority
System
Employees take
occasional risks to get
the job done
Ladder slipped and
employee was
injured in fall
Injury rate will be
unacceptable
Sub-System
Management has
criticized workers who
stop production in the
face of danger.
Workers remember
the incidents, in spite
of management’s
assertion that safety
is paramount.
Management has provided
positive recognition for
stopping production in the
face of danger.
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

41. Plan for an increase in customer satisfaction based upon meeting with client support.
Past
Smaller company, Less
need for product, Only
phones No Internet, SoldDirectly to Customer
Present
Organization, Phone
System, Internet,
Transportation, Buyers,
Wholesalers, Suppliers
Future
Larger organization, More
product offerings, More
staff, More customers,
Outsourcing much of
sales, Global Market
System
Customer phoned or
physically came to the
location.
Meetings are scheduled
according to incoming
phone calls, emails, online contacts for support.
Meeting happen
“virtually”, more product
sold = more incoming calls
and contact for support,
increased dependence
upon “magnet & virtual”
staff and locations.
Sub-System
phones, typewriters + file Phones, Each persons
cabinets (physical tangible computer, Personal
records), Only spoke
Relationships, Multiple
English, Only US currency Languages, Locations
Super-System
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus
Increased storage of
records on computers,
People who speak
multiple languages,
Translators, Done on
computers

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44. Actions to Address Common Issues That Impede
Innovative Solutions;
 Have new (different) people check all the data and information
to provide fresh thinking.
 Determine whether the conclusions can be wrong (be critical of
conclusions).
 Check the information, assign a specific person (owner)
responsible for checking the data.
 Physically check and visually witness information and data
gathering rather than accepting validation from others.
 Challenge methods and standards used.
 Determine where potentially hidden or secondary resources
might be present and how they could cause a problem
 Describe a new or unusual mechanism that would have to exist
to cause the problem.
 Demonstrate the problem is not simply an outlier.
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48. The DTC Operator Algorithm
 Define the problem: Name the
system or the part of the system of
interest.
 Consider ideas created by DTC
extremes:
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

49. Dimensions:
If dimensions were
extremely large what
would success look like,
how would that happen, in
what way could that
system be developed?
List ideas/solutions:
If dimensions were
extremely small (almost
gone) what would success
look like, how would that
happen, in what ways
could that system be
developed?
List ideas/solutions:
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

50. Time:
If time were extremely long what would success look like, how
would that happen, in what ways could that system be
developed? (i.e. Days, Years, Decades instead of seconds or
minutes) OR If speed were extremely slow what would success
look like, how would that happen, in what ways could that
system be developed?
List ideas/solutions:
If time were extremely small what would success look like, how
would that happen, in what ways could that system be
developed? (i.e. nanoseconds instead of seconds) OR If speed
were extremely fast what would success look like, how would
that happen, in what ways could that system be developed?
List ideas/solutions:
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

51. Cost:
(Not just in terms of dollars but costs in terms of downsides, harmful effects, etc…)
If there was no limit on cost how could the problem be solved, in what
ways could that system be developed?
List ideas/solutions:
If costs were extremely limited what would success look like, how would
that happen, in what ways could that system be developed?
List ideas/solutions:
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

52. The DTC Operator Algorithm
 Define the problem: Name the
system or the part of the system of
interest.
 Consider ideas created by DTC
extremes:
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus

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56. Photo attribution
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pasukaru76/4307189567/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pasukaru76/3992935923/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wingtorn/7225734766/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/antonnovoselov/4712010305/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33263856@N02/5157196328/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidanmorgan/4763085590/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/5902712709/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pasukaru76/5018455914/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurtbudiarto/7150324143/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/derekgavey/5069358550/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/a_siegel/8133716733/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Necker_cube.svg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhilung/3311130707/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76657755@N04/7408506410/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/3948724485/
www.create-learning.com - Michael Cardus