What Is Creative Problem-Solving & Why Is It Important?

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What Is Creative Problem-Solving & Why Is It Important

23 May 2022
- admin
- Innovation & Design Thinking
Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom while discouragement often nips it at the bud. Creativity is now something we can turn on and off like a faucet. It is an experience and expression in our lives that must be nurtured. This nurturing process means that creativity is at once a skill, an art, and a life-style.

~ Alex Osborn, Creativity Theorist and co-founder of the Creative problem-solving process.

In the modern business era, businesses are grappling with fast paced, dynamic and challenging scenarios. Whether the disruptions caused by the Covid pandemic or the Ukraine war, pathways are challenging the way business is done. Supply chain disruptions and runaway inflation is the order of the day and each day management has to come up with solutions to problems that are beyond the domain of established norms. Regardless of the line of business, one of the key roles of modern management is about trying to solve problems.

Thus, modern management training is now evolving to equip and develop young professionals with problem solving skills. These are important to help run businesses efficiently keeping the needs of co-workers, customers, partners and vendors, all stakeholders in the business.

Conventional problem solving and consequent decision making relied more on Analytical problem-solving abilities where the possible solutions could be derived based on facts and figures and logical thinking. It depends on data, trends and relies on the past to predict probable outcomes. However, with each passing day, businesses are confronted with situations with no precedents.

This requires modern managers to develop creative thinking and problem-solving skills. Creative thinking is becoming important with each passing day as the business world looks to find solutions to problems with complex or abstract elements. These kinds of problems have no defined path or an answer that could be applied to every situation. Hence, generating creative ideas is a must.

Even in functional areas not typically associated with creativity, like finance, sales, operations – creativity opens the door to radical approaches and solutions that tactics based on past experiences would find difficult to solve.

What Is Creative Problem Solving?

Creative problem solving (CPS) is a structured process driven method for not only solving problems but also identifying opportunities. Formalised by Alex Osborn and Sidney Parnes, CPS uses creativity and encourages the practitioner to look at fresh perspectives in his decision-making process. CPS builds on the premise that –
- All humans are creative in some way or the other
- Creative skills can be inculcated and improved through a learning process.
CPS is a form of intentional creativity and is used to find solutions that are beyond the scope of conventional thinking. Osborn’s concept was studied at length by Sidney Parnes, Ruth Noller, and their colleagues and they came to the conclusion that CPS can be taught and improve the way people think and solve problems.

Distinction With Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a concept that builds on the Osborn-Parnes CPS model and can be broadly defined as a form of solution-focused thinking with the intention of arriving at a constructive future result. Thus, Design thinking is a broader concept that encompasses conventional thinking and identifies and investigates both known and obscure aspects in an effort to arrive at solutions to achieve goals. Creative problem-solving helps in generation of innovative ideas through a methodology that is less structured, design thinking builds on CPS and is more organised in its approach.

Difference with “Brainstorming”

There is a common misconception that Brainstorming and CPS are the same thing. Brainstorming is actually at the root of the CPS process and a phase that allows generation of divergent thinking and views to a problem set. The ideas thus generated through brainstorming provide the fuel that form the process of evaluation and selection/ shortlisting of actionable ones.

The Process Of Creative Problem-Solving

There are several stages that have been interpreted and recommended by various practitioners in the CPS process. Creative education foundation, set up by Alex Osborn, outlines the following stages –
1. Clarify – This is a crucial first step where one needs to understand the issue and define objectives to provide clarity. The next step under this stage is to gather data of the stakeholders, the facts and figures and their opinions. This will help in increased awareness of the issues at hand and create a situation where solutions could be generated based on specific information.
2. Ideate – The next stage in the process is to explore and generate ideas that could provide solutions to the challenge questions. Here is the practitioner’s chance to use creativity. This is the divergent stage of CPS where brainstorming and other creative processes can help in exploring creative ideas. The key is to move away from habitual thinking and consider solutions that are innovative and out of the box.
3. Develop – This stage, also known as the convergent stage of CPS is where one starts evaluation of options at hand to come up with viable solutions. Analysis of potential solutions to meet needs and criteria, then leads to a decision making whether they can be implemented successfully. Honing the solutions that are deemed to be the ‘best fit’ is crucial for their successful implementation.
4. Implement – Now it is the time to formulate a plan that would entail identifying resources and the way forward to the implementation of the “best fit’ solution. Communications to stakeholders and their acceptance is crucial for the successful implantation of the plan.
Creative Skills and Importance For Management Students

With a rapidly changing society, environment and technology the applicable knowledge of individuals is evolving. Obviously then, employers are looking at skill sets in managers that transcend beyond analytical problem solving. For the management practitioner, it is important to build resilience and be successful in an unpredictable business world. It is important to learn creative approaches to problem solving to enable adaptation and go beyond the structured realms of traditional knowledge systems

To shed complacency and move beyond comfort zones in modern business requires fostering creative team members and providing them the space to innovate.

Most of the workforce today use repetitive actions in their jobs and thus, reach a level beyond which they are found wanting in terms of performance and therefore their personal growth. Creative and innovative problem solving is much in demand especially in managerial roles. CPS as a tool can help managers to confront and overcome complex and non-routine challenges. CPS as a means can empower young managers to build reliance in a fast-paced knowledge world where they can look to apply creativity and cognitive processing in problem situations where a method or solution may not be obvious. It also builds the manager’s capacity and willingness to engage with such situations and leads them to become a constructive and balanced person in their professional and personal lives.

How Creative Problem Solving Is Helping Industry 2.0

The Pandemic hit the world in 2020 and ensuing lockdowns meant that business had to shut shop. We in India were new to the concept of work from home. Despite the large scale disruptions for work forces and business, the industry transitioned from collocated work to remote work or work-from-home (WFH). Similarly e-commerce shopping found a new dimension as customers switched from physical to digital. The transition was of course forced, but resilient and innovative businesses used creative problem solving approaches to overcome this unprecedented situation and evolved. Many knowledge based businesses continue a hybrid model even today as the pandemic ebbs.

Look at the example of Kellogg Co. in the US. During lockdowns, they had to strategize from their traditional bulk sales to schools and restaurants to selling to people working from home. These customers suddenly had time for breakfast.

Surely, creative problem-solving approaches led managers to tackle unprecedented situations and come out with innovative solutions.

Learning Creative Problem Solving at SOIL

Most business schools emphasise and look to impart functional learning as part of their curricula. In a volatile, complex and uncertain business environment, organisations are looking at managers who go beyond a transactional approach to one that requires them to be leaders, strategizers, innovators, creators, and incubators of a culture of growth with the customer as the forefront.

Using a design-thinking approach, managers tend to become anthropologists in a way. They study the customers they serve and using that knowledge to get simple prototypes into their hands quickly. This enables them to get a deep insight into customer needs.

A design thinking culture is an action-oriented culture. The five stages of design thinking clearly emphasise the importance of brainstorming and ideation, but without active prototyping and testing, all the ideation efforts do not result in any impact. The SOIL two-year MBA pedagogy and teaching methodology focuses on building a human-centred approach to innovation. The students are exposed to subjects such as psychology, anthropology, philosophy and ethics to build a foundation from where they could take the next step. The students are exposed to boot camps and workshops. SOIL also provides ample opportunities to explore, test and implement solutions and a host of possible projects that students can work on during their time on campus. Through experiential immersions, the students develop a deeper understanding of the Indian culture and real time exposure to business, people and environment. The unique case teaching methodology draws the creativity of students to the forefront as they interact with their peers to come out with collaborative and viable solutions to problems.

The SOIL way of creative problem solving is about understanding the humans facing the problem more than the solution itself. It looks at coming out of traditional boxes with visual thinking, creativity, and innovation to find new solutions.

If you want to learn these design thinking and creative problem-solving skills, explore the flagship two year MBA course in Business Design offered by SOIL. This course will teach you to apply design thinking tools like creative problem-solving to tackle business challenges and generate solutions.

The PGDM in Business Design is designed for management learning that is practical, multidimensional and user oriented. It can have diverse applications in business areas in structuring internal processes and solving external problems.

The world-class curriculum at SOIL Institute of Management empowers and inspires young leaders to take on the challenges of managing, collaborating and adapting with a different perspective. The institute integrates Design Thinking, Management and Liberal Arts to unleash the creative potential of students and create truly well-rounded, future-ready leaders.

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