Problem Solving Strategies IDEAL I Identify the problem

1 LP 7C 1 Problem Solving Strategies IDEALII dentify the problemDDefine and represent the problemEExplore possible Strategies or solutionsAAct on a selected strategy or solutionLLook back and evaluate Trial and error: A strategy that involve attemptingdifferent solutions and eliminating those that do not work. Algorithms: A strategy that involves following a specificrule, procedure or method that inevitably will produce acorrect solution. Heuristics: A general rule of Break the Problem into smaller problems: In thehomework assignment to Identify schedules ofreinforcements and reinforcements/punishments, it iseasier to break it into two smaller problems. Insight: A sudden realization or intuition on how to solvea Problem . Different representations can lead to 7C 2 Creativity, Innovation and Problem SolvingWould you consider the following people to be creative andinnovative when they invented the respective technologies?

2 Thomas Edison (light bulb, phonograph) James Watt (steam engine) Alexander Graham Bell (telephone) Johan Gutenberg (printing press) Henry Ford (automobile production line)(see Connections I video series)Some people consider inventors to be creative and , many of these inventors built their work on ofothers combined different ideas in a new way. Which of thefollowing inventions were considered worthless at the timethey were introduced to the public? Color television Submarine Microwave oven Typewriter Telephone Xerox machineBeing creative requires persistence and having a lot of we a creative idea, we don t realize all of the non-creativeideas, making it difficult to see the creative 7C 3 Barriers to Solving problems and creativityFunctional fixednessThe tendency to view objects asfunctioning only in their usual orcustomary setsThe tendency to persist in Solving aproblem with solutions that haveworked in the past (also seeheuristics).

3 Selective exposureThe tendency to selectively associatewith people who are similar to influenceThe desire to be accepted by thegroup makes it difficult to expressdifferent ideas. There is an urge tomerge . A norm needs to beestablished that constructivedisagreement is acceptable to to gain insight into Solving problems Reframe the Problem Observe and Identify problems Observe the users of the technologiesLP 7C 4 Functional FixednessIn high school I stayed at a friends house the night before a classtrip. Our bus left very early in the morning and we were runninglate. It was time to go and she still had wet hair. She said, "Noproblem, I'll dry it in the car." I didn't understand but rushedaround to get ready. Once in the car, she turned the heater onhigh and dried her hair as I drove us to catch the bus.

4 I wouldhave never thought of using the car heater as a hair bought frozen orange juice. When I got home, Nicole told mewe didn't have a pitcher to put it in. I simply went over andgrabbed an empty 2 liter bottle from ginger ale and used you ever spent a lot of time looking for a flat-headedscrewdriver when a dime would have worked just as well?I have a kitchen hammer that I saw kitchen chefs use to crushgarlic with (observational learning). However, it is packed awaysomewhere, and I don t want to take the effort to go find , I take a can of chili (the glass jars are too risky) and useit to crush the 7C 5 Mental SetsThe tendency to persist in Solving a Problem with solutions thathave worked in the past (also see heuristics). Oil change service When something breaks, throw it away and buy a new oneversus fixing it LP 7C 6 Normative influence and institutional barriersWhen Sparks Fly: Igniting Creativity in Groups Surprise me, the CEO said to John, who had just assumed thenewly created title of Director of Business Development.

5 Youcan hire six new people. Get some young blood in here and findus some new products ones we can bring to market in, saythree or four years. Let s see what possibilities a creative groupof people can Identify in eighteen months. John was thrilled;what an opportunity at age thirty-four! He recruited three of thebest financially minded, calculator-wielding MBAs he couldfind and set them to work sifting through the hundreds ofpossibilities in the research pipeline. With three job openingsleft, he pawed through dozens of impressive resumes beforeselecting three highly qualified young engineers. Eighteenmonths passed in a whirl of financial and technical analyses. ToJohn s delight, the group members worked well together andbecame good friends. However, at the end, John was the onesurprised and out of a job.

6 The group had rejected every ideain the pipeline on the basis of either financial or technicalunfeasibility; they had identified not a single new idea worthpursuing. As John moved on to a different company, he wasbaffled: How could such a smart, well-qualified bunch of peoplehave failed? (Source: From When Sparks Fly, IgnitingCreativity in Groups, page19)Why couldn t John s team of highly qualified engineers andMBAs come up with any new ideas?LP 7C 7 Tanks, Telephones and the Foot SoldierDuring WWII, the way you got a tank to fire at a targetwould to bang the butt of your rifle on the tank to get the tankcommander s attention. He might pop his head out if it wassafe. When he did, you would shout to the commander whereyou wanted him to fire. He might not hear you and you wouldhave to repeat it, and he would look to see where you wantedhim to fire.

7 Now this doesn t seem to bad, but all this time, yourenemy (the Germans or Italians) sees the tank commander andstart shooting at way they solved this Problem is to put telephones onthe back of tanks so that soldiers outside could communicatewith the tank commander. Where did this idea come from? Thesoldiers. None of the engineers thought of this, none of themnoticed this Problem , or the opportunity to solve the Radar versus German RadarIn his study of innovation during and immediately after WWII, McAllister contrasted British and Nazi science efforts. German war science was hierarchical and compartmentalized,discouraged free-wheeling interchange between scientists andsoldier (the user). Hence while German radar was beautifullyengineered, achieving signal stability that was better than thatof the best instruments that Britain had available , the Germanmethod of displaying the aircraft position was awkward for airdefense controllers to use.

8 (From When Sparks Fly, IgnitingCreativity in Groups, page 30).LP 7C 8 Chapter 3 Generating Creative Options I don t need to tell you how important this distancelearning contract is, said Hazel as she opened the meeting. Ifwe get to design the ad campaign, we ll have a whole new lineof business. That s why I ve put our very best people on thisteam including Fred from Sales and Tom even though he smoved to our financial services account. I know some of youwere a bit surprised at my bringing them in, but we needed avariety of backgrounds and knowledge to be creative. I wasreally pleased with yesterday s brainstorming session we cameup with a lot of cool ideas. Given our schedule and resourceconstraints, I ve gone ahead and selected one to work on. Theparody of university professors concept was funny but I don tthink we know enough about university teaching to pull it I liked the notion of outreach to kids in developing nations,but we could offend some people with that one.

9 So I suggest wego with the puppy training idea. If your dog can be trained to situp and beg through the Internet, then for sure your kids can betaught calculus the same way. People like animals in ads; itwon t offend anyone; we can make it funny and it s a lowbudget approach. I ve divided you up into three subgroups; eachgroup needs to get going on slogans, storyboards, budgets. We llget together next Friday to see what you ve come up with andselect the best treatment. Any questions? No? Okay, let s When Sparks Fly, Igniting Creativity in GroupsLP 7C 9 Real-world Examples about Innovation, Creativity andProblem Solving World War II: American tanks and telephones(communication of ideas with the user is important forinnovation) World War II: German radar (institutional barriers toinnovation) Anthropologists and copier paper jams.

10 Rubbermaid and walkers. Fischer-Price and action toys Velcro Raising Arizona (Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunt)LP 7C 10 Horse problemA man bought a horse for $60 and sold it for $70. Then hebought the same horse for $80 and sold it again for $90. Write down how much money was made in bothtransactions 7C 11 Hotel ProblemA hotel detective was making his rounds through thecorridors of the hotel. As he passed by a room, he heard a voicebehind the closed door. The voice yelled, "Don't shoot John!"Immediately afterwards, the detective heard a gun immediately broke into the room and encountered thefollowing dead woman was lying on the floor. Next to her was agun. Three people were standing around her. They were ajudge, a soldier, and a mail carrier. The detectiveimmediately arrested the mail carrier for on the information provided, how did the hotel detectiveknow to arrest the mail carrier?