Your team is facing a complex problem. How can you help them come up with a creative solution?

Facilitating creative problem-solving within your team when faced with a complex problem involves a mix of leadership, fostering an open and collaborative environment, and employing specific techniques to unlock creative insights. Here's how you can guide your team towards developing creative solutions: •Set the Stage for Openness and Collaboration •Define the Problem Clearly •Brainstorming Session •Employ Creative Problem-Solving Techniques •Encourage Play and Experimentation •Prototype and Iterate •Facilitate Cross-functional Collaboration. •Draw Inspiration from Outside Sources •Foster a Reflective Practice •Prioritize and Action •Support and Resources By adopting these strategies, you foster a culture of innovation and collaboration.

Kursbestimmung und Zielfokus gewinnt ihr mit einer sauberen Auftragsklärung. Klarheit und gemeinsames Verständnis schaffen: Der erste und entscheidende Schritt, um aus dem Problem- in den Lösungsraum zu kommen. Folgende Fragen könne euch dabei helfen: - Wo liegt aktuell unser größter Engpass? - Was wäre ein gutes Ergebnis? Was wäre uns dann gewonnen und wer würde es außer uns noch merken? (Kundenperspektive einnehmen) - Wie können wir die Zielerreichung fortlaufend messen? - Woran merken wir, dass wir das Problem gelöst haben? Gerade in einem komplexen Kontext, sind hier keine einfachen Antworten erwartbar, es geht vielmehr um den iterativen Weg hin zu einer Lösung, die es gemeinsam zu „ertasten“ gilt.

The definition must be open to new and different ideas for solving the problem. It is easy to define a problem in a way that makes implications, presupposing the route the solution will take. If you can keep the definition as simple and open as possible, it allows for creative solutions.

Ein weiterer Leckerbissen aus der Schatzkiste der Liberating Structures: TRIZ (Theorie des erfinderischen Problemlösens, basierend auf dem Prinzip der Widerspruchslösung). TRIZ ermutigt Teams, kreativ zu denken, Hindernisse zu überwinden und innovative Lösungen zu entwickeln. 1) Ideen entwickeln – „Sabotage“: Was können wir tun, damit unser Problem noch viel größer wird? (Kopfstandmethode) 2) Erkenntnisse sammeln – „Eingeständnis“ Was tragt ihr selbst dazu bei? Welches Verhalten kommt euch bekannt vor? Schritt 3: Maßnahmen ableiten – „Stopp“ Was wollt ihr in Zukunft nicht mehr? Was ist ein erster kleiner Schritt in diese Richtung? Probiert es aus. TRIZ hilft euch dabei, Probleme in Ideen zu verwandeln.

One favourite approach I use to evaluate ideas, especially when they have far-reaching impact, is to dare people to ask themselves: "What does my heart say about this?" or "What does my body tell me?". Often we think of and evaluate ideas from our logical and analytical minds. But to fully commit in the implementation of those ideas, we need to also ask our heart and our body (where emotions are) what they have to say about it. Another useful framework is to evaluate through time-perspective: past, present, and future. What would our past generation (from whom we've learned our values) say about an idea? Or how would our future generation navigate the consequences of our present idea?

Refining ideas is for groups ready to 👉converge👈- groups who have developed shared understanding and are prepared to narrow options. Techniques to Refine & Combine Ideas 🎯Chartwriting- group memory power 🎯Sorting & categorizing 🎯'Creative Reframing'- perceived issue vs. reframed prob statement 🎯Breakout groups- collaboratively refine ideas 🎯Summarize- create clarity 🎯Short presentations/trade shows- strengthen good ideas 🎯Who, What, By When activity- note next steps 💡Remember- reaching readiness to refine (alliteration, anyone?) takes time. For the best, most creative & inclusive solutions, allow a group to properly diverge and explore options first. Don't rush to refinement! 2 great sessions is better than 1 mediocre session.

Having tools to measure the progress of our solutions is commendable. It is also equally important to ask for personal feedback, as a form of qualitative research, from the stakeholders and the people impacted by our solutions.

Use problem framing. If you jump to only defining the problem, you draw a line in the sand "this IS the problem." You miss the chance to look at it from different perspectives — where you might discover thats not the problem at all! There are too many approaches to share here, so instead I'll leave you with this. From a speech by David Foster Wallace — This is Water. *There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”* Start with framing, the young fish don't see the situation the same!

We often tend to match the problem to the conflict to be solved, wrongly focusing our energy on the outcome, when we should be directing it towards the underlying interests and needs. At this point, and to add to the techniques already described in the article, it can be interesting to bring in the concepts of systems thinking to try to identify what things are positively or negatively feeding back into a process, in order to find the leverage point where we can act to achieve greater impact with less effort.

From problem to solution - a question of changing perspective. When am I ready to solve a problem? I want to be heard and have my concerns taken seriously. Before I turn to a solution and accept support. What is my own part in the problem? Admitting to yourself that it is much easier to change your own behaviour than to want to change others is a big step on the way to a reflective solution. What are the next small steps on the way to an attractive target image? What resources are needed for this? If the solution is not within reach, I like to use the headstand method: "What could we do to make our problem even worse than it already is?" The irritation helps to get a little closer to the solution.