Creative Problem Solving Process

Creative Problem Solving is a proven method for approaching a problem or a challenge in an imaginative and innovative way. It’s a tool that helps people re-define the problems they face, come up with breakthrough ideas and then take action on these new ideas.

Alex Osborn and Sidney Parnes conducted extensive research on the steps that are involved when people solve problems, the result of which is the following 6 steps that are broken down into 3 stages:
At the same time that CPS is a structured process, it’s also a very flexible one. When you begin to use and internalize the CPS process, you find that it’s cyclical. You begin to see how to move from step to step, and how to jump back and forth between steps. When CPS becomes part of your own way of thinking and working, you can use one step at a time, as you need it, when you need it. Once you understand the fundamentals of CPS, you can adapt this process to every situation you encounter, thereby realizing its power


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Brain Training Games

Question 1
Four women, Louise, Lise, Carole and Lily
are seated at a table. They are chatting about their holidays. They went to California, Texas, Florida and Arizona riding a lion, tiger, zebra and a pony.

Hints :

  1. The woman riding the zebra did not smoke.
  2. Carole declared that she loved Miami
  3. The woman riding the tiger had a cigarette with Lily.
  4. Louise said :" Buy your pony a new saddle, Carole. I saw some during our trip to California?
  5. The woman riding the tiger mentioned that she had seen the Alamo in Texas.
  6. Lise was a chain-smoker.
Question : What are the holiday destination and method of transportation for each woman ?


Question 2
An army general wanted ten soldiers to cross a river. There was no bridge and the soldiers could not swim. The general saw a row boat in which were two children.
The boat could only hol
d two children or one soldier at once.

Question : How did the soldiers cross the river in the boat?




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Rich Picture



A Rich Picture represent what we know about a messy sit­u­a­tion —  the issues, actors, prob­lems, processes, rela­tion­ships, con­flicts and moti­va­tions — so that we can rea­son about these aspects. It is a graph­i­cal tool that addresses that state of uncer­tainty at the begin­ning of an explo­ration or inquiry when all we know that we are deal­ing with a prob­lem­atic sit­u­a­tion, and moves us to a state where we have iden­ti­fied one or more themes we want to address. Rich pic­tures are tools to learn not only about the obvi­ous facts of a sit­u­a­tion, but also about abstract or emo­tional things like the social atmos­phere among the actors.


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Do You Recognize These 10 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking?

by Brian Clark

Whether you’re trying to solve a tough problem, start a business, get attention for that business or write an interesting article, creative thinking is crucial. The process boils down to changing your perspective and seeing things differently than you currently do.

People like to call this “thinking outside of the box,” which is the wrong way to look at it. Just like Neo needed to understand that " there is no spoon" in the film The Matrix, you need to realize “there is no box” to step outside of.

You create your own imaginary boxes simply by living life and accepting certain things as “real” when they are just as illusory as the beliefs of a paranoid delusional. The difference is, enough people agree that certain man-made concepts are “real,” so you’re viewed as “normal.” This is good for society overall, but it’s that sort of unquestioning consensus that inhibits your natural creative abilities.


So, rather than looking for ways to inspire creativity, you should just realize the truth. You’re already capable of creative thinking at all times, but you have to strip away the imaginary mental blocks (or boxes) that you’ve picked up along the way to wherever you are today.

I like to keep this list of 10 common ways we suppress our natural creative abilities nearby when I get stuck. It helps me realize that the barriers to a good idea are truly all in my head.




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