Difficult problems, creative solutions

To find creative solutions, it is not enough to know the technical vocabulary of the other experts involved. Misunderstandings are often considered to be communication problems, but they can mostly be explained by the difficult process of knowledge integration. 

Safety and loss prevention professionals working with vendors and others have developed exceptionally creative solutions to many difficult problems, a process that has ultimately led to creating a safer and more healthful work environment for employees. Discussed here are just a few of the creative ideas that have saved lives and made American jobs safer. 

In order to find unique, creative solutions to difficult challenges that were not resolved by past tried and true techniques, one must get away from the conventional state of mind that is often unimaginative, frustrating, repetitive, and negative. The nature of some problems tends to invite unimaginative suggestions and attempts only to use past approaches. 

To solve difficult problems and find creative solutions, our present thinking paradigm and process must change. Gerald Nadler and Shozo... 

Much of your life, both personal and professional, will involve problem solving. Most likely, the more creative you are at solving problems, the more effective and successful you will be. Chemists are usually excellent problem solvers because they get a lot of practice. Chemical problems are frequently very complicated—there is usually no neat and tidy solution. Often it is difficult to know where to begin. In response to this dilemma, a chemist makes an educated guess (formulates a hypothesis) and then tests it to see if the proposed solution correctly predicts the observed behavior of the system. This process of trial and error is virtually a way of life for a chemist. Chemists rarely solve a complex problem in a straightforward, elegant manner. More commonly, they poke and prod the problem and make progress only in fits and starts. 

The team develops up to five serious questions that may encompass large parts of the attributes above. These questions should be difficult and allow the supplier to be creative in their solutions to the problems. As these questions are being developed, the team needs to think about what the answers to the questions will tell them about the supplier. The purpose of these questions is to help the team find the supplier that will best fit the compatty. 

It is not difficult to identify creative engineers since they are the ones who come forward with new and unusual solutions to problems. When the characteristics and attributes of more creative people are identified, they are found to correspond to Fig. 12. 1. Blocks to creativity are given inFig. 12.2. A personality favorable toward creativity may be developed by moving in Ihe direction of Fig. 12.1 and away from Fig. 12.2. Of course, the earlier this... 

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