Creative problem solving helps teams generate and develop novel and useful ideas when challenges are complex, unclear or feel stuck.
Innovation can be thought of as value produced from creative ideas. In other words, there can be creativity without innovation, but there can be no innovation without creativity. Our creative problem solving toolkit takes you through the three stages of clarifying the challenge, generating and selecting ideas and taking ideas forward for implementation.
Download the full Creative Problem Solving Toolkit for more detail on the tools: Creative Problem Solving Toolkit
You can view all the videos available as part of the Creative Problem Solving Toolkit here.
Stage 1: Clarify the challenge
Understanding what problem are we trying to solve is an important first step to make sure we are solving the right problem! The key output is a really clearly defined problem statement usually in the form of a question: “How might we…”
Key tools include:
- Web of abstraction to explore the problem at different levels, from abstract to concrete.
- Boundary examination to surface assumptions and refine the language of the problem.
- You can also use tools like MoSCoW (must do-should do-could do-won’t do) to agree what success looks like. Think about setting a direction rather than a destination so you have the flexibility to adjust along the way.
Once you have a clear, shared problem statement and agreement that it’s a problem worth solving, it’s time to move onto generating ideas.
Stage 2: Generate and select ideas
At this stage we want to generate a wide range of ideas (quantity over quality) that we can then carefully select the most promising ones to develop further.
This stage separates idea generation from idea selection. New ideas are often fragile and need space before judgement.
Key tools include:
- Lotus Blossom to rapidly generate a large number of structured ideas. Download a Lotus Blossom template.
- TRIZ, to challenge assumptions and flatten hierarchy. TRIZ is one of many tools called Liberating Structures which are designed to spark collaborative, inclusive and innovative conversations.
- Many other tools are in the full Creative Problem Solving Toolkit.
Once you have your ideas it’s time to select some for further development. Watch our video on how to choose what ideas to take forward. Want to find out more? Watch this video from our colleague Kate Phillips about using SUN and RAIN to grow ideas in the creative greenhouse.
Subscribe to our QualiTea podcast. Each episode is a short, informal chat between Sarah and Becca, focusing on one simple improvement tool. They’ll use relatable examples and talk about how you might actually use it in your day-to-day work to help you think a bit differently about a problem. Not in theory, in real life.
Stage 3: Plan for implementation
In the last stage you are strengthening selected ideas so they can be tested, developed or taken forward into the next phase of the innovation or improvement journey.
Key tools include:
- ALUO – compare ideas by Advantages, Limits, Unique qualities and Overcoming limitations. Download the ALUO worksheet.
- Concept creation and development – clarify the idea and test it with users or stakeholders. Download the concept development template.
- Business case – where required, make the case for resource or support. More information on writing business cases is available to download: Business case slides.
Acknowledgements
The toolkit has built on the work of others: Creative Problem Solving Group, Buffalo; One Step Beyond, Consulting; the Open University B822 module on Creativity, Innovation and Change; and Bluegreen Learning. It has been synthesised by Dr Rob Sheffield from Bluegreen Learning, and modified for use in healthcare by the West of England Academy.
These tools are part of an approach called Design Thinking and you can find out more by reading the Cambridge Elements of Improving Quality and Safety in Healthcare Design Creativity and the NHS design principles.
