An overwhelming majority of CEOs cite innovation as a key component of growth plans for their businesses.  Yet, at the same time, most firms bemoan the lack of creative ideas and new products to generate growth through innovation.  All of us are born as curious and creative people, but we seem to lose the ability to apply innovative solutions to problems in the workplace – and to generate that much desired growth from new product sales.

There are several obstacles that hold us back from creative idea generation.  While not inclusive of all roadblocks to innovation, we will address a few of the most common obstacles to creative problem-solving here.

The “Right” Answer

Through our formal education systems, we have been conditioned to seek and identify the one, “right” answer.  We know that always, always, always two and two equals four (2+2=4).  The answer is not 3.5 or 4.2.  The right answer is exactly, and always, four!

Our formal education system teaches us that cats are not purple, Washington was the first president of the United States of America, and that the Nile River runs through Egypt.  Responses on tests in the fourth grade that guess Jefferson as the first president or that the Nile River is in South America are/were met with angry, red checkmarks and low test scores.  (As they should be.)

Even in college, as we learned about engineering, marketing, and psychology, we were still taught that there is a “right” answer.  However, we were also taught to recognize some trade-offs.  The cost of the heat exchanger should be minimized so we may design the equipment with standard metallurgy.  The advertising campaign should reach a specific, target audience so the media should be limited to print advertising in a popular fitness magazine.

Creative thinking is most productive in problem-solving when we acknowledge that there is no single, “right” answer.  We are not searching for facts (the name of the first president or the location of a river).  Instead, there may be multiple ways to solve a real-life problem.  Some solutions may be cheaper and others might offer higher reliability, while yet other solutions yield a better quality product.  During the idea generation stage of new product development (NPD), we suspend our formal education driving to a “right” answer and investigate trade-offs.  To generate a truly innovative product or service, we must seek answers that may be flawed yet allow us to look at the problem from a new perspective.

For example, a colleague of mine once abandoned all the “right” answers to solve a fluid flow problem in a chemical plant.  The “right” answers addressed pipe diameter and pressure.  Instead, he found that the flow changed throughout the course of the day and was stable only at night.  Creative thinking identified the problem as sun shining on the pipe, warming it, with a resulting change in physical properties that caused the flow rate differential.  No textbook could have provided this solution!

Cognitive Bias

Cognitive bias is a fancy term meaning that humans are habitual.  We prefer the familiar and tend to be overly optimistic about our own performance.  Cognitive bias can be a roadblock to creative thinking by allowing errors to creep into our judgment and stay there.

For instance, studies (PM Journal) have shown that project manager exhibit substantial cognitive bias via unnecessary optimism to meet schedule deadlines.  When a 14-month project is shown to be two months behind schedule, a vast majority of project managers conclude they can still complete the project on time – even at month 12!

While optimism is a desired trait for managers, cognitive bias can lead to serious errors in project planning and product development.  Optimism by itself will not bring the project in on time.  Nor will optimism generate revenue from a new product that is a dud in the marketplace.

You can counter cognitive bias in creative thinking by a healthy dose of “devil’s advocate” and realism.  Ask for a detailed plan of how the project will get back on schedule.  Check the market research for projected sales of the new product.  In many cases, creative problem-solving is better served through an honest assessment of the situation than glossing over a potential issue.

Fear

Finally, creative thinking is often hampered by fear.  Most of us fear being wrong or looking silly (though, I seem to manage latter more than I’d like).  We are inhibited by societal pressures to conform and within many companies, the culture to conform is stifling creative problem-solving.  I can still recall the first time I wore a skirt to work.  Secretaries often wore dresses but the culture dictated that female engineers wear slacks or their fire retardant uniforms.  In challenging the accepted culture, I had to challenge my own fear of being ostracized.  I feared my intellect would be questioned or disregarded if I didn’t “dress the part”.

In a brainstorming session, we have to allow people to “wear skirts” – maybe not literally, but maybe so if it helps your team break out of habits without fear.  Participants in creative brainstorming sessions must be free to express ideas and half-formed thoughts.  These small nuggets can be built upon and refined to generate innovative product solutions.  Keep in mind that your customers probably don’t care about the inner culture at your corporation or what kind of clothes engineers wear.  Your customers care about cutting edge solutions to their most pressing problems.

Overcoming Innovation Roadblocks

Companies need innovative solutions in order to beat the competition to attain aggressive growth targets.  But creative problem-solving is hampered by several roadblocks.  While we have been trained and educated to find the “right” answer, innovative new products and services are born from an amalgam of solutions that may lie outside of formal application of rigid rules and theories from a pure textbook perspective.

Creative and innovative thinking is also limited by our own cognitive biases.  We habitually consider the same, tried and true solutions to problems.  We optimistically assume a positive outcome, regardless of the data.  A successful innovative new product will be generated and deliver revenue with realistic approaches to solving customer problems.  Optimism cannot generate new product sales if the product doesn’t have creative features and attributes that truly address customer needs.

Finally, our own emotions present obstacles and roadblocks to creativity.  We don’t want to be judged or criticized for a “crazy idea”.  During brainstorming sessions, teams must suspend reality for a bit to search for the nugget of insanity that can be converted to a golden product idea.  After all, who would have thought 20 years ago that we could carry an entire set of encyclopedias in our pocket?

To learn more about creative thinking and problem-solving, please join us for New Product Development Professional (NPDP), Six Sigma, or Agile training.  Contact me at info@simple-pdh.com or 281-280-8717 for more information. At Simple-PDH, we want to make it simple for you to study, learn, and earn and maintain your professional certifications.

 

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