eBook downloads, eBook resources & eBook authors
The author presents 101 techniques essential for solving problems creatively. The book describes the traditional problem-solving process as practiced by business people for many years. It then discusses how problem solving can be made more creative. The book will stimulate creativity and innovation in individuals and groups.
The author presents 101 techniques essential for solving problems creatively. The book describes the traditional problem-solving process as practiced by business people for many years. It then discusses how problem solving can be made more creative. The book will stimulate creativity and innovation in individuals and groups.
Employees who possess problem-solving skills are highly valued in today?s competitive business environment. The question is how can employees learn to deal in innovative ways with new data, methods, people, and technologies? In this groundbreaking book, Arthur VanGundy -- a pioneer in the field of idea generation and problem solving -- has compiled 101 group activities that combine to make a unique resource for trainers, facilitators, and human resource professionals. The book is filled with idea-generation activities that simultaneously teach the underlying problem-solving and creativity techniques involved. Each of the book?s 101 engaging and thought-provoking activities includes facilitator notes and advice on when and how to use the activity. Using 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving will give you the information and tools you need to: Generate creative ideas to solve problems. Avoid patterned and negative thinking. Engage in activities that are guaranteed to spark ideas. Use proven techniques for brainstorming with groups. Order your copy today.
The fun and simple problem-solving guide that took Japan by storm Ken Watanabe originally wrote Problem Solving 101 for Japanese schoolchildren. His goal was to help shift the focus in Japanese education from memorization to critical thinking, by adapting some of the techniques he had learned as an elite McKinsey consultant. He was amazed to discover that adults were hungry for his fun and easy guide to problem solving and decision making. The book became a surprise Japanese bestseller, with more than 370,000 in print after six months. Now American businesspeople can also use it to master some powerful skills. Watanabe uses sample scenarios to illustrate his techniques, which include logic trees and matrixes. A rock band figures out how to drive up concert attendance. An aspiring animator budgets for a new computer purchase. Students decide which high school they will attend. Illustrated with diagrams and quirky drawings, the book is simple enough for a middleschooler to understand but sophisticated enough for business leaders to apply to their most challenging problems.
CB Insights study suggests that 42% of startups fail because they do not identify the right need, in other words: there is no need for the startup or product in the first place. The issue here is the lack of tools used to generate the ideas and validate those. Bottom line, this issue is about a structured approach to idea generation and problem-solving. Do you know that most people engaged in collective problem solving spend a lot of their valuable time in meetings, discussing ideas, which they think eventually do not add value to product or startup? Harvard Business Review survey suggests that 71% of managers feel that meetings do not help accomplish much, as they do not have specific templates and exercises to guide specific outcomes with engagement from participants. THE SOLUTION BOOK is going to help you in experimenting with ideas effectively by providing you steps on how to create a framework for coming up with new ideas and products, considering a variety of views, develop teamwork and collaboration keeping you better focused on your results and outcomes. The solution book consists of 101 easy to follow techniques on problem-solving and ideation. Startup, innovation and venture failures are expensive and justified only by lack of tools and data for analysis. The book caters to all stages in your lifecycle as a creative thinker and problem solver with tools to optimize your resources, go beyond conventional solutions and experiment with divergent (out of the box) thinking thanks to Elina Kallas, a researcher on entrepreneurship education with European Commission and in entrepreneurship at Harvard University, and Vidyangi Patil, an interdisciplinary professional of Biomedical Engineering with an extensive startup and research experience.
This popular book shows students how to increase their power to analyze problems and to comprehend what they read. First, it outlines and illustrates the method that good problem solvers use in attacking complex ideas. Then, it provides practice in applying these methods to a variety of comprehension and reasoning questions. Books on the improvement of thinking processes have tended to be complicated and less than useful, but the authors of this renowned text emphasize a simple but effective approach. The "Whimbey Method" of teaching problem solving is now recognized as an invaluable means of teaching people to think. Problems are followed by their solutions, presented in easy-to-follow steps. This feature permits students to work without supervision, outside the classroom. As students work through the book they will see a steady improvement in their analytical thinking skills, and will develop confidence in their ability to solve problems--on tests; in academic courses; and in any occupations that involve analyzing, untangling, or comprehending knotty ideas. By helping students to become better problem solvers, this book can assist students in achieving higher scores on tests commonly used for college and job selection, such as: * Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) * Graduate Record Examination (GRE) * ACT Work Keys * Terra Nova * Law School Admission Test (LSAT) * Wonderlic Personnel Test * United States Employment Service General Aptitude Test Battery * Civil Service Examination New in the 6th edition: A totally new chapter--"Meeting Academic and Workplace Standards: How This Book Can Help"--describes changes in the educational system in the past 20 years and shows how the techniques taught in this book relate to the new educational standards and tests. Changes throughout the book reflect current educational and social realities: the names of some characters have been changed to represent more accurately the cross-section of students attending today's schools; dates in some problems have been changed; in other problems the technology referred to has been updated.
This accessible text provides a lively introduction to the essential skills of creative problem solving. Using extensive case-studies and examples from a range of business situations, it explores various problem-solving theories and techniques, illustrating how these can be used to solve a range of management problems. Thoroughly revised and redesigned, this new edition retains the accessible and imaginative approach to problem-solving skills of the first edition. Contents include: * blocks to creativity and how to overcome them * key techniques including lateral thinking, morphological analysis and synectics * computer-assisted problem solving * increased coverage of group problem-solving techniques and paradigm shift. As creativity is increasingly recognized as a key skill for successful managers, this book will be welcomed as a comprehensive introduction for students and practising managers alike.
More than 82 per cent of companies believe creativity directly impacts results, yet few of us understand how it comes about or how to put it into practice. Some people say that creativity is about thinking outside the box, while others believe it is about being creative inside the box; but what if there is no box? The Creative Thinking Handbook argues that we need to identify and remove the 'box' around our thinking, so we canunlock unlimited streams of creativity for professional and business success. This book offers an integrated system of personalized insights, along with clear, practical tools and strategies - including the tried-and-trusted Solution Finder model. The authors show you how to develop your creative problem-solving skills to make better decisions with an individualized step-by-step strategy. Based on long-term research and testing of the creative thinking process, The Creative Thinking Handbook helps you generate more ideas and find brilliant solutions for any professional challenge.
Why isn’t everyone creative? Why doesn’t education foster more ingenuity? Why is expertise often the enemy of innovation? Bestselling creativity expert Michael Michalko shows that in every ?eld of endeavor — from business and science to government, the arts, and even day-to-day life — natural creativity is limited by the prejudices of logic and the structures of accepted categories and concepts. Through step-by-step exercises, illustrated strategies, and inspiring real-world examples, he shows readers how to liberate their thinking and literally expand their imaginations by learning to synthesize dissimilar subjects, think paradoxically, and enlist the help of the subconscious mind. He also reveals the attitudes and approaches that diverse geniuses share — and anyone can emulate. Fascinating and fun, Michalko’s strategies facilitate the kind of lightbulb-moment thinking that changes lives — for the better.
