Notes For Session 1 For Thomas Cook CPS

Andy Bayley - CPS Loughborough University August 2010 Page 1
Topic 1.1 Introduction

The style of the course will be based around Kolbs learning cycle. This essentially involves
looking at examples of problem solving techniques and then applying them in situ. This,
along, with the practical experience of the candidates provides best opportunity for applying
classroom taught techniques. It is also worth understanding the differing learning styles that
this model represents as this can help people to relate to others who may have differing
learning styles, allowing you to get over in differing ways the messages you want to deliver
during facilitated meetings and presentations.

Andy Bayley CPS Loughborough University
August 2010
KOLBS LEARNING CYCLE
KOLB D A (1984) Experiential Learning: experience as the source of learning and development New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall (0 13 295261 0)

CONCRETE EXPERIENCE
Concerned with something that has happened to you or that you have done. This is about
adopting your new ideas and putting into practice.
An activist prefers doing and experiencing
REFLECTIVE
Concerned with reviewing the event or experience in your mind and exploring what you did
and how you, and others, felt about it.
Reflector observes
ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALISATION
Concerned with developing an understanding of what happened by seeking more information
by researching and forming new ideas about ways of doing things in the future.
A theorist who wants to understand underlying reasons, concepts and relationships
ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION
Concerned with trying out the new ideas as a result of the learning from earlier experiences
and reflection.
A Pragmatist likes to have a go and try things to see if they work


The opening topic is Decision Making. However, making decisions is often the end point
of other related activity that we label problem solving or innovation or strategy
formulation. All of these concepts are inter-twined in business, and also in this module.

August 2010
As managers, we all . . . .
Take decisions
Solve problems
Contribute to strategy
setting
Create ideas
Innovate
Think !
Venezuelan school children
study Thinking as a subject
alongside maths, language etc.
How did you learn thinking?
How do you rate your thinking
skills ? (scale of 1 to 10)
2
Chris Marples 2006

Operational Research (OR) Departments existed in many large organisations in the past:
rather fewer survive today. Many OR departments were staffed by people, often with higher
level mathematics degrees, whose job it was to take difficult, messy business problems
faced by line managers, and seek optimal solutions based upon logical thinking and
mathematical models. The OR analyst would often work on given problems in the back
room, consulting only occasionally with the line manager client to clarify issues.

The solution that eventually emerged would be carried proudly back to the client, only to find
that it was dismissed on some point which seemed to the OR Analyst to be illogical or
irrational. It was this syndrome which led eventually to the closure of many OR departments.

The OR community has responded in recent times by developing soft OR techniques which
seek to develop solutions to the same problems while avoiding the backroom elite style. The
idea is that the OR consultant will have methods available to work directly with the wisdom
of the group of people engaged in problem solving. The consultant now aims to bring out
the best from the groups wisdom, rather than using his or her own knowledge of the problem.

Group problem solving and decision making has taken on a higher profile in consequence of
this change. There has been a shift from logical, numerate, orderly approaches of
management science, towards a broader view encompassing behavioural, sociological and
political influences upon decision making.


The changing nature of consultancy

As a second instance, management consultants have typically provided expertise into the
problem domain. Describing this approach as it relates to the strategic planning of
information systems (SISP), Michael Earl wrote:

The consultants often become the drivers of the exercise and therefore have substantial
influence on the recommendations. Users may judge [such] exercises as unreal and
high-level and as having excluded the managers who matter, namely themselves. IS
strategic plans may lose their credibility and never be fully initiated. The exercises and
recommendations may be forgotten. Often they are labelled the xyz strategy, where
xyz is the name of the consulting firm employed; in other words, these strategies are
rarely owned by the business.
Michael Earl, Experiences in Strategic Information Systems Planning MIS Quarterly 3/93.

Again, some management consultants are abandoning the expert role in favour of a process
control role, working with managers to help them formulate their own strategies.

Topic 1.2 Meetings

The fundamental method of group problem solving is the meeting; we bring people together
to provide overlapping domains of knowledge, and to promote creativity through people-
interactions. Unfortunately, we also introduce behavioural and psychological issues which do
not always operate for the good of the meeting outcome. It is the objective of soft decision
making techniques to optimise the result of group problem solving activity, by amplifying the
wisdom and thought processes of the group while minimising the negative aspects of
interactions. Methods, processes and sometimes, computer support, can be introduced to
achieve meeting efficiency and outcome effectiveness.

The Problem Domain and Individual Understanding

In resolving complex problems, it is likely that we need to assemble several people to ensure
that their collective knowledge and experience adequately covers the problem domain. We
may also want to ensure that all major stakeholders are engaged. The difficulty is that, the
more people we involve, the greater become the communications and behavioural problems
that can emerge. Research by Marsh and Simon suggests that 7 is an optimum size for a
problem solving group .

The Process Burger

Alongside the task to be performed within a meeting: the work, information and data,
content, getting on with the job, there are also considerations of process and group. Process
relates to the flow of activity, group methods, time allocations, roles, planning and the
meeting space. Group is to do with the baggage that individuals bring, conflicts, power
struggles, egos, skills, views aims and backgrounds. For effective meetings, the task has to be
performed, through effective process, while avoiding some of the traps associated with the
group.


The Process Burger
Process:

The structure: flow of activity; methods;
Time allocation; roles; planning; the meeting space

Task
the work; information; data; content; getting on with the job

Individuals; baggage; conflicts; power struggles; egos
Differing skills, views, aims, backgrounds

People & Group


Topic 1.3 Environment and Culture

Let us look at a model that describes what tends to happen when there is a problem that needs
to be addressed. We start with a process (any business process will do) that has a defined
capability. The resultant output of this process is a function of the capability and the time
spent working the process. The more time spent working, the more output that can be
achieved at a set capability/efficiency.

August 2010 4
Capability
investment erosion
Time Spent
working
Performance
Gap
Actual
Performance
Desired
Performance
Pressure to
do work
Work harder
Repenning & Sterman Californian Management Review Vol 43 No 4
Capability Trap How do you break the circle?

This actual output will normally be compared to some form of target e.g.financial budgetary
targets, daily /weekly product deliveries, delivery of a particular service level. Where a gap
exists in other words the output is less than expected, then pressure will be exerted to
increase the output. This normally means increasing the time spent working e.g. Overtime,
extra shifts, longer hours for staff/managers. This will manifest itself as extra output at similar
or reduced performance.

In other words the working harder syndrome. The advantage of this approach is its
immediacy - the direct link of the effort expended to the improved process output.

Does this sound familiar?

What are the drawbacks to this approach?


An alternative approach could be the working smarter syndrome
August 2010 5
Capability
investment
Actual
Performance
Performance
Gap
Work smarter
Pressure to
Improve
Capability
Time spent on
improvement
delay
Repenning & Sterman Californian Management Review Vol 43 No 4
Capability Trap How do you break the circle?

Once again we have a capability in a particular process which gives a resultant actual
performance. If we have a performance gap as before then this time we will increase the
pressure to improve the capability of the process; and will therefore increase the time spent on
improvement rather than spending the time working in the existing process. This may also
mean taking people away from their direct involvement in the process, effectively reducing
the current capacity (time spent) and putting them into an improvement team.

The time spent on improvement means we have invested in the capability and made some
improvement to it and this is the action that improves the output. The big disadvantage with
this is of course that the process output will not be increased immediately, in fact it could
quite easily be further reduced.

So what are the advantages of this approach?

Which approach represents the area you currently work within?

Can you think of any examples of either approach from your company?


Topic 1.4 Different types of problems

Very few problems have a clear answer.
Different Types of Problem
Society is generating too
much rubbish
Wicked problems
Management mess
No given problem
description
Not true or false
Many possible solutions
Many ways of defining the
problem
Etc., etc.
Prod1 Prod2 Prod3
Machine
12 7 5
Labour
8 8 10
Material
17 8 13
30 110
?
Chris Marples 2006

Very simple problems have one answer. (e.g. the triangle where the angle missing.) The next
example shows a more complex issue where some data is available to highlight where the
problem may exist e.g., lack of productivity on a particular production line or a production
process that is too costly. Whilst the problem is obvious the potential solution is not and may
require further data to help pin point where the actions lie.

The next problem is a good example of something that has no immediate obvious answer.
Indeed there may be many potential solutions each one being applicable to a particular
situation or environment. The issue is how do we get to a position where we can identify
some potential solutions?

Problem Complexity
August 2010 7
Working harder
can it be sustained?
may overcome simple problems without too many variables
doesnt attack root cause
What if the problem is complex?
What if the problem is new and not been seen before?
What if the problem is a result of a fundamental breakdown in the process?
Problem Solving Meetings
Meetings are the awkward social ritual that organisations put their people
through in the hope that they might productively collaborate.
Michael Schrange Shared Minds
When you assemble a number of people to have advantage of their joint
wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those people all their prejudics, their
passions, their errors of opinion , their local interests and selfish views. From
such an assembly can a perfect production be expected?!
Benjamin Franklin , Constitutional Convention Sept 15
th
1787


According to Ackoff (1981), managers are typically faced with a series of overlapping
problems which he calls a mess. Others have coined the term, wicked problems. The
objective is to tackle one problem without making others worse, and so produce an overall
improvement. In general, problems can be:

Solved to produce an optimum course of action
Resolved to produce a workable course of action
Dissolved to redefine or remove the problem

Friend and Hickling (1987) have developed thinking around Ackoffs Mess. In Planning
Under Pressure, Pergamon 1987, they consider that managers operate within todays realities
of confusion, uncertainty and inconsistency, and with pressures of turbulence, urgency,
complexity and overload. Faced with a need to make plans or take decisions, one can hope to
make progress through choosing strategically - working in one area without blocking off
options elsewhere.
August 2010
Planning Under Pressure Friend & Hickling
8
Todays
reality
Inconsistency
Confusion,
uncertainty
Making
plans
Making
decisions
Turbulence,
urgency
Complexity,
overload
Choosing
strategically
Making
progress
Chris Marples 2006

Over time the current problem becomes a different, perhaps smaller, future problem, but we
cannot hope to eliminate all problems. When time is available, it can be used to reduce
uncertainty by investigation, to seek guidance on policy, or to co-ordinate with others dealing
with related problems.


Hicks (2004, pp 19-20) turns to wicked problems, originally defined by Rittel and Webber
(1974), that are more typical of the issues that confront managers.

Wicked problems have the following features:

They do not have a definitive problem description

There is no certain way of knowing when you have reached the best solution

Their possible solutions are not true or false but somewhere between good and bad

There is no immediate or ultimate way of testing the merit of a solution

They have an infinite number of possible solutions

The problem situation shows no precise indications as to what are / are not permissible
ways of reaching a solution

Each problem is essentially unique

There are many ways of looking at (defining) the problem and each one suggests a
different direction in which we should perhaps look for a solution

Every wicked problem can be thought of as a symptom of another problem

There is seldom any opportunity to determine a solution by trial and error

It is usually imperative that we find a correct solution, preferably at the first attempt

Rittel and Webber (1974)

You may want to take a problem that you have faced in a work place and consider whether it
possesses the features specified by Rittel and Webber. The Spring Water problem overleaf is
an attempt to specify a wicked problem in just a few lines.

Exercise 1.

Form into groups of about seven people, in whatever way you see fit. Then find somewhere
to work, and tackle the following exercise as a group:

The Shepshed Spring Water Problem


In summary
August 2010
One of the more useful definitions of a PROBLEMis offered
by Eden, Jones and Sims (1983) which says we usually refer
to ourselves as having a problem if things are not as we
would like them to be, and we are not quite sure what to do
about it
The Business World Needs -
Not right answer seekers, but . . .
Mess resolvers
Handlers of complexity and uncertainty
People who know what to do when they dont
know what to do
12
Chris Marples 2006

Even the most ordered and best run companies face issues that are out of their immediate
control. Wicked problems are a way of life in todays business world! However, maybe they
can offer an opportunity for those who can deal with this ambiguity and be seen to offer
alternative solutions.


2.0 Creativity

We have seen how wicked problems require us to be capable of coming up with a number
of different solutions which may not have been initially obvious to us in the first instance.
This requires divergant thinking, an ability to keep an open mind and not be distracted or
confined by a particular solution or idea. We need to be able to identify as many solutions as
possible to allow us, at a later stage, to strategically choose those which best suit the problem,
the environment, the culture in which we work. Or, as Friend and Hickling identified, those
which do not preclude us from other options at a later stage.

August 2010
Two Sorts of Thinking
in which we contemplate barometers and buildings !
Analytical Creative
Logic Imagination
Unique or few answers Many possible
ideas & answers
Convergent Divergent
Vertical Lateral
13
Chris Marples 2006

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas Anon.

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have
Emile Chartier, French philosopher

Analytical thinking is characterised by mathematics and logic; by a search for unique or few
answers. It is a convergent process, in that there is a narrowing down from a number of
possibilities to an eventual solution. The snag is that, unless there is a richness in the ideas
under consideration, analytical thinking is likely to provide mundane solutions. The ideal
position is to diverge through creativity to produce many ideas, and to converge through
analysis to develop a number of solutions.

The alternative to analytical thinking is creative thinking. This is a divergent process,
leading from a blank sheet to a rich list of choices. The Western culture and educational
system tends to favour analytical thinking, but does little to foster or value creative thinking.
When in employment, the laughter, free thinking or contemplation which accompanies
creative thought is suspect, and so we tend towards the analytical.


August 2010
Two sorts of thinking
Analytical: logic, unique answer, convergent, vertical
Creative: imagination, many ideas, divergent, lateral
14
Analytical
thinking
Few
solutions
Creative
thinking
Many
ideas
Solution
Solution
Solution

We will see in the generic problem solving model we use (Sidney Parnes Model as defined
by Hicks 2004) that both convergant and divergant thinking is encouraged. Divergant to
create as many suitable solutions as possible, convergant to help choose between the options.
In the model this is represented diagrammatically in diamond shapes, representing this
divergent-convergent processes.
Andy Bayley CPS Loughborough University August 2010
Sidney Parnes Generic Problem Solving Model
21
The Mess
Info gathering
Problem
redefinition
Idea generation
Select
Solution finding
& development
Gaining acceptance
& implementation
Chris Marples 2006

The case of the empty soap box happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies.
The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty.
Immediately the management isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all
the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went
through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem.


Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution
monitors staffed by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line to
make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they
spent a large amount in doing so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company had the same problem, he came out
with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the line. As
each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

The moral of the story? Diverge before you converge. Get a number of ideas to work on,
before deciding which to develop. And, always look for simple solutions.

A variety of factors can have a negative influence on our ability to be creative. As we age, we
become less innovative. Sixteen hundred 5 year olds in the USA were given an innovation
test: 98% scored highly creative. The same children tested 5 years later showed only 30%
highly creative. By the age of 15, the proportion had dropped to 12%, and it is estimated
that by 25 years, it will be just 2%.

Creativity Blocks

Perceptual
Stereotyping, isolating the problem, tunnel vision, viewpoints, failure to use senses

Emotional
Need for security & order, fear of mistake or risk, lack of motivation, inability to
reflect, trying to solve too quickly, preference for judgement, lack of imagination.

Cultural
Being serious, reflection a waste of time, fun is for children, logic is better than
intuition, tradition better than change, taboos, management style, no support . . . .

Environmental
Distractions, monotony, discomfort, lack of communication

Intellectual
Inadequate problem solving skills, lack of information, inadequate means of
expression.
After Hicks (2004, p51 onwards)


There Are Many Correct Ways To Answer A Question R.L. Loeffelbein

A physics teacher at Washington University in St. Louis was about to give a student a zero for the
student's answer to an examination problem. The student claimed he should receive a perfect score, if
the system were not so set up against the student. Instructor and student agreed to submit to an
impartial arbiter, Dr. Alexander Calandra, who tells the story.

The examination problem was: Show how it is possible to estimate the height of a tall building with
the aid of a barometer. The student's answer was, Take the barometer to the top of the building,
attach a long rope to it, and lower the barometer to the ground. Then, bring it back up, measuring the
length of the rope.

I, as arbiter, pointed out that the student really had a strong case for full credit since he had answered
the problem completely and correctly. On the other hand, of course, full credit would contribute to a
high grade for the student in his physics course, and a high grade is supposed to certify that the student
knows some physics, a fact that his answer had not confirmed. So it was suggested that the student
have another try at answering the problem.

He was given six minutes to answer it, with the warning this time that the answer should indicate some
knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he had not written anything. Asked if he wished to
give up, he said no, that he had several answers and he was just trying to think which would be the
best. In the next minute he dashed off this answer. Take the barometer to the top of the building.
Lean over the edge of the roof, drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, using the
formula (which he noted), calculate the height of the building. At this point, I asked my colleague if
he gave up and he conceded. The student got nearly full credit.

Recalling that the student had said he had other answers, I asked him what they were. Well, he said,
you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the length
of its shadow, and length of the building's shadow, then use simple proportion to determine the height
of the building. And there is a very basic measurement method you might like. You take the
barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb, you mark off lengths of the barometer along
the wall. You then count the number of marks to get the height of the building in barometer units.

Of course, if you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string,
swing it as a pendulum. The height of the building can, in principle, be calculated from this.

And, he concluded, if you don't limit me to physics solutions, you can take the barometer to the
basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When he answers, you say, Mr. Superintendent, I
have here a fine barometer. If you will tell me the height of this building, I will give you this
barometer.

Finally, he admitted that he even knew the correct textbook answer -- measuring the air pressure at
the bottom and top of the building and applying a simple formula. He went on to say that he was so
fed up with college instructors trying to teach him how to think instead of showing the structure of the
subject matter, that he had decided to rebel.

The attribute listing method is very applicable here. When handed a barometer, there is an
assumption that the primary function of the instrument (indicate air pressure) must be used. When
looked at in a different way, finding new uses for the object (the barometer), we see that it has
monetary value, mass, height, and so on.


2.1 Physiology of Creativity
Andy Bayley CPS Loughborough University August 2010
PHYSIOLOGY OF CREATIVITY
15

Which title best reflects the subject? Why?

Who in the room feels that they are naturally creative? Would it surprise you to know we all
have latent ability. The real question is how do we recognize and release this creative talent
not only in others, during the meetings/facilitated sessions we run, but also in ourselves?

The work carried out by Sperry in the 50s and 60s was able to identify the physiological
processes that led to the different forms of thinking, in other words there were tangible
differences within the brain that created these thoughts . Therefore there must be ways of
exercising these areas to enable them to develop to their potential.

August 2010
Late 1950s and 1960s research by Roger W Sperry was finally honoured when he received a
Nobel Prize for medicine in 1981
This showed that that the right and left hemispheres of the human brain use contrasting
methods of information processing
Both modes are involved in high level functioning but each specialises in its own style they
can act in cooperative complementary way but retain their individual styles of thinking
In response to an event one half may jump in and dominate conscious awareness , whereas if
the other half came in it may have a differing or conflicting view
In some instances one response or the other may be suppressed and kept out of the
conscious awareness (this may be as a result of conditioning such as teaching and the
education someone receives)
In some instances both responses may be processed and both expressed
eg I hear the good words in the politicians speech but there is something about her I dont
like !!
16


August 2010
Left Hemisphere
Specialises in verbal , logical analytical thinking
It excels in reading, writing , arithmetic
It likes to name and categorise things
It tends to rely upon rules to reduce experience to concepts that are compatible
with its style of working
It prefers clear, un-ambiguous, sequential logical thought
It does not like paradox and ambiguity
LMODE RMODE
17

August 2010
Right Hemisphere
Specialises in visual, spatial perceptual information
It excels in creative processes
It tends to seek relationships between parts and searches for the way
parts fit together to form a whole
It prefers perceived information, searching for patterns and seeking spatial
order and visual fit
It can cope with paradox and ambiguity
Because of its quickness , complexity and nonverbal nature it is , by
definition , hard to put into words
LMODE RMODE
18

Which hemisphere do you think our education systems tends to encourage?


A good example of this latter style of thinking is the drive to work. Have you ever got to work
and not been able to remember anything about the journey? This is because the drive requires
requires rapid thought processing of information that is constantly changing. L mode is not
really suited to this as it tends to process information in a linear and verbal waythe car on
the left is approaching at 45.5 mph and will overtake in 3.5 seconds. This is far too slow for
all of the information processed when driving so the L mode bows out of the task and R mode
takes over.

The other factor to this is that because R mode is working whilst driving you will naturally
tend to be more creative. How many of you have good ideas driving to work or even day
dream? If you ever have been involved in a creative task, drawing, painting, music you will
have also been surprised how you forgot the time and became oblivious to things around you;
another example of being in R brain mode. So we can move to R mode, what we need are
triggers to do so.
August 2010
Creative processing is no ordinary activity
It may occur in stages
Each stage requiring the brain to shift gear from one mode to another
These shifts may create the Eureka Moments associated with invention
and innovation
5 stages of creativity as described by Getzel
FirstInsight Saturation Incubation The ah-ah Verification
It is not unusual to have a period of uneasiness or distress prior to an
insight or Eureka moment.
19

Earlier this morning in the introduction I mentioned that I would like you to think of the
learning points as we go through the course and in particular any aha moments you may
have had. Reflect for a moment on what we have talked about and write down, if any,
thoughts that have come to mind.


Unfortunately in this 2 day course we cannot delve any further into this topic but for those of
you who are interested I would strongly recommend one of the books on the reading list -
Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right Hand Side of the Brian. If you are prepared to spend
the time undergoing the exercises exactly as she lays them out then I can assure you that you
will surprise yourselves on the creative ability that you did not know you had. I can also
vouch for it being an extremely effective stress buster. As one of the side effects of using
the right hand side of the brain is this lack of awareness of time passing and being divorced
from the surroundings. So if you want to clear the mind of the latest worries then this can help
but please warn your partners at home they may not be pleased to see you go into a self
induced trance!

Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learnt. It empowers people by
adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity and
where appropriate profits.
Edward De Bono

Whether you believe you can, or whether you believe you can't, you're absolutely right.
Henry Ford

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Andy Bayley - CPS Loughborough University August 2010 Page 1

Topic 1.1 Introduction

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