How to Choose and Solve Problems Creatively
The Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard University (TECH) and Altran Technologies, an international technology consulting company, are co-sponsoring a workshop entitled "How to Choose and Solve Problems Creatively”. This workshop will be led by Professor David Weitz of Harvard and Dr. Tom Esselman of Altran. They will be joined by several outside speakers. The intent will be to provide graduate students and post-docs, as well as consultants from Altran, an overview of work that has been done on these topics, the experience of the leaders of the workshop, and a forum for active discussion of the experiences of the workshop participants. The objective of the workshop will be to improve the ability of the participants to choose, define, and solve problems and to explore how creativity can impact each of these. The success of the workshop will depend on the mutual creation of concepts by both the leaders and the participants. The sequence of classes is as follows. Unless otherwise noted, these classes will be held at Harvard starting at 5:00 PM. October 1 – Overall Introduction, the “Scientific Method” Discuss objectives and our expectations of the class. We will describe and discuss what is referred to as the “scientific method”. We will use this to describe the “living” nature of any flow chart used to describe problem solving, the iteration that is required during implementation, and the positive effects that can be gained but with risks associated with creating a box. October 10 – Creativity The topic will be personal creativity. Tom Saaty from the University of Pittsburgh will present this lecture. October 17 – Defining the Problem -- Creatively Discuss the application of a process to define problems. Demonstrate with product development how a problem is defined. A contrast between a straightforward activity (like product development) and research will be made. We will clearly differentiate between defining the problem and solving the problem. The “problem” box is not fixed. It should not constrain the quality of the solution, but should/may constrain the breadth of the solution. It may also lead to an improved definition of the problem. We want to solve the right problem, but solve it creatively. October 24 – Solving the Problem -- Creatively We will discuss the challenge and constraints to solving problems. We can also discuss the “standard” problem solving techniques that are simply defined as
“understand the problem, devise a plan of attack, carry out the plan, and examine the solution”. We can also discuss, with examples, the importance of modeling. We will have fun with examples. October 29 (4:00 PM) – Problem Solving in a Team Synectics is an Altran Group company that provides “innovation consulting”. They have a technique that uses a team to help create solutions to problems. They will present this class. November 7 – Creativity Applications Outside speakers on creativity, problem definition, and problem solving. One will be from science and one will be from outside science. The science representative will be Professor George Whitesides from Harvard. The “outside-science” representative will be Sally Mars from McCann-Erickson -- a New York based advertising and communications firm. Weeks of November 11 and 18 – Working in Teams Exercise We will break the class into smaller groups – three to five each. With each group, we will introduce the concepts related to working together in a team to solve a problem. We will do a sample problem with the group that will be videotaped for discussion at the last class. December 5 – Wrap-Up/Applications We will provide feedback from the group problem solving experiences and generally discuss solving problems individually and as a team. We also want to discuss the overall application of what we’ve been discussing.