FROM THE BOOKSHELF

ANDREW RUPPEL, Feature Editor, McIntire School of Commerce,
University of Virginia

Seek, Find, and Ye Shall Solve

by Andrew Ruppel, Feature Editor, McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia

In recent Decision Line columns, Andrew Vazsonyi has reminded us to explore and exploit idea-generation techniques and other aspects of creativity. Other DSI Fellows have similarly urged that more effort be given to creativity instruction in support of academic training in problem solving and decision making. Harvey Brightman published Group Problem Solving in 1988 (Business Publ. Div., Georgia State Univ.). In 1991, James Evans published Creative Thinking in the Decision and Management Sciences (South-Western). Both make for excellent supplementary reading for DSS courses. The fields of creativity and discovery are indeed fascinating and new books and centers offering creativity enhancement training continue to appear. Here are two recent volumes reflecting this interest.

Distinguished Professor of Management Science at the University of Colorado, Dan Couger is well known as an information systems specialist. It is from this perspective that he comes at the question of creativity. His examination of the literature revealed sparse coverage of creativity in support of information systems efforts, and he detected a gap that needed to be filled. His appealing book helps to fill that gap.

As do most authors writing on a `well-traveled' topic, Couger puts his own spin on creativity frameworks and terminology. Thus his 4-P's Model of Creativity, presented in Venn Diagram format, covers: People, Process, Product, and Press. The latter "P" borrowed, he says, from the field of education, where it apparently refers to the interaction of humans and their environment. Herbert Simon's Intelligence =>> Design =>> Choice is acknowledged as a benchmark schema, but Couger feels it doesn't do enough to suggest techniques for stimulating creativity. His proposed five-step Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Methodology involves a familiar sequence: Problem Delineation, Fact-Finding, Idea Generation, Idea Evaluation, and Plan Implementation. (He folds opportunity identification into the initial step of problem definition.) Each step is detailed in its own chapter. Cognizant of the non-linear manner in which these steps actually take place in the real world, Couger organizes them graphically into a pentastar of bidirectional arrows. However the more recurring graphical theme is one of a set of spreading `vectors' necking down in resolution, thereby giving image to the notion that each problem-solving stage involves divergent thinking followed by convergent thinking. This binary flavor is reflected throughout his discussions, e.g., he picks up on Brightman's distinction between disturbance problems vs. entrepreneurial problems.

Unless I missed them, Couger surprisingly discusses only one software application intended to foster creativity and decision making: the Management Information and Decision Support (MIDS) system at Lockheed-Georgia. Certainly there are packages on the market purporting to aid creative thinking. An assessment of them, perhaps presented in an appendix, would be a useful addition to this volume. The omission is surprising, given the author's starting point for putting together this book.

The book's 13 chapters are grouped into three sections, followed by a useful appendix summarizing 22 techniques for fostering creativity. The first section provides an overview to the field of creativity. The second section details the five steps of Couger's approach and the final section offers guidance on improving the setting for creative efforts and one's individual skills. In the appendix, each previously discussed technique is summarized in terms of procedures for use plus examples. A matrix at the beginning of the appendix classifies each technique as to its group vs. individual applicability, as well as whether it is analytical or intuitive in character. There's an even split of 11 analytical techniques and 11 intuitive techniques, but group creativity stimulation techniques out-number those for individuals 22 to 19. It is readily apparent from the organization and format that the author intends the book to serve as a text for a college courseþsuch as the one he teaches at Colorado. And, except for the unimaginative end-of-chapter exercises, it makes for a highly recommended text.

How does it stack up in terms of the criteria, namely, novelty and functionality, which the author himself recommends (in Chap. 9) for use in evaluating the creativity of products? The book is very conventional in its chapter organization, but is effectively illustrated and attractively laid out. Each chapter cleverly ends with a patent drawing. The patent document excerpts range from the sublime (the internal combustion engine, Edwin Land's Polaroid camera) to the ridiculous (horse tail lights). Nevertheless, the book displays none of the visual flamboyance that characterized Don Fabun's series for Kaiser Aluminum, or the 1992 IBM-sponsored video series on creativity. No block-buster concepts are presented. The end-of-chapter exercises (what instructors would eagerly seek out) are mainly disappointingly pedestrian questions, e.g., "Why is problem definition so important?". So, on the criterion of novelty, I'd score the book low to medium.

On the criterion of functionality, however, I'd give it a very high rating. Each chapter is thoughtfully developed. The literature on creativity has been carefully examined and tied together. The appendix offers a handy compilation of techniques. Too bad no overall bibliography is offered (chapter references are consolidated at the back of the book).

Couger's book is part of the publisher's Decision Making in Operations Management series (Paul Gray is the series editor), but it doesn't deal with operations management, and has only one page reference on decision making per se. As mentioned at the outset, the book's focus is on creativity in support of systems analysis and design.

For another book, one with broader ambitions but the same basic message, consider the following.

This volume represents a distinct contrast to Couger's. Aiming their work at the managerial audience rather than the academic, prime authors Nadler and Habino pulled in a professional writer (John Farrell) to help out. Some readers will recognize Gerald Nadler as a former Southern Cal professor and president of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. He and Shozo Habino (a Japanese professor and consultant) run the Center for Breakthrough Thinking. Their collective view is that the conventional problem solving model is limited and collapses when attempting to deal with today's problems. What is needed now is (you guessed it), a paradigm shift. Messrs. Nadler and Habino would like you to shift to their Full-Spectrum Thinking paradigm, which turns out to be their previously touted Breakthrough Thinking turned up a notch. Another label they use is "multi-thinking." No, this is not an attempt to ride the current multicultural wave with their paradigm `ship.' Rather, this is but a reminder to consider apparent problems from many points of view and to be willing to question assumptions.

The slickness of a management self-help-book writing style aside, there are some stimulating ideas presented in this book. For example, there is the notion of developing not just a solution, but developing the `solution after next.' To do this requires harder thinking about the future, both in terms of consequences and capabilities, but it "gives direction to near-term solutions and infuses them with larger purposes." There is a useful summary (Chap. 4) dealing with the history of ways of thinkingþboth Western and Oriental. The book's 12 chapters are equally grouped into four parts: Current Assumptions about Thinking; History of Thinking and Solution Finding; Full Spectrum Thinking; and, Translating Full Spectrum Thinking into Practice. Readers can quickly get the gist of the authors' message in the 28-page introduction. End-of-chapter references are provided, but no full bibliography.

Overall, however, the book seems to spend too many pages to develop and justify the authors' approach. Their main criticism is that Conventional Thinking (which they also call The Research Approach) errs in focusing initially on data collection instead of focusing on an initial articulation of purpose. Few decision scientists would quibble with that. Just as there are too many words in this almost 500-page book, there are too few graphics. In fact, there is only oneþa kind of response-profile dramatizing, in an obviously biased way, the good-idea generation power of their Full-Spectrum Thinking technique over that of Conventional Thinking. Nadler and Habino might have been better served if they had used an editor rather than a writer to package their ideas on creativity and problem solving. n

Dr. Andrew Ruppel
Monroe Hall
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Voice mail: 804-924-3867
Fax: 804-924-7074
e-mail: acr2y@virginia.edu