Radically Increasing Your Reading Speed
Speed Reading can help you to read and understand written information much more quickly. This makes it an essential skill in any environment where you have to master large volumes of information quickly, as is the norm in fast-moving professional environments. What's more, it's a key technique to learn if you suffer from "information overload", because it helps you to become much more discriminating about the information that you consume.
The Key Insight
The most important trick about speed reading is to know what information you want from a document before you start reading it. If you only want an outline of the issue that the document discusses, then you can skim the document quickly and extract only the essential facts. If you need to understand the real detail of the document, then you need to read it slowly enough to gain the full understanding you need.
You will get the greatest time savings from speed reading by learning to skim excessively detailed documents, although the techniques you'll learn will help you improve the speed of all the reading you do.
Technical Issues
Even when you know how to ignore irrelevant detail, there are other technical improvements you can make to your reading style which will increase your reading speed.
Most people learn to read the way young children read – either letter-by-letter, or word-by-word. As an adult, this is probably not the way you read now: Just think about how your eye muscles are moving as you read this. You will probably find that you are fixing your eyes on one block of words, then moving your eyes to the next block of words, and so on. You are reading blocks of words at a time, not individual words one-by-one. You may also notice that you do not always go from one block to the next: sometimes you may move back to a previous block if you are unsure about something.
A skilled reader will read many words in each block. He or she will only dwell on each block for an instant, and will then move on. Only rarely will the reader's eyes skip back to a previous block of words. This reduces the amount of work that the reader's eyes have to do. It also increases the volume of information that can be assimilated in a given period of time.
A poor reader will become bogged down, spending a lot of time reading small blocks of words. He or she will skip back often, losing the flow and structure of the text, and confusing his or her overall understanding of the subject. This irregular eye movement makes reading tiring. Poor readers tend to dislike reading, and they may find it harder to concentrate, and understand written information.
How to Use Tool
Speed reading aims to improve reading skills by:
Increasing the number of words read in each block.
Reducing the length of time spent reading each block.
And reducing the number of times your eyes skip back to a previous sentence.
These are explained below:
Increasing the number of words in each block:
This needs a conscious effort. Try to expand the number of words that you read at a time: With practice, you'll find you read faster. You may also find that you can increase the number of words in each block by holding the text a little further from your eyes. The more words you can read in each block, the faster you will read!
Reducing fixation time:
The minimum length of time needed to read each block is probably only a quarter of a second. By pushing yourself to reduce the time you take, you will get better at picking up information quickly. Again, this is a matter of practice and confidence.
Reducing skip-back:
To reduce the number of times that your eyes skip back to a previous sentence, run a pointer along the line as you read. This could be a finger, or a pen or pencil. Your eyes will follow the tip of your pointer, smoothing the flow of your reading. The speed at which you read using this method will largely depend on the speed at which you move the pointer.
You will be able to increase your reading speed a certain amount on your own by applying these speed reading techniques.
What you don't get out of self-study is the use of specialist reading machines and the confidence gained from successful speed-reading – this is where a good one-day course can revolutionize your reading skills.
Key points:
By speed reading you can read information more quickly. You may also get a better understanding of it, as you will hold more of it in short term memory.
To improve the speed of your reading, read more words in each block and reduce the length of time spent reading each block. Use a pointer to smooth the way your eyes move and reduce skip-back.
The techniques in this section help you to manage information better. By using them you will be able to improve:
Your reading skills, so that you can find the information you need quickly and easily
The way you make notes, so that they become clear and easy to understand, and quick to review
Your review techniques, so that you can keep information fresh in your mind.
These techniques will help you to assimilate information quickly. This may involve keeping yourself up-to-date on events within your field, absorbing information within reports or learning specialist information needed to complete a project.
These are also very useful tools for mastering course material where you are studying for exams.
They work particularly well in conjunction with the mnemonics described in the Mind Tools Memory Techniques section – used together these two sets of tools will give you a formidable advantage in organising and remembering information. This is often what exams are about.
Techniques discussed are:
How to take notes effectively - Mind Maps
Fully absorbing written information - SQ3R
Speed Reading
Reading faster by thinking what to read - Reading Strategies
Keeping information fresh in your mind - Review Techniques
Learn in a way that suits you - Learning Styles
The Conscious Competence Ladder - Making learning a happier experience
Mind Maps are powerful tools for recording and organizing information. They do this in a format that is easy to review. Once you understand and start using Mind Maps, you will never again want to take notes using conventional techniques.
The next three techniques (SQ3R, Speed Reading and use of Reading Strategies) help you to assimilate and understand written information quickly and efficiently.
The section on Review Techniques will help you to keep information that you have already learned alive in your mind.
Finally, the article on Learning Styles will not only help you develop the ways in which you can learn, but you'll be able to tailor what you do so that others can learn from you more effectively.
Your reading skills, so that you can find the information you need quickly and easily
The way you make notes, so that they become clear and easy to understand, and quick to review
Your review techniques, so that you can keep information fresh in your mind.
These techniques will help you to assimilate information quickly. This may involve keeping yourself up-to-date on events within your field, absorbing information within reports or learning specialist information needed to complete a project.
These are also very useful tools for mastering course material where you are studying for exams.
They work particularly well in conjunction with the mnemonics described in the Mind Tools Memory Techniques section – used together these two sets of tools will give you a formidable advantage in organising and remembering information. This is often what exams are about.
Techniques discussed are:
How to take notes effectively - Mind Maps
Fully absorbing written information - SQ3R
Speed Reading
Reading faster by thinking what to read - Reading Strategies
Keeping information fresh in your mind - Review Techniques
Learn in a way that suits you - Learning Styles
The Conscious Competence Ladder - Making learning a happier experience
Mind Maps are powerful tools for recording and organizing information. They do this in a format that is easy to review. Once you understand and start using Mind Maps, you will never again want to take notes using conventional techniques.
The next three techniques (SQ3R, Speed Reading and use of Reading Strategies) help you to assimilate and understand written information quickly and efficiently.
The section on Review Techniques will help you to keep information that you have already learned alive in your mind.
Finally, the article on Learning Styles will not only help you develop the ways in which you can learn, but you'll be able to tailor what you do so that others can learn from you more effectively.
A powerful methodology for creative problem-solving
Projects of all kinds frequently reach a point where as much analysis as possible has been carried out, but the way forward is still unclear. Progress seems blocked, and if the project team is to move forward, it must develop creative solutions to the problems it faces.
You'll already know about techniques such as brainstorming, which can help with this sort of situation. However, this type of approach, which depends on intuition and the knowledge of the members of the team, tends to have unpredictable and unrepeatable results. What's more, a huge range of possible solutions can be missed, simply because they're outside the experience of the project team.
TRIZ is a problem solving methodology based on logic, data and research, not intuition. It draws on the past knowledge and ingenuity of many thousands of engineers to accelerate the project team's ability to solve problems creatively. As such, TRIZ brings repeatability, predictability, and reliability to the problem-solving process with its structured and algorithmic approach.
About TRIZ
"TRIZ" is the (Russian) acronym for the "Theory of Inventive Problem Solving." G.S. Altshuller and his colleagues in the former USSR developed the method between 1946 and 1985. TRIZ is an international science of creativity that relies on the study of the patterns of problems and solutions, not on the spontaneous and intuitive creativity of individuals or groups. More than three million patents have been analyzed to discover the patterns that predict breakthrough solutions to problems, and these have been codified within TRIZ.
TRIZ is spreading into corporate use across several parallel paths - it is increasingly common in Six Sigma processes, in project management and risk management systems, and in organizational innovation initiatives.
Generalized Solutions
TRIZ research began with the hypothesis that there are universal principles of creativity that are the basis for creative innovations, and that advance technology. The idea was that if these principles could be identified and codified, they could be taught to people to make the process of creativity more predictable. The short version of this is:
Somebody someplace has already solved this problem (or one very similar to it.) Today, creativity involves finding that solution and adapting it to this particular problem.
The three primary findings of the last 65 years of research are as follows:
Problems and solutions are repeated across industries and sciences. By classifying the "contradictions" (see later) in each problem, you can predict good creative solutions to that problem.
Patterns of technical evolution tend to be repeated across industries and sciences.
Creative innovations often use scientific effects outside the field where they were developed.
Much of the practice of TRIZ consists of learning these repeating patterns of problems-solutions, patterns of technical evolution and methods of using scientific effects, and then applying the general TRIZ patterns to the specific situation that confronts the developer. Figure 1, below, describes this process graphically.
Here, you take the specific problem you face, and generalize it to one of the TRIZ general problems. From the TRIZ general problems, you identify the TRIZ solutions to those general problems, and then see how these can be applied to the specific problem you face.
Example
A powerful demonstration of this method was seen in the pharmaceutical industry. Following the flow of Figure 1, the specific problem was as follows: an important process needed cell walls to be broken down in bacteria cells so that hormones inside the cells could be harvested. A mechanical method for breaking the cell walls had been in use at a moderate scale for some time, but the yield was only 80%, and was variable. Higher yields and a scaleable solution were needed.
The TRIZ general problem at the highest level is to find a way to produce the product with no waste, at 100% yield, with no added complexity. One of the patterns of evolution of technology that TRIZ identifies is that energy (fields) replaces objects (mechanical devices). For example, consider using a laser instead of a scalpel for eye surgery. In this case, ultrasound could be used to break the cell walls, or an enzyme could be used to "eat" it (chemical energy). This may seem very general, but it led the pharmaceutical researchers to analyze all the resources available in the problem (the cells, the cell walls, the fluid they are in, the motion of the fluid, the processing facility, etc.) and to conclude that three possible solutions had a good potential for solving their problem:
The cell walls could be broken by sound waves (from the pattern of evolution of replacing mechanical means by fields).
The cell walls could be broken by shearing, as they pass through the processing facility (using the resources of the existing system in a different way).
An enzyme in the fluid could "eat" the cell walls and release the contents at the desired time.
All three methods have been tested successfully. The least expensive, highest yield method was soon put in production.
Eliminating contradictions
Another of the fundamental concepts behind TRIZ is that at the root of many problems is a fundamental contradiction that causes it (we'll give examples below.) In many cases, a reliable way of solving a problem is to eliminate these contradictions. TRIZ recognizes two categories of contradictions:
Technical contradictions are classical engineering "trade-offs." The desired state can't be reached because something else in the system prevents it. In other words, when something gets better, something else automatically gets worse. Classical examples include:
The product gets stronger (good), but the weight increases (bad).
Service is customized to each customer (good), but the service delivery system gets complicated (bad).
Training is comprehensive (good), but keeps employees away from their assignments (bad).
Physical contradictions, also called "inherent" contradictions, are situations in which an object or system suffers contradictory, opposite requirements. Everyday examples abound:
Software should be complex (to have many features), but should be simple (to be easy to learn).
Coffee should be hot for enjoyable drinking, but cold to prevent burning the customer
Training should take a long time (to be thorough), but not take any time.
Example
Dairy farm operators could no longer dry cow manure for use as fertilizer due to an increased cost of energy. They were faced with a technical contradiction between dry manure (good) and cost (bad). TRIZ led the operators to a drying method used for the concentration of fruit juice, which required no heat.
Some of the TRIZ Tools:
The "General TRIZ Solutions" referred to in Figure 1 have been developed over the course of the 65 years of TRIZ research, and have been organized in many different ways. Some of these are analytic methods such as:
The Ideal Final Result and Ideality
Functional Modeling, Analysis and Trimming
Locating the Zones of Conflict. (This is more familiar to Six Sigma problem solvers as "Root Cause Analysis.")
Some are more prescriptive such as:
The 40 Inventive Principles of Problem Solving
The Separation Principles
Laws of Technical Evolution and Technology Forecasting
76 Standard Solutions.
In the course of solving any one technical problem, one tool or many can be used.
One of these tools, "The 40 Principles of Problem Solving" is the most accessible "tool" of TRIZ.
The 40 Principles of Problem Solving:
These 40 Principles are the ones that were found to repeat across many fields, as solutions to many general contradictions, which are at the heart of many problems. A list of all 40 Principles of Problem Solving can be found at http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/1997/07/b/index.html.
Here are just a few of the Principles and examples of how they could have been used to create products that were once new and innovative:
Principle
Solution
Segmentation (Divide an object into independent parts)
Individually wrapped cheese slices
Local quality (Provide different packaging for different uses)
"Adult" editions of Harry Potter books
Universality (make an object perform multiple functions)
Chocolate spread sold in glasses (with a lid) that can be used for drinking afterwards
Nested Doll
Store within store (coffee shops in bookstores)
Another dimension (Tilt or re-orient object)
Squeezable ketchup bottles that sit on their lids
Using TRIZ
The best way to learn and explore TRIZ is to identify a problem that you haven't solved satisfactorily and try it. Use the List of the 40 Principles of Problem Solving and the Contradiction Matrix tool that can be found at www.triz-journal.com to help you through the process.
Projects of all kinds frequently reach a point where as much analysis as possible has been carried out, but the way forward is still unclear. Progress seems blocked, and if the project team is to move forward, it must develop creative solutions to the problems it faces.
You'll already know about techniques such as brainstorming, which can help with this sort of situation. However, this type of approach, which depends on intuition and the knowledge of the members of the team, tends to have unpredictable and unrepeatable results. What's more, a huge range of possible solutions can be missed, simply because they're outside the experience of the project team.
TRIZ is a problem solving methodology based on logic, data and research, not intuition. It draws on the past knowledge and ingenuity of many thousands of engineers to accelerate the project team's ability to solve problems creatively. As such, TRIZ brings repeatability, predictability, and reliability to the problem-solving process with its structured and algorithmic approach.
About TRIZ
"TRIZ" is the (Russian) acronym for the "Theory of Inventive Problem Solving." G.S. Altshuller and his colleagues in the former USSR developed the method between 1946 and 1985. TRIZ is an international science of creativity that relies on the study of the patterns of problems and solutions, not on the spontaneous and intuitive creativity of individuals or groups. More than three million patents have been analyzed to discover the patterns that predict breakthrough solutions to problems, and these have been codified within TRIZ.
TRIZ is spreading into corporate use across several parallel paths - it is increasingly common in Six Sigma processes, in project management and risk management systems, and in organizational innovation initiatives.
Generalized Solutions
TRIZ research began with the hypothesis that there are universal principles of creativity that are the basis for creative innovations, and that advance technology. The idea was that if these principles could be identified and codified, they could be taught to people to make the process of creativity more predictable. The short version of this is:
Somebody someplace has already solved this problem (or one very similar to it.) Today, creativity involves finding that solution and adapting it to this particular problem.
The three primary findings of the last 65 years of research are as follows:
Problems and solutions are repeated across industries and sciences. By classifying the "contradictions" (see later) in each problem, you can predict good creative solutions to that problem.
Patterns of technical evolution tend to be repeated across industries and sciences.
Creative innovations often use scientific effects outside the field where they were developed.
Much of the practice of TRIZ consists of learning these repeating patterns of problems-solutions, patterns of technical evolution and methods of using scientific effects, and then applying the general TRIZ patterns to the specific situation that confronts the developer. Figure 1, below, describes this process graphically.
Here, you take the specific problem you face, and generalize it to one of the TRIZ general problems. From the TRIZ general problems, you identify the TRIZ solutions to those general problems, and then see how these can be applied to the specific problem you face.
Example
A powerful demonstration of this method was seen in the pharmaceutical industry. Following the flow of Figure 1, the specific problem was as follows: an important process needed cell walls to be broken down in bacteria cells so that hormones inside the cells could be harvested. A mechanical method for breaking the cell walls had been in use at a moderate scale for some time, but the yield was only 80%, and was variable. Higher yields and a scaleable solution were needed.
The TRIZ general problem at the highest level is to find a way to produce the product with no waste, at 100% yield, with no added complexity. One of the patterns of evolution of technology that TRIZ identifies is that energy (fields) replaces objects (mechanical devices). For example, consider using a laser instead of a scalpel for eye surgery. In this case, ultrasound could be used to break the cell walls, or an enzyme could be used to "eat" it (chemical energy). This may seem very general, but it led the pharmaceutical researchers to analyze all the resources available in the problem (the cells, the cell walls, the fluid they are in, the motion of the fluid, the processing facility, etc.) and to conclude that three possible solutions had a good potential for solving their problem:
The cell walls could be broken by sound waves (from the pattern of evolution of replacing mechanical means by fields).
The cell walls could be broken by shearing, as they pass through the processing facility (using the resources of the existing system in a different way).
An enzyme in the fluid could "eat" the cell walls and release the contents at the desired time.
All three methods have been tested successfully. The least expensive, highest yield method was soon put in production.
Eliminating contradictions
Another of the fundamental concepts behind TRIZ is that at the root of many problems is a fundamental contradiction that causes it (we'll give examples below.) In many cases, a reliable way of solving a problem is to eliminate these contradictions. TRIZ recognizes two categories of contradictions:
Technical contradictions are classical engineering "trade-offs." The desired state can't be reached because something else in the system prevents it. In other words, when something gets better, something else automatically gets worse. Classical examples include:
The product gets stronger (good), but the weight increases (bad).
Service is customized to each customer (good), but the service delivery system gets complicated (bad).
Training is comprehensive (good), but keeps employees away from their assignments (bad).
Physical contradictions, also called "inherent" contradictions, are situations in which an object or system suffers contradictory, opposite requirements. Everyday examples abound:
Software should be complex (to have many features), but should be simple (to be easy to learn).
Coffee should be hot for enjoyable drinking, but cold to prevent burning the customer
Training should take a long time (to be thorough), but not take any time.
Example
Dairy farm operators could no longer dry cow manure for use as fertilizer due to an increased cost of energy. They were faced with a technical contradiction between dry manure (good) and cost (bad). TRIZ led the operators to a drying method used for the concentration of fruit juice, which required no heat.
Some of the TRIZ Tools:
The "General TRIZ Solutions" referred to in Figure 1 have been developed over the course of the 65 years of TRIZ research, and have been organized in many different ways. Some of these are analytic methods such as:
The Ideal Final Result and Ideality
Functional Modeling, Analysis and Trimming
Locating the Zones of Conflict. (This is more familiar to Six Sigma problem solvers as "Root Cause Analysis.")
Some are more prescriptive such as:
The 40 Inventive Principles of Problem Solving
The Separation Principles
Laws of Technical Evolution and Technology Forecasting
76 Standard Solutions.
In the course of solving any one technical problem, one tool or many can be used.
One of these tools, "The 40 Principles of Problem Solving" is the most accessible "tool" of TRIZ.
The 40 Principles of Problem Solving:
These 40 Principles are the ones that were found to repeat across many fields, as solutions to many general contradictions, which are at the heart of many problems. A list of all 40 Principles of Problem Solving can be found at http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/1997/07/b/index.html.
Here are just a few of the Principles and examples of how they could have been used to create products that were once new and innovative:
Principle
Solution
Segmentation (Divide an object into independent parts)
Individually wrapped cheese slices
Local quality (Provide different packaging for different uses)
"Adult" editions of Harry Potter books
Universality (make an object perform multiple functions)
Chocolate spread sold in glasses (with a lid) that can be used for drinking afterwards
Nested Doll
Store within store (coffee shops in bookstores)
Another dimension (Tilt or re-orient object)
Squeezable ketchup bottles that sit on their lids
Using TRIZ
The best way to learn and explore TRIZ is to identify a problem that you haven't solved satisfactorily and try it. Use the List of the 40 Principles of Problem Solving and the Contradiction Matrix tool that can be found at www.triz-journal.com to help you through the process.
A Powerful Integrated Problem-Solving Process
Simplex is an industrial-strength creativity tool. Developed by Min Basadur, it takes the approach of DO IT to the next level of sophistication.
Rather than seeing creativity as a single straight-line process, Simplex sees it as the continuous cycle it should be. Completion and implementation of one cycle of creativity leads straight into the next cycle of creative improvement.
How to Use the Tool:
Simplex uses the eight stages shown in figure 1, below:
These are explained below:
1. Problem Finding
Often finding the right problem to solve is the most difficult part of the creative process. When using Simplex, actively seek problems out. Wherever they exist you have opportunities for change and improvement.
Problems may be obvious, or can be flushed out using trigger questions like the ones below:
What would your customers want you to improve?
What could they be doing better if we could help them?
Who else could we help using our core competences?
What small problems do we have which could grow into bigger ones?
What slows our work or makes it more difficult? What do we often fail to achieve?
How can we improve quality?
What are our competitors doing that we could do?
What is frustrating and irritating?
These questions deal with problems that exist now. It is also useful to try to look into the future. Think about how you expect markets and customers to change over the next few years; the problems you may experience as your organization expands; and social, political and legal changes that may affect it.
At this stage you may not have enough information to formulate your problem precisely. Do not worry about this until step 3!
2. Fact Finding
The next stage is to find out as much information relating to the problem as possible.
This gives you the depth of knowledge you need to:
Use the best ideas your competitors have had
Understand customers needs in more detail
Know what has already been tried
Fully understand any processes, components, services or technologies that you may need to use
Ensure that the benefits of solving the problem will be worth the effort you will put into it
This stage also involves assessing the quality of the information that you have. Here it is worth listing your assumptions and checking that they are correct.
3. Problem Definition
By the time you reach this stage, you should know roughly what the problem is and should have a good understanding of the facts relating to it. From here the thing to do is to crystallize the exact problem or problems you want to solve.
It is important to solve a problem at the right level. If you ask questions that are too broad, then you will never have enough resources to answer them effectively. If you ask questions that are too narrow, you may end up fixing symptoms of a problem, rather than the problem itself.
Min Basadur (who created the Simplex Process) suggests using the question 'Why?' to broaden a question, and 'What's stopping you?' to narrow it.
For example, if your problem is one of trees dying, ask 'Why do I want to keep trees healthy?'. This might broaden the question to 'How can I maintain the quality of our environment?'.
A 'What's stopping you?' here could be 'I do not know how to control a disease killing the tree'.
Big problems are normally made up of many smaller ones. This is the stage at which you can use a technique like Drill-Down to break the problem down to its component parts.
4. Idea Finding
The next stage is to generate as many ideas as possible. Ways of doing this range from asking other people for their opinions, through programmed creativity tools and lateral thinking techniques to brainstorming.
Do not evaluate ideas during this stage. Instead, concentrate on generating many ideas as possible. Bad ideas often trigger good ones.
5. Selection and Evaluation
Once you have a number of possible solutions to your problem, it is time to select the best one.
The best solution may be obvious. If it is not, then it is important to think through the criteria you will use to select the best idea. The Decision Making Techniques section of Mind Tools lays out a number of good methods for this. Particularly useful techniques may be Decision Trees, Paired Comparison Analysis and Grid Analysis.
Once you have selected an idea, develop it as far as possible. It is then essential to evaluate it to see if it is good enough to be considered worth using. It is important not to let your ego get in the way of your common sense. If your idea does not give big enough benefit, then either see if you can generate more ideas, or restart the whole process. You can waste years of your life developing creative ideas that no-one wants.
There are two excellent techniques for doing this. One is Edward de Bono's 6 Thinking Hats, which is an excellent tool for qualitative analysis. The other is Cost/Benefit Analysis, which gives you a good basis for financially based decisions.
6. Planning
Once you have selected an idea, and are confident that your idea is worthwhile, then it is time to plan its implementation.
The best way of doing this is to set this out as an Action Plan, which lays out the who, what, when, where, why and how of making it work. For large projects it may be worth using more formal planning techniques.
7. Sell Idea
Up to this stage you may have done all this work on your own or with a small committee. Now you will have to sell the idea to the people who must support it. This might be your boss, a bank manager or other people involved with the project.
In selling the project you will have to address not only the practicality of the project, but also things such internal politics, hidden fear of change, etc.
8. Action
Finally, after all the creativity and preparation, comes action! This is where all the careful work and planning pays off.
Once the action is firmly under way, return to stage 1, Problem Finding, to continue improving your idea.
Min Basadur's book, The Power of Innovation, explores this process in much more detail.
Key points:
The Simplex Process is a powerful, sophisticated approach to innovation. It is suitable for projects and organizations of almost any scale.
The Process is an eight-stage cycle. Upon completion of the eight stages you start it again to find and solve another problem. This helps to ensure continuous improvement.
Stages in the process are:
Problem finding
Fact finding
Problem Definition
Idea Finding
Selection and Evaluation
Planning
Selling of the Idea
Action
By moving through these stages you ensure that you solve the most significant problems with the best solutions available to you. This process can help you to be intensely creative.
Simplex is an industrial-strength creativity tool. Developed by Min Basadur, it takes the approach of DO IT to the next level of sophistication.
Rather than seeing creativity as a single straight-line process, Simplex sees it as the continuous cycle it should be. Completion and implementation of one cycle of creativity leads straight into the next cycle of creative improvement.
How to Use the Tool:
Simplex uses the eight stages shown in figure 1, below:
These are explained below:
1. Problem Finding
Often finding the right problem to solve is the most difficult part of the creative process. When using Simplex, actively seek problems out. Wherever they exist you have opportunities for change and improvement.
Problems may be obvious, or can be flushed out using trigger questions like the ones below:
What would your customers want you to improve?
What could they be doing better if we could help them?
Who else could we help using our core competences?
What small problems do we have which could grow into bigger ones?
What slows our work or makes it more difficult? What do we often fail to achieve?
How can we improve quality?
What are our competitors doing that we could do?
What is frustrating and irritating?
These questions deal with problems that exist now. It is also useful to try to look into the future. Think about how you expect markets and customers to change over the next few years; the problems you may experience as your organization expands; and social, political and legal changes that may affect it.
At this stage you may not have enough information to formulate your problem precisely. Do not worry about this until step 3!
2. Fact Finding
The next stage is to find out as much information relating to the problem as possible.
This gives you the depth of knowledge you need to:
Use the best ideas your competitors have had
Understand customers needs in more detail
Know what has already been tried
Fully understand any processes, components, services or technologies that you may need to use
Ensure that the benefits of solving the problem will be worth the effort you will put into it
This stage also involves assessing the quality of the information that you have. Here it is worth listing your assumptions and checking that they are correct.
3. Problem Definition
By the time you reach this stage, you should know roughly what the problem is and should have a good understanding of the facts relating to it. From here the thing to do is to crystallize the exact problem or problems you want to solve.
It is important to solve a problem at the right level. If you ask questions that are too broad, then you will never have enough resources to answer them effectively. If you ask questions that are too narrow, you may end up fixing symptoms of a problem, rather than the problem itself.
Min Basadur (who created the Simplex Process) suggests using the question 'Why?' to broaden a question, and 'What's stopping you?' to narrow it.
For example, if your problem is one of trees dying, ask 'Why do I want to keep trees healthy?'. This might broaden the question to 'How can I maintain the quality of our environment?'.
A 'What's stopping you?' here could be 'I do not know how to control a disease killing the tree'.
Big problems are normally made up of many smaller ones. This is the stage at which you can use a technique like Drill-Down to break the problem down to its component parts.
4. Idea Finding
The next stage is to generate as many ideas as possible. Ways of doing this range from asking other people for their opinions, through programmed creativity tools and lateral thinking techniques to brainstorming.
Do not evaluate ideas during this stage. Instead, concentrate on generating many ideas as possible. Bad ideas often trigger good ones.
5. Selection and Evaluation
Once you have a number of possible solutions to your problem, it is time to select the best one.
The best solution may be obvious. If it is not, then it is important to think through the criteria you will use to select the best idea. The Decision Making Techniques section of Mind Tools lays out a number of good methods for this. Particularly useful techniques may be Decision Trees, Paired Comparison Analysis and Grid Analysis.
Once you have selected an idea, develop it as far as possible. It is then essential to evaluate it to see if it is good enough to be considered worth using. It is important not to let your ego get in the way of your common sense. If your idea does not give big enough benefit, then either see if you can generate more ideas, or restart the whole process. You can waste years of your life developing creative ideas that no-one wants.
There are two excellent techniques for doing this. One is Edward de Bono's 6 Thinking Hats, which is an excellent tool for qualitative analysis. The other is Cost/Benefit Analysis, which gives you a good basis for financially based decisions.
6. Planning
Once you have selected an idea, and are confident that your idea is worthwhile, then it is time to plan its implementation.
The best way of doing this is to set this out as an Action Plan, which lays out the who, what, when, where, why and how of making it work. For large projects it may be worth using more formal planning techniques.
7. Sell Idea
Up to this stage you may have done all this work on your own or with a small committee. Now you will have to sell the idea to the people who must support it. This might be your boss, a bank manager or other people involved with the project.
In selling the project you will have to address not only the practicality of the project, but also things such internal politics, hidden fear of change, etc.
8. Action
Finally, after all the creativity and preparation, comes action! This is where all the careful work and planning pays off.
Once the action is firmly under way, return to stage 1, Problem Finding, to continue improving your idea.
Min Basadur's book, The Power of Innovation, explores this process in much more detail.
Key points:
The Simplex Process is a powerful, sophisticated approach to innovation. It is suitable for projects and organizations of almost any scale.
The Process is an eight-stage cycle. Upon completion of the eight stages you start it again to find and solve another problem. This helps to ensure continuous improvement.
Stages in the process are:
Problem finding
Fact finding
Problem Definition
Idea Finding
Selection and Evaluation
Planning
Selling of the Idea
Action
By moving through these stages you ensure that you solve the most significant problems with the best solutions available to you. This process can help you to be intensely creative.
A Simple Process for Creativity
DO IT is a process for creativity.
Techniques outlined earlier in this section focus on specific aspects of creative thinking. DO IT bundles them together, and introduces formal methods of problem definition and evaluation. These help you to get the best out of the creativity techniques.
DO IT is an acronym that stands for:
D - Define problem
O - Open mind and apply creative techniques
I - Identify best solution
T - Transform
These stages are explained in more detail below.
How to Use the Tool:
1. Define the Problem
This section concentrates on analyzing the problem to ensure that the correct question is being asked. The following steps will help you to do this:
Check that you are tackling the problem, not the symptoms of the problem. To do this, ask yourself why the problem exists repeatedly until you get to the root of it.
Lay out the bounds of the problem. Work out the objectives that you must achieve and the constraints that you are operating under.
Where a problem appears to be very large, break it down into smaller parts. Keep on going until each part is achievable in its own right, or needs a precisely defined area of research to be carried out. See Drill-Down for a detailed description of this process.
Summarize the problem in as concise a form as possible. Robert W. Olsen suggests that the best way to do this is to write down a number of 2 word problem statements and choose the best one.
2. Open Mind and Apply Creative Techniques
Once you know the problem that you want to solve, you are ready to start generating possible solutions. It is very tempting just to accept the first good idea that you come across. If you do this, you will miss many even better solutions.
At this stage of DO IT we are not interested in evaluating ideas. Instead, we are trying to generate as many different ideas as possible. Even bad ideas may be the seeds of good ones.
You can use the whole battery of creativity techniques covered earlier in this section to search for possible solutions. Each tool has its particular strengths and benefits, depending on the problems that you want to solve. While you are generating solutions, remember that other people will have different perspectives on the problem, and it will almost certainly be worth asking for the opinions of your colleagues as part of this process.
3. Identify the Best Solution
Only at this stage do you select the best of the ideas you have generated. It may be that the best idea is obvious. Alternatively, it may be worth examining and developing a number of ideas in detail before you select one.
The Decision Making Techniques section of Mind Tools explains a range of excellent decision making techniques. Decision Tree Analysis and Force Field Analysis are particularly useful. These will help you to choose between the solutions available to you.
When you are selecting a solution, keep in mind your own or your organization's goals. Often Decision Making becomes easy once you know these.
4. Transform
Having identified the problem and created a solution to it, the final stage is to implement this solution. This involves not only development of a reliable product from your idea, but all the marketing and business side as well. This may take a great deal of time and energy.
Many very creative people fail at this stage. They will have fun creating new products and services that may be years ahead of what is available on the market. They will then fail to develop them, and watch someone else make a fortune out of the idea several years later.
The first stage in transforming an idea is to develop an Action Plan for the transformation. This may lead to creation of a Business or Marketing Plan. Once you have done this, the work of implementation begins!
DO IT was devised by Robert W Olsen in his book ‘The Art of Creative Thinking’.
Key points:
DO IT is a structured process for creativity. Using DO IT ensures that you carry out the essential groundwork that helps you to get the most out of creativity tools.
These steps are:
Problem Definition: During this stage you apply a number of techniques to ensure that you are asking the right question.
Open Mind: Here you apply creativity techniques to generate as many answers as possible to the question you are asking. At this stage you are not evaluating the answers.
Identify the best solution: Only at this stage do you select the best solutions from the ones you came up with in step 2. Where you are having difficulty in selecting ideas, use formal techniques to help.
Transform: The final stage is to make an Action Plan for the implementation of the solution, and to carry it out. Without implementation, your creativity is sterile.
DO IT is a process for creativity.
Techniques outlined earlier in this section focus on specific aspects of creative thinking. DO IT bundles them together, and introduces formal methods of problem definition and evaluation. These help you to get the best out of the creativity techniques.
DO IT is an acronym that stands for:
D - Define problem
O - Open mind and apply creative techniques
I - Identify best solution
T - Transform
These stages are explained in more detail below.
How to Use the Tool:
1. Define the Problem
This section concentrates on analyzing the problem to ensure that the correct question is being asked. The following steps will help you to do this:
Check that you are tackling the problem, not the symptoms of the problem. To do this, ask yourself why the problem exists repeatedly until you get to the root of it.
Lay out the bounds of the problem. Work out the objectives that you must achieve and the constraints that you are operating under.
Where a problem appears to be very large, break it down into smaller parts. Keep on going until each part is achievable in its own right, or needs a precisely defined area of research to be carried out. See Drill-Down for a detailed description of this process.
Summarize the problem in as concise a form as possible. Robert W. Olsen suggests that the best way to do this is to write down a number of 2 word problem statements and choose the best one.
2. Open Mind and Apply Creative Techniques
Once you know the problem that you want to solve, you are ready to start generating possible solutions. It is very tempting just to accept the first good idea that you come across. If you do this, you will miss many even better solutions.
At this stage of DO IT we are not interested in evaluating ideas. Instead, we are trying to generate as many different ideas as possible. Even bad ideas may be the seeds of good ones.
You can use the whole battery of creativity techniques covered earlier in this section to search for possible solutions. Each tool has its particular strengths and benefits, depending on the problems that you want to solve. While you are generating solutions, remember that other people will have different perspectives on the problem, and it will almost certainly be worth asking for the opinions of your colleagues as part of this process.
3. Identify the Best Solution
Only at this stage do you select the best of the ideas you have generated. It may be that the best idea is obvious. Alternatively, it may be worth examining and developing a number of ideas in detail before you select one.
The Decision Making Techniques section of Mind Tools explains a range of excellent decision making techniques. Decision Tree Analysis and Force Field Analysis are particularly useful. These will help you to choose between the solutions available to you.
When you are selecting a solution, keep in mind your own or your organization's goals. Often Decision Making becomes easy once you know these.
4. Transform
Having identified the problem and created a solution to it, the final stage is to implement this solution. This involves not only development of a reliable product from your idea, but all the marketing and business side as well. This may take a great deal of time and energy.
Many very creative people fail at this stage. They will have fun creating new products and services that may be years ahead of what is available on the market. They will then fail to develop them, and watch someone else make a fortune out of the idea several years later.
The first stage in transforming an idea is to develop an Action Plan for the transformation. This may lead to creation of a Business or Marketing Plan. Once you have done this, the work of implementation begins!
DO IT was devised by Robert W Olsen in his book ‘The Art of Creative Thinking’.
Key points:
DO IT is a structured process for creativity. Using DO IT ensures that you carry out the essential groundwork that helps you to get the most out of creativity tools.
These steps are:
Problem Definition: During this stage you apply a number of techniques to ensure that you are asking the right question.
Open Mind: Here you apply creativity techniques to generate as many answers as possible to the question you are asking. At this stage you are not evaluating the answers.
Identify the best solution: Only at this stage do you select the best solutions from the ones you came up with in step 2. Where you are having difficulty in selecting ideas, use formal techniques to help.
Transform: The final stage is to make an Action Plan for the implementation of the solution, and to carry it out. Without implementation, your creativity is sterile.
Carrying Out Thought Experiments
Provocation is an important lateral thinking technique. Just like Random Input, it works by moving your thinking out of the established patterns that you use to solve problems.
As explained earlier, we think by recognizing patterns and reacting to them. These reactions come from our past experiences and logical extensions to those experiences. Often we do not think outside these patterns. While we may know the answer as part of a different type of problem, the structure of our brains makes it difficult for us to link this in.
Provocation, originally developed by Edward de Bono, is one of the tools we use to make links between these patterns.
How to Use the Tool:
We begin by making deliberately stupid statements (Provocations), in which something we take for granted about the situation is not true. Statements need to be stupid to shock our minds out of existing ways of thinking. Once we have made a provocative statement, we then suspend judgment and use that statement to generate ideas. Provocations give us original starting points for creative thinking.
As an example, we could make a statement that 'Houses should not have roofs'. Normally this would not be a good idea! However this leads one to think of houses with opening roofs, or houses with glass roofs. These would allow you to lie in bed and look up at the stars.
Once you have made the Provocation, you can use it in a number of different ways, by examining:
The consequences of the statement
What the benefits would be
What special circumstances would make it a sensible solution
The principles needed to support it and make it work
How it would work moment-to-moment
What would happen if a sequence of events was changed
Etc.
You can use this list as a checklist.
Edward de Bono has developed and popularize use of Provocation by using the word 'Po'. 'Po' stands for 'Provocative operation'. As well as laying out how to use Provocation effectively, he suggests that when we make a Provocative statement in public the we label it as such with 'Po' (e.g. 'Po: the earth is flat'). This does rely on all members of your audience knowing about Provocation!
Edward de Bono's books, including Serious Creativity, explore this sort of technique in detail.
As with other lateral thinking techniques, Provocation does not always produce good or relevant ideas. Often, though, it does. Ideas generated using Provocation are likely to be fresh and original.
Example:
The owner of a video-hire shop is looking at new ideas for business to compete with the Internet. She starts with the provocation 'Customers should not pay to borrow videos'.
She then examines the provocation:
Consequences: The shop would get no rental revenue and therefore would need alternative sources of cash. It would be cheaper to borrow the video from the shop than to download the film or order it from a catalogue.
Benefits: Many more people would come to borrow videos. More people would pass through the shop. The shop would spoil the market for other video shops in the area.
Circumstances: The shop would need other revenue. Perhaps the owner could sell advertising in the shop, or sell popcorn, sweets, bottles of wine or pizzas to people borrowing films. This would make her shop a one-stop 'Night at home' shop. Perhaps it would only lend videos to people who had absorbed a 30-second commercial, or completed a market research questionnaire.
After using the Provocation, the owner of the video shop decides to run an experiment for several months. She will allow customers to borrow the top ten videos free (but naturally will fine them for late returns). She puts the videos at the back of the shop. In front of them she places displays of bottles of wine, soft drinks, popcorn and sweets so that customers have to walk past them to get to the videos. Next to the film return counter she sells merchandise from the top ten films being hired.
If the approach is a success she will open a pizza stand inside the shop.
Key points:
Provocation is an important lateral thinking technique that helps to generate original starting points for creative thinking.
To use provocation, make a deliberately stupid comment relating to the problem you are thinking about. Then suspend judgment, and use the statement as the starting point for generating ideas.
Often this approach will help you to generate completely new concepts.
In the next article we look at DO IT - a simple but useful creativity process. To see the article, click 'Next Article' below. Alternatively, look at some of the other places you can go.
Provocation is an important lateral thinking technique. Just like Random Input, it works by moving your thinking out of the established patterns that you use to solve problems.
As explained earlier, we think by recognizing patterns and reacting to them. These reactions come from our past experiences and logical extensions to those experiences. Often we do not think outside these patterns. While we may know the answer as part of a different type of problem, the structure of our brains makes it difficult for us to link this in.
Provocation, originally developed by Edward de Bono, is one of the tools we use to make links between these patterns.
How to Use the Tool:
We begin by making deliberately stupid statements (Provocations), in which something we take for granted about the situation is not true. Statements need to be stupid to shock our minds out of existing ways of thinking. Once we have made a provocative statement, we then suspend judgment and use that statement to generate ideas. Provocations give us original starting points for creative thinking.
As an example, we could make a statement that 'Houses should not have roofs'. Normally this would not be a good idea! However this leads one to think of houses with opening roofs, or houses with glass roofs. These would allow you to lie in bed and look up at the stars.
Once you have made the Provocation, you can use it in a number of different ways, by examining:
The consequences of the statement
What the benefits would be
What special circumstances would make it a sensible solution
The principles needed to support it and make it work
How it would work moment-to-moment
What would happen if a sequence of events was changed
Etc.
You can use this list as a checklist.
Edward de Bono has developed and popularize use of Provocation by using the word 'Po'. 'Po' stands for 'Provocative operation'. As well as laying out how to use Provocation effectively, he suggests that when we make a Provocative statement in public the we label it as such with 'Po' (e.g. 'Po: the earth is flat'). This does rely on all members of your audience knowing about Provocation!
Edward de Bono's books, including Serious Creativity, explore this sort of technique in detail.
As with other lateral thinking techniques, Provocation does not always produce good or relevant ideas. Often, though, it does. Ideas generated using Provocation are likely to be fresh and original.
Example:
The owner of a video-hire shop is looking at new ideas for business to compete with the Internet. She starts with the provocation 'Customers should not pay to borrow videos'.
She then examines the provocation:
Consequences: The shop would get no rental revenue and therefore would need alternative sources of cash. It would be cheaper to borrow the video from the shop than to download the film or order it from a catalogue.
Benefits: Many more people would come to borrow videos. More people would pass through the shop. The shop would spoil the market for other video shops in the area.
Circumstances: The shop would need other revenue. Perhaps the owner could sell advertising in the shop, or sell popcorn, sweets, bottles of wine or pizzas to people borrowing films. This would make her shop a one-stop 'Night at home' shop. Perhaps it would only lend videos to people who had absorbed a 30-second commercial, or completed a market research questionnaire.
After using the Provocation, the owner of the video shop decides to run an experiment for several months. She will allow customers to borrow the top ten videos free (but naturally will fine them for late returns). She puts the videos at the back of the shop. In front of them she places displays of bottles of wine, soft drinks, popcorn and sweets so that customers have to walk past them to get to the videos. Next to the film return counter she sells merchandise from the top ten films being hired.
If the approach is a success she will open a pizza stand inside the shop.
Key points:
Provocation is an important lateral thinking technique that helps to generate original starting points for creative thinking.
To use provocation, make a deliberately stupid comment relating to the problem you are thinking about. Then suspend judgment, and use the statement as the starting point for generating ideas.
Often this approach will help you to generate completely new concepts.
In the next article we look at DO IT - a simple but useful creativity process. To see the article, click 'Next Article' below. Alternatively, look at some of the other places you can go.
Making Creative Leaps
Random Input is a lateral thinking tool. It is very useful when you need fresh ideas or new perspectives during problem solving.
For many types of problem solving, we tend to think by recognizing patterns. We react to these patterns based on past experience and extensions to that experience. Sometimes, though, we get stuck inside them. Within a particular pattern there may be no good solution to a particular sort of problem.
Random input is a technique for linking other thinking patterns into the ones we are using. Along with this new pattern comes all of the experience you have connected to it.
How to Use the Tool:
To use Random Input, select a random noun from either a dictionary or a pre-prepared word list. It often helps if the noun is something that can be seen or touched (e.g. 'helicopter', 'dog') rather than a concept (e.g. 'fairness'). Use this noun as the starting point for brainstorming your problem.
You may find that you get good insights if you select a word from a separate field in which you have some expertise.
If you choose a good word, you will add a range of new ideas and concepts to your brainstorming. While some will be useless, hopefully you will gain some good new insights into your problem. If you persist, then at least one of these may be a useful creative leap.
Example:
Imagine that you are thinking about the problem of reducing car pollution. So far in thinking through the problem you have considered all the conventional solutions of catalytic conversion and clean fuels.
Selecting a random noun from the titles of the books in a bookcase you might see the word 'Plants'. Brainstorming from this you could generate a number of new ideas:
Plant trees on the side of roads to convert CO2 back into oxygen
Similarly, pass exhaust gases through a soup of algae to convert CO2 back into oxygen. Perhaps this is how an 'air scrubber' in a space craft could work?
Put sulfur-metabolizing bacteria into an exhaust gas processor to clean up exhaust gases. Would nitrogen compounds fertilize these bacteria?
Another meaning of 'Plant' is factory. Perhaps exhaust gases could be collected in a container, and sent to a special plant to be cleaned? Perhaps you could offload these gases at the same time as you fill up with fuel?
These ideas are very raw. Some may be wrong or impractical. One of them might be original and the basis of some useful development.
Key points:
Random input is useful for generating new perspectives on a problem. It often leads to startling creative leaps.
It provides an easy way of breaking out of restrictive thinking patterns. It helps you to link in whole ranges of new solutions that you would not otherwise associate with the problem.
The best words to use are concrete nouns, which may come from areas in which you have some expertise. Nouns should not, however, come from the same field as the problem you are considering, as the whole idea of Random Input is to link in new thinking patterns, not to stay inside old ones.
In the next article we look at Provocation, another useful lateral thinking technique. To read this, click 'Next Article' below. Alternatively, look at some of the other places you can go below.
Random Input is a lateral thinking tool. It is very useful when you need fresh ideas or new perspectives during problem solving.
For many types of problem solving, we tend to think by recognizing patterns. We react to these patterns based on past experience and extensions to that experience. Sometimes, though, we get stuck inside them. Within a particular pattern there may be no good solution to a particular sort of problem.
Random input is a technique for linking other thinking patterns into the ones we are using. Along with this new pattern comes all of the experience you have connected to it.
How to Use the Tool:
To use Random Input, select a random noun from either a dictionary or a pre-prepared word list. It often helps if the noun is something that can be seen or touched (e.g. 'helicopter', 'dog') rather than a concept (e.g. 'fairness'). Use this noun as the starting point for brainstorming your problem.
You may find that you get good insights if you select a word from a separate field in which you have some expertise.
If you choose a good word, you will add a range of new ideas and concepts to your brainstorming. While some will be useless, hopefully you will gain some good new insights into your problem. If you persist, then at least one of these may be a useful creative leap.
Example:
Imagine that you are thinking about the problem of reducing car pollution. So far in thinking through the problem you have considered all the conventional solutions of catalytic conversion and clean fuels.
Selecting a random noun from the titles of the books in a bookcase you might see the word 'Plants'. Brainstorming from this you could generate a number of new ideas:
Plant trees on the side of roads to convert CO2 back into oxygen
Similarly, pass exhaust gases through a soup of algae to convert CO2 back into oxygen. Perhaps this is how an 'air scrubber' in a space craft could work?
Put sulfur-metabolizing bacteria into an exhaust gas processor to clean up exhaust gases. Would nitrogen compounds fertilize these bacteria?
Another meaning of 'Plant' is factory. Perhaps exhaust gases could be collected in a container, and sent to a special plant to be cleaned? Perhaps you could offload these gases at the same time as you fill up with fuel?
These ideas are very raw. Some may be wrong or impractical. One of them might be original and the basis of some useful development.
Key points:
Random input is useful for generating new perspectives on a problem. It often leads to startling creative leaps.
It provides an easy way of breaking out of restrictive thinking patterns. It helps you to link in whole ranges of new solutions that you would not otherwise associate with the problem.
The best words to use are concrete nouns, which may come from areas in which you have some expertise. Nouns should not, however, come from the same field as the problem you are considering, as the whole idea of Random Input is to link in new thinking patterns, not to stay inside old ones.
In the next article we look at Provocation, another useful lateral thinking technique. To read this, click 'Next Article' below. Alternatively, look at some of the other places you can go below.
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