A square manhole cover can be turned and dropped down the diagonal of the
manhole. A round manhole cannot be dropped down the manhole. So for safety
and practicality, all manhole covers should be round.
Just juices
Water
One Day a Week
Swimming
Fast
Step Aerobics
Running
Health
Club
Popcorn
Exercise
Weight Watchers
S. Beach
Yoga
Walking
Losing
Weight
Diet Plans
Jenny Craig
No more lattes
Candy Bars
Stop Eating
Chocolate
Give up Caffeine
Cookies
Give up sweets
One Meal a Day
Coffee
Regular Tea
OK bakery is very famous for cake, bread, sweet buns, Asian-style confectionery,
Western-style confectionery, cookies, and so on, in Mandalay, Myanmar. It is owned
operated as a small business. It employs 200 staffs and has 7 outlets in Mandalay,
OK focus to produce premium quality products. OK appreciates healthier lifestyles
of people and always uses reliable raw material supplies to produce high quality
consumers.
To expand its market to upper Myanmar. OK plans to open 10 subsidiary shops
Mandalay while retaining the quality.
Human capacity is crucial to reach all types of goals. The OK business has strong
analyzes every job roles and prepares for job descriptions, person specification and
also provides training continuously for getting qualified staffs.
 Activity Develop an appropriate strategy by making use of one most appropriate
business tools; for opening 10 new outlets in next year in nearby cities while
as necessary.
De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats
The Thinking Style & typical Comments
Green hat thinkers tend to be creative, imaginative and look for alternatives, but may not think
through the consequences. “Of course we could always buy a new system.”
Blue hat thinkers tend to see things from a broader perspective. They have the ability to
stand back and look at the bigger picture. “When the new system is in place it will speed up the
process throughout the whole business.”
Yellow hat thinkers tend to be positive, constructive and look for ways of making something
work. “I’m sure we can make the old system work if we all put our minds to it.”
Black hat thinkers tend to play ‘devil’s advocate’ and point out what might go wrong.
“The new system is only half the solution, what about late deliveries from our supplier, it won’t resolve that
problem?”
White hat thinkers tend to focus on facts, figures and logic. “How much is the new system going to
cost and how many customers can it cope with?”
Red hat thinkers tend to use hunches, ‘gut feel’, intuition and previous experience. “I have a
good feeling about it, I’m sure it will work because I’ve seen it work for other businesses.”
You work for an IT support team which has built a database system for an
international college. The college has three campuses in different countries,
though all of the staff speak the same first language. The three campuses are
several hundred miles apart, and the smallest is in a remote area that is hard
to travel to.
The database system is accessed through a web interface, and staff can log
into it from any internet-connected computer.
You need to train all of the student support staff (8 people at each campus) in
using this system. You also need to train the senior management (5 people
based on the largest campus) in using the system.
Consider solutions for how to carry out this training, and select one of them.
Think about:
• What do people need to get out of the training?
• Practicalities – travel vs. technology
• Whether one training solution is good enough for all the people who you
need to train.
Step 3
Evaluate and
Select Solutions
Key points :
1- Pro’s and Con’s
2- Force field analysis
3- Cost/Benefit Analysis
4- Feasibility/Capability Analysis
4 step Creative
Problem Solving Model
1
Problem Definition
3
Evaluate and Select
Solutions
2
Find Creative solutions
using creativity tools
4
Implement solutions &
Create Action plans
Step 3
Evaluate & Select
Solutions
Pro’s and Con’s Decision Making
Pro’s and Con’s List
Pro’s
Con’s
List
idea’s
good
points
List
idea’s
bad
points
Pro’s and Con’s Practice Exercise
ACTIVITY/ EXERCISE
You currently don’t own a car and are
thinking of purchasing one
What are the pro’s and con’s of buying a
car?
Force Field Analysis
Positive Reasons
Pro’s
Negative Reasons
Con’s
1
1
2
4
List reasons and assign a value/weight to each reason
Force field analysis Worksheet
Creative thinking Quiz 3
A Japanese soap bars manufacturing company had a strange problem with
their soap bars packaging system. For some reason there is a malfunction that
causes the machine to skip some soap bars. The result is that some of the
soap boxes are packed empty with no soap bars inside. The company received
several complains from distributors that people are buying their soap go home
and find empty boxes.
The Japanese company found a very quick low tech. solution for this problem
as soon as they became aware of it. Challenge participants to think of that
quick, simple and low tech solution the company came up with.
They simply used a fan to blow away all the empty boxes before they
get packed and shipped.
Cost – Benefit Analysis
Solution
Cost
Future Cost
Benefit
Future
Benefit
Is it Feasible? Are we Capable?
5
Feasibility Rating
0
10
10
Capability
Rating
0
5
Feasibility Rating
10
0
Feasibility and Capability
5
Feasibility Rating
0
Try to increase
feasibility
Only use these if they
come up as quick fixes or if
there are no other higher
scoring solution
0
10
Very good
idea
Best
Idea!
Good idea
Very good
idea
10
Capability
Rating
Try to increase
capability
5
Feasibility Rating
10
0
Case Study – Choose a solution
ACTIVITY/ EXERCISE
A beautysolon which is at downtown, has been really
famous for its services for 5 years. But on recent days,
the rate of customers is decreasing up to 50%. The
managing director of the solon can not think of the
solutions to update his customers without investing
much.
Help him to increase or get the usual customer amount
using problem-solving techniques.
tep 4
Implement
solution &
create an
Action plan
Key points :
1- Planning and scheduling
2- The big planning tip
3- Create an action plan
4 step Creative
Problem Solving Model
1
Problem Definition
3
Evaluate and Select
Solutions
2
Find Creative solutions
using creativity tools
4
Implement solutions &
Create Action plans
Step 4
Implement your
Solution
Planning
Steps
Step
1
Write down your main plan goal
2
Brainstorm what needs to be done
3
Put activities into order
4
Identify who will complete each activity
5
Build in milestone checkpoints to monitor :
Quality (How) – Deadlines(when)
Use both sides of your brain
on your plan
L
•Logical
•Focus on detail
•Objective
•Reserved
•Structured
•Task orientated
•Future Orientated
•Theoretical / Academic
•Systematic
•Stay with the known
•Language / Sound
R
•Creative
•Focus on the big picture
•Subjective
•Spontaneous
•Impulsive
•People orientated
•“Now orientated
•Practical / Experience
•Descriptive
•Experiments
•Visual / Picture
Create an action plan
ACTIVITY/ EXERCISE
In your teams, develop an action plan for the
solution your team selected
Be sure you have:
Action steps
Persons responsible for each action step
Deadlines for completion
Follow-up checkpoints
Be prepared to share your ideas with the class

Discussion!!

Sample activities:

Activity: Compare different problem solving models and
the stages involved.

Provide an outline problem definition statement for
analysis, and review possible outcomes.

Explore a range of tools, techniques and methods used
for problem solving. Discussion of the effectiveness of
each given certain conditions/environments, for
example OODA (observe, orient, do, act) and PDCA
(plan, do, check, act).