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).