Kelly Aurelio

Individual Tool Practice

October 3, 2014

In order to perform Creative Problem Solving facilitations to the best of your

ability you must to be versified in the tools that are associated with the Creative Problem

Solving process. Although in most facilitation you are using these tools in group setting,

practice and thoroughness of understanding the tools is a major concern before being

able to tag yourself as an expert. This does not mean you have to stumble your way

through facilitations until you are great at the tools. You can use them individually on

yourself to become more comfortable with them. The similarities amongst using the

tools in both individual and group setting are the practice, experience and results. In

both settings it is an opportunity to improve your skill level, and discovery. When

performing the tools solely individually it has a lessor stress factor. There isn’t pressure

to perform; you also have time to examine the process and tools to make sure they are

being used most effectively. When I use tools individually I notice there may be less

novelty but I also increase the training of utilizing my thought process in a more effective

manner. Another item I noticed when using tools individually rather than a group

setting I feel less anxious about venturing to a tool I am not extremely familiar with.

Since the pressure is off and I have time to review notes and the applications of the

tools I don’t mind trying a more difficult tool. I have a couple tools that I tend to favor

more than others but I am warming up to some new ones the more that I am practicing

them.

Why/What’s Stopping You: I used the “why? What’s stopping you?” tool because I really

think it is the best one to engulf in to the problem. I think it is so crucial to really

understand all the facets involved in the issue you are trying to tackle and the more

information you have going in to it the better your results will be. I used this tool in an

individual way in regards to a personal matter. This tool is highly focused around the

individual and I have found it times often difficult in facilitations to implement it in to a

group participation tool.

I felt that this tool was almost a natural reaction to the breakthrough I am trying to reach.

If someone were to say they are not happy, based on instinct most people would ask

why and what is keeping you from being happy. To choose this tool it simply just made

the most sense to me. It put all the problems in front of me to see what is really holding

me back. The simple questions why and what’s stopping you causes to stir up an

investigation as to what the real problem is. Discover the roadblocks by taking my goal

and branching out from it with “how to” and “how might” challenge statements based

on why I want to become happier and in a better place and what’s stopping me from

getting there.

Excursions: To follow through with one of my challenge statements I continued on with

the Creative Problem Solving process. I chose to perform an excursion out of the tool

kit because I felt it was a little bit out of my comfort zone but I thought eventually I would

wind up enjoying it, which I did. Although based off of our list on blackboard I did not

see excursion on there until after I completed the tool but still felt the information

gathered from it was valid and worthwhile being mentioned.

To properly perform the excursion tool you have to let yourself relax which is something

I am trying to accomplish anyways (which helped the cause of choosing this tool as

well) and close your eyes (I found this to be key). My excursion was a character

excursion and I chose 3 random characters that first came to mind to use in this activity.

The three I chose were Jesus (what would Jesus do was the initial thought), Kenny

Chesney who is a country singer and former president Bill Clinton. Honestly I have no

idea how I came to choose these people I just knew I wanted them to be all very

different from one another. I then answered 7 questions as if I was each of them. I took

their answers and decided which I liked for myself and felt I could use to help reach my

goals that I may not have thought of for myself.E

xcur

sion

Where

are

they?

What

are

they

eating

?

How do

they feel

about

themselves

?

What

would

make

them

laugh?

What

is their

favorite

song?

What

is their

favorit

e TV

show?

Who are

their

dependents

?

Jesus Walking

on a dirt

road

Berrie

s

That he

could be

doing more

Watching

children

play

Uplifting

praise

N/A The world

Kenny

Chesne

y

On a

boat

Shrim

p

Peacefully

relaxed

Friends

jumping

in the

water

His own

song

“Young”

Rather

play

his

guitar

or

radio

Himself

Bill

Clinton

His

persona

l office

at home

Apple

pie

Content but

feeling back

seated by

wife

Perverte

d joke

Anythin

g

George

Straight

House

of

Cards

Family,

daughter,

wife and

citizens

Brainstorming: I chose this tool because it is taught in school at all levels of education

because of its usefulness. The goal in performing this tool is to build a great amount of

ideas that often times lead to more ideas even if some sound unrealistic or unnatural it

is meant to bring about ideas that are not initially thought of. I did not choose this tool

because of its popularity but because I enjoyed seeing the different items that make me

happy that I can try to use to accomplish my challenge.

With brainstorming I took my newly established breakthrough question and post it notes

to generate as many ideas, quantity over quality to solve the challenge. By trying to use

novelty I was able to generate a lot of ideas.

Hits & Clusters: This is to categorize and converge on the ideas that were generated. I

chose to perform this tool to help narrow down the ideas I have generated. I also found

it important because this tool is necessary to converge on the ideas in almost all

facilitations.

From the post it notes in brainstorming I took the ones that were similar to each other

and clustered them together and the hits were marked to move forward with. The same

thing was done with the excursion by highlighting the ideas from Jesus, Kenny and Bill

that I liked and using those hits to move ahead as well.

PPCo/POINt: I prefer to refer to this tool as POINt. That is the way I learned it and it

has stuck with me since and I really like the way the acronym for POINt is utilized. I

chose to do this tool because I was one of the required ones but also I need to

remember all the steps to this one as well. I think it is certainly one of the most effective

tools because before you run away with an idea that is new a brilliant, it makes you do a

double take to clarify all the scenarios that can arise within the resolution you are

choosing.

This tool can be used for many situations not just for creative problem solving but just a

different way to analyze and look at situations. POINt stands for pluses, opportunities,

issues and new thinking. Based off of my initial breakthrough and all of the new ideas

that have been generated I developed a statement of what I can see myself doing to

resolve my issue. I documented the different answers to the different questions of

POINt and created new thinking to over-come the top issue that was addressed while

using the tool.

After I completed the POINt to my initial challenge statement, I felt that a new challenge

statement was in order for the remaining 3 tools to use.

Brainwriting: This tool which is usually effective in group settings is much more difficult

to perform during an individual setting. I am using this tool as one of the requirements

to complete but in my opinion its output is minimal when doing this alone. A tool such

as this one thrives off of building on ideas which is much harder to discover novelty by

building off of ideas that you are producing. It lacks diversity when working alone.

To perform this tool you put the challenge statement at the top of the page and from

there you jot down three ideas, in a group setting you then put the paper back in to the

middle of the table where others can take and build off of your ideas. Individually you

take your own three ideas and expand on them. I found myself to be coming up with

ideas not so much that stemmed from the ones previous but ideas that more so

stemmed from internal frustration to the original challenge statement.

SCAMPER: I chose to use SCAMPER solely because it was required. I have never

been a fan of SCAMPER when seeing it used in facilitation settings. Oddly enough,

using it individually, I really enjoyed it. I was definitely not expecting that. For whatever

reason in previous experience with SCAMPER it just seemed too systematic and forced

upon the group. I actually think I like it much better being used individually and going

through the S C A M P E R at a pace conducive for the process you are taking.

While using the SCAMPER I thought about my challenge statement, and went through

each letter and read the examples to generate you to think along the lines of that letter

(substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to other use, eliminate and rearrange). By

doing this I was able to, on my own time; think about what each question was asking me

to do. I think this tool has grown on me and I would use it if there is not a great time

constraint because I find it to be more effective when using it as a thought process

rather than crutch.

Evaluation Matrix: I have always had an interest in the evaluation matrix when I have

seen it performed but I have never taken part or performed the evaluation matrix. This

being my first time really getting any experience with it, I do believe it was good that I

performed it on an individual basis first. According to Creativity Unbound (Miller, Vehar,

Firestien, Thurber, Nielsen) once you evaluate your options and criteria you are not

supposed to add up the scores. With this being my first time I did not feel the need to

start over and re-do it for submission of this assignment as this assignment is meant for

us to examine our personal understandings to the tools. As I can now see a little more

review would be helpful for me before performing this tool in a group setting

I started out with determining the criteria that I found to be most crucial for me in my

decision making/resolution finding process. I listed those at the top and along the sides

posted my options based off of my idea generations previously shown above. I then,

with my lacking experience of this tool chose to rate them on a 1-5 basis with one being

worst and 5 being best. After evaluating the options I added the scores up to see the

strongest and weakest options. I think this would be a great tool to engage in with a

client for them to see their options laid out in front of them, and where those options

rank in relevance to the issues they are ultimately trying to overcome.

After refreshing my memory with some, and learning others I feel the tools that I

performed within this assignment went well. I feel like I had some insightful ideas

prosper from the divergent and convergent tools I used. I enjoy learning and using the

tools especially in an individual setting. Coming from a person who is apprehensive

about facilitating in an organizational setting without feeling entirely mastered for the

different situations that tend to arise during facilitations, individual practice is ultimately

the best current, comfortable route for me. I do understand and realize that going out

and actively taking part in facilitations is the next step for me to take.

As for group facilitations, especially the ones to come in the next month with safe

and stretch, I would prefer to use the ones I have most experience with. The concern

with that is situational circumstances may come about where the ones I lean on will not

be most useful and to provide a quality rewarding and successful experience will trump

any hesitation I have to using tools I would normally shy away from. I think in my safe

facilitation I can use some of my newer tools and for the stretch I will try to guide and

maintain a plan of using the ones I feel I have the most experience with.

Individual practice was more sufficient than I had anticipated. I was weary about

how the tools would play out without the group to help stimulate generation. I am a low

ideate so that was an initial concern for me but overall I feel accomplished with what I

was trying to resolve. In the next grouping of tools to practice I would really like to

further explore forced connections and targeting since those are all two tools I have yet

to focus on.

Name of Tool Master Expected end of CRS 670

Competency Expected end of CRS 670

Intro CRS 670

Beginning 670 assessment(M, C. I, ?)

Describe below how you assessed mastery

ClassicBrainstorming

X M

Brainstorm w/post its

X M

Brainwriting X C

Forced Connections

X B

SCAMPER X B

Visual Connections, Visually Identifying Relationships (VIR)

X C

Why/What’s Stopping You (Ladder of Abstraction)

X M

Idea Box (Morphological matrix)

X X B

Hits X M

Highlighting X C

PPCo X M

PCA X B

Card Sort X C

Evaluation Matrix

X C

Targeting X X B

Group grid X X BSearching for Success Zones

X X B

Statement Starters

X M