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Chapter 10 • Creative Group Techniques

1.        Analyze in detail the last conference you attended—a sales meet ing, church or civic club, family conference, or one you called yourself. List in particular the anticreative things that were done.

2.        Consider the general problem of new inventions (products, methods, materials, etc.) needed in your business. Find an open-minded teammate and process the problem, following the steps given in the Creative Team outline. Analyze your results.

3.        Consider the general problem of encouraging workers to take a greater interest in improving product quality:

a.  Suggest where or when you could profitably use a Buzz group on this problem.

b.  Suggest where or when you could profitably use Brainstorming.

c.   Write out the specific problem statement you would give the Brainstorm panel.

4.   Consider the general problem, "What new products, not now available, are needed in the home?"

a.  Make up a list of ten people you think could effectively contribute to a Brainstorming session on this problem. Give a brief statement of why you selected each person.

b.  Make a list of ten categorical questions you could use in leading the session on this problem.

c.   List at least five "wild" or "blue-sky" ideas of your own you could use in the course of the session to keep it relaxed.

5.   Assume you have conducted a Brainstorming session on the problem of improving the frame design for an electric motor used in a window air-conditioning unit. A panel of engineers and designers produced eighty-nine unduplicated ideas. Exactly how would you go about de­termining which five of these ideas you would recommend for labora­tory testing.

6.        Write a five-minute talk you could use to explain Brainstorming to a group of people who had never heard of it before.

7.        The text gives several general suggestions for problems in which you could use Brainstorming:

a.  Exploring the possibilities in a product or situation

b.  Creating a list of new needs

c.   Discovering potential uses for new products or new materials

d.  As a "crash program" knowledge-pooling device

e.   As a group test

For each of these, give a specific problem your company has on which you could consider the use of Brainstorming.

8.   This problem is listed as "Vital to the National Defense" by the National Inventors' Council:

Needed: A personal built-in heating unit. The armed services want a device that can be built into a man's suit to distribute heat over his body in subzero weather. The device...

Must operate without a restricting power source

Must operate eight hours (minimum) without refueling

Must permit rapid discard

Must not hamper agility

Must be reasonably lightweight

Must be fully reliable

Assume you are going to conduct an Operational Creativity session to find an idea for this problem.

a.  Determine your "subject" word or phrase.

b.  Make up a list of at least ten leading questions that you, as the leader, could use to keep discussion going without revealing the exact problem.

Related terms include managing a business and business best practice.