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4 • The Operational Creativity Technique - Part 1

The "Operational Creativity" technique is sometimes called the "Gordon Technique" after its inventor, William J. J. Gordon, of the Arthur D. Little Company, a research and consulting firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This technique is the basic group method used by that company's Design Synthesis Group. It is the job of this group to invent products to order for their clients. They claim that, so far, they have never failed to produce a re­quested invention, using the Operational technique as a basic crea­tive step. Among the products they claim for this technique are a revolutionary new kind of gasoline pump; a new type of can opener; and a new method of building construction.

The basic objective of Mr. Gordon's technique differs from that of a Brainstorming session in that, with this method, only one radically new idea is wanted.

The principal characteristic of the Gordon session is that only one man—the group leader—knows the exact nature of the prob­lem to be solved. There are two main reasons why Gordon feels that the other panel members should not know what the problem is:

First, he feels that Brainstorming produces superficial ideas because solutions are arrived at too soon. He avoids this by not revealing the problem initially.

Secondly, he seeks to avoid "egocentric involvement." He feels that a participant in a Brainstorming session, or in some of the other group techniques, can become infatuated with one of his own ideas—perhaps, he will even go so far as to consider it the only logical solution to the problem ("the all-wise"). Such in­volvement or infatuation does, of course, seriously hamper the participant's effectiveness in the group search for solutions.

Because group members involved in the Gordon session do not know the exact problem being considered, it is extremely impor­tant in choosing the subject for discussion to choose one that is suitable—one that is actually related to the real problem, but does not reveal its specific nature. Here are a few examples of the subjects Mr. Gordon has used: for a new toy, play or enjoyment; for a fishing lure, persuasion; for a new can opener, opening.

Utilizing some such subject, the group begins to discuss it with only enough guidance from the leader (who does know the final objective problem) to keep them from going completely astray. When the leader feels that the group has either exhausted all the possible aspects of thought surrounding his problem area, or when he feels that the group has uncovered a particularly good idea worth following up, he then reveals the exact nature of the problem. At this time, the group begin to channel all their efforts into synthesizing all the previous exploratory and speculative thinking toward solving the real problem. After a promising initial idea is obtained, and as much spontaneous development of it as is possible has taken place, the project is then turned over to a development group and the finished product is worked out by more conventional engineering means.

In attempting to apply this Operational Creativity technique, Mr. Gordon makes several suggestions:

He feels that the session length must run a minimum of two to three hours. In practice, this usually results in about 75 per cent of the time being devoted to "de-conditioning" the group through the broad, general field discussion, and in the remaining 25 per cent of the time being given over to spontaneous development of ideas. These figures should not be taken literally, however: the exact moment of revelation of the problem is entirely up to the discretion of the panel leader.

The group leader should be exceptionally gifted in group dynamics and thoroughly trained in the use of the Gordon technique. The leader is unquestionably the key man in the group, and his judgment and running analysis of the group progress is vital to the success or failure of the effort.

In selecting personnel, try to obtain a group with diverse backgrounds. Try to get a balance of highly active and quiet members. You may want to mix groups of men and women, especially on consumer problems. Mr. Gordon feels that his groups are most effective in sizes of from four to nine members.

For this type of group, a secretary and a tape-recording ma­chine are almost musts. Ideas and thoughts are produced in rapid-fire cross-discussion, and must all be recorded. Frequently, once the problem has been revealed, the group will want to re­fer back to a previous theoretical discussion. This can be done easily with the tape. It is a good idea to have blackboards avail­able for members to sketch out or visualize any ideas they may have.

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