🚀 go-pugleaf

The following article (see exerpts below) appeared in the weekend
edition (April 20) of the  Financial Post newspaper-published in Toronto, on
page 31 in a special report titled "The CEO"
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"Good process no substitute for good thinking"
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by Johanna Powell/FP

In the 1950s and '60s, CEOs focused on maintaining profits and the
status quo.

The came total quality management, with its focus on faster, better
and cheaper.

Now, CEOs have downsized, re-engineered and restructured their
companies, and they are moving into a new era where the focus is not on just
quality, but also on significant improvements in the way their
companies operate.

This will require a new way of thinking, says Walter Derzko, head of
Walter Derzko & Associates and a strong proponent of lateral creative
thinking, a technique designed to produce innovative ideas.

Companies have been so tied up with downsizing, Derzko says, that very
few people have thought about the future. They have squeezed as much as
they can out of downsizing, but this has not brought them increased market
share or greater profits.

"Good process isn't a substitute for good thinking." he says."It is
rare to get breakthrough ideas."

This is where lateral or creative thinking comes into play.

To illustrate, Derzko describes a manufacturer that switched from
military production to making automotive breaks. The manufacturer
challenged traditional thinking and began looking at ways of improving
breaking by using the accelerator pedal.

The first step in emergency breaking is removing the foot from the
gas, which led to the idea that the break lights could go on when the
driver's foot quickly leaves the accelerator. This would give drivers
behind a fraction of a second more notice and an added chance to avoid a
rear-end pileup.

"As the complexity of the world and the number of choices grows,
thinking becomes increasingly important. Without thinking, students and
employees fear ambiguity." Derzko says.

.....[snip]....


Derzko says the traditional corporate organization often discourages
creative thinking, reducing variation in thinking through rules and
human resources practices.Traditionally, companies have wanted to increase
convergent thinking, so everyone in the firm would be thinking along
the same line.

Now, he says, executives complain that employees and students aren't
creative enough. But creative thinking is a practical skill that can
be learned, the same way other skills, such as mathematics, are taught,
practised and applied."

In fact, it is often taught in the gifted or enriched programs in
elementary school, based on the concepts of Edward de Bono, author of
Teach Yourself to Think. De Bono uses a systematic approach to
problem-solving that is designed to take the confusion out of thinking
about difficult issues.

Derzko teaches creative thinking courses at the college and university
level. He is also the driving force behind the Creativity Consortium,
a group of like-minded people from all walks of life, ranging from
administrators at large corporations, such as Royal Bank and Bell
Canada,to artists, entertainers and entrepreneurs.

The group, which Derzko says is the oldest thinking club in Canada
(and North America, as well), started meeting in 1992 to practise lateral
creative thinking skills, the same way Toastmasters groups meet to
practise public speaking.

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For more information on the Creativity Consortium and virtual
membership, visit our web page  http://www.itrc.on.ca/CreativityConsortium/ or
send an email to wd@itrc.on.ca