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Constraints on Creative Problem Solving

Creative problem-solving requires a great deal of flexibility, and acceptance of risk which can be difficult for businesses who are generally risk averse to embrace. Many constraints also exist in our individual thinking which limit our capacity to think and problem-solve creatively (Whetten & Cameron, 2016). In my own experience in the nonprofit and social service industries I have seen these constraints hold back otherwise successful individuals. 

“Well, this is how we’ve always done it”

I’m sure you’ve heard this common refrain from supervisors and teammates in the past. Generally, we hear this when someone questions an existing policy, procedure, or process. The inquiry is not personal, but this knee-jerk response is a clear indicator that the individuals are experiencing some conceptual blocks to creative problem solving. Complacency is a major impediment to thinking differently, in fact, complacency may mean that the people in question are not thinking at all. When we avoid asking questions and value action over planning or cognitive activity we are seeing complacency in action. Some other common inhibitors of creative problem-solving include the enforcement of artificial constraints. This could look like self-limiting beliefs, or simply the fear of exploring a solution that we've never done before. Similarly, some find creative problem-solving difficult because they look for solutions that already exist, rather than exploring new ones (Whetten & Cameron, 2016). Each of these are limitations that stifle creativity and frustrate individuals when traditional analytical problem-solving methods fail to produce results.

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“Every act of creation is, first of all, an act of destruction”
Pablo Picasso

A few years ago...

I was working with a local nonprofit organization that operated on bare bones. This organization only had three employees and I was hired on as the fourth. Each team member was responsible for separate parts of the business and they didn’t communicate with each other very well. As program specialist, I was responsible for training and overseeing volunteers who provided services on behalf of the organization. A major weakness that I saw in this organization was their complacency. They were always overwhelmed and never had enough volunteers to keep up with the workload. When I asked questions in an effort to help optimize processes I was always met with that dreaded phrase. “This is how we’ve always done it.” Not only were they uninterested in thinking about ways to improve their processes, but they blamed the inefficiency of the processes for not having time to think about ways to improve them. After receiving so much pushback I fell into the complacency trap, and left the organization after a short while. As Pablo Picasso described, the prerequisite to creation is destruction. In order to create an environment conducive to creative problem-solving one must destroy these impediments. Knowing now what I do about creative problem solving, I am determined to avoid the pitfall of complacency in all of my future work, despite how prevalent it may be in the workplace culture.



References

Whetten, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills, 9th ed. Pearson.

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