Association Insight International & European | Page 36

Association Insights | Expert Briefing

Why do we need creative problem solving?
Many problems can be solved without using deliberate
creativity techniques. For example, it’s quite easy to decide
what to have for lunch or what birthday present to choose
for someone. It’s only when a problem is tricky to solve that
creativity techniques become really helpful. Use deliberate
creativity when:
1. There’s not a single correct answer
2. You are not sure what the real problem actually is
3. You know where you want to get to, but don’t know how
to get there.
There are a number of different tools and techniques that
can be used for these types of problem. Creative problem
solving is just one way of approaching a problem and is
particularly good for 1 & 2.

What is creative problem solving?

• Overcome barriers to communication with members?
• Improve the renewal cycle process?
• Make our marketing more effective for multiple segments?
Obviously it’s impossible to address all of these issues in
one workshop or meeting, so participants can vote for a
topic which they feel will be most productive.
Sometimes a question might need to be refined to make
it more effective. A quick and easy way to do this is to
repeatedly ask ‘Why?’
For example:
•H
 ow might we overcome barriers of communication with
our members?
•W
 hy do we want to overcome barriers of communication
with our members?
•B
 ecause we want them to read our emails and sign up for
our events.

There are quite a few different creative thinking strategies
but most involve several stages:
1. Clarify
2. Ideate
3. Evaluate
4. Implement

• Why do we want them to sign up for our events?

Often when we think about having a creative thinking
session at work we focus mainly on the ‘Ideate’ st age of
the process. We might have a brainstorming session and
think of lots of ideas, but at the end of the day we don’t
really know where to go next or how to put the hundreds
of great new ideas into practice. Creative problem solving
can be used by individuals or groups. Sometimes working
as a group is more effective in an organisation as it helps to
build some consensus on ideas to take forward, and having
more people making suggestions means more ideas, and a
higher probability that some of them will be really good.

So the real question could become:

Step One - Clarify

The next stage is to generate lots of ideas to find all the
possible solutions to the problem you have stated. There
are several techniques which help with this. Probably the
most commonly used is ‘brainstorming’. This is a process
where for about 10 minutes, a group of people call out lots
of ideas and a scribe writes them all down. There are other
versions where people write their ideas on to sticky notes
or even computer software. It helps to have a diverse team,
including staff representing all levels and departments
of the association – even members could be invited.
Brainstorming is something that most people are familiar
with, and it can be really useful, but there are a few traps
which people often fall into. One way of avoiding the traps
is to follow four simple rules.

What are all the issues which we are facing currently – what
is the real problem/challenge?
This can be tricky to identify, yet it is very important to
work on the right challenge. All too often hours are spent
trying to solve one problem, when in fact the real issue is
something quite different.
Think about some of the issues your organisation faces?
What are the problems you encounter? Make a list of them
before reading on. Try to phrase them as positives ‘How
might we…?’ or ‘In what ways might we…?’ (which can be
shortened to ‘IWWMW’).
One of the great things about Associations Network is that
members often face the same challenges but are not in
competition with one another. So peers are able to work
together at events and then apply new ideas to their own
organisations. Below are just a few of the issues identified
by participants of the Technology for Associations
Congress.
How might we…
• Integrate existing systems into our CRM?
• Improve existing user journeys?
• Retain member engagement?
• Find relevant and exciting topics for our website?
• Maintain and update our contact data?
• Engage more members with limited resources?

36 | © Associations Network 2015

• Because we need more people to come to our events.
• Why do we need more people to come to our events?
•B
 ecause we feel that our events are the best way to share
information with our members.

In what ways might we share information with our
members?
This turns a somewhat negative question – how to
overcome barriers, into a more specific and more positive
question. It might turn out that events are not actually the
best way to share information after all, so all our efforts to
get people to attend might be a waste of time.

Step Two - Ideate

Brainstorming rules
1. Defer judgement

When someone suggests an idea, simply write it down.
Don’t start to discuss it or make any comments, positive or
negative. This is for several reasons. If you start to explain
or discuss your idea, it uses up valuable time and can
prevent others coming up with ideas. Negative comments
discourage creative thinking – how many times have you
suggested something just to be told, ‘Oh we tried that
before and it didn’t work.’ Even positive comments can
be off-putting. ‘That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day, let’s
do it!’ doesn’t exactly invite anyone else to suggest any
further ideas.

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