Regular and Creative Problem

L. Michael Hall
2008 Meta Reflection #20
May 5, 2008

All problems are not created equal.

Some are really great because they enable you to grow as they unleash new potentials within you. Others are stupid and stupifying because they distort your mental maps and diminish you as a person. So you like all of us need great problems! In the last Meta Reflection I ended by drawing a difference between formula and creative problems. Several have asked about that distinction and asked that I write a little more about it. So here goes.

Regular Formula Problems

We call problems that have already been solved "knowledge." Such solved problems in mathematics, geometry, bridge construction, etc. is the racial wealth that comes to us through time-binding and is a gift of the past. Such time-binding wealth means that we do not have to re-invent the light bulb, horseless carriage, heavier-than- air flying machines, etc. There's no need to be creative and develop creative-thinking for how a light bulb works.

Solutions to these problems requires the ability to read, to ask questions, to hire skilled people, to work with a coach, trainer, professor, therapist, or consultant. The solutions are already available. In fact, creativity in this context is not only irrelevant, it is a waste of time, energy, and effort. The problem has already been solved!

New Creative Problems

Creativity and creative problem-solving is what's needed for the problems that have not been solved. And these are the problems that, for the most part, are still emerging. They are driven by three forces—change, by complexity, and by new solutions.

1) Obviously, change drives these new problems.
Just when you solve one problem, things change and presto! You have a new problem. Today as the price of a barrow of oil changes every month, sometimes every week, and always changing upward so that fuel costs keep rising, this creates problems in many areas. There is the change that arises when companies file bankruptcy. Suddenly, they are gone. New ones arise. The companies on the top 500 or top 100 keep changing. Products and services are variable. There's planned obsolescence, there's new programs each month for fixing things and solving the problems of management. There's the changes that politics brings, that new inventions bring, that previous solutions create ... there's changes everywhere. Heraclitus has never been more right, "Change is the only thing that's permanent."

2) Complexity also drives and creates new problems.
As the systems we live within become more and more complex, new problems arise. We see this in the globalization of each country's economy within the global economy. We no longer live in isolated economies that operate by their own logics, but with things becoming more and more inter-related, what happens in one part of the globe affects every other part. This reduces local solutions and often makes them completely ineffective.

3) Even solutions drives new problems.
In fact, here's a principle of problem creation: Every solution creates new problems. And this is all the more true within complex systems. And if we don't think systemically, quick fixes which may offer a short-term wonder solution may at the same time set in motion the factors for a much bigger and more difficult problem.

Solving the New Problem Creation Problem

What are we to do about all of this? Maslow argued that fundamentally we need a new kind of human being—a person who is comfortable with change and able to effectively cope, even master, the challenges of change. He argued that we need a new kind of human who is open to the creative challenges before us, who easily lives with ambiguity, embraces uncertain, knows how to reduce risk factors, and so on. He said that above and beyond specific creative products and solutions, we need to focus on developing creative people.

This is especially true for businesses. Businesses are in business for the sole purpose of solving problems. They find and focus on problems in order to find and invent creative solutions. The design is to solve problems that confront the business ... and due to the changing world, changing technology, changing markets, etc. --- problems once solved is no longer enough.

And that's why creative problem-solving is now needed for people at all levels in an organization.

• The people at the top—need to create new management practices, new branding, new packaging, new framing.
  
• People in the middle need to create new ways of relating, new enlightened management, and new ways to balance life/work, new measurement procedures, new coaching methodology, new hiring practices, new retention practices.
  
• People on the front lines need to be creative in customer service, seeing gaps in the market, seeing trends, creative in meeting customer's needs.
  

Approaching it from the problem perspective enables the leaders and managers to tap into the untapped creative potential of their people — use their knowledge workers more fully, give people more fulfillment at work, more committed, more buy-in, more passion ... and that lessens all of the problems with keeping good people, creating responsible work force, theft, etc.