“Creativity and problem solving are just two sides of the same coin” (Prof. Dr. Kirton). We all want to be creative and we also want our teams to be creative. Ignoring or failing to take the following “four mantras” seriously makes us less effective in our problem-solving abilities.

1) Recognize problems as such.
Some companies are proud to say: “we have no problems, just a couple of challenges”. Thinking this way blinds us to problems. The most creative people see problems where the rest of us are content with the status quo. Who had a problem before the wheel was invented? To sharpen our view of opportunities and valuable solutions, we need to spot the problems first. That means we have to call them that way.

2) Treat your brain like a “muscle.”
When you ask for major “creativity,” prepare people as if you wanted to take them to a marathon. Our daily life has our muscles poorly prepared for such efforts. We need a training program. We will also be on a special diet (more on that in mantra #3). On the eve of the event we reviewed our strategy. Before starting, there is a warm-up. Is this how you’re organizing your “2015 product roadmap meeting”?

3) Feed your brain “lots of points.”
We all know how important it is to connect seemingly unrelated “dots.” What remains underrated is the obvious precondition: having lots of dots to connect! The preparation phase of a creativity session should provide them to the participants. Well equipped “war rooms” or “Obeya rooms” are full of them. Creative people feed their brains on them. These points cannot be outside our own area. What is your “reading diet”? Mainly emails? That’s not healthy.

4) Appreciate diversity in problem solving.
We all know the “diversity” signs on the wall. When it comes to creativity, gender, age, or any of the usual demographics don’t matter as much as our preferred problem-solving style. TA Edison and N. Tesla disagreed on that. Companies need both styles, and any combination of them, to be successful. However, the very appreciation of companies for how good people are at solving problems often favors one style at the expense of the other. With sometimes disastrous results.

For any of these four mantras, psychology, modern business practice, and a variety of consultants have come up with sound methods. Which of these you use may not matter as much as addressing all four mantras consistently. – All the best for solving your problems!