The Psychology of Quality and More

Creative Problem Solving (CPS)

A good creative solution has three attributes that spell the word 'NUF' ('nuff said!):

• New (otherwise it would not be creative)
• Useful (it solves the problem)
• Feasible (it can be implemented in the untidy and resource-limited real world)

The abbreviation CPS is often used for the Osborn-Parnes framework and the methods taught from the Creative Education Foundation (CEF) in Buffalo, New York state. The framework consists of the following stages:

• Objective-finding (find domain in which to be creative)
• Data-finding (understand the domain)
• Problem-finding (important to define problem right!)
• Idea-finding (the initial seed--should be New)
• Solution-finding (develop seed so it is Useful)
• Acceptance-finding (make the whole solution Feasible)

To achieve the above, there is a whole raft of tools, brainstorming being only one of these. Although CEF promote some tools more than others, they do not have a limited toolbox, preferring to stay creatively open and ready to adopt and adapt any new tools which appear.

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