Using CPS for Opportunity Finding

University of GreenwichBusiness & Entrepreneurship

Business Week ProgramFebruary 2003

Using CPS for Opportunity Finding

Presented by:

Maggie Dugan and Tim Dunne

http://www.instantbrainstorm.commaggie@instantbrainstorm.com

tim@instantbrainstorm.com

Creative Problem Solving(CPS)

A structured process that

creates unstructured thinking.

 

     

Explore the Challenge

Take Action

Generate Ideas

1

Objective, Wish or Desire

 

3

Define the

Problem 

2

GatherData

 

4

Generate Ideas

 

5

Select and

Strengthen Solution

 6

Plan for

Action 

 

Strategic Task

Appraisal

Osborn-Parnes CPS Process

Diverge/Converge

• Fundamental Dynamic of CPS• Diverging: Imaginative function• Converging: Critical function• Key is to Separate these

functions, to Diverge and then Converge.

• Use Both in Every Step of the Process

Understand the Challenge Objective, Wish or Goal

• Use this step to establish your starting point.

• Use “I wish…”• Use “Wouldn’t

it be nice if…”

 Other people see things and say “Why?” But I dream things and say, “Why not?” 

- George Bernard Shaw

Understand the Challenge Gather Data

• Consider all the facts and data relevant to the situation around your goal or wish.

• Who, What, When, Where, Why?

• What’s happening, and what’s not happening?

• Feelings are data, too.

Understand the Challenge Define the Problem

• First consider all the problems related to your situation.

• Use “How to…”• Use “In What

Ways Might we…”• Use data to

uncover problems.

A problem is half-solved if properly stated.

- Joe Dewey

The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination.

- Albert Einstein

Generate Ideas

• List ideas• Traditional

brainstorming• Use techniques to

change perspective, make connections and find new ideas.

• Remember to PLAY!

The best way to have good ideas is to have lots of ideas and then to throw away the bad ones.  - Linus Pauling

Tools & Techniques for Generating Ideas

• Brainstorming• Brainwriting• Forced

Connections• Attribute listing• Reversal• Visuals Prompts(to name just a few)

The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out. - Dee Hock (founder of Visa)

Take Action on the Solution Select & Strengthen

Solution• List criteria for

measuring ideas.

• Examine ideas thoroughly before choosing or discarding.

• Use PPCB (positives, potentials, concerns & builds).

PPCB

• List Positive aspects of the idea: “What’s good about it?”

• List Potentials of the idea: “What else might result from it?”

• List Concerns about the idea: “What could be a problem with it?

• Build on the Concerns: “How might we overcome these

obstacles?”

The [person] with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.   - Mark Twain

Take Action on the Solution Plan for Action

• List tasks and action steps for optimal implementation

• Consider how to get buy-in

• Envision the “future-perfect” and map out how to get there.

Blame nobody! Expect nothing! Do Something! 

- Bill Parcells (US football coach)

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

- Michelangelo

Diverge/Converge

•Turn on the Hot Water

•Then Turn on the Cold

Dynamic Balance of CPS

Diverge1. Suspend

Judgment2. Go for Quantity3. Play; Seek Wild

and Unusual Ideas4. Combine Ideas5. Write Everything

Down

Converge1. Improve Ideas2. Judge

Affirmatively3. Be Deliberate4. Consider Novelty5. Check with your

Objectives

Where does judgment come from?

Neo CortexBig, new, reasoning brain

LizardBrain

EatAttackMateKillRun!

Judgment?

The Lizard Brain

The Lizard Brain Reacts

• First instinct is fight or flight• Survival based• Has Adapted from prehistoric

survival to social survival, a task to which it’s poorly suited.

(adapted, with thanks, from New&Improved)

CPS for Entrepreneurs

• Linger in the First Step: Objective, Wish and Goal

• Emphasize Assumption Busting• Use CPS Continuously, not just

when there’s a Perceived Problem.

• Internalizes, Seriously, how to Play

1. Linger in the First Step: Objective, Wish

and Goal• This step of CPS is typically used

to quickly clarify the starting point.

• To find new business opportunities, spend more time asking “I wish…” and “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”

• Turn complaints and discomfort into dreams and desires.

2. Emphasize Assumption Busting

• Deliberately look for assumptions (this is easier said than done.)

• Challenge assumptions• Relentlessly look for more

assumptions• Make it a point to play with

assumptions• Cultivate high ambiguity

tolerance.

Assumption Busting

1. Use who, what, when where, why and how to make a list of assumptions.

2. Pick one assumption and make a list of assumptions about this assumption.

3. Now ask questions that allow you to:

• Build up• Upset • Be similar• Take down• Enjoy• Do the opposite

(Mattimore and Accenture)

Assumption BustingMoving to another flat

ASSUMPTIONS:• Have to pack • New flat has fridge and

stove• Always takes longer than

you think• Have to buy new things• Have to clean the new apt• Need a truck• Only your best friends will

help you

BUSTED:• Don’t have to pack

• No need for fridge and stove

• Don’t have to buy a thing

• Don’t have to clean the flat

• No truck required

• Everyone helps you

Flat moving example

BUSTED ASSUMPTIONS:

• Don’t have to pack.

• No need for fridge and stove.

• Don’t have to buy a thing.

• Don’t have to clean the flat.

• No truck required.

• Everyone helps you.

IDEAS GENERATED:• Movers who do it all.• Flat comes with a chef.• Complete move in

service, ‘you ask, we supply it’.

• Move-in flats are immaculate.

• Moving co-op, where people who are moving help each other.

Assumption Busting

• Steve Jobs said “Innovation is just connecting dots.” Assumption Busting provides the ability to see the dots. (Mattimore)

• Make the familiar strange and then make the strange familiar. (Synectics)

Assumption Busting

• Its easy to overlook basic assumptions. (Van Gundy) Even stupid or obvious assumptions are worthy.

• Home Depot and Starbucks Coffee are examples of companies that changed the basic assumptions in their industries. (HBR Kim and Mauborgne)

Did they see a trend or create it?

Because he knows, he cannot understand…

  - e.e. cummings

Assumption BustingCreates New Market

Space (Kim and Mauberge HBR)A systematic approach to value innovation

can help companies break free.

• Look across borders• across substitute industries (Home Depot) • even across time, • across strategic groups (Ralph Lauren), • complementary services (babysitter cinema),

• emotional/functional borders (Starbucks).

3. Use CPS Continuously,

not just when there’s a Perceived Problem.

• Most people use CPS when they have a “problem” to solve.

• Highly innovative individuals (entrepreneurs) use CPS to find problems and opportunities

• Asking always, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…?”

4. Internalizes, Seriously, How to Play

• Adept at Suspending Judgment • Harnesses the reactions of the

Lizard Brain• Allows chaos before seeking

order• High tolerance for ambiguity• Sense of humor, laughter, play• Can stay in the present

If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad. 

- Sheryl Crow

CPS for Entrepreneurs

• Linger in the First Step: Objective, Wish and Goal

• Emphasize Assumption Busting• Use CPS Continuously, not just

when there’s a Perceived Problem.

• Internalizes, Seriously, how to Play

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius,

power and magic in it. - Goethe

Maggie Dugan and Tim Dunne42 rue des Rosiers75004 Paris, FranceTel:+33.1.42.78.64.96

Fax: +33.1.42.78.64.99

http://www.instantbrainstorm.com

maggie@instantbrainstorm.comtim@instantbrainstorm.com