Management Blog

TRIZ - The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving

This is a paper wrtiten by Mark Goode of Swansea University. The University's Business Department are an associate of Call of the Wild's and work on our programmes where required with clients. For more information take a look at our website.This isn indicative of the forward thinking we incoproate in our programmes in seeking to meet client objectives.

TRIZ

There are two groups of problems, those with known solutions and those with unknown solutions.

Known Solutions can be solved by information in books, technical journals or by referring to an expert on the subject
Unknown Solutions often utilitise methods such as brainstorming or trial and error. However, depending on the complexity of the problem, the number of iterations can be enormous.  Furthermore, using tools like experience or intuition ignores solutions in other areas or fields and often leads to psychological inertia.
TRIZ
A new approach to problem solving has been developed by a Russian, named Genrich S. Altshuller born in 1926.  Altshuller was a patent expert in the Soviet Navy whose job was to help people get patents for ideas.  Altshuller thought that the inventive process was haphazard and so suggested a better system based on the following 6 conditions.

1. be systematic.
2. be a guide through a broad solution space direct to the ideal solution.
3. be repeatable and reliable.
4. be able to access the body of inventive knowledge.
5. be able to add to the body of inventive knowledge.
6. be understandable.

Over the next five years, Altshuller looked at over 200,000 patents, most of which he considered to be just straightforward improvements.  Altshuller categorised all these patents in a very novel way; instead of using the industry to classify them as automotive, engine, valve etc, he removed the subject matter to uncover the problem solving process.  He found that the same problem had been solved over and over again using one of only forty fundamental inventive principles and he called this system TRIZ that is the Russian acronym for Theory of Inventive Problem Solving.  During the 1960’s and 1970’s Altshuller categorised the solutions into five levels.

Level Degree of inventiveness % Of solutions Source of knowledge Approx # of solution to consider
1 Apparent solutions 32% Personal Knowledge 10’s
2 Minor improvements 45% Knowledge within company 100’s
3 Major improvements 18% Knowledge within the industry 1,000’s
4 New concept 4% Knowledge outside the industry 100,000’s
5 Pure discovery 1% All that is knowable 1,000,000’s

Therefore over 90% of problems have been solved somewhere else before, which means that the problem is to find how by whom they were solved.

 

VAK Learning Styles

VAK - visual, auditory, kinesthetic learning styles model

The VAK (or VARK or VACT) learning styles model and related VAK/VARK/VACT tests (and for that matter the Multiple Intelligences concepts) offer reasonably simple and accessible methods to understand and explain people's preferred ways to learn. Occasionally well-intentioned people will write that the use of such models and tests can be problematical. This is true of course of any tool if undue reliance is placed on the methodology, or if the results of tests are treated as absolute and exclusive of other styles and considerations in the overall mix of a person's personality and needs.

As with any methodology or tool, use VAK and other learning styles concepts with care. The concepts are an aid, not a dogma to be followed and applied rigidly.

In addition to the VAK guide below, further VAK detail and VAK tests are available on the VAK tests page.

The explanation and understanding of Gardner's Seven Intelligences can be further illuminated and illustrated by looking at another classical intelligence and learning styles model, known as the Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic (or Kinaesthetic - either is correct) learning styles model or 'inventory', usually abbreviated to VAK. Alternatively the model is referred to as Visual-Auditory-Physical, or Visual-Auditory-Tactile/Kinesthetic. The VAK concept, theories and methods (initially also referred to as VAKT, for Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic-Tactile) were first developed by psychologists and teaching specialists such as Fernald, Keller, Orton, Gillingham, Stillman and Montessori, beginning in the 1920's. The VAK multi-sensory approach to learning and teaching was originally concerned with the teaching of dyslexic children and other learners for whom conventional teaching methods were not effective. The early VAK specialists recognised that people learn in different ways: as a very simple example, a child who could not easily learn words and letters by reading (visually) might for instance learn more easily by tracing letter shapes with their finger (kinesthetic). The VAK theory is a favourite of the accelerated learning community, and continues to feature - although not nearly as strongly as it should do - in the teaching and education of young people. The Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic learning styles model does not overlay Gardner's multiple intelligences; rather the VAK model provides a different perspective for understanding and explaining a person's preferred or dominant thinking and learning style, and strengths. Gardner's theory is one way of looking at thinking styles; VAK is another.

learning style	description
Visual	seeing and reading
Auditory	listening and speaking
Kinesthetic	touching and doing

Extract taken from Business balls

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence - EQ - is a relatively recent behavioural model, rising to prominence with Daniel Goleman's 1995 Book called 'Emotional Intelligence'. The early Emotional Intelligence theory was originally developed during the 1970's and 80's by the work and writings of psychologists Howard Gardner (Harvard), Peter Salovey (Yale) and John Mayer (New Hampshire). Emotional Intelligence is increasingly relevant to organizational development and developing people, because the EQ principles provide a new way to understand and assess people's behaviours, management styles, attitudes, interpersonal skills, and potential. Emotional Intelligence is an important consideration in human resources planning, job profiling, recruitment interviewing and selection, management development, customer relations and customer service, and more.

emotional intelligence - the five domains

Goleman identified the five 'domains' of EQ as:

1. Knowing your emotions.
2. Managing your own emotions.
3. Motivating yourself.
4. Recognising and understanding other people's emotions.
5. Managing relationships, ie., managing the emotions of others.

E-Learning - The Way Forward

With the launch of  Call of the Wild's e-learning online development academy we raise the question is online learning the way forward for personal development? This exciting new facility is designed to both enhance our Face to Face development services and also to act as an invaluable learning resource our clients can use throughout their managerial career.

This has been stimulated by feedback from our clients. A number of recurring issues kept arising. Firstly time away from the office and its associated costs. Most  training and development programmes will require time away from the office. Therefore the more this can be eliminated the better. Secondly retention of learning, course material can be posted on the site together with pre and most importantly post course material. Thirdly CPD. For continued learning after the programme has ended.

Coaching - The Essential Tool

Caoching is at last shaking off its just-another HR fad label writes Jessica Jarvis in the CIPD's coaching at work magazine. The results of the CIPD's Training and Development 2005 Survey confirm the rise of coaching and illustrate its growing role in organisations' learning and development strategies.The research found that coaching by line managers was used by almost 90% of the sample, while 64% of the respondents used external practitioners.

The three most cited objectives are to improve individual performance, productivity and skills, according to the CIPD's survey. When asked about effectiveness, 84% regarded coaching by line managers as "effective" or "very effective", while 92% judge coaching by external practitioners to be effective.

Find out more at www.cipd.co.uk/bookstore