The Path to Creative Problem-Solving

Project managers have to be almost everything the organization’s needs—flexible, quick-witted, knows how to manage time and resources—it’s an endless list of skills and capabilities. At the end of the day, they are human and they have their own limits. Team members need to have certain skills and traits to be considered in their role. And there are project leaders who have a hard time molding their talents into their full potential. The issue at hand is: they have to be creative when it comes to problem-solving. One might have to be imaginative when trying to look for a solution to a problem. But some are not just creative enough.

Being too creative can sometimes make someone stray too far from the project’s spectrum. So how are you going to boost your and the team’s creativity? How can you think outside the box in terms of problem-solving? Here’s how.

Problem-Solving : The Creative Mind

There are two types of people in this world: Some are creative. Some are not. But it’s not a hindrance when you are struggling with solving the problem. Anyone can become creative in their own way.

Devote Time to Think: You cannot think clearly if you are surrounded by distractions left and right. Go out and find a peaceful spot for you and your thoughts to be alone together. Write notes in your journal containing your ideas or have a recorder handy if you don’t feel like writing them down.

Ask for Advice: It can be your coworker or someone who is a mentor of the organization. Their experiences and insights in regards to problem-solving will help you acquire a creative idea of your own. Merge their experiences together and come up with an idea of your own.

How to Encourage Creativity In the Team?

Now that you have your own creativity to maintain, you need your team to instill the same creative mindset in order to be effective in problem-solving. The challenge here is to encourage and convince your team members to let their creative juices flow out freely in the open.

Brainstorm:

Encourage any types of ideas from your team members. Welcome these ideas with an open mind regardless they are preposterous, bad, or impossible to achieve. This is also a way for you to evaluate how they solve problems creatively. Let them think outside the box for creative problem-solving and acknowledge them.

Come Up with Inquiries:

Ensure that everything is official, clear, and ready to go. You need to settle creative methods toward problem-solving so you will have to come up with questions to prevent problems in the future. Since you and your team are looking ways on how to solve problems in an inventive way, you need to determine which ones work.

Different Mindsets Are Helpful:

Consult other teams in the organization their own creative problem-solving skills. Having different mindsets of what is the factor of creative problem-solving skills will help you give a clear head start.

Ground Rules

Once you have the official solutions, it needs to stay within the line of the organization’s policy as well as on the legal side.

Take Notes: Your team’s limits should be listed down as well as resources like time, budget, and tools. This way, you get to identify what solutions are unnecessary in this situation.
Final Check: Once you officially know what problem-solving method you are going to use, identify which is an effective stronghold and which one is flexible. Keep in mind to secure resources, funds, and maintenance of these boundaries to make problem-solving go into full effect.

Do you have your own way how to implement creative problem-solving? No matter how big the issue is, you have to put into practice to be creative as possible when looking for the right solutions. You might not be creative enough today, but you will be once you know the ways on how to be one.