Leadership & Organization Development Journal

Encouraging creative thinking

Elspeth McFadzean

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Elspeth McFadzean, (1999),"Encouraging creative thinking", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 20 Iss 7
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Encouraging creative thinking

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Elspeth McFadzean
Henley Management College, Henley-on-Thames, UK

Keywords

Creativity, Problem solving,

Teams, Paradigms

Abstract

In order to develop more innovative products, process and

services, organisations must
encourage their employees to
think more creatively. One method
of achieving this is to encourage
teams to utilise creative problemsolving (CPS) techniques. There
are a variety of different CPS
techniques. Perhaps the most
common technique utilised is that
of brainstorming. This, however,
does not necessarily produce
novel and innovative solutions.
The purpose of this article is to
explore creative problem solving
and to present a model that can
help facilitators and team members choose an appropriate technique for their situation. The
model has divided creative problem solving into three categories,
namely paradigm preserving
techniques, paradigm stretching
techniques and paradigm breaking
techniques. The article discusses
these three categories and
presents some examples of their
use.

Received: March 1999

Revised and accepted:
July 1999

Introduction
In order to develop innovative products,
services or procedures, organisations must
encourage their employees to become more
creative. One method of undertaking this is
to utilise creative problem-solving techniques (VanGundy, 1992; Von Oech, 1983;
Carr, 1994; de Bono, 1992; Robinson and
Stern, 1997). There are numerous types of
creative problem-solving techniques.
VanGundy (1992) has classified these into
techniques that are used by individuals and
those that are utilised by groups. In addition,
he has also divided them into techniques that
use related stimuli and those that use
unrelated stimuli. Perhaps the most popular
technique is that of brainstorming, where
group members communicate ideas to the
facilitator who writes them down on a board
or flip chart. VanGundy (1988), McFadzean
(1998a) and Couger (1995) have also described
countless other creative problem-solving
techniques. The purpose of this paper is to
develop a framework that will enable team
members and/or facilitators to choose which
is the most appropriate technique for them to
utilise. In addition, the paper will also
discuss the implications for choosing particular techniques and will describe the
strengths and weaknesses of these methods.
The next section of this paper, therefore, will
present the creative problem-solving framework. The remainder of the article will
describe some of the techniques and their
implications. Finally, a summary of the
paper is presented.

The creativity continuum

Leadership & Organization
Development Journal
20/7 [1999] 374383
# MCB University Press
[ISSN 0143-7739]

[ 374 ]

Newell et al. (1962, pp. 65-66) have defined

creativity as follows:
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
http://www.emerald-library.com

Problem solving is called creative to the

extent that one or more of the following
conditions are satisfied:
1 The product of thinking has novelty and
value (either for the thinker or for his/her
culture).
2 The thinking is unconventional, in the
sense that it requires modification or
rejection of previously accepted ideas.
3 The thinking requires high motivation
and persistence, taking place either over a
considerable span of time (continuously or
intermittently) or at high intensity.
4 The problem as initially posed was vague
and ill-defined so that part of the task was
to formulate the problem itself.

Nagasundaram and Bostrom (1993) and

Gryskiewicz (1980; 1987) suggest that
creativity occurs when new relationships
between existing elements occur and/or
when new elements are brought in. For
example, cameras have experienced a lot of
changes during the past few years. Today, we
have compact, disposable, polaroid, digital
and video cameras. The disposable camera
has been developed by changing the
relationships between existing elements.
Instead of having a plastic case, disposable
cameras have cardboard cases. The digital
camera, however, has been developed by
bringing in new elements, in the form of new
technology. These cameras no longer use film
to store pictures. Instead, memory cards or
disks can be inserted into the camera. The
images are captured and can then be easily
transferred to a computer.
According to McFadzean (1998b), Couger
(1995), Von Oech (1983) and de Bono (1992),
creativity can be encouraged by changing a
person's mindset or paradigm. Kuhn (1970,
p. 10) introduced the concept of the paradigm
to the scientific world. He suggested that
scientific paradigms are accepted examples
of actual scientific practices, examples which
include law, theory, application, and instrumentation together [that] provide models
from which spring particular coherent

Elspeth McFadzean
Encouraging creative thinking

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Leadership & Organization

Development Journal
20/7 [1999] 374383

traditions of scientific research. Smith (1975)

defines a paradigm as a shared set of
assumptions, a way people perceive the
world and a way of explaining what is going
on round about them. Moreover, Smith
suggests that if people are in the middle of a
paradigm it is difficult for them to perceive
the situation in any other way. Creative
problem solving, however, can help people to
modify or even change their paradigm
(McFadzean, 1998b; de Bono, 1992).
McFadzean (1998b) and VanGundy (1988)
suggest that paradigm changes can be made
by using three different strategies, namely:
1 association,
2 stimulation, and
3 expression.
The objective of brainstorming, for example,
is to develop as many ideas as possible.
According to Osborn (1957), this is because
the quantity of ideas will ultimately yield
quality. In other words, the more ideas
generated, the more likely it is that the group
will produce some good quality ideas. In
addition, there should be no criticism during
this phase. This is because a relaxed and
judgement-free atmosphere encourages the
flow of ideas which would be severely
impeded if participants were allowed to
convey their judgement on each idea
(Majaro, 1988). The facilitator must also
encourage the group to combine and improve
their ideas. The participants should build on
previous ideas called piggybacking and to
look for ways of combining two or more ideas
to generate a third idea not thought of
previously. Piggybacking is a form of association. The participants can undertake
piggybacking whenever they see fit. This is
therefore free association.
The ideas developed during a brainstorming session are used to spark off new ideas. In
other words, participants are stimulated by
information that is related to the problem or
situation (McFadzean, 1996). In addition,
brainstorming and its derivatives (e.g.
brainwriting and nominal group technique)
utilise either verbal or written expression.
This means that ideas are communicated by
writing them down or speaking to the rest of
the group. These types of techniques are
shown graphically in Figure 1.
McFadzean (1996) and Garfield et al. (1997)
have shown that these techniques do not
necessarily encourage participants to modify
or change their paradigms. McFadzean
(1996), however, has shown that by changing
the methods of association, stimulation and
expression, participants can be encouraged
to challenge their paradigms. For example,
object stimulation utilises forced association

Figure 1
Paradigm preserving techniques

and unrelated stimuli. Here, participants

are asked to describe objects. These descriptions are then used as unrelated stimuli to
encourage the development of new and novel
ideas. In other words, they are forcibly linked
back to the problem. For instance, a company
could use this technique to develop novel
ideas for a new marketing strategy. The
participants could choose a company outside
their own industry sector and describe the
marketing techniques that they think are
successful. Participants from a supermarket,
for example, could list the marketing
strategies developed by other firms such as
Virgin Airways, Disney World, BT, the Royal
Bank of Scotland, etc. These strategies can
then be linked back and developed so that
they can fit in with the supermarket's overall
strategy. For example, supermarkets are now
offering financial services, which were
previously only offered by banks.
Object stimulation therefore encourages
participants to stretch their given paradigm
by utilising unrelated stimuli and forced
association. This is shown in Figure 2.
Paradigms can be broken, however, by
using unlimited methods of expression as
well as unrelated stimuli and forced association. An example of a paradigm breaking
technique is Rich Pictures (McFadzean,

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Encouraging creative thinking

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Leadership & Organization

Development Journal
20/7 [1999] 374383

1998a; McFadzean et al., 1998). Here, participants are asked to draw a picture of where
they see their company in ten years' time.
They are then asked to draw a picture of how
they see the company at the present time.
Next, each participant describes the two
pictures and gives reasons for why he/she
has used these particular images to represent
the company. The technique can draw out a
lot of information that would not necessarily
have been revealed using more conventional
techniques. In addition, the participants can
see instantaneously the differences between
the picture of the future and the picture of the
present. The stimuli developed from these
pictures can then be linked back to the
problem (see Figure 3). Paradigm breaking
techniques can utilise other forms of expression such as visioning, role-playing, dancing,
singing, story telling, etc.
Creative problem-solving techniques,
therefore, lie on a continuum ranging from
paradigm preserving to paradigm breaking
(see Figure 4).
The creativity continuum can help team
participants and facilitators to find a balance
between creativity and comfort. For example,
paradigm preserving techniques are useful
for situations that do not require novel or
innovative solutions. In addition, they are
useful techniques for teams who are inexperienced or less developed. This is because
they do not necessarily require any imagination nor do they make the participants feel
uncomfortable. Comfort is an important
issue. McFadzean et al. (forthcoming) found
that participants who were uncomfortable

Figure 2
Paradigm stretching techniques

with the meeting process were less effective

during these sessions. In fact, some members
may even refuse to participate at all. Smith
and Berg (1995) also found that comfort was
an important factor in team work. They used
paradigm stretching techniques to help participants to understand functional and dysfunctional behaviour. For example, Smith
and Berg (1995, p. 402) used one session to
highlight the role of opposition and another
to teach the team about group membership.
In the latter session, the authors asked the
participants to state the group memberships
that they were speaking out of as well as the
group membership(s) of those they were
speaking to. The exercise allowed the groups
to learn about group identity and membership but it also managed to highlight the
participants' emotions and frustrations.
For instance, the opening comments
started off fairly benign (Smith and Berg,
1995, pp. 402-403):

White female student to all other students,

male and female, of all ethnic and racial
backgrounds: I think doing this is going to be
very hard.
Black male to white female: but it will be good
for us. Some of us are forced to think of this
every time we open our mouths, while some
of you never have to think of it. Saying it will
put us all on a level playing field.

Later, however, the participants started to

use this method to voice their feelings as well
as their own identity:
Group member getting very frustrated with
what's going on to those not pulling their
weight: It is unfair that some of you are not
risking anything.

Black female to the frustrated white male who

is not identifying the real group memberships
through which he is speaking: Please recognize that taking risks is a very different
experience for some than for others . . .

This teaching method is paradigm stretching

because it is forcing the participants to view
the problem from a different perspective.
They have to undertake an exercise that does
not come naturally to them although many of
them will have attended meetings before.
Unfortunately, people who have not been
trained or are not experienced in these types
of exercises find them uncomfortable and do
not relish participating in them. In fact,
Smith and Berg (1995) found the participants
opposing these methods. In this case, they
took their anger out on the facilitator.
Although the above was a training exercise, in reality an uncomfortable or frustrating session can be very destructive or
ineffective. Smith and Berg used the
paradigm stretching exercises to illustrate
group functions and processes. However,

[ 376 ]

Elspeth McFadzean
Encouraging creative thinking

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Leadership & Organization

Development Journal
20/7 [1999] 374383

during actual problem-solving sessions,

group members may not tolerate such exercises. In such cases, the facilitator should
only utilise paradigm preserving techniques.
Likewise, an inexperienced facilitator should
not use paradigm stretching or paradigm
breaking techniques. In fact, Smith and Berg
(1995, p. 412) make a comment about their
teaching methods: ``the methods described in
this article raise questions about the safety
and psychological security of the group
members''. Thus, it should only be highly

Figure 3
Paradigm breaking techniques

trained facilitators who should utilise paradigm stretching and paradigm breaking
exercises during their sessions.

Paradigm preserving techniques

There are many different types of paradigm
preserving techniques including brainstorming, brainwriting, hexagons, 5W + H,
force field analysis, etc. (McFadzean, 1998a).
One such method was devised by VanGundy
(1992) and is called Word Diamond. The
instructions are as follows:
1 The group participants choose four words
or phrases from the problem statement.
2 These words can then be placed in a
diamond shape so that each word or
phrase lies at one of the points.
3 The group participants are asked to combine the words or phrases together and to
tell the facilitator the ideas that have
occurred due to the combination. The
facilitator writes the ideas down on a flip
chart.
4 Next, the two words, which were initially
selected, are combined with a third word
to develop more ideas.
5 Steps 3 and 4 are repeated until all
possible combinations are examined and
all the ideas have been recorded.
The exercise has been illustrated in
McFadzean (1998a, p. 35). The problem statement is written down on a flip chart ``In
what way can we motivate our employees to
think creatively?'' A word diamond is then

Figure 4
The creativity continuum

[ 377 ]

Elspeth McFadzean
Encouraging creative thinking

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Leadership & Organization

Development Journal
20/7 [1999] 374383

developed using four words from this

statement, namely motivation, employees,
think and creative (see Figure 5). The words
are then combined to produce ideas. For
example:
Motivate employees: reward employees for
good practice.
Motivate think: give employees time to
think about their own pet projects.
Motivate creative: train employees in how
to think more creatively.
Employees creative: encourage the use of
creative problem-solving techniques during
meetings.
The group continues to combine words and
record ideas until they have exhausted all
possibilities. These ideas can then be
analysed and developed into workable
solutions.
Techniques like this one do not require the
use of extensive imagination. The ideas are
developed using related stimuli and by combining words and ideas. Free association is
used to develop ideas for each word combination. These techniques are not uncomfortable to use and, therefore, they can be
utilised by less experienced groups and
facilitators.

Paradigm stretching techniques

Paradigm stretching techniques use forced
association and unrelated stimuli in order to
encourage participants to develop creative
ideas. These techniques include object
stimulation, metaphors, rolestorming, heuristic ideation technique, assumption reversal, etc. (McFadzean, 1998a, pp. 50-51).
Assumption reversal, for example, provides
the participants with a new perspective by
reversing the assumptions that have been
made about the problem or situation. For
instance, by using the technique of assumption reversal, a number of novel ideas can be
developed regarding the following problem
statement:

Figure 5
Word Diamond

[ 378 ]

In what way might we improve information technology?

The instructions for assumption reversal are:
1 Write down the problem statement.
2 List all the assumptions that can be made
regarding the problem or situation.
3 Reverse each of the assumptions. Do not
worry if they seem to be odd or silly.
4 Use these assumption reversals to stimulate new ideas regarding the problem or
situation.
The above problem, therefore, includes the
following assumptions:
1 Computers help us communicate with the
outside world.
2 A computer requires electricity to
operate.
3 My computer allows me to produce
memos and letters more efficiently.
These assumptions can then be reversed to
give the following:
1 Computers can help us communicate with
ourselves.
2 Computers do not require electricity to
run.
3 My computer can produce the memos and
letters by itself.
From these assumption reversals, a number
of novel ideas can be produced. For example:
1 Develop ``friendly'' computers that we can
talk to and which can help us think
through our problems or to remind us to
do things.
2 Build a solar powered or clockwork computer.
3 Construct a computer that is able to
produce letters and memos by itself. For
example, the user can ask the computer to
write (and send) a letter to his/her bank
manager asking him or her for a 5,000
loan.
Paradigm stretching techniques have several
strengths and weaknesses. The main
advantage of these exercises is that they
generally encourage participants to develop
more creative ideas than they would develop
when utilising paradigm preserving techniques. Second, these exercises are not as
intrusive or as uncomfortable as the paradigm breaking techniques. There is, however, a need to be aware of the safety and
psychological security of the participants. If
the facilitator and/or the team participants
ignore the discomfort that may be produced
by utilising these techniques, then the group
may show negative emotions such as
aggression, anger and frustration. In fact,
Lieberman et al. (1973) found that the
instance of psychiatric casualty increased if

Elspeth McFadzean
Encouraging creative thinking

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Leadership & Organization

Development Journal
20/7 [1999] 374383

leaders tended to confront participants in a

dominating manner in order to stimulate
them. According to Smith and Berg (1995,
p. 412):

Risks that open up the possibility of learning

are best done in a setting in which the
individual feels that the invitation to explore
other ways of being are based on compassion
and caring and not on assault, belittlement, or
unwanted intrusion, even though it may
sometimes feel this way. The environment
must also be one where the facilitator supports group members in maintaining the
integrity of their individual boundaries.

It is therefore very important that the facilitator or team leader has experience in
running sessions using paradigm stretching
techniques. In addition, the group members
themselves should be experienced in
``people'' related issues. Psychological safety
can be increased by developing and training
groups that are aware of the participants'
roles and responsibilities and the dynamics
of the team. Those groups who are only
attentive to the task and the meeting structure should only use paradigm preserving
techniques (McFadzean, 1998c).
Compassion, caring and safety all occur by
developing and enhancing relationships and
trust. Groups must therefore be taught about
the behaviour and dynamics of teams (Francis and Young, 1992). Moreover, dysfunctional behaviour must be discouraged and
positive, effective behaviour must be
enhanced. Facilitators must also be developed so that they will be able to teach groups
about effective behaviour and intervene at
appropriate times in order to discourage
dysfunctional actions. In addition, groups
will also develop their relationships by
spending time together (Katzenbach and
Smith, 1993). Hunter et al. (1995, p. 49-51)
suggest that in order to develop effective
team members, each participant must:
.
Get to know the other people. A friendly
interest in other members helps to build a
climate of trust and openness in the group.
.
Be clear about the group purpose, values,
ground rules and practices. Also be clear
about commitments in time and energy
and the limits of involvement.
.
Contribute to discussions, group decision
making and task allocation.
.
Share thoughts, ideas, feelings and concerns. This adds to the richness of the
group.
.
Listen generously to other people.
Remember that each person should be
committed to the group purpose, even if
his/her baggage is getting in the way.
.
Speak concisely and to the point.

Maintain focus and ensure that the process will lead to the fulfilment of the
meeting's goals.
Be proactive. Make suggestions, propose
alternatives, look at what's missing in the
discussion and add it.
Be flexible. Avoid taking a fixed position.
Remember there is no one right way. Be
prepared to negotiate.
Ensure that you understand the conversation that you are contributing to.
Do not avoid conflict. Disagreement and
conflict are an important part of the
development of the group. See conflict as a
way through to a more useful solution.
Keep to the ground rules and encourage
others to keep to them as well. If the
ground rules are not working, initiate a
discussion to remind the group, or if
needed, revise the ground rules.
Fulfil the commitments that have been
promised in the appropriate time frame.

Paradigm breaking techniques

Paradigm breaking techniques can be more
uncomfortable than either paradigm preserving or paradigm stretching procedures. The
results for these exercises, however, can be
very powerful. The ideas that are developed
tend to be much more novel and creative
than those developed using paradigm preserving or paradigm stretching techniques.
Psychological safety, however, is very
important. It is therefore imperative that
paradigm breaking techniques should be
undertaken in appropriate conditions. For
example, McFadzean et al. (forthcoming)
found that process congruence is very
important to the success of a paradigm
breaking session. Participants who do not
agree to the process are unlikely to take part
effectively. Indeed, they may not take part at
all.
One of the main complaints often heard
when using these techniques is that the
group members are there to work not to play
or have fun. In fact, creativity can be greatly
enhanced by encouraging the use of fun and
playfulness. Ruggiero (1991, pp. 39-40) argues:

Unlike most people, creative people do not

allow their minds to become passive, accepting, unquestioning. They manage to keep
their curiosity burning, or at least to rekindle
it. One aspect of this intellectual dynamism is
playfulness. Like little children with building
blocks, creative people love to toy with ideas,
arranging them in new combinations, looking
at them from different perspectives.

Both Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein

believed that playfulness was an essential
element to creativity. In fact, Einstein

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Encouraging creative thinking

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Development Journal
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believed playfulness to be the essential

feature in productive thinking (Gordon,
1961).
Humour can also stimulate group members
to develop creative ideas. Hemsath and
Yerkes (1997, p. 98) suggest that, ``Fun can be
a catalyst for an effective meeting. Used
appropriately, fun and humor can relieve
meeting tedium and level the hierarchical
playing field to create an atmosphere that
encourages honest dialogue, risk taking, and
the sharing of ideas''. Many organisations
use fun and humour to motivate their staff.
For example, Alltel Corporate Services put
on a skit that highlights all their organisational issues, including the company's objectives, for the upcoming year. The Liberty Toy
Company has found that their meetings are
more effective if they start with an icebreaker. They allow their staff to play with
some of their toys; the most popular being the
toy guns and darts (Hemsath and Yerkes,
1997).
In fact, icebreakers and energisers are
exercises that not only can help to stimulate
the group's imaginative and creative skills
but also can help the team to develop and
become more cohesive. There are
numerous techniques that can help energise
a group (McFadzean, 1998a; Roberts-Phelps
and McDougall, 1997; Williams, 1993). For
example, McFadzean (1998a, p. 70) suggests
that an exercise called ``truth/untruth'' can
help to energise the group as well as to
encourage creativity, communication and
group development. The instructions for this
exercise are as follows:
1 Break the group into syndicates of about
two to four people.
2 Ask each person to think up a true
statement about themselves: the more
obscure the better. In addition, they
should also think up a statement which is
not true (but could be). For example: I
have sung a duet with Michael Jackson
and I have climbed every Munro (a hill
over 3,000 feet) in Scotland.
3 Invite one person to announce his/her two
statements. The other members of the
group have to guess which one is true and
which one is untrue. The person can then
explain his/her statement, if necessary.
For example, I have sung a duet with
Michael Jackson (or at least I have sung
along with his CD), I have not climbed
every Munro in Scotland.
4 Repeat this process for about ten minutes.
This exercise can be fun and it is amazing the
revelations that can be made by participants.
It is also a method of getting to know the
other members of the group. The statements

[ 380 ]

made, however, should be kept confidential

because some of the true statements may
prove embarrassing to the member who
revealed it.
Paradigm breaking techniques help participants to overcome long-standing patterns of
thinking and to view situations from different angles (Alder, 1993, p. 58; McFadzean,
1998b). One method of achieving this is to
think visually instead of in words or
numbers. According to LeBoeuf (1994, p. 56):
A common technique of creative people is to
block out all verbal thoughts and concentrate
on forming mental pictures of the subject or
problem. For example, Frederich von
Kekule's discovery that benzene and other
organic molecules are closed chains or rings
was a result of a dream in which he saw
snakes swallowing their tails.

There are a number of techniques that can

encourage group members to think visually.
These include rich pictures, picture stimulation and collages (McFadzean, 1998a;
McFadzean et al., 1998). For example, Morgan
(1997) uses the spider plant as a metaphor for
the characteristics of an organisation. He has
found that this method has helped groups to
stimulate their creative thinking. For
instance, the following are four key ideas
that have emerged when he used this technique:
1 The plant pot acts as a constraint to the
plant, stopping it from growing to its
fullest potential. The plant pot signifies
the central office of an organisation.
Therefore, the constraints set by the
``plant pot'' must be broken.
2 Spider plants can produce numerous
``babies''. These are smaller plants attached by stems to the mother plant.
These stems are the new spider plants'
lifelines because they receive their nourishment from the mother plant. In an
organisation, decentralised departments
will also depend on their lifelines for
nourishment. Morgan (1997, p. 74)
suggests that:
Many [organisations] are struggling with
processes of decentralisation or of
spawning new entrepreneurial initiatives. They desperately want to create
more flexible, innovative units, but they
get hamstrung by traditional patterns of
thinking about control and accountability. As a result, the new units get
enmeshed in report-writing and rulefollowing requirements and other hierarchical requirements that make them
extensions of the central bureaucracy.
Yet, if those in the central bureaucratic
``pot'' could think in terms of ``umbilical
cords'', like those of a spider plant,
they'd have a means of reconciling the
contradictory demands of creating

Elspeth McFadzean
Encouraging creative thinking

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Development Journal
20/7 [1999] 374383

decentralisation while sustaining control

and accountability.

3 Organisations need to develop different

``cords'' for managing different situations.
For example, different cords, or business
units, could have different organisational
structures.
4 Encourage ``bumblebees'' so that there is
integration between the cords and a
co-ordination of systems and budgets.

Morgan has therefore used a pictorial metaphor to represent an organisation. This

method encourages participants to break
away from traditional ways of thinking and
helps them to view the problem from a
number of different perspectives. Thus,
paradigm breaking techniques encourage
creative thinking by using different forms of
expression such as drawing, visioning and
role-playing, as well as using forced association and unrelated stimuli.

Implications
The creativity continuum presents a number
of implications for managers. Perhaps the
two most important implications are that of
training and culture. Employees need to be
trained in creative thinking, team management and group participation, and organisations must develop their culture in such a
way as to nurture and support creativity.
According to Goffee and Jones (1998, p. 141):

More and more creativity is happening

collectively. The reason is that collective
creativity works. Brainstorming is hard to do
alone but is increasingly important in business where creativity is a source of competitive advantage and not many businesses can
say creativity is not important. Indeed today,
as technology, the economy, and what we
know and need to know get increasingly
complex, work can only benefit from teams of
minds untangling problems and forging solutions . . . The greatest scientific breakthroughs of our times have come from
aggregated effort, but collective creativity
makes sense even in more routine business
situations. [For example, drug development]
requires the best ideas of biologists, chemists,
geneticists, and clinicians, whose insights
don't just synthesize but combine and combust to create solutions none of the scientists
could have come up with alone. In other
words, in today's environment collective
creativity is fast becoming a competitive
imperative.

Creativity is therefore very important for

organisations. Thus, it is vital for senior
management to provide and encourage a
creative climate (Evans, 1993; Coopey, 1987).
Anderson et al. (1992) have suggested four
factors that consistently surface as key

determinants of group innovativeness. These

are:
1 vision,
2 participative safety,
3 a climate for excellence, and
4 support for innovation.
Visioning is very important because it can
help creative thinkers to break their paradigms and think of a more powerful future. In
addition, participative safety is paramount.
Employees can only be encouraged to think
creatively if they are not afraid of criticism
or punishment (McFadzean, 1998b). Creative
ideas also need to be implemented effectively
if they are to succeed. This is best achieved in
a climate of excellence where managers are
committed to achieving a first-rate performance. Finally, senior management must
support and encourage a climate for creativity. Often managers will articulate their
support but will not enact it.
Evans (1993) has also suggested that the
following actions will prove beneficial for a
creative culture. The company should:
.
Provide help in developing ideas.
.
Encourage employees to express their
ideas openly.
.
Provide time for individual efforts.
.
Encourage risk taking and initiative.
.
Provide freedom for the employees to
enable them to do things differently.
.
Provide a nonpunitive environment using
a low level of supervision.
.
Encourage employees to interact and
participate with other work groups besides their own.
.
Maintain an optimal amount of work
pressure.
.
Provide realistic work goals.
.
Encourage the delegation of responsibilities.
.
Demonstrate confidence in the workforce
in a climate of mutual respect.
.
Allow individuals to be part of the decision-making process.
.
Encourage management to provide
immediate and timely feedback to their
team members.
Training is also an important factor in
developing a creative climate (Hicks, 1991).
Robinson and Stern (1997) claim that the
majority of creative acts are unplanned but
this does not mean that organisations should
not proactively develop their employees to
think more creatively and to work more
effectively together. Creativity training is
important but it must be integrated with
other people-related skills such as communication, teambuilding, leadership, etc.
(Carr, 1994). In addition, there should be an
expectation that, having attended a course,

[ 381 ]

Elspeth McFadzean
Encouraging creative thinking

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Leadership & Organization

Development Journal
20/7 [1999] 374383

the participant should apply his/her new

knowledge to his/her own job. Carr (1994,
p. 120) suggests that creativity training
should be provided ``but first make sure that
those who receive it will have the opportunity to apply it when they finish their
training''.
The creativity continuum provides a useful
framework for developing training courses.
Participants can then be made aware of the
differences between the varying types of
creative problem-solving techniques. In
addition, they can be taught how to use them,
the types of groups that would benefit from
them and each technique's strengths and
weaknesses. These techniques should not
only be taught to potential group participants
but also to facilitators since it takes different
skills to support teams undertaking paradigm preserving techniques from those of
teams, for example, who are undertaking
paradigm breaking techniques.
Moreover, because paradigm stretching
and paradigm breaking techniques require
more developed and experienced teams to
utilise them effectively, training in team
building and group dynamics is also necessary (McFadzean, 1998c). This will help
participants to undertake the process more
effectively by reducing dysfunctional behaviour and encouraging a more positive and
effective performance.

Summary
Creativity is vital for organisations that want
to develop new and novel ideas for problem
solving, opportunity finding, innovation and
change. This paper has explored creative
problem solving in groups and has presented
a framework entitled the creativity continuum. This continuum has divided creativity
techniques into three categories:
1 paradigm preserving,
2 paradigm stretching, and
3 paradigm breaking.
Each type of technique has merit and all are
useful for organisations. Paradigm preserving techniques, for instance, do not necessarily encourage participants to be creative but
they are valuable techniques for less developed and inexperienced groups. Conversely,
paradigm breaking techniques can encourage participants to think very creatively but
they should only be used by experienced
facilitators and teams. In order to utilise
these techniques effectively, organisations
must develop a culture that will encourage
imaginative thinking and provide a
safe environment for taking risks and
undertaking challenges. Moreover, teams

[ 382 ]

and facilitators should be actively developed

and taught the benefits of creative problem
solving in groups.

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