Developing Creative Problem Solving for Use in the Social Arena: Challenges and Connections

By Mary C. Murdock and Candice Cliff

Originally appeared in the International Creativity Network Newsletter, volume 3, number 4, 1993, pages 1, 12-14.

In 1989 my colleagues and I traveled to Washington, D. C. on one of those infamous research trips known as a "grant hunt. " On the afternoon of the second day we sat in the elegantly appointed offices of the U. S. Peace Institute- a wild-card target on our "hit" list. The grant director, examining our concept paper, looked at us politely but curiously and remarked, "I've read your material and find it intriguing, but frankly, I'm puzzled as to why you are here; I don't see the connections. " He pursued his intrigue and puzzlement with us for over an hour, listening and asking questions while we described research and applications of the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Process. That incident served as a reminder of the on-going research and development challenge of making disciplinary connections to CPS more explicit.

In 1990, through the encouragement of Dr. Sherman Patrick and a grant from the Martin Luther King Jr. Institute in New York, the Center began a three year initiative to more deliberately connect CPS concepts to those of non-violent social change. The following article presents some of the implications and findings from a conceptual study that was one of the outcomes of the grant.

Research and development of the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model have a deliberate and documented history (Isaksen, Treffinger, & Dorval, 1993). Research, theory-building, and development, although robust and extensive, have not explicitly focused on deliberate connections to broader political, economic, or social issues. We are not suggesting that CPS has not been used in these arenas, but rather that the focus of CPS impact research has most frequently occurred at individual or organizational levels in studies whose initial design and defined outcomes were more focused on short-term implications rather than longer term social change.

As early as 1963 Osborn noted the need for and importance of creative problem solving in the broader social context when he commented that ". . . alas, the newest and most pressing problems of our nation are not so much the improvement of things as the solution to people-problems. To arrive at new and good ideas which might solve the world's people-problems, there is no conscious creative effort at all comparable to what scientific research is doing with the products we use (p. 5). " Thirty years later, Osborn's challenge for broader applications of CPS remain largely untapped.

The research and development challenge in using CPS more extensively to solve social or "people" problems can perhaps be better understood as a function of the ecological task appraisal contingencies that Isaksen, Puccio, & Treffinger (1993) described. "Social change" is a difficult and messy problem solving arena involving a variety of people with diverse perspectives who operate in many seemingly independent contexts. These obstacles, however, are not insurmountable. The outcomes of such well-known social change processes of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. illustrate successful descriptive applications.

As with the field of creativity in general (Isaksen, Stein, Hills, & Gryskiewicz, 1984; Novelli, 1993; Kaufmann, 1993; Murdock & Puccio, 1993) the need for further theoretical model development has contributed to the lack of emphasis in using CPS for broader social change initiatives. Isaksen & Dorval, (1993) summarized the development of the Creative Problem Solving Process using the metaphor of "waves. " They noted that the first wave of development in the late 1960's and early 1970—ë contained deliberate work on the model to help individuals understand and use their creative talent more effectively. The second wave in the 1980's focused on strengthening and expanding CPS to better understand individual differences that influenced its learning and use. The most recent third wave of the 1990's has focused on a more flexible ecological approach in understanding how task interacts with personal orientation and situational outlook (Isaksen, Puccio, & Treffinger, 1993).

Third Wave Conceptual Development: A Social Perspective

A recent study (Cliff, 1993) addressed theoretical issues in model development by comparing the structure and concepts of the second wave CPS model (Isaksen and Treffinger, 1987) with the non-violent social change processes of Mohandas K. Gandhi (Bondurant, 1971) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (The Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute for Non-violent Social Change, Inc. , 1989, 1990). Analysis of the CPS second wave model in comparison to the steps and stages of the non-violent social change processes of Gandhi and King identified structural and semantic similarities and differences as baseline data for theory-building in regard to applications of CPS as a social technology.

Structural and Semantic Findings: A Strength, a Limitation and a Potential of Current CPS Theory

Three findings from the Cliff study are of particular interest for future model development and practical application: (a) the deliberate identification and application of phase movement in CPS was important in understanding all three processes; (b) the second or third wave CPS model contained no deliberate structural and semantic equivalents to Kingian Philosophy and Principles or Gandhian Rules and Code; and (c) the ecological approach to CPS model development emphasizing interaction among orientation, outlook, and task (Isaksen, Treffinger, & Puccio, 1993; Puccio, 1993) described in the third wave of the CPS model development was theoretically accurate and useful in sorting the complexities of all three processes.

The Usefulness of Explicit Phase Identification to Operationalize Social Technologies

A finding in the Cliff study that illustrated a theoretical strength of CPS as a social technology was the importance of a deliberate phase identification in complex processes. Phases are continuous activities that occur in regular, identifiable patterns throughout any process. They contribute to effective application by providing smaller, internal checkpoints within a larger process. Because the environmental dimensions of broader social processes are more complex, identifying and applying phase information can be critical technology in the planning and application of interventions. In this respect, the identification and deliberate use phases in the CPS process and model, although specific to divergence and convergence, provided an effective theoretical and practical model for strengthening the deliberate application of other social change processes. Without the internal checkpoints that deliberate phase movement provides, problem solvers can lose equilibrium and focus. This was illustrated in the Cliff data by the identification of implicit phase movement in both Gandhian and Kingian processes. (See Cliff, 1993 for elaborated data).

The Need for Deliberate Development of Philosophy and Ethics in CPS

Findings in the Cliff study indicated that there was no structural or semantic equivalent to Gandhian or Kingian principles, code, or philosophy in the current CPS model. The closest equivalents in CPS were the guidelines for generating options whose function is to operationalize the dynamic balance between divergence and convergence so that novelty is obtained and maintained. Discussion and explication of what could or should happen with that novelty in the social context of implementation, although addressed in Acceptance-Finding, focuses on task rather than ethics. Thus, connections between philosophy and ethics in CPS application must be provided verbally during training or delivery situations.

This anomaly in both theory and practice highlights an issue that is currently receiving much attention in the field of creativity ? examining and strengthening philosophical and ethical principles. (For extended discussion see the special ethics issue of the Creativity Research Journal, 1993 (6) 1&2, and Floistad, 1993; for data see Vosburg, 1992 and Murdock, Isaksen, & Coleman, 1993). Some attempts have been made to identify ethical issues and to develop standards for CPS use. (See Isaksen, unpublished working document, Center for Studies in Creativity, 1993) If CPS is to be used in the social arena, deliberate development in this area will need to be expanded.

Potential of an Ecological Approach to CPS as a Social Technology of the Future

The Cliff data in conjunction with a more ecological approach have potential for contributing to the conceptual development and practical use of more deliberate and widespread social applications of CPS. Current emphasis on the role of task coupled with the development of personal orientation and situational outlook (Isaksen, Dorval, and Treffinger, 1994; Isaksen, Puccio, and Treffinger, 1993) have strengthened the deliberate use of the CPS process in broader social change activities by moving it closer to the sociotechnological dynamics noted by Passmore (1988). Descriptive application of CPS based on skilled task appraisal can provide the flexibility that has been needed to meet the demands of complex social interactions. With more deliberate research in this direction CPS can be more easily used and recognized as a legitimate and powerful social technology in the kind of interventions that informed practitioners from Osborn to Hohmann have called for.

References

Bondurant, J. V. (1971). Conquest of violence: The Gandhian philosophy of conflict. Los Angeles: The University of California Press. Center for Studies in Creativity (1989). Statement of research program. Unpublished working document. Buffalo, NY: Buffalo State College.

Cliff, C. A. (1993). Conceptual relationships between creative problem-solving and the non-violent social change processes of Gandhi and King. Unpublished Masters Project, Center for Studies in Creativity, State University College at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY.

Creativity in the moral domain (1993). Special issue, (6) 1&2. In Runco, M. (Ed. ) Creativity Research Journal. pp. 3-200.

Floistad, G. (1993). Creativity past, present, and future: A philosophical perspective. In S. G. Isaksen, M. C. Murdock, R. L. Firestien, & D. J. Treffinger (Eds. ). Understanding and Recognizing Creativity: The Emergence of a Discipline (pp. 202-246). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Kaufmann, G. K. (1993). The logical structure of creativity concepts: A conceptual argument for creativity as a coherent discipline. In S. G. Isaksen, M. C. Murdock, R. L. Firestien, & D. J. Treffinger (Eds. ). Understanding and Recognizing Creativity: The Emergence of a Discipline (pp. 141-157). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Isaksen, S. G. (1993). General guidelines for professionals, trainers, and researchers in the field of creativity, Unpublished working document. Buffalo, NY: The Center for Studies in Creativity, Buffalo State College.

Isaksen, S. G. (1992). Current approaches and applications of creative problem solving. Unpublished trainer's manual. Buffalo, NY: Creative Problem-Solving Group-Buffalo.

Isaksen, S. G. , Dorval, K. B. , & Treffinger, D. J. (1994). Creative approaches to problem solving. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt. Isaksen, S. G. & Dorval, K. B. (1993). Changing views of creative problem solving: Over 40 years of continuous improvement. International Creativity Network Newsletter. 3 (1); 1-5. (Available from the Center for Studies in Creativity, Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY).

Isaksen, S. G. , Stein, M. I. , Hills, D. A. , & Gryskiewicz, S. S. (1984). A proposed model for the formulation of creativity research. Journal of Creative Behavior, 18 (1), 67-75.

Murdock, M. C. , Isaksen, S. G. & Coleman, S. E. (1993). Moving toward a desired future state in the field of creativity: A postscript. In S. G. Isaksen, M. C. Murdock, R. L. Firestien, & D. J. Treffinger (Eds. ). Understanding and Recognizing Creativity The Emergence of a Discipline (pp. 499-528). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Murdock, M. C. & Puccio, G. J. (1993). A contextual organizer for creativity research. In S. G. Isaksen, M. C. Murdock, R. L. Firestien, & D. J. Treffinger (Eds. ). Understanding and Recognizing Creativity: The Emergence of a Discipline (pp. 249-280). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Novelli, L. , Jr. (1993). Using alternative perspectives to build more robust theories of organizational creativity. In S. G. Isaksen, M. C. Murdock, R. L. Firestien, & D. J. Treffinger (Eds. ). Understanding and Recognizing Creativity: The Emergence of a Discipline (pp. 281-295). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Osborn, A. F. (1963). Applied imagination. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change, Inc. (1989, 1990). Atlanta, GA.

Passmore, W. A. (1988). Designing effective organizations: The sociotechnical systems perspective. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Puccio, G. J. (1993). Profiling creative problem solving: Putting the puzzle together. International Creativity Network Newsletter, 3 (2), 1-7. (Available from the Center for Studies in Creativity, Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY).

Vosburg, S. K. (1992). The progress and potential of an emerging discipline: An analysis of the proceedings of the 1990 International Working Creativity Research Conference. Unpublished master's project. Buffalo, NY: Buffalo State College.

Contact Information: Mary C. MurdockCenter for Studies in CreativityBuffalo State College1300 Elmwood Avenue, Chase Hall 244Buffalo, New York 14222-1095, Phone: (716) 878-6223, Fax: (716) 878-4040.