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Most people when ask about creativity, will said that creativity cannot be taught. But amazingly it's not totally true. Creativity can be divided into two: Art Creativity and Problem Solving Creativity. It's true that Art Creativity can't be taught but Problem Solving Creativity can be taught. And one the answer is by using TRIZ.

Why use TRIZ? The answer is you can find a lot of book in the internet or book store that talk about creativity or innovation but they just TALK about creativity not how to be creative or innovative. And why creativity or innovation is so important? some of The Gurus says, "A company which, is not capable of Innovation, is doomed to decline and extinction"(Peter Drucker), "Innovation is the fuel for growth, When a company runs out of innovation, it runs out of growth"(Gary Hamel).

So, what is TRIZ? TRIZ is referring to Russian word which mean Theory of Inventive Problem Solving in English. It was created by Genrich Altshuller(1926-1998) a Russian engineer and scientist, journalist and writer. Altshuller embarked on finding some generic rules that would explain creation of new, inventive, patentable ideas. During his research, he hat studied over 2,000,000 patents and he has found that there are 5 levels of inventiveness, 40 inventive principles and 8 trends of evolution.

There are a few of key findings in his 2 Million patent and the one that can be noted as a powerful statement is "Someone, somewhere, has already solved a problem like yours".

TRIZ process for creative problem solving (courtesy of wikipedia)

The TRIZ Problem solving Process flow can be describe as Perceive Problem -> Investigate -> Problem Statement -> Brainstorm -> Solution Ideas -> Evaluate Ideas. Investigate can be break into 3 which is Function Attribute Analysis, Space Time Interface and Ideal Final Result IFR.

One of the uses of Function Attribute Analysis is to understand the function and functionality at the most basic level as it may helps identify Root Cause, thus breaking Psychological Inertia. As for the Space Time Interface it help us to see the from different perspectives which will result in differing maps that could identify contradictions. The concept of Ideal Final Result(IFR) is to try to think how to achieve a function without cost or harm.

Ideal Final Result(courtesy of The TRIZ Journal)

As for contradictions it means two parameters in conflict for example Strength vs Weight, High quality vs low cost. All systems contain contradictions. Many improvement strategies assume 'compromise', 'trade-offs" or Optimization as a way to deal with contradiction. The best solution is the one that doesn't accept the trade-offs. Creative solution emerge when we replace "Vs" with "And". For example High Strength AND low weight, High Quality AND Low Cost.

The 39 Features or Parameters

1. Weight of moving object
2. Weight of nonmoving object
3. Length of moving object
4. Length of nonmoving object
5. Area of moving object
6. Area of nonmoving object
7. Volume of moving object
8. Volume of nonmoving object
9. Speed
10. Force
11. Tension, pressure
12. Shape
13. Stability of object
14. Strength
15. Durability of moving object
16. Durability of nonmoving object
17. Temperature
18. Brightness
19. Energy spent by moving object
20. Energy spent by nonmoving object
21. Power
22. Waste of energy
23. Waste of substance
24. Loss of information
25. Waste of time
26. Amount of substance
27. Reliability
28. Accuracy of measurement
29. Accuracy of manufacturing
30. Harmful factors acting on object
31. Harmful side effects
32. Ease of Manufacture
33. Ease of Operation
34. Repairability
35. Adaptability
36. Complexity of device
37. Complexity of control
38. Level of automation
39. Productivity

*This post is written based on knowledge sharing. If there is anything against copyright or there is a false information please tell me. I would remove the post A.S.A.P.