Browsing by Author "Walton, Andre"
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- Adapting creative problem solving to an organizational context: a study of its effectiveness with a student populationPublication . Cardoso de Sousa, Fernando; Monteiro, Ileana; Walton, Andre; Pissarra, JoãoOwing to company time restrictions and concentration on project development, we began to reduce the duration of creative problem solving (CPS) sessions, and to give more emphasis to the action planning stage. Several changes in our CPS protocol, as well as in its duration, begged the question as to whether these changes were jeopardizing efficacy. To examine this question, six groups of ten university students, working under two different CPS protocols (a five-step method and a four-step method), and three control groups (using no CPS method), were given the same objective and similar conditions. This exploratory experiment compared group performance by change in team commitment, divergent thinking preferences, productivity and the participants' evaluation of the different methods. Results show that the CPS methods were both effective in changing participants' perspectives regarding divergent thinking and team commitment. In the control groups, however, there were no changes as a consequence of the sessions. Results also suggest that the same problem-solving effectiveness can be attained in a shorter time than that traditionally used, and without prior training in CPS. These findings open the door to developing new problem-solving techniques and team work processes, and to more efficient organizational creativity and innovation methodologies.
- Learning from failure: a case study on creative problem solvingPublication . Cardoso de Sousa, Fernando; Monteiro, Ileana Pardal; Walton, Andre; Pissarra, JoãoThis research is aimed at improving the creative problem solving (CPS) facilitation process by case analysis, through which we try to learn even from failure. With the goal of increasing efficiency by reducing session time and also due to theoretical considerations, a four-step model was designed, comprising the stages of objective-finding, problem-definition, action-planning and the action itself. Following these adaptations, our research involved an organisation that enabled us to bring managers and volunteers to work on a project. The organisation is the only private museum in the Algarve region of Portugal; it is involved in regional culture and, despite competent management, faces serious financial difficulties. A team of 22 people was established, representing both immediate and remote geographical communities, cultural organisations, and representatives of innovative projects related to the hospitality industry. From the interventions, and the follow up procedures, we learned that some project failures could have been prevented by a more thorough team facilitation, considering the team size, and a better handling of the client's ownership of the problem. The analyses and conclusions allowed the development of principles that will be applied in future interventions, giving rise to improvements in the facilitation process, bringing in important implications for developing collaboration between organizations. Team composition and the handling of client-team relationships seem to be promising areas for research, given their potential impact on a project's effectiveness, as to its final results for the organization considered