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导读：本文是一篇英国Creativity and Causal Loop硕士课程assignment，全文分成完全独立的两部分，第一部分是分析一个失败的创新的例子，第二部分是根据一个材料绘制一个简单的causal loop（因果图）。
Part A
Introduction介绍
什么是创造力？在课堂上，我们讨论了这个问题，我们了解到，研究人员从天才和有才华的人的创造力的角度来研究创造力；而在过程导向方法上，我们把创造力视为一个可以通过教学和实践获得和改进的思维过程的属性（苏莱曼，J.2017年）。创造力涉及到直觉、独创性、洞察力的运用，而不是缩小到“一个最好的决定”，它是开放的，创造新的可能性，人的潜能，训练和经验的增长。在现代生活中，人们总是面临工作中的问题，同时，由于工作经验和教育的回答，人们失去了以创造性的方式解决问题的能力，他们需要以他们已经知道的方式解决问题。这些是创意模块（Sulaiman，J.，2017）。创意街区是你最大的敌人，它几乎可以来自任何地方。它导致了创造力或创新的失败。我们将研究如何处理问题区域，并使您的想法得以实现。因此，当涉及到一个需要创新解决方案的问题时，我们中的大多数人都不能真正地进行创造性思维，更不能想出一个创造性的想法。要定义一项创新是失败还是失败，我们需要弄清楚它是对用户产生了良好的影响，还是使创新者在创造创新时的健康状况、声誉、财富或其他方面变得更好。在这篇文章中，我将讨论在创意中使用的那些不成功的方法的概念、目的和应用。
What is creativity? In class, we discussed this very question, and we learn that researchers studied creativity in the perspectives of creativity in geniuses and people with outstanding talents; while, on process-orientation approach, viewed creativity as a property of a thought process that can be acquired and improved through instruction and practice (Sulaiman，J., 2017). Creativity involves the use of intuition,ingenuity, insight, rather than narrowing down to“one best decision”,it is opening tocreate new possibilities, manyalternatives, outgrowth of training and experience. In modern life, people face problems in their jobs all the time,meanwhile, they lose their ability to solve the problems in creative ways due to the answers from work experiences and education that they need to solve the problems in the way they already knew. Those are the creativity blocks(Sulaiman，J., 2017). Creative block is your worst enemy, and it can come from almost anywhere. It caused the failure of creativity or innovation. We look at how to treat the problem areas, and get your ideas moving. So, when it comes to a problem that needs innovative solutions, most of us can’t really do a creative thinking, and furthermore to figure out a creative idea. To define whether an innovation is unsuccessful or failed, we need to figure out whether it provided a good influence on its user or make its innovator better in his health situation, reputation, wealth, or any other aspects in the time when the innovation has been created. In this paper, I will discuss the concepts, purpose and applications of the methods which were used in the creativity that is not successful.
Main Body
As all we know, tire is an unmissable part of all kinds of vehicle, and vulcanized rubber is the basic material for the tire production. But to the innovator of this certain industrial material, Charles Goodyear (1800-1860),（Zumdahl, S.,&Zumdahl, S., 2014)to him, his innovation was not very successful: at his time, rubber is a material that is not stabilized when the temperature changed (Haven, K., and Berg, R., 1999). So Charles wanted to find a way to stabilize the rubber so it can endure the temperature changes while keep its shape (Hosler, D., Burkett, S. L., and Tarkanian, M. J, 1999). But without the help of specialized knowledge in science or chemistry, he was only able to try all the ingredient he could image, and spend massive time in his experiment (Iles, G., 1912). Although he finally figured out the right chemical process to produce stabilized rubber-vulcanized rubber, his innovation didn’t have a well-sold chance to him, and it actually “dead” at the investment and incubation approaches to creativity, since he was unable to afford the investment and he couldn’t payback the debts for the investment, so he hadbankruptcy and dead in prison at the end. Sadly, his name had been used by his debtors as the tire product brand to make and sell the tire and rubber products that had been innovated by Charles to become one of the top three tire brand all around the world after Charles dead. There are 5 types of creativity blocks in Charles’ case.
1. Constancy blocks
Constancy blocks constrain the way problems are defined that define a problem in one way and pursue only that definition to reach a solution. In this case, at the time Charles had no idea on which receipt should be used to get rubber a stable status that allows the rubber to insist the temperature changes before its boiling spot, so he kept adding new ingredients into rubber to try his luck without certain planed ideas. He only had very a few number of solutions perceived to be relevant, so he could just try millions of receipts to find what he needed, which required plenty of time, money, technique, manpower, and passion (McGuinness,M., 2017). This type of block makes the biggest obstacle to the innovation activity especially when there is no clue of what should to be done, and this obstacle normally dedicated to whether a innovation can be successful or not at the end, since the innovator has no idea nor direction of how to get the answers, the innovator has totry just everything he/she could try, and by lucky, he/she can find a clue, and may or may not get the results they need. In a conclusion, this block is every innovator need to face and solve on the very most. Like if the direction is wrong, then no matter how much effort the innovator put into his experiment, he/she will not get what he seemed to.
Practical Solutions:
Since Charles was not a chemist or a scientist, and what he desired to accomplish was fit in chemist or scientist’s job description, the specialized education in chemistry and science would probably the best shots to his dream. The knowledge in these science fields would help him to broad his view in solving creativity problems and shorting the whole processes of research and incubation in next step of creativity approaches.
2. Mental obstacles constrain the way
In Charles ‘family, his father and grandfather were all famous innovator, so the light circles on their heads certainly made Charles a burden, that he must become someone successful in innovation creation. Charles was not a chemist or a scientist, If he don’t have this burden, then he may start his career in other field, like business, and may innovate something that suit the time and most important suit his characteristics, then he may get a better chance to have a successful life, live longer, and become richer. That’s why we can always see a poor kid get rich at end, but a rich kid gets poor finally. Burden makes people doing things they don’t want to do, and the thing may not be the right thing to do ('Charles Goodyear'. 2017).
Practical Solutions:
This one is tricky. Normally it is hard to figure out the solutions by the people themselves, since it is related to psychological and mental status. But a lateral thinking may solve the problem (Cooper,B.B., 2014).
3. Poverty
Charles had used all his money and debts to innovate the vulcanized rubber, which but he can’t afford the scale of the investment, and at that time, he can’t get his investment back. In the time he created the vulcanized rubber, the rubber industry was struggled all around the world, due to the unstable status of rubber that become softer in warm weather and get harder in cold temperatures, in short, rubber has not been widely used in that time, nor customer-like product, so he hasn’t get investment repay quickly enough to pay back his debts.
Practical Solutions:
Poverty is very hard to deal since there are a bunch of millionaires with a millions way to get rich, but there’s no such a way to extinguish poverty. Hard working on making money, saving money, and constraining the use of money only to those necessary spending may help a bit, but no promise. Stop the blinded business expending or investment, and make sure each penny spend on the investment are well-thought and wisely, then poverty may leave away. Those action are vital to improve the financial status of a innovator (Shoor,I., 2012).
4. Overload
Charles has faced various problems in various categories, like poverty, nine kids in house, law suits, debts, poor health status, and so on. It is important to solve the correct problem one by one in turns. If all these problems come together and all of those need to be solved at the same time, him would be overloaded for sure, and if overload happens, then his mental and physical ability to manipulate the problems is gone or almost gone (Goodyear, C. 1939). If he was not that high-pressured, he would figure out a better way to continue his innovation, a sustainable way that allows him to keep doing his innovation without go bankruptcy; or demonstrated it in another but suitable time, he may have a better situation. #p#分页标题#e#
Practical Solutions:
We can always say “take easy, pal”. But when it comes to ourselves, we always try to believe that we are the superman who is unbeatable. So slow down, and deal with the problem one by one, otherwise, none (May,T., 2017).
5. Compression block
Charles is a hard-working guy, and he focused on how to keep doing something but looking too narrowly at a problem without take a deep look at whether the direction of for solving problems is suitable or not. This habit is good for people doing those work requires low level of creativity, like moving guy, or room cleaners. But for an innovator or scientist, critical thinking and research plan are the most crucial part that should have been done at the beginning of their hardworking, since all of those results are very likely unknown and unpredictable and need huge time consuming (Goins,J., 2017). To most innovators, time is the most valuable resources and a vital requirement to their innovations, because if others innovate something earlier than theirs, then their creative project may mean nothing at all, and all effort wasted. This block was exactly the one caused him misjudged in fund management and debts management, and this misjudgment made him go bankruptcy and had cost his life at the end.
Practical Solutions:
Thinking out of circle. Broaden the view of solving problems, and need to filter out inaccurate, misleading or irrelevant information, so the innovator can have less constrained and limitation on solving problems (Vengoechea,X., 2017).
Conclusion
In a conclusion, we can see that if an innovation activity wanted to be successful at the end, the innovator need to conquer various type of creativity blocks, and by lucky, the customers like their innovations, his/her partners didn’t betray them, and finally, their innovation get successful. If any steps went wrong, then the result may have high possibility goes fail. A strong mind and consistency mental were usually required for the great innovators. After all, people usually don’t really know what they are doing, or what they are going to do next. With the right method to think through all the creativity blocks and their corresponding solutions, we can have a better chance to be finally accomplished. And if Charles could find the solutions for his creativity blocks, he may innovate an innovation that satisfy the requirements of its customers, and be a Thomas Alva Edison-like great innovator at that time.
References:
1. Zumdahl, St., and Zumdahl, Su., 2014, Chemistry (Ninth Ed.). Belmont, California: Brookes Cole/Cengage Learning. [Accessed 01 December 2017].
2. Haven, K. and Berg, R., 1999, The Science and Math Bookmark Book:300 Fascinating, Fact-Filled Bookmarks. [Accessed 01 December 2017].
3. Hosler, D., Burkett, S. L., and Tarkanian, M. J. 1999. "Prehistoric polymers: Rubber processing in ancient Mesoamerica," Science, 284(5422), pp. 1988–1991.
4. Goodyear, C. 1939,A Centennial volume of the writings of Charles Goodyear and Thomas Hancock, Boston, Mass.: [Centennial Committee], American Chemical Society, p. 97.
5. 'Charles Goodyear'. 2017, Wikipedia.
6. Sulaiman，J., 2017,UniversityofGlasgov, Adam Smith Business School:Session 8-Creativity & Decision--Creating the difference decision making analytically and creatively opportunity problem decision, p.19.
7. Sulaiman，J., 2017,UniversityofGlasgov, Adam Smith Business School:Conceptual Blocks, p.5-6.
8. Slack, C., 2003, Noble Obsession. [Accessed 01 December 2017].
9. Iles, G., 1912, Leading American Inventors, New York: Henry Holt and
10. McGuinness,M., 2017, 7 Types of Creative Block (and what to Do about Them)
11.May,T., 2017, 20 Ways to Overcome Creative Block
12. Shoor,I., 2012, Why Creativity Blocks Happen (and How to Overcome Them)
13. Vengoechea,X., 2017, 7 Tips for Conquering A Creative Block
14. Goins,J., 2017, 13 Weird Ways to Work Through Creative Blocks
15.Cooper,B.B., 2014, 7 Tricks to Help You Work Through A Creative Block
Part B
Explanation of future decision making of the QUINCE Company
In purpose to get a better and full understanding in the relationships between downsizing strategy and the financial pressures and therefore figure out a better solution to deal with financial woe in The QUINCE Company, we draw this casual loop diagram(Cuva,A ., 2015). In this diagram, the short-term-to-long-term consequences of downsizing causes by the financial pressure in the equipment service division of the company has been shown clearly, as same as the relationships between different variables in the loops (Businessclass, 2017). Since people of the service team and the finance teaminside the company held strong different views about their company’ strategies to deal with the financial troublethat whether downsizing strategy is the best way to deal with the crisis and further more, if the downsizing strategy is not the best solution, then which strategy/way should be chose to deal with the financial pressures currently that has been faced by the company (Sulaiman, J., 2017) The desire and urgency forced the administrators of the company must to find the appropriate way to conquer their financial crisis and hold the company together before all the company fall apart.
In this diagram, the sign of the arrow (the “+" sign for same and meanwhile the “-” for opposite) indicates whether the variable increases or decreases relative to the other variables. The sign of the loop types(the “Rs” sign for the reinforcing feedback loop, and the “Bs” sign for the balancing feedback loop, and all balancing feedback loop are goal-seeking processes) (Kim, D. H., 1992).
There are two balancing feedback loop and two reinforcing feedback loop in this diagram. The balancing feedback loop B1 shows the short-term behavior of using downsizing to combat financial pressure. While the reinforcing feed back loop R1, in other hand, draws out the long-term consequences of this behavior, showing that it actually increases financial pressures (Researchgate,2017). The balancing feedback loop B2 shows the real relationship between service personnel and the profits (Betterlesson, 2017). The reinforcing feedback loop R2 shows the possible way to increase sales (that is the advertisement), and further more the relationships between advertisements and the sales. Inside the reinforcing loop R1, the arrows with “+”sign show the possible way to increase the service quality, and the service quality variable directly increase the sales and profits consequently, and release or even deal with the financial crisis finally. And the balancing feedback loop B2 shows the possible way to increase the sales directly while has an opposite (sign “-”) affect on the profits.
The upper balancing feedback loop B1 shows the short-term behavior of downsizing without think the unintended consequences of this behavior. In short-term, downsizing strategy seems to improve profits by cutting the number of service personnel, which means fewer personnel costs and therefore fewer total costs, this consequence indeed seem to have higher profits correspondingly, and more profits to deal with financial pressure. In short-term, an increase in financial pressure directly makes the scale of downsizing of the equipment servicing division. An increase in downsizing of the division directly causes the decrease of the total number of the service personnel. A decrease in service personnel directly causes the decrease in workforce. A decrease in workforce causes decreases in service quality directly. A decrease in service quality causes directly in decreases in sales, and a decrease in sales causes the directly decreases in profits, and the decreases in profits make the financial pressure bigger directly.
But in the long-term (which has been shown in the reinforcing feedback loop R1), since the downsizing strategy decreases the number of the service personnel in the service division, which the variable is directly related to the workforce variable, since the number of service personnel decreases, and so each service personnel remain need to perform more service, and therefore the service quality for each service job decreases, and the sales decreases due to the decreases in the service quality, since the quality usually related to the CORE VALUE of a company (D,S. J., 2000), and the core value is the value that customers clarify one brand to another. Since the sales decreases, the profits go down, and the financial pressure is still there and maybe become even worse. So it is obvious that the downsizing strategy should not be taken as a long-term strategy of the company in order to deal with their financial woe. In long-term (shown by Loop R1), service personnel increases the workforce of the division, and workforce is the basic variable for service quality, and service quality related directly to the sales and profits, and profits is the one that has a directly positive effect on releasing financial pressures. So in the long-term decision making, we need to find out a way to improve service quality, and more directly, if possible, increase the sales and profits directly.
Archetype are useful for gaining insight into the “nature” of the underlying problem and for offering a basic structure or foundation upon which a model can be further developed and constructed. (Braun, W., 2002) The organizational archetype in QUINCE Company is a limit to growth archetype. Since in the CLD, we can easily identify that in the QUINCE Company there are the balancing feedback loops and the reinforcing feedback loops (systems-thinking.org, 2004). In this case, the company’s downsizing strategy swap outs service personnel, and in short-term it cuts the total costs of the business, but in long-term, it actually decreases the service quality, and service quality related to company’s reputation, and then decreases the sales and profits, and makes the financial woe worse. #p#分页标题#e#
So, in order to improve the future decision making, there are two solutions. One is shown in reinforcing feedback loop R2, which shows the way that use the advertisement as a way to increase sales directly. The relationships between sales and the advertisement is in a positive reinforcing feedback loop (Clay,J., 2010). An increase in advertisement increases the sales directly, and an increase in sales increase the profits directly, and so release the financial pressure of the company; an increases in sales also increase the amount spend on the advertisement since the company sees the positive effects of the advertisement; the second way to deal with the financial pressure is providing professional training can increase the workforce of every single service personnel by improving their skills level which in fact is improving their efficiency in providing service and means in the same period of time, each service personnel can performing more times of services to their customers with a better service quality(Miller,M., 2017). An increase in workforce increases the service quality, and then follows the reinforcing feedback loop R1, and increases the profit, and releases the financial pressures at the end. In other way, an increase in advertisement increases the sales directly (shown in the reinforcing feedback loop R2). While the advertisement increases the costs, and the costs decreases the profits, and then follow the long-term loop R1 (Thwink.org,2017). Indeed, the personnel cost, professional skills training, the advertisement fees and any other possible and applicable costs increase the total costs, and the total costs decrease the profits, and the decreases in the profits increases the level of the financial pressures.
In a conclusion, the administrators of the company need to make future decisions for the long-term profits which means they need focus on not only the short-term win or lose, or not even the short-term profits, but also and must to focus on the “bigger scale”, which means instead of just figuring out one small decision every single step in short-term strategies the company makes, they need to perform a critical and systematical decision making process that allows them to seeand get a clear idea about the whole picture of their own business (Systemsandus, 2007). First of all, they need to figure out what are their core values that keep the company steady in the professional business service, as well in their competitions in markets, and the core value is most like the “spare” of the company. In this case, their service quality is the most important,critical, and strategical business values to keep the company together. And the most of the most important part of this very business value is performed by the service personnel of the service division of the company. So instead of cutting off the positions of those very important personnel, the company should provide the professional skills training to improve the service team’s skills, and to sharp its “spare” and make it even more steady, and also, try as much as they can to keep all the positions inside the service division, that means increase the crews’ warfare, and give them more commitment, way of promotion, and a deep pride feeling about being the crew of the company. The company also need to see that the profits equal to the sales minus the all the possible costs, which refer to total costs (Spicar, R., 2014). Soonly perform a cutting in personnel costs may have a very limit effect tothe situation, and may not last long enough to release the real financial crisis, and the short-term decision may actually cut the very last chance of the long-term decision making, which is more important and vital to the biggest problem of the company it faced. And also, the solutions used to take care of the crisis themselves, may be problems also. Like the professional skills training, the advertisement fees, and the personnel costs in employees’ welfare, payments, and insurances are a heavy burden to keep important people, if the administrators can’t deal with the problems, then they will face new crisis related to the new solutions. If this happens, then the company would face a more complex problems, and no one could easily deal with it.
References:
1. Cuva,A . 2015,Casual Loop Diagram.
2. Betterlesson. 2017,Causal Loop Diagrams.
3. Researchgate. 2017,An example of a causal-loop diagram.
4. D.S. J., 2000,Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World.. 3rd ed. Irwin: McGraw Hill.
5. Systems-thinking.org, 2004. Archetypes. http://www.systems-thinking.org/arch/arch.htm [Accessed 3 December 2017].
6. Sulaiman，J., 2017,UniversityofGlasgov, Adam Smith Business School:Systems Thinking, Diagramming and Modeling, Parts 1 & 2.
7. Sulaiman，J., 2017,UniversityofGlasgov, Adam Smith Business School:System Behavior and Causal Loop Diagrams, p.5-6.
8. Causal Loop Diagram - Tool/Concept/Definition. 2017,Causal Loop Diagram -Tool/Concept/Definition.
9. Braun, William2002, The System Archetypes.
10. Businessclass. 2017,Introduction to a causal-loop diagram.
11. Kim, D. H., 1992,Guidelines for Drawing Causal Loop Diagrams ,The Systems Thinker. Vol 3, No 1, pp5-6.
12. Clay,John. 2010,The basic of casual Loop Diagram.
13. Morgan Miller. 2017, How to draw a Causal Loop Diagrams.
14. Systemsandus. 2007,Systems & Us Embracing Complexity.
15. Spicar, R., 2014,"System Dynamics Archetypes in Capacity Planning",Procedia Engineering.
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