FACILITATING CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING WORKSHOPS: EMPIRICAL OBSERVATIONS AT A SWEDISH AUTOMOTIVE COMPANY

Being creative often includes putting ideas together in new combinations and approaching problems in new ways. It is a process which can be difficult and frustrating since it demands that we challenge our usual ways of thinking. Facilitation is one means by which we can be aided in the process of breaking our thought patterns, and thereby reach further in our creative efforts. This article describes the planning, execution, evaluation, and consequent lessons learned from the facilitation of two creative problem solving workshops. In these workshops four different groups addressed problem solving with a set of innovation tools and the help of a facilitator. Our conclusion is that a product development team, working interdisciplinary on creative problem solving may benefit from facilitation in different ways. We saw that facilitation can, for example help create mission clarity and counteract behaviour that may otherwise inhibit the participants’ ability to come up with and share ideas. We also saw that entering a workshop with misleading preconceptions of workshop atmosphere may lead to insufficient time being spent on exploring potentially creative ideas.