You know your organization needs creativity. Your improvement program is effective, but you’re not making the real breakthroughs you were anticipating. Your employees struggle to create innovative change, while you struggle with how to help them. Your lean advisors talk about a "different way of thinking," but how do you get there? In this unique and uplifting book, Bella Englebach shows how the principles and tools of Creative Problem Solving drive deep and creative thinking when used with lean problem-solving approaches. In this book, you will learn how you can encourage creative thinking, how to support the creative thinking of your peers and employees, and how to help everyone in your organization develop high-value insights to advance strategy.
Amid a lean deployment, Beth, a mid-level manager, is shocked to find that she has been assigned not one, but two coaches. Linda is her lean thinking coach, Carlo, a coach in Creative Problem Solving. As Beth faces serious business challenges, Linda and Carlo guide her to think deeply and creatively to solve problems and to become a strong lean thinking leader. You will follow her journey and see how Creative Problem Solving tools enhance lean thinking at every step. Creatively Lean is your roadmap to going beyond as a lean thinker and leader.
Creatively Lean is more than a business novel. Appendices provide insight into the history of Creative Problem Solving, tools for divergent and convergent thinking, and tips on how to use Creative Problem Solving with A3 thinking. Use the book club questions to spur group discussion or for self-study.
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Introduction
Chapter 1 : A Meeting in the Parking Lot : Lean and Creative Problem Solving
Chapter 2 : One of Those Surprise Meetings
Chapter 3 : Carlo Meets the Management Team
Chapter 4 : A Day in the Contact Center
Chapter 5 : Carlo’s New Office
Chapter 6 : Listening into Calls
Chapter 7 : Beth Meets the Coaches
Chapter 8 : Beth’s First Coaching Session
Chapter 9 : Getting to the Point
Chapter 10 : Trouble in the Warehouse
Chapter 11 : PDCA and CPS
Chapter 12 : Doing and Checking and Adjusting without a Lean Coach
Chapter 13 : Solving the Trust Issue in the Warehouse
Chapter 14 : Creativity and the Improvement Kata
Chapter 15 : Goal Setting in the Contact Center
Chapter 16 : Gaining Acceptance
Chapter 17 : Small Steps, Long Journey
Chapter 18 : A New Product
Chapter 19 : Not A Typical Monday
Appendix 1 : A Brief History of Creative Problem Solving
Appendix 2 : Rules and Tools for Divergent Thinking
Appendix 3 : Rules and Tools for Convergent Thinking
Appendix 4 : Creative Problem Solving in Practice
Appendix 5 : A3s and CPS
Appendix 6 : Discussion Questions for Self-Study or Book Club Use
Resources : Books and Websites for Further Learning
Index
