TRAINING PROGRAMME ON CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING RATIONALE Whether one is inventing a new recipe for a soup, exploring outer

space, or engaged in service, production, social welfare, or any field of human endeavor whatsoever, `creativity is called for in all walks of life. Be it a private or government organization, whether engaged in service, production, marketing, personnel, finance, R & D or whatever, every organization is constantly beset with problems and challenges which call for creative solutions and a freshness of outlook. To survive, to grow, to move towards excellence, to become a leader and a pioneer at the national and international levels, an organization must be creative, it must innovate. How innovative and productive an organization is, depends upon the capacity of its employees to find innovative and better solutions to the numerous and complex problems that surface on the job each day. Every individual in an organization, wherever placed in the organizational hierarchy, has the creative potential to generate valuable, innovative ideas which can contribute to better on-the-job performance, and to achieving organizational goals. But various factors in the individual and the organization may block the full development and use of this creative potential. What is the nature of these blocks? How can we unleash the creativity bottled up in each one of us, in our colleagues and in our subordinates? How can we make groups / teams as a whole more creative and productive? How can one harness the immense creative potential present within an organization, and channelize it for finding innovative solutions to problems and for achieving individual/organizational growth and excellence in hitherto unsuspected directions and to hitherto unprecedented levels? This course focuses on how this can be done. FOR WHOM All levels of executives - senior, middle and junior. The executives may be drawn not only from `across but `within departments/units/projects, functional areas, product lines, etc. The focus, objectives and content of the course would be tailored to suit the responsibilities and requirements of the three groups, and further, the needs of the particular department/unit/project, functional area, business group, product line, etc. from which participants are drawn. Regarding the broad objectives for the three groups, these are set out below. OBJECTIVES The broad focus will be to equip participants with the necessary skills and attitudes required for creative problem solving -- the problems being in any department/project/functional area/ product line/business unit. The more specific objectives of the course would be as follows: 1. To help participants appreciate the role of creativity and innovation in problem solving, and their importance for both individual / organizational success and growth. 2. To convince participants that every individual has the potential for being creative and innovative. 3. To help participants identify and understand the individual / organizational blocks which hinder the full development and use of this potential. 4. To train participants in specific creative thinking techniques for helping them to find innovative and more effective solutions to problems. 5. Helping participants to be more creative and pro-active in their areas of work.

COURSE CONTENT 1. Concept of creativity and its role/importance for problem solving, and for individual/organizational success. 2. Block-busting of individual blocks to creativity - perceptual, intellectual, emotional, cultural and environmental. 3. Creative thinking techniques: Includes individual and group techniques for generating better and larger number of innovative ideas. The techniques cover all three phases of the problem solving process viz. problem identification, problem redefinition and generating ideas/solutions for solving a problem. The techniques chosen will be from among the following: a. Brain storming b. Use of idea-spurring checklists c. PO (Provocative Operation) d. Random word bisociation - a forced association technique e. Morphological analysis and synthesis f. Synectics g. Problem identification and redefinition techniques 4. Developing, selling and implementing creative ideas. 5. Management practices / organizational climate for creativity 6. Action plan for enhancing creativity on the job, and also in personal life. METHODOLOGY The course will be highly participative and use experiential learning methods. It will consist of: l. Lecturettes and brief explanation of principles 2. Training in various aspects of creative thinking through: a. Puzzles b. Creative thinking exercises - oral, written and figural. c. Psychological tests and feed-back discussions d. Role playing e. Application of creative thinking techniques to a wide range of problems ranging from pure fantasy problems to organizational and function/job related problems. f. Video-shooting and replay of discussions or role-play, if deemed necessary. 3. Use of audio-visual aids such as LCD, overhead projector, VCR and VCP, flip charts and black board. DURATION The course may be of duration 3-5 days for all levels of executives/officers. A 4-day course is advised so as to allow sufficient time to cover all the basics of the subject. It could be longer depending upon the more specific objectives of the course. NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS For intensive participation, the number would be limited to a maximum of 25 participants. FACULTY (Bio-data enclosed) Dr. Sujatha A. Krishna Rao M.B.A., SDES (Oxon.), Ph.D. (Psycho.)

FACULTY DR. SUJATHA A. KRISHNA RAO PROFILE Dr. Sujatha A. Krishna Rao has a diverse educational background spanning management, psychology and education. She holds: *M.B.A. from Osmania University *SDES/Psychology from University of Oxford, U.K. *Ph.D. (Psychology) from Sri Venkateswara University. Her thesis was on ` Creativity in the Sciences *4 years of post-doctoral research on `Creativity in the Sciences at M.S. University of Baroda and Osmania University. She has been : *Faculty member in JP Institute of Psychology, Pune *Presently she is a Management and Educational Consultant She conducts training programmes on: *Creativity and Innovation in Problem Solving *Emotional Intelligence *Transactional Analysis *Rapid Reading *Written Communication * Critical Thinking Her client organizations include: Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Satyam Computer Services Ltd., Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. Bajaj Auto Ltd., R&DE (DRDO), DRDL, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd., Singareni Collieries Co. Ltd., Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., APSRTC, Dr. MCR HRD Institute, Coromandel Fertilizers Ltd., Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd., etc. The participants were drawn from all functional areas such as production, marketing, finance, software development, management information services, computer maintenance/other maintenance engineers, computer aided designing, etc. She has authored a book titled WIDENING HORIZONS for educating the gifted and has published several articles on `creativity in the sciences in professional journals of psychology. _ Dr. Rao is the founder-member of NISSIMA Institute of Human Development. Address: No. 115, O.U. Teachers Colony Near Sainikpuri P.O. Secunderabad 500 094, A.P. mobile: 98483-26873

Telephone: 040-27901589, 040-27113194

E-mail :

suj_krao@rediffmail.com