Analysis: What is going on here...

Once you make a commitment and accept the challenge ahead of you, the next step of the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) procedure is ANALYSIS.  This fact-finding stage of this process involves gathering information about the problem (or phenomenon).  Simply stated, this is the stage where an individual asks, “What is going on here?” 

There are so many ways to conduct research to analyze a problem.  In this post, I’m going to advocate for the common sense approach to problem solving.  Sometimes we see a problem more complex than it actually is.  The common sense approach involves clearing the mind and communicating all the thoughts, beliefs, and ideas you know about the phenomenon.  To communicate these ideas, you can talk it out; you can write it down; you can sketch; you can act it out.  It doesn’t matter how you record or convey these ideas.  In fact, the more senses you use to express these ideas the more you may find out that you actually know. 

Sometimes this form of analysis is done too late in the process, because we often fear that our problem is more complicated than it actually is.  We also avoid asking ourselves, because it is thought of as too obvious.  However, we usually know a lot about a subject without looking it up. 

Before starting this blog (Creative-Praxis), I cleared my mind by meditating for a few minutes, and I wrote down everything I knew about CPS.  Here is a list of some of the things I wrote down.

Creative problem solving is…

            A step by step process

            Includes:  Acceptance, Analysis, Definition, Brainstorm, Selection, Implementation, and Evaluation.

            I can relate CPS to many things

            Something I would enjoy teaching

            Books and articles are written about CPS

            Used in business, education, and design

            A worldview

            Experience is the best teacher of CPS

            Journals could be used to assess CPS

            Acceptance is really about motivation

            Analysis is research, reading, note-taking

            Definition uses the information from analysis to define

            Ideation is often called brainstorming.  It involves alternatives

            Selection involves finding the best fit.

            Implementation involves just do it.

            Evaluation is something that I actually enjoy

            CPS is a process of convergent and divergent thinking