Creative problem solving is the mental process of creating a solution to a problem. It is a special form of problem solving in which the solution is independently created rather than learned with assistance.
Creative problem solving always involves creativity.
To qualify as creative problem solving the solution must either have value, clearly solve the stated problem, or be appreciated by someone for whom the situation improves.
The situation prior to the solution does not need to be labeled as a problem. Alternate labels include a challenge, an opportunity, or a situation in which there is room for improvement.
Solving school-assigned homework problems does not usually involve creative problem solving because such problems typically have well-known solutions.
If a created solution becomes widely used, the solution becomes an innovation and the word innovation also refers to the process of creating that innovation. A widespread and long-lived innovation typically becomes a new tradition. "All innovations as creative solutions, but not all creative solutions become innovations." Some innovations also qualify as inventions.
Inventing is a special kind of creative problem solving in which the created solution qualifies as an invention because it is a useful new object, substance, process, software, or other kind of marketable entity.
Read more about Creative Problem Solving: Techniques and Tools
Famous quotes containing the words creative, problem and/or solving:
“Design in art, is a recognition of the relation between various things, various elements in the creative flux. You can’t invent a design. You recognise it, in the fourth dimension. That is, with your blood and your bones, as well as with your eyes.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“The problem with marriage is that it ends every night after making love, and it must be rebuilt every morning before breakfast.”
—Gabriel García Márquez (b. 1928)
“Cultural expectations shade and color the images that parents- to-be form. The baby product ads, showing a woman serenely holding her child, looking blissfully and mysteriously contented, or the television parents, wisely and humorously solving problems, influence parents-to-be.”
—Ellen Galinsky (20th century)