At the Creativity Centre, we have been researching and delivering courses on creativity development for well over 20 years and we especially value informal creativity development which may happen by accident or design in educational institutions, other organisations or everyday life.In this paper, the focus is on four ‘formal’ or ‘deliberate’ creative problem solving programmes:

• Synectics
• The Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Program (CPS)
• The De Bono programme
• KJ Ho

These programmes have been selected for review because they are widely used in one or more countries and/or because they have spawned a great many related creative problem solving programmes. Here, the term ‘problem solving’ is used in its psychological sense of ‘resolving anything puzzling or unclear’. This is a key function of all thinking and active learning, equally applicable to creativity in the arts, sciences, humanities and indeed life in general. This psychological notion of ‘a problem’ is different from its everyday definition in that it doesn’t necessarily imply anything negative. The first two programmes are of US origin and have spawned thousands of other programmes. De Bono’s work has had a significant impact too and is probably the best known in the UK, whilst KJ Ho is the most popular formal programme in Japan. All four programmes have specific procedures and terminology and whilst these differ, there are some similarities as well.

This is an engaging and highly readable book which guides facilitators of organisational change through the process of creating a shared vision of an organisation’s future activities, improvement strategy or plan for growth. The emphasis is on creating a truly shared vision in which all participants are involved and want to take forward.

Whilst it is not necessary for readers to have any prior knowledge of the field of creativity development, it is interesting for those who do to see how the authors have successfully combined a number of different approaches including deliberate creative problem solving, visioning and insight learning.

The way in which the authors take the reader through the process of facilitating the development of a genuinely shared vision is both powerful and effective. They offer step by step guidance and detailed exercises for the facilitator to use which increase the probability of successful outcomes. That this process works is evidenced by a series of brief real-life examples from the work they have carried out with a variety of organisations.

In sum, this is an easy to read, no-nonsense, practical book which should be in every facilitator’s and manager’s toolkit.

Marjorie Parker MSc is an organisational consultant with a 30-year track record in the field of creativity development. She has consulted with senior management in Norway’s leading corporations, healthcare institutions and government agencies and was a founding partner of the Norwegian Center for Leadership Development. She holds a national scholarship from the Norwegian Council for Leadership Development and has undertaken work in this field for the Norwegian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Marjorie’s publications include ‘Creating Shared Vision: The Story of a Pioneering Approach to Organizational Revitalization’, published in the United States, Poland, Norway and Saudi Arabia. Today her main focus is on mentoring organisational consultants in enabling their clients to develop more creative mindsets.

Anna Pool is President of Executive Savvy – a consulting firm headquartered in Durango, Colorado. As a business consultant and strategic thinker, she has facilitated leadership and organisational development across a broad range of industries and clients such as Michelin, Shell, Verizon, Citi, Bayer, Nike, Raytheon and Ford, as well as government agencies. She is a master-level certified coach with the Association of Corporate Executive Coaches and is former Director of Organizational Consulting for Lore International Institute. Amongst her other achievements, she holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Development from the Fielding Institute, Santa Barbara, California and is author of the Bronze Telly Award-winning video series, ‘Effective People Skills’. 

This thought-provoking book explores in some depth the relationship between creativity and ethics.  This is achieved by bringing together the work of an impressive number of distinguished authors from these two fields of study. The book aims to explore the effect of creativity on people and on their fundamental values, what constitutes good and evil, right and wrong, and how creativity might disrupt these beliefs – not necessarily with negative consequences.

Following an introduction on the ‘Crossroads of Creativity and Ethics’ by Seana Moran, the rest of the book is divided into four sections. The first explores the ‘Moral Mental Mechanisms Involved in Creativity’ and their development, the second examines the reasons for creativity leading to positive and/or negative impacts. This is followed by a treatment on the role played by ethics in supporting or thwarting creativity. The final section comprises a useful concluding commentary and overview of the book.

Readers from many different disciplines will find both interesting and relevant material in this book. It is not a quick read and I suspect that most people will, as I did, explore first the chapters most relevant to their own area of work, but will then be tempted by other intriguing topics. This book certainly serves as a useful resource and the editors are to be applauded for addressing the collision between creativity and ethics from a wide range of different perspectives each focusing on one or more different areas of work.