Page 146 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

3. Visualizing the Ideal products oi ti n future, those that
could be createt I if there were no technical or financial con-
straints.

4. Determining the information the company needs to win.

The limitations described in the section on creative imaging
apply. The facilitator needs to be skilled in unleashing imagi-
nation in a group situation.

7 I /7. CREATIVITY CIRCLES

Quality circles are small groups of workers who meet to solve

quality problems related to their specific work areas. First

developed in Japan, quality circles have helped Japanese

firms achieve superior quality compared to their competi-

tors. Recently the concept has been expanded under the ban-

ner of "creativity circles" to include all types of problems,

not just quality problems, and to incorporate a number of

group as well as individual creativity processes. Such modi-

fications have occurred in both Japan and Europe. 2° In Japan

they were a natural extension of the quality circle as the need

for more creative solutions to problems became apparent.

Creativity circles are not yet well understood or utilized in

the United States. However, Japanese and European firms

are utilizing them quite successfully. This chapter describes

group creativity processes that managers can use in their

work groups to improve performance by raising levels of

creativity and innovation. If your organization seeks to im-

prove group creativity, it should use the tech-

niques described here to turn quality -

circles into creativity circles.

/

/

101
CREATIVE
PROBLEM
SALVING
TECHNIQUES

131