Subject: Creativity

Posted by Cal on 10/11/2010
In Reply To:Creativity Posted by Andrew Beesley on 10/11/2010

Message:

Andrew,

It's good to see that someone else on this list is aware of the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). My Russian and Ukrainian friends taught TRIZ concepts to children many years ago in the Soviet Union and some are teaching their children and small groups in the US. I've been teaching TRIZ to middle and high school students for several years. Kids understand the concepts and once they know how to identify and approach a contradiction, they are able to apply inventive principles and find ways to resolve them.

Creativity or inventiveness can be taught, learned, and applied by young people as well as by adults.

TRIZ has developed a great deal since Genrich Altshuller began creating it in the mid 1940s. At this point several hundred inventive principles have been identified, tested and confirmed as effective. In addition a dozen laws of technological evolution have been identified and more than 400 lines of evolution have been described. Several TRIZ tools have been created and several companies have developed software to apply the TRIZ tools and principles.

Creativity or inventiveness need no longer be treated as a black box or a mystery. There is a good deal that is known about how to do it.

In some respects the current status of TRIZ is much like the status of systems thinking/system dynamics. A core group of people think everyone should know how to think with it, yet it is not well known in the general public or in our educational system.

Cal