Problem Solving, Creativity and Solution Setting
UTS Business School
MANAGEMENT DISCIPLINE GROUP
21854 – Problem Solving, Creativity and Solution Setting ASSIGNMENT COVER
Subject Name: Problem Solving. Creativity and Solution Setting Subject No: 21854______
Tutor: _DR Ece Kaya____________________ Tutorial Day & Time: Friday, 13:30_________
Family Name: Yu________________________ Given Name: Xite________________________
Student No: 13156548____________________________
Phone No (H): __________________________ (W): ___________________________________
Topic: ______________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Date Submitted: _21/10/2020___________________ Submitted on time? Yes ( √ ) No ( )
If not submitted on time give details of approved extension or attach approval:
__________________________________________________________________________________
Format
☐ √Times new roman font 12 point
☐ √Double-line spacing
☐ √Margins: 2.54 cm
☐ √Left-justified text
☐ √Numbered pages, bottom right-hand corner
Referencing – APA referencing format
☐ Number of academic journal articles in reference list: 0___
☐ Number of other sources in reference list: __0__
☐ √All direct quotes have page numbers in their in-text reference
☐ √All references in text have been included in the final reference list
☐ √Final reference list is in alphabetical order by author
ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP STATEMENT:
I have carefully read, understood, and taken account the UTS policy on plagiarism and guidelines for assessment and referencing in the subject outline. I affirm that this assignment is my own work, that it has not been previously submitted for assessment, that all material which is quoted is accurately indicated as such, and that I have acknowledged all sources used fully and accurately according to the requirements. I am fully aware that failure to comply with these requirements is a form of cheating and could result in resubmission, loss of marks, failure and/or disciplinary action.
Signature: ___Xite Yu__________________ Date: __21/10/2020_________________
Reflection:
In assignment 2, I used creative thinking to analyze and suggest possible solutions to the brand’s declining value in 2007 due to its rapid expansion. Creative thinking is a creative thinking activity that is often used to communicate ideas and values, solve problems, etc. There are four parts to the creative process. The first part is Preparation, which focuses on the situation and diverts your mind to explore its depth. The second part is Incubation, in which various possible solutions are derived from unconscious and conscious work. The third part is Illumination, the sudden inspiration, and the logical process to develop a solution. The fourth part is Verification, evaluating, and validating your resulting solution. There are different creative tools available for creative thinking to help people or organizations discover and find solutions to problems. And these creative tools are brainstorming, mind mapping, SCAMPER, and Storytelling. These tools can help us explore questions faster and offer solutions with a variety of possibilities.
In the case of Starbucks, I used mind mapping as a creative tool to come up with three possible solutions to help Starbucks out. Mind mapping is a tool that helps you take notes and helps you remember them better. It takes the problem you’re thinking about as a center and spreads it out, and that center is my main problem in this case. Then stretch my mind to give me my own unique ideas. Writing on the branch focused on my main concern and came up with three possible solutions. It’s very free, and when I think of something, I write my thoughts on it. In this way, my creativity was stimulated, and I recorded my thoughts rather than copying them from anywhere. And Mind Mapping helps me quickly find the ideas I need, so I don’t have to go back and think again. In Starbucks, where saving its brand value is central, I used mind mapping to create three possible solutions. One is the customer experience at Starbucks, one is the solution for its competitors, and the last is the solution for the cost of its supply chain. Each of these three solutions has its advantages, but I think a customer experience solution is the best one that can help Starbucks quickly save the brand value.
As for evaluating these three possible solutions, I should do four evaluation criteria first, customer satisfaction, cost, time to effect, and the unique advantages of Starbucks. Then use multi-criteria decision-making to determine which solution is best suited and best able to help Starbucks out. I have not used the multi-criteria decision before, and in this learning experience, I think multi-criteria decision-making is an excellent knowledge. It can help me choose from multiple solutions to the most suitable one. For multi-criteria decision making, we first need to determine the evaluation criteria for evaluating our solution and give different importance to different evaluation criteria. Give reasons for setting evaluation criteria, and let the reader understand why these criteria need to be measured. Then use my evaluation criteria to score your three solutions so that I can clearly show how good or bad the answer is.
Next, I learned work breakdown structures, which is a way to break down the projects in our solution into multiple tasks. The work breakdown structure helps me recognize all the work that needs to be done and assign weights to different tasks. It can help me identify which work is being done internally and which needs to be outsourced. In this case, I used a work breakdown structure to help me remember all the projects needed to help me develop a Gantt Chart. Gantt Chart helped me plan my projects so that I could assign different work periods to each project. It also clearly indicates the start date, duration, and end date of the various activities. Then there is risk management. No matter the solution, it will have a risk problem, so use risk management to identify and evaluate the risk. There are four steps to the risk assessment process, identifying risk, analyzing risk, assessing risk, and treating risk. I think the most important thing is to identify the risks. Identifying the risks helps me take all the adverse effects and risks into account, allowing me to deal with and get rid of the risks quickly.
This learning experience let me benefit a lot and have a lot of knowledge to be very useful. In the past, I have always taken notes on other people’s thoughts and questions and have never used my unique ideas to create comments on those questions. This time I learned about creative thinking and creative tools that help me remember things without reopening the book. The creativity tools have helped me open up my mind to the full range of possible solutions. In future work, I will also use this creative thinking and creativity tools to help me better and more efficient work. Also, I’ve never known with WBS, Gantt Chart, or risk management before. These three settings and the distribution of work knowledge and help me in future work can effectively control and manage a project's implementation.
The experience of completing this case taught me a lot about how to use creative thinking and creativity tools to help me dig deeper into problems and use the work breakdown structure, Gantt Charts, and risk management to create a project implementation plan. This experience, so that I can work in the future, can be more efficient completion of project implementation. And the tools of creative thinking and creativity help me at work and help me remember key points faster during my regular studies.