TRIZ For Dummies

Introduction

Are you looking for a better way to solve problems or interested in developing your creative ability? Or are you seeking a method for generating innovative thinking, in yourself and in the team around you? Perhaps your organisation has become so lean and efficient that you don’t know how to get people thinking innovatively again. Or maybe you want to find a way to encourage everyone to share and develop ideas together as a team. If any of these ring true, or you’re just looking for a novel new way of navigating the many rapids you encounter along the river of life, TRIZ will help you. You’ve come to the right book!

TRIZ is the outcome of extensive research into patents and scientific journals. It has a wonderful engineering and scientific pedigree, and as a result, many case studies and examples you’ll hear about are technical.

However, and this is the important thing, it works – and I’ve seen it work – on any kind of problem: management problems, business problems, social problems, even personal problems. What TRIZ gives you is the ability to think very clearly and creatively. You unpick thorny issues, define your problem correctly and are then given useful suggestions regarding how these problems may be solved. You use your brain to the best of its ability and, in fact, many of the TRIZ tools are based around changing the way you think by repeating the thinking patterns of the most creative and successful problem solvers. These principles are helpful regardless ...