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The 73% Rule: Why Most Creative Problem Solving Training Gets It Backwards

Three months ago, I watched a room full of middle managers attempt to "brainstorm" solutions to a warehouse efficiency problem using sticky notes and coloured markers. After two hours of facilitated creativity exercises, they'd produced 47 ideas—most of them variations of "hire more people" or "buy better software."

The facilitator was thrilled. The managers looked exhausted. The warehouse problem remained unsolved.

This is what happens when we treat creative problem solving like a weekend craft project instead of what it actually is: disciplined thinking with a rebellious streak.

The Backwards Approach Problem

Here's what drives me mental about most creative problem solving training: it starts with creativity and works backwards to problems. Wrong way around, mate.

Real creative problem solving starts with understanding the problem so deeply that unconventional solutions become obvious. It's like being a detective who's also an artist—you need both the methodical investigation skills and the ability to see patterns others miss.

I learned this the hard way during my consulting days in Perth. A mining company brought me in because their safety meetings were "boring and ineffective." My first instinct? Jazz them up with interactive workshops and gamification.

Complete disaster.

Turns out the real problem wasn't boredom—it was that experienced miners felt insulted by basic safety reminders they'd heard thousands of times. The creative solution wasn't making meetings more fun; it was having veteran miners lead peer-to-peer discussions about near-miss experiences.

Simple. Obvious in hindsight. Completely missed by thinking "creativity first."

The 73% Rule (And Why It Matters)

Here's a statistic I've been tracking across my clients: 73% of workplace problems that get labelled as "needing creative solutions" are actually straightforward issues disguised by poor communication or office politics.

That customer service problem? It's not that your team lacks creativity in handling complaints. It's that they're not empowered to actually solve anything.

The "innovation challenge" in your product development? Probably not a creativity deficit. More likely your approval process takes six months and kills momentum.

The team collaboration issues? Stop booking team building workshops and start asking why people avoid each other in meetings.

What Actually Works (The Unsexy Truth)

Real creative problem solving follows a pattern that most training programmes ignore because it's not flashy enough:

First, become obsessed with the problem. Not solutions—the problem itself. Why does it exist? Who benefits from it staying unsolved? What assumptions are everyone making?

I once spent three weeks just observing a retail client's customer complaints process. Didn't suggest a single solution. Just watched, listened, asked annoying questions. By week three, the staff were pointing out problems I hadn't even noticed.

Second, embrace constraint. Creativity thrives on limitations, not endless possibilities. Give people infinite resources and unlimited time, and they'll produce mediocre results efficiently.

Some of my best client outcomes came from impossible budgets and ridiculous deadlines. When you can't throw money or time at a problem, your brain starts making unusual connections.

Third, steal shamelessly from other industries. The airline industry revolutionised fast food. The gaming industry transformed employee training. Disney changed hospital patient experience design.

Your industry is not special. Your problems have been solved elsewhere in different contexts. Stop trying to reinvent wheels and start figuring out which wheels fit your cart.

The Tools Everyone Gets Wrong

Walk into any corporate training room and you'll see the same tired toolkit: brainstorming, mind mapping, six thinking hats, SCAMPER method. All useful techniques that become useless when treated like magic formulas.

Here's what I use instead:

The Constraint Ladder: Start with an impossible limitation and work backwards. "How would we solve this with zero budget and one person?" Forces breakthrough thinking.

Assumption Archaeology: Dig up every assumption buried in the problem statement. Most breakthroughs happen when you discover an assumption that isn't actually true.

The Outsider Test: Explain the problem to someone from a completely different industry. Kids work brilliantly for this—they haven't learned what's "impossible" yet.

Historical Pattern Matching: Find three examples of similar problems being solved in the past 50 years. What patterns emerge?

Why Most Training Fails (And How to Fix It)

The problem with creativity training is that it treats problem solving like a skill you can download in a workshop. But creative problem solving isn't a skill—it's a mindset shift that happens over months, not hours.

You can't teach someone to be creative any more than you can teach them to be funny. What you can do is create conditions where creativity is more likely to emerge.

This means psychological safety to suggest stupid ideas. Time to think without immediate pressure for solutions. Permission to question fundamental assumptions. Access to diverse perspectives.

Most importantly, it means rewarding the process, not just the outcomes. I've seen brilliant problem solvers punished because their solution didn't match what management had already decided to do.

The Australian Advantage (Yes, Really)

There's something about Australian workplace culture that's actually perfect for creative problem solving, though we don't always recognise it.

We're natural sceptics. We question authority. We're comfortable with informal communication. We value practical solutions over theoretical perfection.

These traits drive some people crazy, but they're gold for problem solving. The best solutions I've seen in Australian companies came from someone saying, "Yeah, nah, that's ridiculous. What if we just..."

The Implementation Reality

Here's where most creative problem solving initiatives die: implementation. You can generate brilliant ideas all day, but if your organisation can't execute them, you're just running expensive therapy sessions.

Before you start any problem solving process, ask: "Do we actually have the authority, resources, and commitment to implement unconventional solutions?"

If the answer is no, don't waste everyone's time with creativity exercises. Fix your implementation capacity first.

I've worked with companies that spent more on problem solving workshops than they would have spent just hiring the extra staff they needed. The irony was lost on everyone except the finance team.

What I Got Wrong (And What It Taught Me)

Early in my career, I believed creative problem solving was about generating lots of options and picking the best one. Turns out that's just regular decision making dressed up with fancy facilitation.

Real creative problem solving is about redefining the problem until the solution becomes obvious. It's about changing the frame, not filling it with more options.

This shift changed everything about how I work with clients. Instead of asking "How can we solve this?" I now ask "What if this isn't actually the problem we should be solving?"

The Bottom Line

Creative problem solving isn't about being more creative. It's about being more honest about what the problem actually is and more courageous about questioning everything everyone assumes to be true.

Stop looking for magic techniques and start developing the patience to understand problems deeply. Stop treating creativity like a light switch you can flip on demand and start creating conditions where unconventional thinking is safe and valued.

Most importantly, stop calling everything a problem that needs creative solutions. Sometimes you just need better processes, clearer communication, or the backbone to make obvious changes that everyone's been avoiding.

The warehouse efficiency problem I mentioned earlier? They solved it three weeks later by asking the warehouse staff what was slowing them down. Turned out to be a scheduling issue that had nothing to do with creativity and everything to do with finally asking the right people the right questions.

Funny how that works.