Min Basadur

Last updated
Marino (Min) Sidney Basadur
Born1939
Kirkland Lake, Ontario
EducationUniversity Of Toronto,
Xavier University,
University Of Cincinnati
Occupation(s)Founder of Center for Research and Applied Creativity, President of Basadur Applied Creativity, Professor Emeritus of Organizational Behavior and Innovation at McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Business
Known forPatented Simplexity Thinking System and Basadur Creative Problem Solving Profile
Website www.basadur.com

Marino (Min) Sidney Basadur is a teacher, consultant and researcher best known for his work in applied creativity [1] and as the developer Simplexity Thinking System for improving workplace innovation & creativity. [2] [3] He is president of Basadur Applied Creativity and professor emeritus of organizational behavior and innovation at McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Business. [4]

Contents

Early life

Basadur was born in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, and grew up in Toronto, where he attended Humberside Collegiate and played baseball, basketball and football. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in engineering physics in 1961.

Career

Basadur was hired by Procter & Gamble in Hamilton, Ontario and then transferred to the company's research and development headquarters in Cincinnati in 1967. He received three U.S patents for his work there and brought several new industrial products to market. [5]

While employed in Cincinnati, Basadur became acquainted with the teachings of Sid Parnes, who became a lifetime friend and colleague. Sid was a creativity researcher and teacher at the Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI) in Buffalo, New York founded by Alex Osborn. Building on the teachings of Parnes, Osborn and other's at CPSI, Basadur expanded on these methods within Procter & Gamble to develop a more applicable process for corporate innovation. [6] Procter and Gamble became his own laboratory for creative research. While at Procter & Gamble, Min proved the absolute importance of accurate problem definition in the problem solving process and achieving breakthrough insights. Here, Min also became aware of the practicality of focusing on the phrase How Might We in real world corporate problem solving to positively define problems. Sid suggested that several phrases could be used to define problems, including "How To?", "Way's To?", "In What Way's Might We?" and "How Might We?" and selected "In What Ways Might We?" for his teachings in Buffalo. Min found the phrase "How Might We?" was most accepted among team members in industry in the critical step of defining problems. "How Might We?" eventually became an integral component in Basadur's "Why? - What's Stopping?" analysis and Challenge Mapping processes.

He continued to research methods of stimulating and harnessing creativity at Frito-Lay, Ford and Pepsico During that time, he also earned his MBA from Xavier University and PhD from the University of Cincinnati. His doctoral dissertation received the S. Rains Wallace Award for best doctoral research in the area of industrial and organizational psychology by the American Psychological Association [7] The significance of this research established a landmark understanding that innovative and creative thinking can be learned and improved.

By 1981 Basadur had developed a methodology which he called Simplexity (originally Simplex) and a set of related tools for creative problem solving that could be used to improve creative performance in organizations. [8] His method was based on encouraging and facilitating unobstructed thinking and developing a sense of shared ownership and responsibility among participants for the solution they collectively identify. Basadur conducted extensive research to back up his claims that this collaborative process significantly improved the likelihood of successful solutions being identified and implemented. [9] Basadur founded the Center for Research in Applied Creativity to provide training in Simplexity Thinking to corporations, public institutions and governments.

To help organizations identify and encourage creative individuals among their staff, Basadur developed the Basadur Creative Problem Solving Profile (CPSP), and Inventory designed to determine an individual's style of creative problem solving, by measuring his or her preferred activities within the creativity process. The four styles Basadur identified are generation, conceptualization, optimization and implementation. [10]

Basadur published two books on the subject of developing creativity, Flight to Creativity: How to Dramatically Improve Your Creative Performance. in 1994 and The Power of Innovation: How to Make Innovation a Way of Life and Put Creative Solutions to Work in 1995. He also contributed chapters to a number of books, and published many articles on the subject. [11] He has also made presentations at various scientific meetings.

In 2016, Basadur published a third book, Design-Centered Entrepreneurship, with Michael Goldsby.


Published works

Books

Book chapters

Selected articles

Additional Papers Presented at Scientific Meetings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creativity</span> Forming something new and somehow valuable

Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible or a physical object.

Creative problem-solving (CPS) is the mental process of searching for an original and previously unknown solution to a problem. To qualify, the solution must be novel and reached independently. The creative problem-solving process was originally developed by Alex Osborn and Sid Parnes. Creative problem solving (CPS) is a way of using your creativity to develop new ideas and solutions to problems. The process is based on separating divergent and convergent thinking styles, so that you can focus your mind on creating at the first stage, and then evaluating at the second stage.

Creativity techniques are methods that encourage creative actions, whether in the arts or sciences. They focus on a variety of aspects of creativity, including techniques for idea generation and divergent thinking, methods of re-framing problems, changes in the affective environment and so on. They can be used as part of problem solving, artistic expression, or therapy.

Organizational climate is a concept that has academic meaning in the fields of organizational behavior and I/O psychology as well as practical meaning in the business world There is continued scholarly debate about the exact definition of organizational climate for the purposes of scientific study. The definition developed by Lawrence R. James (1943-2014) and his colleagues makes a distinction between psychological and organizational climate.

"Psychological climate is defined as the individual employee’s perception of the psychological impact of the work environment on his or her own well-being. When employees in a particular work unit agree on their perceptions of the impact of their work environment, their shared perceptions can be aggregated to describe their organizational climate ."

Problem finding means problem discovery. It is part of the larger problem process that includes problem shaping and problem solving. Problem finding requires intellectual vision and insight into what is missing. Problem finding plays a major role in application of creativity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Design management</span> Field of inquiry in business

Design management is a field of inquiry that uses project management, design, strategy, and supply chain techniques to control a creative process, support a culture of creativity, and build a structure and organization for design. The objective of design management is to develop and maintain an efficient business environment in which an organization can achieve its strategic and mission goals through design. Design management is a comprehensive activity at all levels of business, from the discovery phase to the execution phase. "Simply put, design management is the business side of design. Design management encompasses the ongoing processes, business decisions, and strategies that enable innovation and create effectively-designed products, services, communications, environments, and brands that enhance our quality of life and provide organizational success." The discipline of design management overlaps with marketing management, operations management, and strategic management.

Design thinking refers to the set of cognitive, strategic and practical procedures used by designers in the process of designing, and to the body of knowledge that has been developed about how people reason when engaging with design problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of thought</span> Overview of and topical guide to thought

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to thought (thinking):

The leader–member exchange (LMX) theory is a relationship-based approach to leadership that focuses on the two-way (dyadic) relationship between leaders and followers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Divergent thinking</span> A method of generating creative ideas

Divergent thinking is a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. It typically occurs in a spontaneous, free-flowing, "non-linear" manner, such that many ideas are generated in an emergent cognitive fashion. Many possible solutions are explored in a short amount of time, and unexpected connections are drawn. Following divergent thinking, ideas and information are organized and structured using convergent thinking, which follows a particular set of logical steps to arrive at one solution, which in some cases is a "correct" solution.

The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) is a system to measure and describe thinking preferences in people, developed by William "Ned" Herrmann while leading management education at General Electric's Crotonville facility. It is a type of cognitive style measurement and model, and is often compared to psychological assessments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Learning Orientation Questionnaire, DISC assessment, and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleep and creativity</span>

The majority of studies on sleep creativity have shown that sleep can facilitate insightful behavior and flexible reasoning, and there are several hypotheses about the creative function of dreams. On the other hand, a few recent studies have supported a theory of creative insomnia, in which creativity is significantly correlated with sleep disturbance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tudor Rickards</span> British writer

Tudor Rickards is a self published author of non-fiction and fiction, a business academic, and a scientist. He is Professor Emeritus at University of Manchester and formerly Professor of creativity and Organisational change at Alliance Manchester Business School. His fiction works include The Unnamed Threat: A Wendy Lockinge Mystery (2019), Seconds Out (2018) and Chronicles of Leadership (2016). His non-fiction includes Tennis Matters: A Leaders We Deserve Monograph (2015), Tennis Tensions (2015), The Manchester Method (2015) and The Double Houdini (2016).

Innovation management is a combination of the management of innovation processes, and change management. It refers to product, business process, marketing and organizational innovation. Innovation management is the subject of ISO 56000 series standards being developed by ISO TC 279.

Convergent thinking is a term coined by Joy Paul Guilford as the opposite of divergent thinking. It generally means the ability to give the "correct" answer to standard questions that do not require significant creativity, for instance in most tasks in school and on standardized multiple-choice tests for intelligence.

Creative Pedagogy is the science and art of creative teaching. It is a sub-field of Pedagogy, opposed to Critical pedagogy. "In its essence, creative pedagogy teaches learners how to learn creatively and become creators of themselves and creators of their future."

Innovation leadership is a philosophy and technique that combines different leadership styles to influence employees to produce creative ideas, products, and services. The key role in the practice of innovation leadership is the innovation leader. Dr. David Gliddon (2006) developed the competency model of innovation leaders and established the concept of innovation leadership at Penn State University.

Psychological safety is the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. In teams, it refers to team members believing that they can take risks without being shamed by other team members. In psychologically safe teams, team members feel accepted and respected. It is also the most studied enabling condition in group dynamics and team learning research.

The Creative Education Foundation (CEF) is a non-profit U.S. membership organization dedicated to creativity and problem solving, founded in Buffalo, New York, in 1954.

The Divergent Association Task (DAT), published in July 2021, is a psychological test designed to measure a person's creativity. The task involves naming ten nouns that differ as much as possible from each other. Here, the difference between two terms is understood in the semantic sense and is calculated by a special algorithm.

References

  1. Diane Carrington; Helen Whitten (1 October 2005). Future Directions: Practical Ways to Develop Emotional Intelligence and Confidence in Young People. A&C Black. pp. 75–. ISBN   978-1-85539-198-7.
  2. Runco, Mark (1 January 1994). Problem Finding, Problem Solving, and Creativity. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 253. ISBN   978-1-56750-013-4.
  3. Craig, Randall. "Min Basadur interviewed by Randall Craig on www.ProfessionallySpeakingTV.com". Interview. Professionally Speaking.
  4. "Pelham tries creative problem solving in committee". Pelham News, By Wayne Campbell, November 6, 2012
  5. Mitchell, Paul (January 28, 1995). "Seeking the right problem". The Hamilton Spectator.
  6. Warren Berger (4 March 2014). A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas . Bloomsbury Publishing. pp.  156–. ISBN   978-1-62040-146-0.
  7. "S. Rains Wallace Dissertation Research Award 1980: Past SIOP Award Recipients". Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
  8. "Jo Staffelbach Heinz: Becoming Solutions-Driven, Not Crisis-Driven". D Real Estate, by Jo Staffelbach Heinz . Jul 28, 2011
  9. Nigel King; Neil Anderson (2002). Managing Innovation and Change: A Critical Guide for Organizations. Cengage Learning EMEA. pp. 37–. ISBN   1-86152-783-7.
  10. Paul Patterson; Susan Biagi (2003). The Loom of Change: Weaving a New Economy on Cape Breton. Cape Breton University Press. pp. 111–. ISBN   978-0-920336-85-4.
  11. Larisa V. Shavinina (2003). The International Handbook on Innovation. Elsevier. pp. 372–. ISBN   978-0-08-044198-6.