The Revolutionary Tools of Higher Level Thinking™

• Inventive Principles All problems worthy of being called 'problems' contain technical conflicts. Solving a real problem means overcoming one or more technical conflicts within the problem, without having to resort to parametric tradeoffs or compromise solutions. Problems containing conflicts are called 'inventive problems.' Behind the solution to all inventive problems is an inventive principle. Over 40 main inventive principles are known today. These principles are applied as 'inventive prompts' to technical conflicts, to achieve a conceptual design solution. The successful application of inventive principles requires training in various forms of thinking, including abstract thinking.

• Conflict Matrix If all possible existing conflicts experienced by scientists, engineers and other technical professionals from all branches of science and engineering could be listed, the list would probably exceed far more than 100,000 conflicts. This is because a conflict consists of an 'improving characteristic' and a 'worsening characteristic.' The word 'characteristic' refers to a scientific or engineering measurable or parameter (such as temperature, speed, flow rate, ohms, length, area, volume, etc.). There are undoubtedly at least 10,000 such parameters — meaning that there would be in excess of 10,000 times 10,000 conflicts between these same parameters that are possible. Through a brilliant stroke, Genrich Altshuller, the founder of TRIZ, was able to reduce the number of possible characteristics (i.e., parameters) to 39 generic characteristics. This meant that only 1482 generic conflicts were possible (39 times 38). Altshuller next formed a 39 x 39 matrix from these characteristics. In the cells of this matrix are inventive principles associated with each of the generic conflicts. These inventive principles emerged from a forty-year study and deep analysis of the global patent collection. This creative tool is truly magical, because it directly leads to Higher Level products. Its application to difficult technical conflicts requires expert training.

• Attribute Transfer This Higher Level product, conceptual tool is, in Dr. Kowalick's opinion, "one of the three most important creative thinking tool that I have experienced." He has personally used it to create Higher Level shaving systems, air bag protection systems, and other major product lines. It involves the application of Analogous Thinking to product systems sharing the same functions as the product to be improved, and then (very artfully and skillfully) transferring desired attributes, characteristics and features from the alternative system to the product to be improved. This creative tool is taught, along with the other Higher Level Thinking™ tools, in Innovative Patent Technology's three-day, Creating Higher Level Products session.

• Evolve All products or processes, considered as systems, develop over time. This is indicated by a steady increase over time of a key performance indicator. The increase, illustrated graphically, takes on the shape of an 'S curve.' The improvement steps along this S curve were first identified as consisting of 76 steps, in the form of 'standard solutions.' Subsequently these improvement steps have been presented in other forms. What is most important, however, is that each improvement step acts as an 'inventive prompt' on the objects or actions connected with the performance of the product or process. Implementation of this prompt leads to a significantly improved technical system.

• Ideal Final Result The solution to every problem can be described in advance of its discovery. This ideal description, in words, serves as a guidepost to keep the designer (problem solver, inventor) from deviating from the correct path from problem to solution. The Ideal Final Result is achieved using only system resources (resources that either already exist, or that need to be modified), thereby not making the solution-system more complicated. An ideal product takes (almost) no space, yet provides the required function(s).

• Functional Analysis This formulation tool serves as a short algorithm for the purpose of finding the problem that needs to be solved. It begins by stating the purpose of the system (product or process). Next it identifies the essential objects (i.e., things) in the system, as well as their important interactions. Finally, it prioritizes the resulting functional statements and asks for goal statements for each of them. From this point, there are several useful directions of pursuit for the designer.

• Trimming A better system is a simpler system — provided it serves its intended functional purpose. Trimming is a creative tool which begins by 'trimming' or eliminating a part (or object) of a product or process, and then finding creative ways for the necessary function or functions provided by the trimmed part to be re-provided. Additionally, it may be that the function provided by the trimmed can be viewed as being unnecessary.

• Inventive Algorithm This problem-solving tool is a step-by-step, creative procedure that leads to a high-level solution concept.

• Goal Formulation This inventive tool results in a comprehensive listing of goals centered around the product or process of interest. This listing often provides a corporation with a well-thought-out R&D program. It also leads to families of Higher Level products, achieved with the assistance of the other tools in the toolbox.

• General Laws of Evolution of Technical Systems There are fewer than a dozen general laws by which all systems (i.e., products and processes) move towards the Ideal Final Result. These laws are known. Applied to a given product or process, they are used as inventive prompts to 'prompt' the visualization of Higher Level systems. This creative tool provides technology forecasting.

• Other Creative Tools Besides the tools discussed above, there are several other important tools which make up Higher Level Thinking™. These include DTC Operators; Separation Principles; the Four Parts Operators; and System Stages Operators.

Hierarchy of Thinking Several different types of thinking are known today. They are not on the same level, in relation to their value in conceiving Higher Level products or in solving very difficult problems. These thinking types are discussed below:

• Associative Thinking Think of the brain as a relationship database, full of words and groups of words (concepts) which have pre-programmed relationships — this is 'Associative Thinking.' It happens automatically. The quality of Associative Thinking depends upon the vocabulary of each particular brain, as well as on the experience programmed into that brain, in the form of word or concept relationships. The Associative Thinking section of the brain is both a thesaurus and a dictionary, full of vivid and highly useful information. Guided by Higher Mind, this form of thinking (which, when considered, is really not true 'thinking' at all) is a key element in problem solving and in meeting technical design challenges. Left to its own devices, this form of 'thinking' can get in the way. In fact, Associative Thinking is the seat of the chief barrier to creativity — Psychological Inertia. Higher Level Thinking™ teaches the correct use of Associative Thinking.

• Logical Thinking Unlike Associative Thinking, logical thinking doesn't just happen. It has to be willed — intentionally — by the problem-solver or designer (or inventor). All processes, including the ever-so-subtle working of a product, involve the law of cause and effect. One action or movement occurs, and this action or movement causes another action or movement to occur. Logical thinking uses cause and effect, together with an understanding of whatever 'the present situation' is, to create a pathway leading to a desired outcome (result). Logical thinking occurs with practice: the more one uses it, the more one masters it. Logical Thinking comes from a different part of the brain — as its functioning is radically different from that of Associative Thinking. Higher Level Thinking™ includes Logical Thinking, but Logical Thinking by itself is inadequate for achieving Higher Level products.

• Analogous Thinking The world is full of solutions to unsolved problems. One just needs to know where they are, and how to make the conversion from where the solution resides, to where one needs or requires this solution. To do this requires keen observation and Analogous Thinking. "How is a peppermint stick like a flag?" This question requires the use of Analogous Thinking. One way they are similar is that they are both composed of solid substances — although the peppermint stick is far more rigid than the flag. Another way they are similar is that (if the flag is an American flag) they both have stripes. They also typically have red and white stripes. Analogous Thinking is one of the most powerful creative thinking-tools of the human brain, because it enables engineers, scientists, inventors and problem-solvers to find solutions to their problems in widely-different places. For example, the question "How can an expensive pair of contact lens become like a toothpick?" leads to the idea of making 'disposable' contact lens. Suddenly a new market is born. Higher-Level Thinking incorporates Analogous Thinking into several of its creative problem-solving tools.

• Metaphorical Thinking "Your breath is a mild wind, your body a sun, radiating energy to its surroundings." These are metaphors, quite useful to poets. They happen to be useful to inventors and designers as well. Metaphorical Thinking makes possible a rich assortment of creative ideas. This form of thinking is also a part of Higher-Level Thinking, which uses Metaphorical Thinking in the form of fantasy to conceive Higher Level Products.

• Symbolic Thinking Symbols are all around us. They are actually quite useful. On the road a stop sign serves as a symbol that instructs us to "Stop!" Mathematics is full of symbols, numbers, operators, etc. The science of chemistry uses symbols for the basic elements and in chemical equations. All fields of engineering employ symbols as shortcuts for information purposes. In Higher-Level Thinking symbols are used not only for information purposes, but to assist the designer or problem-solver in actually solving the problem or in meeting the design challenge, without being seduced by lower-level 'solutions.' Symbols are one of the keys to Abstract Thinking, one of the most inventive forms of thinking.

• Abstract Thinking Inventive prompts are common to Higher-Level Thinking. Investigating the possibilities of a pencil, for example, a designer might receive the inventive prompt "Multiply the object." Applied to a single pencil (i.e., the 'object'), this generic prompt results in the specific design idea of 'a device that includes several pencils in one.' Some pens, for example, give the user the choice of a half dozen or so colors — all the user has to do is to move a lever along the side of the pen. Another meaning of this inventive prompt is 'a device that includes several different-colored leads, all combined into one piece of lead.' Such novelty-pens are also available for purchase in stationery stores. Through Abstract Thinking, problem-solvers are able to move 'from the general to the specific,' or 'from the specific to the general.' Learning to apply Abstract Thinking to an inventive situation is a 'must' in Higher-Level Thinking. Like Logical Thinking, this skill comes with practice.

Barriers to Creativity and Problem Solving

• Trial and Error Trial and Error derives from the stone-age. Through repeated accident, experiment and observation, man gradually developed the ability to control fire for cooking as well as for bodily comfort. The wheel was probably also 'discovered' by accident. The first wheel may not even have been round! It is Thomas Edison, however, who usually receives credit for incorporating trial and error into corporate research and development (R&D).

The problem with the trial and error approach is that too many trials end in nothing ("error" simply means that a wrong path towards the solution was taken). The wrong path is the path of least resistance and habit - the path that technical professionals in a particular product and technology area are most likely to take. In fact they are conditioned to take this path.

• Lack of an Organized Approach Solving any technical problem, or addressing any design challenge, is typically complex, involving several important stages: gathering information; problem clarification; analysis of potential solutions; solution verification; etc. There is one stage, however, that receives very little attention - and yet it is a very critical stage. This stage is the stage of "arriving at a solution," and it goes by several names: inspiration; insight; illumination; genius; ingenuity; etc. Yet, the vast majority of corporations in business today have no or little means of organizing, controlling and managing this stage. As a result, inferior or mediocre products or processes are 'conceived.' What prevents designers from achieving truly breakthrough products?

Corporate R&D teams can struggle with technical problems (related to their product lines) for months and years, before finding an acceptable solution concept. Usually some chance event helps the designer to master a specific problem - designers take credit for the solution, without quite knowing the process through which this chance event appeared. There are thousands of documented case studies of various products and processes to illustrate this. For example, one chance event was related to suspension bridges, when the designer happened to walk into a spider web. This 'moment of enlightenment' led to a Higher Level bridge design. Similarly, hot air balloons were born from an observation by mountain climbers of steam rising from the surface of a lake near the foot of the mountains. There is the legend of the apple falling near Isaac Newton as he was resting, and his subsequent discovery of gravity. Velcro was discovered from an observation of certain plants that clung to clothing.

The point is this: "What corporation can afford to wait for chance events to occur, before a Higher Level product comes along?" What if the discoverer of Velcro had never wandered through a field of those particular plants? How many corporations want to rely on the law of accident?

• The appearance of a chance event which, within itself, contains a solution.
  
• Observation of the chance event by the designer.
  
• Recognition of the value of the chance event (in the form of a solution)
  

Consideration of variations of this solution, to achieve 'the best' solution.

The above process is a combination of luck and 'trial and error.'

• Psychological Creative Approaches A designer has to be quite alert to recognize a solution when it appears by accident, by chance, or as a result of some trial and error procedure. Therefore there is an abundance of techniques for developing a creative imagination. These include such 'secrets' as

  Living and sleeping with the problem.

Taking diversions such as walking, a shower, traveling, sports, etc.

Placing oneself in an environment which is out-of-pattern or stimulating, such as a museum, a shop which sells fine goods, a conference or symposium on an unrelated subject, a book or magazine, etc.

Such techniques may attract chance events that are related to the solution to a problem - or they may not. But certainly they require time, energy and expense.

• Psychological Inertia: Public Enemy Number One Psychological Inertia is the enemy of creativity, a mechanism for creating barriers that prevent creative work. Given a problem, any designer will persistently strive to solve it by using known methods. Most often, the first thought that comes into his mind will be used in the solution. This is 'accomplished' unconsciously, based upon previous, but unrecognized, experience (habits). Such experience is the key influence in making a problem-solving decision at any moment of the problem-solving process.

A simple example: given two sponges of identical size - one in each hand - but of slightly different water content, a person can readily determine which hand holds the sponge containing more water. If this is repeated 11 times, with the slightly wetter sponge always in the right hand, the person begins to form an opinion of which sponge (with more or less water) belongs in which hand. If, for the 12th time, the sponges are of identical water content, most participants in this experiment will indicate that the sponge in the right hand contains more water than that in the left. Such pre-formed thoughts strongly influence process decisions. As such experiences are repeated, habits become more reinforced, and they become a stronger influence on subsequent actions.

Habits are good because they allow us to make correct decisions in standard situations. Drivers of automobiles don't have to think when to step on the gas and when to step on the brake. Habits automatically dictate appropriate actions without consciousness. Only unpredictable or infrequent situations require drivers to apply more conscious intelligence and analysis in order to take appropriate actions. Habits rule our lives. They include making decisions like: which foot to place forward when walking; how to tie a shoestring; and how to enter word-input by using a computer keyboard.

A designer (engineer, scientist or other technical professional) will depend upon habit to solve a problem - habits already worked out from prior learning and practical experience. Habits will not, however, assist a designer to find a high-level solution. The usual solution is a "templated" or stenciled solution - according to habit. Such solutions, arrived at under the influence of habits, are done 'in sleep' with requiring conscious thought. Such solutions are full of problems that will appear sometime later, as manufacturing defects, as high product development costs, or as poor performance in the hands of consumers.