Innovative Problem-Solving Model: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Innovative Problem-Solving Model, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Practices that may help

1. Use morphological analysis for wicked problems with many interdependencies
   The method shines on problems too complex for brainstorming to cover adequately.
   Morphological Analysis, Made Practical
2. Import a frame from a different domain
   Describe your problem as if it were a challenge in an unrelated field, then steal the solutions from that field.
   Problem Reframing: Solving the Right Problem First
3. Concept fan: map the solution space before picking a direction
   Expand from specific solutions to the broader concept behind them, then generate alternatives at the concept level.
   Lateral Thinking, Made Practical
4. Generate solutions without premature evaluation
   List as many potential solutions as possible before judging any of them.
   Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical
5. State the goal, then invert it
   Ask "what would guarantee I fail at this?" before asking how to succeed.
   Inversion: Solve Problems Backward
6. Generate Options — explore the full range of possibilities before committing
   Invite the person to generate as many options as possible before evaluating any of them.
   The GROW Model: Coaching Conversations That Actually Move People
7. Calibrate whether the problem requires invention or just search
   Determine whether your problem is already solved elsewhere before investing in original invention.
   TRIZ: Systematic Invention and the Logic of Contradictions
8. Reframe problems using cross-domain language
   Describe your problem in a different field’s vocabulary — then use that vocabulary to search for solutions.
   The Medici Effect: Innovation at the Intersection
9. Sample inventive principles to generate solution directions
   Apply one or more of TRIZ’s 40 inventive principles as generative lenses, even without the full contradiction matrix.
   TRIZ: Systematic Invention and the Logic of Contradictions
10. Rephrase the problem as a "How might we…?" question
    Convert a problem statement into a question that invites solutions without prescribing them.
    Problem Reframing: Solving the Right Problem First

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• This problem is so knotty and interdependent that every time we brainstorm it, the room just locks onto whoever framed it first, and half the disagreement is really people picturing entirely different versions of the same mess.→
• I feel like I’m staring at this from inside my own little field with no fresh ideas, but I have a nagging sense that somebody, somewhere→
• I keep generating "alternatives" but they’re all just minor variations of the same basic approach→
• I’ve got maybe two ideas for what to do about this and both feel hopeless, so I shoot every other thought down before I even finish it→
• I keep brainstorming ways to make this thing succeed and my mind just keeps agreeing with itself→

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.