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Why Most Creative Problem Solving Training Is Complete Rubbish (And What Actually Works)

I was sitting in yet another corporate "innovation workshop" last month, watching a facilitator with a psychology degree try to teach a room full of engineers how to "think outside the box" using pipe cleaners and Post-it notes. The irony wasn't lost on me. Here's someone who's never run a business, never had to make payroll, never had to explain to a client why their website crashed at 3am, teaching people who design actual solutions for a living how to be creative.

That moment crystallised something I've been thinking about for the past 18 years in this industry.

Most creative problem solving training is absolute bollocks. There, I said it.

The Post-It Note Industrial Complex

Walk into any corporate training room in Sydney or Melbourne and you'll see the same setup. Whiteboards covered in sticky notes arranged in mysterious patterns. Facilitators using words like "ideation" and "divergent thinking" while charging $2,500 a day. Teams forced to build towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows because apparently that's how you unlock breakthrough thinking.

Here's what actually happens in these sessions: People who already know how to solve problems pretend they don't, so they can participate in elaborate pantomimes of discovery. The real creative thinking happens back at their desks, when they're not being watched by someone with a clipboard.

I've run workshops for mining companies in WA, tech startups in Brisbane, and manufacturing businesses across regional Australia. The best solutions always come from the same place - people who understand the problem intimately, working without theatrical constraints.

The Dirty Secret About Innovation

Want to know something the creativity consultants won't tell you? The most innovative companies aren't the ones running the most brainstorming sessions. They're the ones that hire people who can think, then get out of their way.

Google didn't become innovative because they had better Post-it notes. They became innovative because they hired engineers who could see problems differently. Same with Atlassian here in Australia - their breakthrough wasn't a facilitated workshop outcome. It was smart people building solutions for problems they personally experienced.

But here's where I'll probably lose half my readers: I actually think there's tremendous value in structured creative problem solving. Just not the way most people do it.

What Actually Works (From Someone Who's Been There)

After nearly two decades of watching businesses struggle with innovation, I've noticed the companies that consistently generate breakthrough solutions follow three unconventional principles.

First, they solve their own problems first. The best innovations come from scratching your own itch. When Canva started in Perth (before moving to Sydney), they weren't trying to solve design problems for everyone. They were trying to solve design problems for people exactly like themselves - non-designers who needed to create professional-looking materials.

Second, they constraint themselves strategically. Counter-intuitive, I know. But unlimited creative freedom is paralysing. The most creative solutions emerge when you're working within tight boundaries. Give someone infinite resources and infinite time, and they'll produce mediocre results. Give them half the budget and twice the urgency, and watch what happens.

Third - and this is where most training gets it backwards - they start with the customer's problem, not their own capabilities. Too many businesses approach innovation by asking "What can we build?" instead of "What needs solving?"

I learned this the hard way running strategic thinking workshops across regional Queensland. The sessions that produced real breakthroughs weren't the ones where we brainstormed blue-sky possibilities. They were the ones where we started with specific customer frustrations and worked backwards.

The Real Problem With Problem Solving

Here's something that's going to sound controversial: Most workplace problems don't need creative solutions. They need basic competence and attention to detail.

I've consulted for businesses where management spent thousands on innovation workshops while their customer service phones went unanswered, their websites crashed regularly, and their delivery trucks consistently arrived late. That's not a creativity problem. That's an execution problem.

But when you do encounter genuine creative challenges - the kind where conventional approaches genuinely don't work - the solution methodology is surprisingly straightforward.

Start with extreme specificity. Instead of "How might we improve customer satisfaction?" ask "Why do customers abandon their shopping carts specifically between 2pm and 4pm on Tuesdays?" The more specific your problem definition, the more targeted your solutions can be.

Then, deliberately seek perpendicular perspectives. Not brainstorming - that's just collecting obvious ideas from similar thinkers. I mean genuinely different viewpoints. How would a kindergarten teacher approach this problem? What would someone who's never used technology suggest? How would your grandmother solve this?

I once helped a logistics company solve a routing problem by asking what a taxi driver would do. Turns out taxi drivers had already solved similar efficiency challenges through decades of practical experience. The solution wasn't innovative technology - it was borrowing proven practices from a completely different industry.

Why Most Training Fails (And What To Do Instead)

The fundamental flaw in most creative problem solving training is that it treats creativity as a skill you can teach in isolation. Like juggling or touch typing. But creativity isn't a skill - it's an outcome. It emerges from deep domain knowledge combined with permission to experiment.

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

Those conditions include: psychological safety to propose terrible ideas, access to diverse information sources, time to explore without immediate pressure for results, and - crucially - real problems that matter to real people.

The most effective problem solving approach I've seen combines structured analysis with unstructured exploration. Start with rigorous problem definition, then deliberately introduce randomness and constraint.

The Australian Advantage

Something I've noticed working with businesses across Australia - we're actually quite good at this stuff when we're not trying too hard. Australian business culture has this pragmatic creativity that emerges from making do with less resources than our overseas competitors.

Some of the most elegant solutions I've encountered came from regional businesses that couldn't afford expensive consultants or elaborate innovation processes. They just had smart people who understood their customers and weren't afraid to try things.

There's a hardware store in Townsville that increased sales 40% by solving a problem their customers didn't even know they had. They noticed people buying specific combinations of items together, then started pre-packaging those combinations at a slight discount. Not revolutionary, but deeply effective.

The Thing About Frameworks

Everyone wants a framework. Some step-by-step process they can follow to generate breakthrough ideas on command. I get it - frameworks provide comfort and structure in an inherently messy process.

But here's what 18 years of experience has taught me: The best creative problem solving happens in the spaces between frameworks. When you understand the principles well enough to break the rules intelligently.

Having said that, if you absolutely must have a framework, here's one that actually works: Define the problem with obsessive specificity. Research how other industries handle similar challenges. Generate solutions without evaluating them. Then evaluate ruthlessly based on customer impact, not internal convenience.

Simple. Effective. And completely different from building towers out of office supplies.

Where We Go From Here

The future of creative problem solving in Australian business isn't going to come from better workshops or more sophisticated brainstorming techniques. It's going to come from organisations that hire curious people, give them real problems to solve, and resist the urge to manage their thinking process.

Innovation happens when competent people care about solving genuine problems for people they understand. Everything else is just expensive theatre.

Maybe it's time we stopped pretending creativity needs to be trained and started focusing on creating environments where it can flourish naturally.

But what do I know? I'm probably just another consultant with opinions and a laptop.