ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the role which problem exploration plays in creativity. It describes the key skills associated with problem exploration. The chapter focuses on the awareness of tools and techniques to help build competence in problem exploration. Reframing is a powerful tool in creativity. Sometimes there is value in restating the problem at a different level of abstraction. Think about the problem of turnaround time. In the low-cost airline world, much depends on being able to land a plane, disembark the passengers, clean and refuel it, load new passengers and take off again in as short a time as possible. Abstracting problems to their essence is the basis of several powerful tools to enhance creativity. Problem-matching methods like Morphological Analysis (MA) and TRIZ lend themselves to the powerful connectivity now offered by online databases. The basis of exploring problems is problem identification and problem (re)definition.
