Educational Programs

To maximize benefits which CIM learners in particular and society in general can get, we teach creativity not for the sake of creativity but for the sake of problem to be successfully solved, that is for a full innovation.

High school graduates or more highly trained people irrespective of age, career and position can be entitled to enroll in our CIM programs, that is, our CIM programs have been built for the large public. The reason for this is as follows: Our present educational and training system mainly prepares specialists. As a result of that, these specialists having such a narrow thinking may successfully solve the specialized problems but may not know how to think to solve other problems. Please, imagine how people can work well in the workplace when their heads are occupied with other nonspecialized (for example, family) problems which they do not know how to solve. Besides, such a specialized narrow thinking cannot meet the contemporary challenges faced by us, for example, fast change, increasing complexity, diversity and competition.

Human being's life is an assembly of problems to be solved and decisions to be made. His/her life will be happy when problems in general (not only specialized ones) can be solved well. This point also brings about benefits to families, organizations, companies and society.

Teaching CIM programs has the purpose to prepare CIM users on a daily basis. We believe that learners will actually apply CIM in all aspects of their lives only when the programs can induce inside learners the needed emotions promoting them to do that. So our programs involve many examples, stories, cases taken from different areas of human activity, graphic depictions, cartoons and exercises that may inspire such emotions, that is to facilitate development of emotional intelligence.

Our educational programs bring the user many advantages such as:

- Providing a system of various multiple perspectives (dimensions of consideration) in accordance with diversity of possibilities (resources).

+ Increasing creative curiosity and observation.

+ Overcoming psychological inertia.

+ Developing creative imagination.

+ Identifying unity, similarity, analogy among objects, phenomena, processes... in different areas.

+ Increasing sensibility in perceiving and processing information.

+ Helping logically to explain and evaluate available creative solutions.

+ Having different approaches to solve problems

+ Knowing how to discover contradictions and generate ideas for resolving them.

+ Predicting systems development, initiating and purposefully carrying out this development.

+ Predicting failures and finding ways to prevent them (because any creation can be a double-edged sword).

+ Improving and perfecting human beings in general and problem solvers in particular.


THE BASIC CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION METHODOLOGIES (CIM) COURSE (60 hours)

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION (4 hours)

1.1. Some of basic concepts

1.2. Object, aim, benefits and importance of Creativity and Innovation Methodologies

1.3. Creativity science: some historical traits from Heuristics to Creatology

CHAPTER 2: NATURAL METHOD OF PROBLEM SOLVING AND DECISION MAKING, AND AN URGENT NEED FOR INVENTING CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION METHODOLOGIES (CIM) (6 hours)

2.1. Trial and Error Method

2.2. Advantages and disadvantages of the Trial and Error Method

2.3. A brief overview of main approaches in the field of Creativity and Innovation Methodologies

2.4. Creativity levels and difficulty levels of problems from TRIZ view

2.5. TRIZ: main ideas and knowledge sources

2.6. Structure of TRIZ

CHAPTER 3: SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE SOURCES OF TRIZ (12 hours)

3.1. From needs to actions and vice versa

3.2. Information Transforming Model of Thinking Process of problem solving and decision making

3.3. Psychological component elements and processes in creative thinking

3.4. Psychological inertia

3.5. Dialectics and dialectical thinking

3.6. Contradictions in problem solving and decision making process

3.7. System and systems thinking

3.8. Systems inertia

3.9. About two concepts: Discovery and Invention

3.10. Role and advantages of patent information in creating TRIZ

CHAPTER 4: FORTY BASIC CREATIVITY PRINCIPLES (18 hours)

4.1. Remarks on the Basic Creativity Principles

4.2. System of the basic creativity principles

4.3. The Program of Logically Reconstructing the Thinking Process for Available Solutions

4.4. Matrix of Basic Creativity Principles for Resolving Technical Contradictions

4.5. System of Transformers (Separation Principles) for Resolving Physical Contradictions

4.6. The Reduced Program of Problem Solving and Decision Making

4.7. From Principles to Methods

CHAPTER 5: OVERVIEW OF METHODS OF ACTIVATING CREATIVE THINKING (8 hours)

5.1. Method of Focal Objects

5.2. Morphological Analysis Method

5.3. Check-listing Method

5.4. Brainstorming

5.5. Synectics (method of using analogies)

CHAPTER 6: THE LAWS OF SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT (10 hours)

6.1. The Laws of Systems Development

6.2. The Lifeline of Systems

6.3. Diagram of Possibilities of Systems Development

6.4. Principles, Methods: concrete expressions of the Laws of Systems Development

CHAPTER 7: REVIEW OF THE BASIC CIM COURSE AND PREVIEW OF THE INTERMEDIATE CIM COURSE (2 hours)


THE INTERMEDIATE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION METHODOLOGIES (CIM) COURSE (60 hours)

CHAPTER 8: SYSTEM OF STANDARDS FOR PROBLEM SOLVING (20 hours)

8.1. Vepol (Substance-Field) Analysis

8.2. Seventy six Standards

8.3. Program of Using Standards for Solving Problems

8.4. Diagrams of Development of the Standards

CHAPTER 9: METHOD FOR SOLVING PROBLEMS BY MODELLING THEM WITH THE AID OF "LITTLE PEOPLE" (8 hours)

9.1. Personal Analogy: advantages and disadvantages

9.2. Little People: benefits and remarks

9.3. Program of Problem Solving Using "Little People"

CHAPTER 10: ALGORITHM OF INVENTIVE PROBLEM SOLVING 85 (ARIZ 85): THE FULL PROGRAM OF PROBLEM SOLVING AND DECISION MAKING (30 hours)

10.1. Concept of algorithm

10.2. Structure of ARIZ 85

10.3. How to understand and use ARIZ 85

CHAPTER 11: REVIEW OF THE CIM PROGRAM AND VISIONS (2 hours)