Tool 48: Creativity Assessment

AKA

N/A

Classification

Analyzing/Trending (AT)

Tool description

Developed by Leo Moore, the creativity assessment technique is applied as a sorting and rating process to a long list of brainstormed ideas. It should help teams with evaluation and categorization by selecting ideas on the basis of predetermined criteria.

Typical application

• To categorize a list of generated ideas using team-established criteria.

• To evaluate and sort ideas into groups.

• To screen ideas or solutions considered for implementation.

Problem-solving phase

→	Select and define problem or opportunity
→	Identify and analyze causes or potential change
→	Develop and plan possible solutions or change
	Implement and evaluate solution or change
	Measure and report solution or change results
	Recognize and reward team efforts

Typically used by

	Research/statistics
1	Creativity/innovation
2	Engineering
	Project management
	Manufacturing
	Marketing/sales
	Administration/documentation
3	Servicing/support
	Customer/quality metrics
4	Change management

links to other tools

before

• Brainstorming

• Round Robin Brainstorming

• Brainwriting Pool

• Pin Cards Technique

• Criteria Filtering

after

• Consensus Decision Making

• Cluster Analysis

• Solution Matrix

• Selection Matrix

• Presentation

Notes and key points

• The categorization scheme is often dependent on the type of data and the situation encountered.

  • Ideas can be categorized into levels of difficulty using Roman numerals for designating levels, such as:

    I = easy to do; II = hard to do; III = most difficult to do

  • Other criteria can be used to determine value, importance, cost, and resources required:

    I = few resources required; II = considerable resources required;

    III = a great many resources required.

Step-by-step procedure

• STEP 1 The team's facilitator displays flip charts of previously brainstormed ideas. See example Improve Quality.

• STEP 2 The participants establish the criteria for assessment. In this example, the criteria are easy to do, hard to do, and most difficult to do.

• STEP 3 The facilitator writes the respective category headings on three flip charts, and participants evaluate and organize ideas into the three categories as shown in this example.

• STEP 4 After all ideas have been categorized, the three resulting categories I–III are reviewed and dated.

• STEP 5 Lastly, the team presents the three idea categories to upper management for further evaluation and action.

Example of tool application

Improve Quality