In This Chapter

Getting the best results with TRIZ

Understanding the most effective TRIZ methods

In this chapter you’ll find simple hints and tips to get you started using TRIZ effectively and making TRIZ innovation a new habit. TRIZ has enormous rigour and depth, and sometimes people can feel a bit intimidated when they first encounter it … they don’t know where to start putting it into practice. What follows are some recommendations based on my experience as a teacher and facilitator. And, of course, as someone who learned TRIZ herself (many moons ago)!

Learn It

You need to become familiar with the TRIZ tools before you can use them. Get to know the 40 Inventive Principles, the Standard Solutions, Trends and so on and make an effort to find new examples of these TRIZ tools put into practice.

Every morning, get out the list of the 40 Inventive Principles, pick one and try to think of examples of it in action. Do the same with the other tools and become familiar with what they mean. You don’t need to learn them all by heart, but you do need to understand how they work in order to use them in real problem-solving situations.

When you’re familiar with the tools, you can keep moving fast and focus all your energy and attention on the problem at hand, rather than on working out what the tools mean.

Use It

Nothing’s as good as putting TRIZ into practice! Having a go at tackling a real issue will increase your understanding more than any amount of theory.

TRIZ is only useful when it’s used – and the more you use it, the better you get. If anyone in your organisation is already using TRIZ, ask to come along and participate the next time they run a session. She’ll probably be happy to have another pair of eyes on her problem, and you’ll learn a lot from the other problem solvers in the room.

Start Small

Unless a TRIZ expert is going to help you step through the process, it’s best not to start with a huge, complex problem because, if you struggle, it won’t be clear whether you’re having difficulty with the problem or the process.

A smaller problem is an easier place to start when you’re trying to learn the tools as well as find solutions.

If you have an urgent but very thorny problem and want to hit it with some TRIZ, start small with the tools, do the thinking in stages, set realistic expectations and don’t worry about whether you’re doing it perfectly. Also, don’t try to use every tool, perhaps just two or three to help you generate new thinking and fresh ideas. As you gain confidence and expertise, you’ll be able to step through the whole process on larger problems.

Attend a Workshop

Learning a new technique is easier from a teacher than a book (even this one!). An expert can explain the concepts and help you put them into practice there and then.

Lots of opportunities to learn TRIZ exist out there, both face-to-face and online, including free webinars. The online article for Part V at www.dummies.com/extras/triz points you in the right direction.

Think and Talk TRIZ

Get TRIZ thinking into your normal speaking patterns and communicate with others using the TRIZ approaches. I’m not advocating that you spout TRIZ terminology at people whenever the words ‘problem’ or ‘idea’ come up, however. Rather, I mean use these terms to introduce TRIZ thinking into the conversation. For example, ask people to consider their Ideal outcome; what they’d want in an ideal world.

Think about analogies (does the current problem remind you or others of something similar?); ask who else may have solved similar problems in the past (maybe someone in your organisation has done so, for example); identify the concepts behind other people’s ideas and suggest different ways of putting them into practice; ask whether reversing a process would solve the problem (Inventive Principle 13 – always a good place to start!); take things to extremes to get clearer thinking (applying the Size–Time–Cost creativity tool); consider how you could use your resources to get what you want (starting with the causes of the problem). (Inventive Principles are the subject of Chapter 3 and Chapter 7 covers the Size–Time–Cost tool.)

Changing how you talk about problems changes how you think about them, and the TRIZ philosophy will become second nature.

Find a Friend

Getting started with TRIZ can be difficult on your own. Find out whether anyone in your organisation, or even nearby geographically, is familiar with TRIZ and get together with her to discuss ideas or anything you’re unsure of. If TRIZ sessions are already happening, people are usually more than happy to have an extra brain and additional pair of hands to help out. Observing others using the tools helps you translate theory – from this book or any other – into practice.

TRIZ conferences, where you can meet and share ideas with other TRIZniks, take place all over the world.

Finally, having a friend or colleague you trust join you when you’re first trying to put the tools into practice can be helpful, as you can talk through how the tools work and the solutions you generate with someone else.

Fail Safely

The first time you run a TRIZ session at work, start small, with a friendly crowd, so that you feel ‘safe to fail’. You’ll learn a lot from a practice run and discover the best way to set up a session, describe the tools and explain what you want people to do.

Ask a colleague to be your helper and brief her thoroughly in advance on what you hope to get out of the session and what you want the participants to do. That way, she can help if people ask difficult questions or go off in unexpected directions.

If possible, send people some information about what TRIZ is in advance, and a short description of what you’ll be doing and why, so if they have any questions about the process, you can answer them in advance and you don’t find yourself answering tricky questions on your feet. Many people are willing to try something new, but if someone is really resistant, the invitation will give them a hint of what they’d be signing up for and they can excuse themselves in advance.

Be Bold

Applying TRIZ for the first time requires you to step out of your comfort zone and think in a different way, which may feel uncomfortable. TRIZ will suggest taking your problem solving in directions that may not immediately seem logical or practical or useful – but you still need to follow them.

You may discover a contradiction, for example, but the Inventive Principles (Chapter 3 covers the 40 Inventive Principles in detail) suggested for resolving it seem to bear no relation to your situation. Don’t discard them! Doing what those Principles suggest means you’ll generate the kind of solutions you wouldn’t normally have thought of. This is exactly why you’re using TRIZ: to generate new thinking.

When you’ve got a bit of experience under your belt, have a go at tackling a really hard, complex problem because these benefit the most from the application of TRIZ. Easier problems you can probably tackle on your own; it’s for those where you get completely stuck or just can’t see where you’re going to find a solution that TRIZ will deliver the most value.

Fail Better

If you never fail, you’re not being innovative enough!

Real innovation requires risk, and innovative organisations accept and forgive occasional failure as an inevitable by-product of trying new things. Failure can be harder to accept in yourself, however! But you learn most from experiences in which you fail, and if you’re always trying to avoid mistakes, you’ll play it safe and keep doing the things you’ve always done.

Applying TRIZ should take you out of your comfort zone, and part of the joy of using the TRIZ process is that it allows you to systematically explore uncertain and ambiguous situations, where innovative solutions are often found.

Many stories involve overcoming early failure to create great innovations. If something goes wrong when you’re trying to put a solution into practice, don’t give up! It’s just another problem – and you can use TRIZ to solve it.

Reflect

After each TRIZ problem-solving session or project, give yourself time to reflect on what you did, what you learned and what you can do better next time.

It’s okay if you haven’t applied the tools perfectly so long as you can learn from the experience and use it as an opportunity to improve.

I always write down my ‘lessons learned’ from every TRIZ workshop I run; I recommend that you do the same, while the details of the session are still fresh in your mind, noting what went well or needs to be improved upon, unexpected questions that you need to find answers to and any useful information that you can use in your next TRIZ event.