Enlarging TRIZ and Teaching Enlarged TRIZ for the Large Public - (Part 2 of 4)

… After the course in Creativity Methodologies, I stopped thinking unsystematically. Instead, I began to use Creativity Methodologies, and have a more comprehensive view of any problem. I plan optimal steps for solving math problems, anticipate potential problems.

… Obviously, the more I learned the more interested I became. I was surprised to find that my thinking had improved greatly.

… In study, I was able to deal with difficult problems thanks to my ability to ask questions and look at all aspects of those problems.

… The subject has made me more confident and decisive when coping with daily work. I hope I will achieve greater success if I apply what I have learned in my future job.

… Creativity Methodologies are beneficial to me not only in dealing with problems. When I was still at school, I used to be punished for fighting with my classmates. If I had learned this subject then and been able to reason, using the nine-systems thinking display, I would not have resorted to violence. Not long ago, while I was enjoying some coffee with a few friends of mine, I was confronted by a group of local youths. I immediately thought of the nine-systems thinking display: if I had had a fight with them, I would have either been bitten by the youths or arrested by the police for causing public nuisance. At the same time I remembered the principles of Convert Harm into Benefit and Transition into a New Dimension. I took the initiative to shake hands with them and offer them some coffee. As a result, the conflict was solved positively. This method turned out to be better than violence. In my view, my response to this situation can be regarded as an example of creative thinking for myself.

I have known for many years that I didn't have an effective method in thinking. Faced with a problem, I found myself very slow in working out a solution, as compared to other people. I always had to grope about step by step, feeling completely at a loss, not knowing what to do to solve the problem. I could not concentrate on anything, and often left things halfdone.

Now that the course is coming to an end, I find myself completely changed from what I was before. The lack of self-confidence and the inertia in my nature have given way to optimism, observation, and inquisitiveness. My mind has been sharpened and become more alert, enabling me to find the solution to a problem more quickly, effectively and economically. What I like most in the course is that for every point presented in a lesson, the instructor always gave us illustrations taken from daily life, besides mentioning the inventions in which the method was used. I also like his humanistic approach to teaching.

I regret not having been able to attend this course earlier, which made me waste a lot of my time. The subject is necessary for everybody, and should be included in the curriculum for high schools.

I have benefited a lot from the CM course at the CSTC:

The subject has provided me with the right methods and skills to improve my way of thinking to make more efficient decisions in problem solving.

I have been trying to overcome psychological and systems inertia in perceiving information and solving problems. This is essential to dealing with problems not only in scientific, technical and economic fields but also in social and family life. The subject really helps build up a creative personality including unselfishness and generosity.

I find this CM course interesting, extremely interesting. Each lesson at the CSTC is like a festival for me. I wish I had taken the course when I was a freshman, not just now being a third year student.

… I began solving problems in a new way and find it easier to cope with them. The subject enables to come up with original ideas I had never had before.

… As I was very busy with my study, I had little time for my family. I had tried hard to cope with both my study and family, but things always went wrong. After the course, I began applying some of the 40 principles to dealing with my problems, and these efforts have been successful … Sometimes I can’t help praising myself.

… After a short course in Creativity Methodologies, I have gained a lot of advantages for myself making me become more confident in thinking. I now have a more appropriate and comprehensive approach to dealing with problems and can easily discover a great number of interesting things around me.

… I seem to have “grown” considerably after the course. The subject has provided me with new approaches to thinking, looking at and solving problems. Since I finished the course I have studied more efficently.

… I have become a new man since I finished the course in Creativity Methodologies. I have been equipped not only with a great amount of comprehensive knowledge, but also with scientific, and most convincing approaches to thinking, which I have been making use of in my daily life and work.

…What surprises me most is that Creativity Methodologies can be applied not only in the technological fields, but also in such fields, as society, business, study. Creativity Methodologies teach us how to think systematically to solve problems we encounter.

…It came to my mind all beyond my expectations that this subject is one of the basic sciences that lays a foundation for other sciences. This should be the first course for anyone to take. I used to base my thinking on my own feelings, and use the trial and error method to deal with problems. Now thanks to what I have learned, I am now well equipped with a variety of multidimensional and more logical thinking methodologies.

… This subject should have been taught to us before any other subjects as it provides the best approaches to other subjects.

… From the beginning to the end of the course, most of what I learned was new, interesting, and useful for me.

The lesson on inertia, which helps me to better understand myself and human beings, was very heplful in perfecting my character and behaviour.

The lesson on 40 principles, which help me develop my systematic working habits and reasoning thinking, in particular Segmentation, Prior Counteraction, Prior Action, Cushion in Advance, Convert Harm into Benefit, Dynamicity, Periodic Action, Rushing Through, Changing the Color.

… As a high school math teacher, I will apply what I have learned in teaching and counseling my students.

Upon completion of the CM course, by means of 40 principles I have a thorough and sound understanding of improvements, inventions and innovations in new products offered on sale in the market. I can also identify the defects of a particular new product, the improvements to be made, and anticipate its solutions regarding this product.

I am planning to incorporate the spirit and knowledge of this subject into my teaching in order to increase efficiency of my training, enabling my students to learn more systematically and take initiative on their own.

… I have been wondering why so many people have used the trial and error method without ever being able to find the right approach, but what is meant by the right approach? Why is this subject not introduced in high school to save time and energy?

… I teach literature, so developing students’ imagination is essential and the best approach is not to discourage new ideas resulting from cognitive needs. Consequently, students will learn the lessons more easily, and what they have discovered by themselves they will bear in mind.

… Creativity Methodologies enable us to overcome weaknesses of working by rote, and restore the intrinsic quality of creativeness of humans.

…I teach dialectics to students. I think if we combine all the laws and principles of dialectical materialism with techniques of Creativity Methodologies, my lectures will be more interesting. Students will be more interested in philosophy, which will therefore be more practical. I would like this subject to be included in the curriculum of Hanoi University.

…Before the course I had never been able to think independently and systematically. If I can apply what I have learned I will be successful in both work and life.

… In an interview at the end of the course, both the interviewers and the interviewees concentrated on the youth. I am totally in favour of that. However, it would be unfair not to include the old generation as course learners. This was agreed on by a senior high school teacher at the meeting. If only leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training would spend some time attending the course.

Your course gives me a new dimension of creative thinking. Now I can see everything through your 40 principles of TRIZ which help me a lot to solve the problem systematically, minus Trial and Error Method, plus 6 steps of the Reduced Program of Problem Solving.

This is one of the most valuable courses that I have ever attended. It really opens my eyes and stimulates my thinking after being exposed to so many new concepts and approaches in creativity learning and problem solving which you skilfully introduced to us. The numerous interesting examples and stories that you appropriately inserted are in themselves masterpieces of creativity. We sincerely look forward for more of such courses.

I am glad and very thankful for attending this extraordinary thinking course. After this course I now realize that contradictions could be united and should not be viewed separatedly. Instead of treating opposite elements as attacking each other, now with TRIZ both are combined to resolve problem in "win-win" situation.

TRIZ methods encourage me to see things and analyze problems objectively. There is no trial and error which is considered wasting time giving limited output. Your methods are convenient to our daily life.

My present job doesn't sound to be one that has anything to do with science and technology. With the tools that I have learned, I have made various designs of new blouses, some of which I find really good. Though I have no plan to become a fashion-designer in the future, this ability to design new models of clothes can help me become an owner of a well-known dress-making shop. Also, thinking methodically will help me work more efficiently with a program carefully envisaged from A to Z, with no redundant operations that waste my time. If I had attended the CM course right after I finished high school, my career prospects at that time must have been different.

In my production work, by using brainstorming and the table of creativity principles in solving technical contradictions, I have taken the initiative in improving a lifting machine using a manual pump, which was highly appreciated by the people in my factory.

To illustrate, below I will describe one of my successful efforts since I finished the CM course at the CSTC:

Company Fujitsu sent over 210 Vietnamese to Japan for training. After they had been in Japan for a while, once a week the company arranged for some of them to talk with their families via television bridge. Once there was a technical problem: the participants could only see one another's faces without any sound. Our manager had decided to postpone the meeting. This meant that the families should return home and come back in a week. Among them there were many from very far provinces. Remembering the point "Using the intrinsic resources inherent in the given system" (principle Self-service) in the CM course, I came up with an idea: participants talk on the international telephone of Fujitsu's net while seeing one another on the television screen. All trainees and their families were happy. Because of this, I also felt happy.

…I graduated in Law, and became involved in management … I was interested in the lessons from which I learned a wide range of thinking techniques (40 principles and methods) that I can apply in solving socio-economic problems. I have found that these techniques are essential to daily activities. Creativity Methodologies help me to identify my shortcomings, in particular, psychological inertia, performing jobs by rote, lack of initiatives. I have been trying to get rid of these weaknesses and practising Creativity Methodologies.

Now things have become different after the CM course. I don't mean that it is a sort of miracle. But undoubtedly, if I learn how to think in a more creative way, then I can save more time for more work. Now whatever work I take charge of, big or small, I view it as a problem. I use the new methods to solve it and I can do it faster. Good-bye to my old-fashioned way (the trial and error method). In my hospital, I have reorganized the rooms and medical devices, giving each of them more functions (the principle of Universality) without ill affecting the treatment and order. I now realize fully that: Without methods, great persons can get lost; with good methods, ordinary persons can do great things.

I used to feel proud of my ability to create, as compared to other people in the small community where I work. But July 3rd, 1991 was a turning point in the development in my thinking since it was the day I began attending the CM course. Looking back, I realized now that what I had before were small and mediocre ideas. What I can be sure about is that if I had attended this course nine or ten years earlier, I could have done things much more effectively.

It is the course I took from the CSTC that helped me to cope with my research problems to which I was unable to find appropriate solutions.

I had never thought that after only ten days of learning I could become so much more scientific in both my work and life.

After learning the CM course with you, I have put it into practice to solve a variety of challenging problems that I meet in real life. I would like to inform you of that so you can share my happiness.

I have found that the reason why I could find the solutions to my problems is that I have mastered ARIZ. This helped me quickly identify the problem, with its technical and physical contradictions. I determinedly pushed the contradictions to extremes to resolve them by TRIZ tools. Using ARIZ, I find that my ability to solve problems has augmented ten times. And in my daily life CM have made me feel more confident and comfortable.

During the course, I have used 40 creativity principles and had four inventions in improving wood processing technically.

Happily, after applying what I have learned to my job, I have made three little inventions and some improvements.

Half way through the course, I began applying what I had learned in my research work, in particular, by using such principles as "Local quality", "Prior Counteraction" and "Segmentation". I was able to control the growing of the mushrooms. This has brought about mechanization of mushroom raising, the problem to which I had been looking for a solution. And now I have been able to find the answer. In addition, the size of a mushroom can be controlled to meet market demand. I have recently been conducting a number of experiments for which the results are satisfactory.

After the CM course, one of my successful efforts was making improvements in the design and packaging of our product by creativity tools. As well as that, in organizing the production process I made a change to a piece of equipment: a container full of products with a weight of 100 kg made it difficult for workers to load it onto a cart, and then carry it to a steam-heated furnace. In fact the workers were able to handle a load of 70 kg (because 100 kg is too heavy for them), short of 30 kg. I applied the following principles: "Continuity of Useful Action", "Dynamicity", "Segmentation" and "Consolidation". The container was divided into two separate parts, with 50 kg product for each. But once inside the furnace, the two halves were joined with special hooks, and turned into one container to be fitted to the furnace's power. Thus, the container always holds the content of 100 kg without any waste.

I feel ashamed of myself for being unaware of this subject, a useful tool for management work, although I have been working for many years at the National Center for Scientific and Technological Information (NCSTI).

I have to blame myself for taking the CM course so late although it has been in existence in Vietnam for over 22 years. Unlike other courses, this subject impressed me right from the very first lessons with the first concepts.

I am happy to learn that this subject, which is a new science in the world, has been introduced in Vietnam. Everyone can do worse than take up this subject.

I am a researcher with 18 years of experience in scientific research and 10 years in business management. The subject astonishes me and I have a feeling that I have been making unnecessary efforts to clear the weed to make a path for me to go while there is a wide asphalted road not far from where I am. I wish I had learned this subject earlier.

Before taking the CM course I had never thought of such an excellent course being available in Vietnam.

As a training manager I had participated in many courses and seminar-workshops held by different international schools in Vietnam and abroad. I think the CM course is the most interesting course I have attended up to now.

This subject has helped us to realize how harmful it is to think without orientation, to do things from habits and by trial-and-error. In our case, it is even worse because we are teachers, whose duty is to train students to be creative (as we had been asked by our teachers) without ever asking ourselves how to do it. It's silly to ask people to do things we don't know ourselves! TRIZ and the methods activating thinking can help anyone who has mastered them in his/her work. And I think there should be a movement to eradicate "the illiteracy in Creativity Methodologies" for every working person so that he/she can rearrange his/her work in a more creative way.