Still Life with Chair-Caning, by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), "painted" in May, 1912. I put painted in quotes, because this painting is only painted in part. The image of the chair caning is actually printed on a piece of oilcloth, which Picasso bought in a hardware store and glued onto the canvas, before painting over it. This painting is the first to incorporate this technique. Some regarded Picasso's technique as "cheating," because so much of the regard people had for artists at the time was based on their ability to reproduce images of reality. And here was Picasso, exploiting a manufactured image of reality, and asking for credit for his work as fine art.
Problem solvers today still suffer from this same phenomenon. Devising solutions from "scratch" without reference to previous work is more highly esteemed than is combining elements from existing solutions to create something wholly new. The resulting searches for the greater glory that is the reward for wholly new solutions are expensive and wasteful consequences of this attribute of many organizational cultures. We would do well to find ways to honor clever combining of existing work as much as we honor creating wholly new work.
The painting is in oil and oilcloth on canvas, with a rope frame. In size, it is relatively small: 10 5/8 x 13 3/4 in. (27 x 35 cm.). It is at Musee Picasso in Paris, which at this writing is closed for renovations. Photo courtesy Dr. Scott Contreras-Koterbay of East Tennessee University.
Problem solvers often begin by looking for new, innovative solutions, even though many solutions consist of innovative combinations of less-innovative pieces. But innovation can be as much or more in the way pieces are combined, rather than in the pieces themselves. Because this happens with such regularity, setting out to find solutions of this form can make problem-solvers more productive.
Many problem solutions are like found art, which is art created from objects that are not normally considered art. They might be everyday objects, like tires or chair legs. They might even be discarded or broken. By combining them in new ways, possibly with objects or materials that normally are considered art, the artist creates something that clearly is art.
Similarly, problem solutions sometimes consist of familiar elements of other solutions, possibly combined with truly new elements. Often, we come to these solutions only after failing to compose wholly new solutions. Here's a proposal: we might benefit by approaching problems from the beginning by searching for solutions that are hybrids of new and old.
Here are some suggestions for problem-solving using combinations of new and old solutions.
- Generate a catalog of old solutions
- Become a student of old solutions. Gather ideas that worked in the past to solve problems that are now solved. You can use this resource repeatedly for each new problem-solving effort. And the successful results of each new effort can become entries in this catalog.
- Maintain a didn't-work-for-this-problem list
- As you progress You can reuse past ideas
only if you know about
them. Become a student
of old solutions.toward a solution, you'll try ideas that turn out not to work. Add them to the didn't-work-for-this-problem list. Then ask, why didn't it work? If that condition is still in place, address it. Addressing that condition is a slightly different problem — one for which you (or someone else) might already have a solution. - Search for themes in the didn't-work-for-this-problem list
- As you add items to the didn't-work-for-this-problem list, search the list for themes. Sometimes, when something doesn't work, the causes of failure can be hidden in subtle ways. But when you ask what a group of failed solutions have in common, sometimes that hidden cause becomes evident. In this way, failed solutions can lead to success.
- Be zany
- Because intentional zaniness can help you relax constraints that might be keeping you from seeing a solution, search for obviously zany ideas. But not just any zany ideas. Start with an item from your catalog of old solutions, or from your didn't-work-for-this-problem lists. Then "zanify" it. Zanify it again in another way. You might be surprised at what happens.
Most important, we must learn to value the work of those who solve problems by combining cleverly into new solutions elements that others knew about but overlooked. 
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Related articles
More articles on Problem Solving and Creativity:
Dealing with Deadlock- At times it seems that nothing works. Whenever we try to get moving, we encounter obstacles. If we try
to go around them, we find more obstacles. How do we get stuck? And how can we get unstuck?
How to Foresee the Foreseeable: Recognize Haste- When trouble arises after we commit to a course of action, we sometimes feel that the trouble was foreseeable.
One technique for foreseeing the foreseeable depends on recognizing haste in the decision-making process.
Solving the Problem of Solving Problems- Problem solving is sometimes difficult when our biases interfere with generating candidate solutions,
or with evaluating candidates we already have. Here are some suggestions for dealing with these biases.
The Planning Dysfunction Cycle- Some organizations consistently choose not to allocate enough resources or time to planning for their
most complex undertakings. Again and again, they decline to plan carefully enough despite the evidence
of multiple disappointments and chaotic performance. Resource contention and cognitive biases conspire
to sustain this cycle of dysfunction.
Contrary Indicators of Psychological Safety: III- When we first perform actions or play roles unfamiliar to us, we make mistakes. We learn new ways not
only by reading or being told, but also by practicing. Unless we feel that making mistakes at first
is acceptable, learning might never occur.
See also Problem Solving and Creativity for more related articles.
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