Part -1:

Creative Problem Solving

You have been asked to develop a brief presentation about how the creative process can help solve a business problem for a client of yours.

• Research and select a company that has faced recent challenges in its business.
 o Choose any company, or select one from this list.
 o This company is now your client.
• Create a presentation for your client that includes the following:
 o Slide 1: Briefly describe the company and its product or service.
 o Slide 2-3: State and analyze the business problem.
 o Slide 3-4: Determine what creative approach will help solve the problem.
 o Slide 4-5: Define the steps in the creative process you selected and customize them for the selected company and business problem.
 o Slide 5-6: Explain how the solution will help solve your company's business problem, and why.
 o Slide 6-7: Analyze the projected outcome of the solution and how it will help the company be successful moving forward with a new image, new product, or successful business venture.
 o Slide 7-8: Write a conclusion summarizing your final findings.
 o Slide 8-9: Add reference slides, cited in proper APA format.

Include 100-150 words of notes per slide.

Part-2

Delivery length 400-500 words

You supervise customer service representatives. On Friday evening, after a long, unproductive week, you send your boss the following e-mail:

Kathy,

It has been a very busy week and I wanted to let you know that I have implemented a new policy for my customer service reps effective this coming Monday morning. I have included the policy below. See you in the staff meeting on Monday.

New start-time policy, effective immediately:

Effective Monday morning, all customer service representatives will be required to arrive 15 minutes before their scheduled work shift. The reason for this policy is because too many people are coming to work late and spending 15 minutes preparing for their schedules, getting coffee, and booting up their computers, which accounts for a late start, often of 15 minutes.

This 15-minute preparation time is unpaid. After you prepare for your shift, you may clock in.

Strict adherence to this policy is mandatory.

During the staff meeting with your colleagues early Monday morning, you learn that your supervisor is very unhappy with the new policy that you implemented. The supervisor looked it over during the weekend and seems angry.

You immediately ask for a meeting with your supervisor. You ask, "What specifically don't you like about the new policy?"

Your boss responds, "I'm not quite sure, but I am very upset that you sent this policy out without my advance knowledge of it."

You think to yourself: How am I going to get to the root of this problem?

You want to discuss 1 creative approach that you would use to discover the actual problem with your boss. You have to determine if this problem is the policy itself, your boss's reaction to the policy, or if something else is going on.

In your discussion, do the following:

• State the perceived problem, and why you believe your supervisor is angry.

• Analyze the situation by breaking down 2 or 3 steps of what really happened. Often, this type of reflection, or tracing your steps, helps you discover the root of the problem.

• Propose 1 creative approach to solving the problem and why you believe this will help the situation.

• Finally, state the real problem, which can differ from the perceived problem.