Tài liệu Phương pháp luận sáng tạo và đổi mới: Những điều muốn nói thêm (Phần 2)

17.3. MỘT SỐ BÀI BÁO, BÁO CÁO HỘI NGHỊ

CỦA NGƯỜI VIẾT VỀ KHOA HỌC SÁNG TẠO

VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP LUẬN SÁNG TẠO VÀ ĐỔI

MỚI (PPLSTVĐM) CÔNG BỐ Ở NƯỚC NGOÀI

(1)

Introducing Creativity Methodologies into Vietnam

Phan Dung

Editorial: “… Professor Phan Dung provides one of the first

accounts in English of work on creativity in Vietnam. One fascinating

influence comes from his earlier experiences in the former USSR,

which have been combined with systems more familiar to many

readers (brainstorming, etc). Such truly multi-cultural work will

repay close study.”

Making acquaintance with the CF methodologies of creativity

In the early 1960s, when I was a junior high school student, I often

had questions associated with creative thinking such as: How do

eminent scientists and inventors think up the ideas which make

discoveries and inventions? Are there any laws of creative thinking?

Why do they not teach thinking anywhere, while a great utility from

effective thinking is evident? What should I do to improve my own

thinking?

The first books which had a strong impact on me are Polya' s

books: How to solve it, Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning and

Mathematical Discovery. After that I had myself validate my thinking

and give feedback on my problem solutions and decisions everywhere

I could in my life. I saw noticeable progress in my thinking but at the

same time I found many issues regarding creative thinking I could not

explain.

In 1971, when I was a student in Physics at the Soviet State

University of Baku (SSUB), by lucky accident I heard about the

academic and research Institute of Inventive Creativity (IIC), which

belonged to the All-Union Association of Soviet Inventors. Like a

thirsty man who sees the water, I immediately joined it. The IIC was

the first Institute of this kind in the former Soviet Union and we were

its first students.

The goal of the IIC was to prepare professional inventors,

organisers, researchers and teachers in the field of inventive

creativity. From 1971 to 1973 we studied the following subjects:

- Psychology of Creativity

- Information Theory

- Systems Theory

- Cybernetics

- Decision-making Theory

- History of Science and Technology Development

- Patentology

- Predicting Methods

- The Course for Imagination Development

- ‘Western’ methodologies such as Brainstorming, Check-list

methods, Morphological Analysis, Synectics

- ‘Soviet’ methodologies, especially the Theory and Algorithm of

Inventive Problem Solving (Russian acronyms TRIZ and ARIZ). I

hope to present the main contents of TRIZ and ARIZ in my next

article for CIM.

- During the learning process we had to solve numerous

instructional problems concerning making inventions, developing

imagination, writing documents to apply for ‘patents’

The graduation thesis could be a participant' s patentable invention

or a scientific research paper. The topic of my graduation thesis was

‘Psychological Inertia in Creativity’.

The newly gained knowledge, methodologies and skills helped me

very much in every step of my life. I am very grateful and much

obliged to my teacher, Mr G.S. Altshuller, and my TRIZ friends who

often send me new literature on TRIZ.

Steps towards establishing the Center for Scientific and Technical

Creativity

After I graduated from both the SSUB and the IIC in 1973, I

returned to Vietnam and began working at the Research Institute of

Physics in Hanoi. Then, with encouragement from Mr. Altshuller and

the experiences based on my use of methodologies of creativity I had

an intention to introduce and disseminate them in Vietnam, but I did

not have the appropriate conditions for this. In 1976 I moved to HCM

City to work at Ho Chi Minh City University, new opportunities were

exposed to me. In 1977 I created the adapted programme

‘Methodologies of Creativity’ (MC) and conducted it as an extra-

curriculum course for students from differing departments. This was

the first course on creativity methodologies in the whole country. I

wrote ‘adapted programme’ because I had to take into account

Vietnamese cultural, social and economical conditions. I will say

more about this adaptation in more details in the next section.

Except for time working on my doctoral theses (Candidate of

Science and Doctor of Science in Experimental Solid State Physics) at

the State University of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), I continued

my teaching of creativity methodologies in Ho Chi Minh City.

In April 1991, after some courses on MC for students and large

public audiences had proved to be successful, the administration of

Ho Chi Minh City University permitted me to establish the Center for

Scientific and Technical Creativity (CSTC).

The CSTC' s activities

In order to define the directions of activities and to construct the

MC programme we began from the following points:

(1) The most important resource for every country is its human

resource, and creativity is a human being’s fundamental resource, so

the MC programme should serve a great number of people.

We have built our programme for the public at large: high school

students and more highly trained people, irrespective of age,

occupation and career are free to enrol (without any admittance test).

We use many examples and problems, not containing deeply

specialized knowledge, to demonstrate how creative methodologies

work. Each programme emphasizes active participation and self-

discovery. The participants make full use of self-study materials,

instructor presentation, individual and group exercises and case

studies. Throughout the programme the participants have the

opportunity to apply their newly gained knowledge and methods in

problem solving and decision making process. Audio and video

equipment are used during the programme.

By August 1994, we worked with more than 2,300 participants (58

courses in all), among them students, workers, dressmakers, sport

trainers, physicians, pharmacists, engineers, lawyers, managers,

scientists… from all economic sectors. Their ages range from 15 to 72,

education level from year 9 to professor, Ph.D.

(2) MC programme is a new subject in Vietnam. Most people have

not known about it, so we should foster its widest dissemination.

We provide introductory lectures, seminars, addresses on radio

and on the T.V., schools, institutions, hospitals, companies, plants…

(many times free-of-charge) to describe the advantages of MC. More

than a dozen newspaper articles, written by correspondents about

MC, our Center' s activities and successes of past participants helped

us very much in this aspect.

(3) Participants are very busy and diverse, so we cannot teach

them for a long time and in one constant place.

We have divided the MC programme into three levels: basic,

intermediate and advanced courses. Graduation certificates are

issued at the end of each course and every course lasts 60 hours. We

have also taken into account that with an increasing amount of

foreign corporations investing in Vietnam, the certificates are printed

in both Vietnamese and English. This, from our view, will facilitate

participants in finding a job. We organise our courses at different

times of the day, including evening courses. The Center also offers on-

site training courses in and out of Ho Chi Minh City on request.

Practically, we conducted some courses in Hanoi and Cantho.

(4) Vietnam today has an income of \$200 per capita. It is

important for us to understand that if we want to spread the MC

programme widely, we should set a cheap fee for the course. Indeed,

now the cost is equivalent to \$9 per participant. In spite of that we

have a great satisfaction because we have such a strong desire to

promote a development process in Vietnam.

(5) There are many financial and other difficulties in Vietnam;

everywhere money is needed. It is not easy to hope for funding from

the state to perform our activities. We must first rely on our forces,

energy and enthusiasm to bravely enter a market. We think, now the

market has accepted us and our MC programme. Thus, we are able to

buy working facilities, to print textbooks… In other words, our Center

works as a self- supporting enterprise.

(6) According to a Vietnamese cultural tradition everybody should

learn not for money but for becoming a human being, that is,

education and training provide students with not only knowledge but

also helping them to be good people for their families and society. So

our MC programme is carried out not for the sake of creativity but we

also concentrate our attention on the ethical side of a creative

personality.

I conclude by adding that for the present our research is focused

mainly on improving teaching methods and perfecting the MC

programme. Although we teach at the same time the ‘Western’

methodologies and TRIZ but we have devoted much time to TRIZ (to

be explained in a future article: Ed.). In our opinion, TRIZ is very

powerful methodology created initially in the area of inventive

creativity but TRIZ can and should be enlarged upon other areas of

creativity and innovation because of its advantages. My experience of

using and teaching TRIZ for 20 years have made me believe in this.

We will be happy and grateful to receive any ideas for an exchange

with, and cooperation from, the readers of ‘Creativity and Innovation

Management’ Journal.

Acknowledgement

With respectful acknowledgements to my teacher – the founder of

TRIZ – G.S. Altshuller.

TRIZ: Inventive Creativity Based On The Laws of Systems

(2)

Development

Phan Dung

Editorial: “Our next contribution reports work that has remained

concealed from western readers until recently. Professor Phan Dung

reveals a system of studying the deeper patterns of discovery within

the world-wide patent literature. The approach has been successful

enough to demonstrate one methodology of commercial gains from

studies of historical data. In that respect it may be classified as ‘an

innovation for generating innovations’.

Abstract: “Different problem solving methodologies drawing on

various philosophical and practical approaches are in use all over the

world. This paper gives details of the TRIZ method, created by G.S.

Altshuller in the former Soviet Union in 1946. TRIZ uses systems

thinking concepts to structure problem solving and encourages the

user to discover the objective laws of evolution and development in

the field of inventive creativity. Examples of the use of the system and

reflections on its impact are given by the author.”

Introduction

TRIZ is the Russian acronym for Theory of Inventive Problem

Solving. TRIZ was created by Genrikh Saulovich Altshuller in the

Soviet Union (now CIS), starting in 1946. For various reasons, TRIZ,

at present, is little known to the western world. One of these causes is

the language barrier: nearly all literature on TRIZ was published in

Russian (see the list at the end of the article).

I am trying to explain TRIZ objectively and comprehensively but I

know that it is difficult to avoid subjectivity of experience and

judgement. In addition, I have other difficulties, for example, in

seeking the equivalent English terms for the most accurate

expression, in making references to western books or articles (we do

not yet have enough English literature on creativity and innovation).

To become a TRIZ-specialist, someone should study it for several

years, preferably in the CIS. Thus I cannot present TRIZ in detail,

although, if this article can, to some extent, raise your interest in

TRIZ, I think, its purpose will be achieved. I am also taking into

account the point that this article is dedicated to people of different

specialities, so I will illustrate TRIZ’s main ideas by examples not

associated with any deeply specialised knowledge of physics or

engineering.

Trial and Error Method and Its Disadvantages

The trial and error method which is used to solve problems is

illustrated in Figure 1: the solution is obtained after examination of

various trials (the arrows stand for these trials).

The difficulty level of the problem or the inventive level of the

solver depends on the ratio:

number of possible solutions

[

the number of possible variants/the

. The higher this ratio is, the more

]

difficult the problem is and the greater inventive creativity level the

solver has achieved.

F

igure 1: Trial and Error Method

F

igure 2

An example of a problem which has a low difficulty level is as

follows:

“A man from city A wants to go to cities B, C and D for sightseeing

(the order of these cities is not important) and then comes back to city

A. Figure 2 is the plan of the roads connecting the cities and their

lengths in kilometres. Help him to find the shortest route for

sightseeing”.

Since the man departs from A and at last comes back to A so the

possible routes are different only in the order of the other three cities:

B, C and D. In other words, there are totally six possible variants:

1) ABCDA ... ... 300

2) ABDCA ... ... 300

3) ACBDA ... ... 200

4) ACDBA ... ... 200

+

350

400

350

400

+

400

+

450

=

1550

1300

1450

1300

+

200

500

300

=

+

=

+

=

5) ADBCA ... ... 500

6) ADCBA ... ... 500

+

400

+

350

+

200

300

=

1450

1550

+

=

and two possible solutions: ABDCA and ACDBA. In this case, the

ratio of variants/solutions is 3. In contrast, Edison had been

conducting more than 50,000 experiments to find the alkaline

accumulator, not counting his own mental experiments.

For the problems which have only a finite number of possible

variants, the trial and error method is quite appropriate. One just

considers variant after variant in order to find out the solution.

TRIZ divides difficulty levels of problems (or the inventive

creativity levels) into five levels. The first level has some possible

variants. The second level has some dozens of possible variants. The

third level has some hundreds of possible variants. The fourth level

has some thousands to some dozens of thousands of possible variants

and the fifth level has some hundreds of thousands, some millions

even countless variants. There is a change not only in quantity but

also quality here: the higher the level is, the wider the scientific and

technological knowledge required to solve the problem.

As indicated, the trial and error method is quite suited to problems

at the lowest levels of difficulty. However, for problems at higher

levels this method shows many disadvantages, some of which are

outlined below.

1. The number of ideas achieved per unit of time is few, so the

problem-solving process lasts for a long period of time.

2. The existing vector of psychological inertia prevents the solver

from the right solution because it drives the mind to what is

previously known. [ i.e. the functional fixedness phenomenon, Ed.]

3. The trial and error method wastes much time, thinking energy,

material means and even human lives, if time is critical in a life-

threatening situation.

4. The trial and error method has no mechanism for directing the

solver s thinking towards the solution: the solver is unable to

'

define the direction in which the necessary solution might be

found. This is the fundamental disadvantage of the trial and error

method.

In contrast, imagine what happens if we have a directing

mechanism (see Figure 3a).

Thanks to this mechanism the solver can eliminate a considerable

number of barren trials not coinciding with the solution’s direction.

In the ideal case, if the directing mechanism can be built very exactly

the solver can use only one trial leading to the solution (see Figure

3b). Thus, the solver can transfer problems from the fifth level to the

second or the first, where the usual principle of considering variants

is suitable. In fact this is the heart of the whole problem: one must be

able swiftly to reduce the field of enquiry and turn difficult problems

into easy ones.

F

igure 3a

There have been efforts to perfect the trial and error method such

as brainstorming, morphological analysis, check-listing, synectics…

and their modifications. Practically, methods make contributions to

overcoming mainly the first three disadvantages of the trial and error

method. TRIZ differs from them in finding the directing mechanism.

F

igure 3b

TRIZ and the Systems Approach

Mankind has to study objects and solve problems that are getting

more and more complex. The approach considering the whole as an

arithmetical sum of components is not suitable any more. It is

necessary to have an approach that permits study not only the

components and the dependences, actions and influences between

them, but also the qualitative change of the whole in relation to these

components. Creativity in general and inventive creativity in

particular are very complicated concepts. For that reason the systems

approach is consistently used in TRIZ.

System is defined as follows: a system is an assembly composed of

connected component elements so that the whole assembly has such

properties which cannot be reduced to the properties of the separate

component elements. These properties are called systemness (or

wholeness) of the given system. The systemness is used to express

specific functions of the system or to answer the question ‘for what is

the system born (or constructed)?’

An element is understood as a component part of the system which

will not be divided more under given consideration or in the concrete

conditions of the given problem.

A connection is interaction, mutual dependence and influence

between elements usually shown in three aspects: substance, energy

(field) and information.

An airplane for example is a system. It consists of connected

component elements such as its engine, fuel tank, body, wings, tail,

electric circuits, control mechanisms… and the whole airplane can fly.

This property cannot be reduced to the property of the engine, fuel

tank, body… separately.

Figure 4 is a symbolic scheme of the system.

F

igure 4

The writer does not intend to classify the elements, the

connections and the systems in detail here. He would just like to

emphasise a few points associated with the concept of system.

- The systemness depends on both the elements and the

connections. For that reason, it is possible to increase the systemness

by changing (modifying, adding, removing…) the elements, or the

connections, or both.

- In general, the system’s development is shown in the tendency to

increasing efficiency of the systemness or ideality of the system. This

ideality is evaluated by the ratio:

functions/sum of the expenditures on their realisation

[

sum of the useful systems

. To achieve

]

this goal, every element and every connection should be built so that

this ratio is constantly increased.

- Because of systems connections, any change happening

somewhere in the system will not be located at that place but will

spread throughout the system.

- In reality, nearly all systems are open systems. They exchange

substance, energy and information with other systems and the

environment.

- The definition of a system is relative in character. What may be

called an element in some circumstances, under others can be called a

sub-system. On the contrary, what may have been called a system

may be an element of a bigger system. In this case, the latter system is

named as supersystem. If an airplane is a system, then an engine will

be a sub-system and an airport will be a supersystem. Thus, we can

differentiate further: sub-subsystem, super-supersystem and so on,

forming the systems hierarchy. Through changing systems level we

can extract many specific problems from the initial problem situation.

This is important, because in many cases the right solutions do not lie

at the given systems level but at other levels.

F

igure 5: Nine-Systems Thinking Display

- Over time, systems are constantly in evolution and in a process of

development. So we should differentiate them in time: the past

system, the present system, the future system. However, time also

possesses relative characteristics. For example, if we suppose wood is

the present system, then the tree will be the past system. If a full-

grown tree is the present, then a young tree will be the past and wood

will be the future. This is also important because in many cases the

right solutions do not arise at the present but in the past or in the

future.

TRIZ aims at constructing systems thinking. There is always a

particular system in each inventive problem. TRIZ not only requires

but also creates devices that help a solver to ‘see’, think about and

process, at least, nine systems ‘display’ (see Figure 5).

As reality has shown, the solution of the problem sometimes does

not lie in the system or sub-system at the present but in the present

supersystem or system, sub-system and supersystem in the past, so to

solve problems at the present time is too late. The other three systems

relate to the future. The faster the speed of change, the more

important becomes the role of foreseeing future problems and

development.

TRIZ uses a systems approach and goes on to discover the

objective laws of evolution and development of technical systems.

These represent themselves as the base for building the directing

mechanism which helps us escape blind trial and error.

Subjective and Objective Sides of Creativity

Although there are many creativity definitions, researchers, in

general, agree on two major points of creativity concept: novelty and

utility. It is widely believed that creativity relates mainly to the

subjective psychology of human beings. That is true but not enough.

If accepting that where both novelty and utility exist at the same time,

there exists creativity, then reality has shown that creativity can

happen at the place where subjective psychology of human beings is

absent. For example, the evolution and development of biological

systems made the appearance of bio-individuals, species more

adaptable to their environment… and possessing new and useful

abilities for survival. This is also creativity but human psychology

does not take part in this process.

[ i.e. the creativity of evolution, Ed.]

In this case there is also a contribution of trial and error method:

mutations play part of the trials, and the survival of the fittest are the

solutions.

So it is possible to claim that there is an objective side of creativity,

and that creativity can appear wherever evolution and development

occur. It is only when human beings became creative subjects that

psychology, and human subjectivity participated in the creative

process.

TRIZ not only takes into account the subjective side of creativity

but also supposes that it would be a fundamental drawback if

insufficient attention were paid to the objective side of creativity.

Moreover, TRIZ especially emphasises the objective side of creativity

and concentrates its great efforts on finding out the objective laws of

evolution and development in the field of inventive creativity. The

essence of the issue is that only those people who grasp these

objective laws and manage this psychology along them can achieve a

high efficiency in creativity.

Human psychology has a concretely historical character and is not

unchangeable. Though TRIZ takes into account present psychology,

TRIZ also has the purpose of constructing a new psychology which

will work in accordance with systems thinking, directed by objective

evolution and development laws.

The Important Role of Patent Information

In order for a technical invention to get a patent it must satisfy the

following requirements simultaneously:

1. Being the solution of the problem: the author of the invention

must indicate the way to implement the idea, not present the idea

only.

2. Novelty: the author of the invention must point out the new

aspects of the invention in comparison with its prototype.

3. Utility: the author must show his invention overcoming what

disadvantages and/or creating what advantages in comparison

with its prototype.

Although creativity appears in all areas of human activities,

inventiveness is, maybe, the only field where the author of the

creative product is compelled to describe the above points in his (or

her) application form for patents. For example, in the literature field,

a lot of writers describe family life but no one is compelled to show

the novelty and utility of one' s own work in comparison with its

prototype (previous work). The same situation can be found in other

fields such as music, painting, military, management, politics…

Due to strict technical, economic and especially legal

requirements, information on inventions (or patent information)

which is different from the information reflecting other kinds of

creativity, is structured in special patterns, classified for easily

searching and stored concentratedly, completely, particularly and

truly. These charactseristics of patent information facilitate research

work in order to reveal the objective evolution and development laws

of technical systems which produce patents, in order to build

techniques (principles), methods, methodology, theory in the fIeld of

inventive creativity.

In reality, TRIZ has been formed on the basis of careful analysis of

over 1.5 million patents and fundamental inventions taken from

technological fields all over the world. TRIZ is also a collection and

reflection of creative experiences of many inventors' generations all

over the world.

Dialectics - The Philosophic Foundation of TRIZ

Dialectics, in our view, is the science of the most common laws of

natural, social and mental development. Creativity is associated with

a development, so TRIZ has selected dialectical laws as its philosophic

foundation.

There are three laws of dialectics:

1. The law of transition of quantitative changes to qualitative

changes and vice versa.

2. Laws on negation of negation.

3. The law of unity and struggle of opposites.

Of them, the third law is the nucleus of dialectics and the first two

laws may be considered as particular cases.

Development, from the viewpoint of dialectics, can be understood

as follows:

Supposing at first the system was at some level of development

where there was unity of opposites. This unity does not exist forever.

Because of a struggle between the contrary sides, the initial unity is

broken and a contradiction arises. The contradiction is resolved so

that the system turns to a new level of development (new unity). In

the long run, another contradiction will emerge and will be resolved

again so that the system will turn to a newer level of development…

and so on without ending. Western readers may be interested to learn

that there is some similarity between dialectics and the Taoist

philosophy of the Orient.

TRIZ identifies three kinds of contradiction:

1) Administrative contradiction between knowing the objective to

achieve but not knowing the way to achieve it (or not knowing the

right way to achieve it among several known ways)

This contradiction shows that a given situation is a problem

situation, or in short, the problem.

2) Technical contradiction lies in the fact that improvement of one

element of a system (or one of characteristics), through ways

previously known, leads to a deterioration in other elements (or other

characteristics).

This contradiction shows that the known approaches are not

suitable and a new one is needed.

3) Physical contradiction lies at the heart of technical

contradiction and is a cause of it. Physical contradiction relates not to

the whole system but to one part of it – or more precisely, to one

fragment of that part. Physical contradiction is based on the fact that

this fragment must have two mutually contradictory physical states,

that previously cannot coexist in this given fragment. The physical

contradiction is usually presented as follows: the fragment must have

this state to meet this demand and another contradictory state to

meet the other demand.

In fact, to solve a problem is to resolve physical contradiction, i.e.

to make a unity from two mutually contradictory states, that

previously eliminate each other.

The following is a simple example demonstrating the above three

contradictions:

‘Imagine the stage when people used only straight wires to connect

electric devices. There was the requirement: make up a kind of the

cord appropriately connecting the telephone with the handset’.

In this case, an administrative contradiction occurs between

knowing the goal to reach (the requirement to be satisfied) and not

knowing what type of cord will be appropriate. In other words, the

problem starts (see Figure 6a).

By using a known straight cord one can reveal technical

contradiction which can be formulated in two ways:

(1) If the cord is short we get the advantage of compactness but do

not get convenience when using the telephone.

(2) If the cord is long we get convenience when handling the

telephone but lose compactness (the cord occupies much place on the

table or gives reason for the telephone falling when someone

stumbles over it) (see Figure 6b).

Thereby, the physical contradiction is: the cord must be short for

compactness and must be long for convenience when using the

telephone. In this problem two mutually contradictory physical states

are ‘short’ and ‘long’.