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Creative Thinking: Thinking "Outside the Box"
James August, Director of Quality Management
American Biltrite, Inc.
105 Whittendale Dr., Moorestown, NJ 08057
august@abitape.com

Creative and critical thinking can be thought of as complimentary approaches to analyzing situations. While traditional critical thinking tools help to narrow the possibilities to those that meet the criteria, creative thinking expands the universe of possible solutions. It is reasonable to assume that employees may need both critical and creative thinking skills to be effective problem solvers and change agents for their processes.

Cycles of Service is a model for relationship management based on repetitive interactions among supply chain partners. Although originally developed for external customers in social services, physical sciences and other areas, the Cycles of Service concept can also help improve relationships within your business organization, for both internal and external customer/supplier interactions.

While we often provide technical training to increase knowledge, we rarely teach people how to think for themselves; we need to provide every employee with the tools and skills needed to think both critically and creatively. Creative and critical thinking tools help you turn win/lose situations into win/win situations. In this presentation, you will explore the use of four tools to step outside the box: logical argument, TRIZ, Edward deBono’s “Six Thinking Hats” and reductio ad absurdum. You will learn to incorporate these concepts into your everyday responsibilities and find ideas you didn’t know you had. Further, you will learn a model for relationship management that will help you understand where to apply these tools.

Presenter:

James August is a quality professional with over twenty year’s experience in commercial, industrial and military/aerospace manufacturing. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from SUNY Stony Brook, a Masters in Materials Science from the same university and he completed post graduate work at the Colorado School of Mines. Currently, Jim is Director of Quality Management for American Biltrite Inc. Tape Products Division, Moorestown, NJ, and (Ideal Tape Co.), Lowell, MA. He is the ISO 9001:2000 representative for ABI.

James August rejoined ASQ in 1992, is a Certified Quality Auditor since 1993 and became a Senior Member of ASQ in 2005. Mr. August has been active in Quality New Jersey since 1991 and serves as the Administrator for the QNJ Performance Excellence Network. He has been a member of the QNJ Governor's Award for Performance Excellence Board of Examiners (Baldrige criteria) for the last twelve years, holding the responsibilities of Senior Examiner and awards examiner process trainer. He was a case study reviewer for the ANSI/ASQ sponsored ISO-9000:2000 Product Support Initiative for 2001/2004. Jim also is a member of ASCD and a Registered Professional Development Provider for the Dept of Education in New Jersey.

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