“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”
Linus Pauling an American physical chemist, widely regarded as the premier chemist in the twentieth century.

You have to work hard at being a creative thinker.

The Simplex system developed and invented by a Canadian, Dr. Min Basadur, is a comprehensive system of applied creativity that connects a process of creative problem solving with skills and tools to make that process work.

Our applied creativity workshops will give your people the tools and confidence they need for breakthrough thinking. Rather than taking the first solution that comes to mind, the real skill lies in digging deeper and looking at the problem from all sides and finding the best answer.

What is the Simplex problem solving process?

The Simplex process is an extremely rigourous and intensive problem solving process. It can be likened to commando training or problem solving boot camp. These are guaranteed solutions that can be implemented. Actions, timings and responsibilities are identified to implement the solutions.

What needs can be satisfied by using the Simplex problem solving process?

• Sales teams with the goal of improving sales, leading new product or service introductions and with a goal of market share increases.
• Strategic/business planning groups focusing on the organization’s future.
• Brainstorming large capital projects and launching new business units.
• Organizations committed to Six Sigma, continuous improvement and business process re-engineering. Simplex is very complimentary to internal process improvement and customizing solutions.
• Organizations faced with challenges such as customer dissatisfaction with delivery, labour relations problems and complex productivity issues.
• Organizations that use informal team based models but have yet to improve teamwork skills and working together processes.
• Organizations requiring external problem solving facilitation for people who have the right knowledge and information.

How you can use the Simplex problem solving processes:

• Option 1: Personality profiling and team diagnostics:
  Observations of different problem solving styles; team gaps and areas to improve and get better resources.
• Option 2: Problem solving one or two day processes:
  Personality profiling as an introduction to the problem solving intensive day with group exercises to loosen up. The two-day program (16 hours) version is an intensive problem solving process to solve difficult problems.
• Option 3: A pre-consult process:
  Helps to clarify the issue to be solved by the team and helps demonstrate the process of problem solving. It varies between 1.5 to 3.0 hours and is part of our client proposal process.
• Option 4: Expedited Solutions: Half day to three quarter day processes:
  This is a quick way to quickly arrive at action steps to solve or fix pressing problems such as a need to increase sales for a sales team, a need to resolve a labour relations impasse or to find solutions to persistent customer delivery or quality issues.

Call to arrange a pre-consultation meeting:

The pre-consultation is a 1.5 to 3 hour activity in which the client is facilitated through an abbreviated version of the first 3 steps of the Simplex process, (fuzzy situation, fact-finding and problem definition). This discovery session frames the starting point for problem solving and decision making, enables the identification of the main clients to the problem and participants who should be involved and allows for an estimate of the effort and timing required to resolve the problem. This tool is invaluable in ensuring problem solving teams are structured properly.

Contact maurice@mastermindsolutions.ca for more information

The Simplex problem solving process is supported by 30 years of global research and facilitated by Mastermind Solutions Inc. under license from Basadur Applied Creativity.