Empower your employees: four steps to more creative problem solving at your business.

As small business owners, we want to recruit and hire smart, capable and enthusiastic employees. Why not add "creative" to the skills list? But wait, isn't creativity something that only a few special people are born with? Not at all.

As employers, we've grown too accustomed to the idea that "creative" is what employees should simply "be." True, some employees are more creative, just like some people are better at math. But consider this: no one is born knowing long division. Core skills like math, writing and critical thinking all must be learned. Innovation and creative problem solving can also be learned.

Here is a simple, four-step process that will help you and your employees structure your innovative thinking process. Based on decades of research into innovation, this process models how inventors overcome challenges or solve problems:

Step 1. Define the ideal solution to the problem or challenge at hand. Leonard DaVinci said, "Think of the end before the beginning." In other words, imagine the best possible solution, even if it is "impossible" to achieve. By setting your goal at such a high level, you position yourself to create high-value solutions. For example, your ideal vision might be, "We should be able to operate without costs." Impossible, but a great goal.

Step 2. Define the resources available to achieve the goal. All situations contain resources, a far greater number of them than you might think at first. If the resources to fix the problem are present within the problem situation, then you might solve the problem at no (or very low) cost. Be sure to look deeply into your situation. All people, processes and products have a multitude of resources, visible and hidden. What are hidden resources in people, for example? How about hunger or personal ethics, or even breathing, just to name a few. A caution: to save time, define only those resources that have a potential solution connected to them.

Step 3. Determine the obstacles to using the resources you need. Often the resources necessary to overcome business challenges exist readily, but being able to use them the way you need to can be difficult. The goal here is to understand why the resource you need "can't" be used.

Step 4. Change the situation so that the resources become available. By changing the situation, you are finding ways around obstacles to using resources, making them available to solve your problem. Each time you change the situation, even slightly, you cause new resources to be available, so any time you change or envision a change, ask yourself what new resources result and how can they be used, modified or combined with other resources to solve your problem.

Don't give up on your ideas

We've all heard criticism like: "It's a good idea, but it will never work because ..." Innovators know that all potential solutions have secondary problems associated with them. Never reject or dismiss an idea simply because of its secondary problems. Instead, use this four-step process to solve them.

This process is simple enough that it can be memorized and used routinely. Once your employees master the process, you will be surprised at how many problems they will solve in a very short period. Using structured methods and tools like this one, your people can learn to innovate better, faster and even on demand. Now, imagine the benefits to your business if you could raise the innovation skills of everyone in it.

By Dana W. Clarke Sr.

Dana W. Clarke Sr. is president and CEO of Applied Innovation Alliance LLC in West Bloomfield Township, a Silver-level member of the Detroit Regional Chamber.