Frank Patrick blogged on my reports from CPSI's Winterfest so far: "While I might quibble with her comment that a specific 'CPS process' is 'the basis for almost all other creativity and innovation processes,' as an example of common confusion of correllation for cause-and-effect, her description of cycles of convergence and divergence does apply to the TOC Thinking Processes, and probably serves as a common thread -- a meta process -- to any problem solving effort."

That's certainly a reasonable quibble. I did say "almost," though!

Patrick goes on to document similarities between TOC (Theory of Constraints) and CPS, mostly regarding the cycles of convergence and divergence I described yesterday. He ends, "In and out, up and down. Hopefully, not round and round."

My metaphor of the two-step dance didn't serve me as well there as it might have. "Round and round" isn't exactly correct, except in the sense that in solving a problem we are going 'round the hermeneutic circle (or spiral).

Patrick's absolutely right - an up and down motion is definitely at play. Part of our Springboard training was how to frame questions that would move the inquiry up and down. "Why" questions tend to build and move upward in more abstract directions. "How" questions drill downward; they focus and lead to specificity. This was described as moving "up and down the ladder."

But I don't want to give you all the impression that this was all work! We also played games that were meant to foster creativity, open our minds, bring us together as a team, and energize us. In one game we were all blindfolded and asked to find and pick up a rope, then arrange ourselves in a perfect sqaure while still blindfolded and holding on to the rope. The 16 of us managed to get square in 21 minutes.

In another very fascinating game we paired off and "sculpted" each other. That is, one person was "clay," allowing the other person to arrange their limbs whatever way they wanted (with some ground rules for the clay's comfort, of course!) that would showcase a "creative spirit" in the clay. This fostered an amazing sense of intimacy between the partners. The person who "sculpted" me looked at me more thoroughly and carefully than probably anyone has in a long long time, as she gently placed my limbs this way and that, trying to get at whatever she was seeing in me. Finally she stood back, cocked her head to one side, and muttered to herself, "Beautiful!"

We actually did have a little graduation ceremony, which we were allowed to plan ourselves. At the end we tossed our blindfolds (the ones we had used for the "making a square" game) in the air like some graduates toss their caps.

So ended Springboard training, though the conference goes on through the weekend with some "extending activities" scheduled. But I'm flying home tomorrow morning - my daughter is playing Yente the Matchmaker in her high school production of "Fiddler on the Roof" and I don't want to miss it!