TRIZ, a Russian acronym for 'theory of solving inventive problems', is a unique problem-solving, design and forecasting tool kit and algorithm developed in the former Soviet Union. The reason it's causing a stir is because of its rejection of traditional approaches to innovation. Forget brainstorming, with TRIZ it's about the application of typical 'left-brain' properties: logic, sequential thinking and rationality. TRIZ's originator, Genrikh Altshuller, was a patent examiner for the Soviet naval patent office in the 1950s. Without computers or Excel spreadsheets, Altshuller, himself an inventor, studied thousands of patents across different areas of science and technology and recognised four key characteristics: (1) true breakthrough patents were very rare, accounting for less than five per cent of the hundreds of thousands of patents he reviewed (2) breakthrough inventions had a key common trait: they resolved a very difficult, long standing contradiction in product design or process performance. An example of this would be the resolution of weight and volume design contra-dictions through the improvement of time and productivity by preliminary action, ie doing something in advance (3) the number of inventive principles used in these breakthrough inventions, regardless of the technical or business area, was limited and this limited number of principles could be used across multiple areas. For example, the principle of preliminary action can be used to increase production line effectiveness, (pre-placement of materials where they are needed) as well as to prepare an organisation for potential major changes through proper communication (4) inventive problem-solving and product improvement was a science and could be taught and learned. These repeatable patterns of invention could be collated in a learnable, retrievable way, eliminating the need to brainstorm and guess at solutions to problems. This meant that science could replace psychology as a primary approach to both problem-solving and product design. This flies in the face of the long-held belief that invention and innovation are some kind of unknown, 'right-brain' process that rely on random intuition and subjective psychology.
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