@ You are to identify a problem; issue; opportunity that could be explored through creative problem solving Please find attached an outline of a Creativity Technique which you will use to address this problem.

@ Technique: 5 WHYs TECHNIQUE
You are required to research, use, and critique, the Creativity Technique and make a 35min presentation on your findings.
Please note: These Creativity Techniques are likely to address only parts or stages of an overall creative problem solving process. They would normally be used in conjunction with other techniques or processes to develop a complete solution. Therefore you are only exploring the part or stage which is suggested by the technique. You should give consideration to this in the presentation of your findings.
Your findings should use keywords to assist in identifying what aspects of the creative problem solving process you are engaged in. Identify the skillset, attitudes and behaviours that the techniques support and develop
Skillset: Attitudes: Behaviours:
Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, Elaboration
Curiosity, Imagination, Complexity, Risk Taking Flexible, Imaginative, Nonconforming, Novel Answers
Blooms Taxonomy can also be used as a resource for identifying keywords appropriate to this activity. (I have attached a basic outline with links to further resources)
Questions to consider when presenting your findings might include:
What insights has the technique provided for your problem?
What insights have you gained into the value of the technique as a tool to explore problems? What are the limits of the technique?

Suitable for individual/group
Function Keywords: Defining
Notes:
When confronted with a problem, have you ever stopped and asked why five times? If you do not ask the right question, you will not get the right answer. The Five Whys is a simple iterative questionasking technique that explores the causeandeffect relationships underlying problems.
Method:
The method can be applied as an individual approach to examining the cause and effect of a situation or problem or as a group technique. In the case of a group technique it requires a facilitator to record the outputs of the group to the questioning.
Develop a problem statement. The problem statement needs to short and clear.
Ask the first Why? question and attempt to identify a number of plausible answers. (The nature of
the problem will influence the number of plausible answers). Record these answers on a sheet, or in
the case of a group approach on a flip chart or whiteboard.
Ask four more successive whys, repeating the process for every answer/statement from the
previous list made. Record each answer near its parent answer/statement. Follow up on all plausible answers and if necessary continue to ask questions beyond the five layers to get to the root cause.
Look for systemic causes of the problem from among the answers that have been generated. (In a group situation discuss these and settle on the most likely systemic cause)
After settling on the most probable root cause of the problem and exploring the logic behind the analysis, develop appropriate corrective actions to remove the root cause of the problem.
Related Techniques:
Wishbone Diagrams; Five Ws and H;
Resources:
http://www.lifetimereliability.com/tutorials/leanmanagementmethods/How_to_Use_the_5 Whys_for_Root_Cause_Analysis.pdf http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/2009/thefivewhystechnique.pdf https://www.moresteam.com/toolbox/5whyanalysis.cfm http://www.imsworld.org/images/docs/Doc%206i%20issue%201%20guidance%20notes%20on%205%20Whys%2 0Te
chnique.pdf
http://www.hqontario.ca/Portals/0/Documents/qi/rf5whystoolen.docx http://www.toolkitforthinking.com/problemsolving/5whys http://iso13485forsmallcompanies.com/images/RESOURCE%20FivebyFive%20Whys%20%20PQA.pdf
References:
Dubois, M., Hamel, L., & Gardoni, M. (2012). Creative tools and processes to remain competitive in the twenty-first century. In Product Lifecycle Management. Towards Knowledge-Rich Enterprises (pp. 332-338). Springer Berlin Heidelberg