Creativity is not coming up with a great idea it is solving the right problem. Surely that is not right - isn’t creativity coming up with lots of ideas? Dr. Roger Firestein has spent most of his life helping people find creative solutions, and the first and most important step is ‘problem framing’. So often we leap to find a solution (a single idea) before we even clarify what the actual problem is. That puts us into a continual loop of solution generating in the hopes of solving the problem - the equivalent of trying to throw a dart into a target that we cannot see. Almost impossible. Time to change and learn(unlearn), How To ask the right questions, and how to get to the right solutions. Dr. Roger Firestien is an associate professor and senior faculty member at the Center for Applied Imagination at SUNY Buffalo State and President of Innovation Resources, Inc. He has spent over 30 years teaching creativity and the creative process. By applying Roger’s work in creativity: Clorox solved a 77-year-old problem in 15 minutes; General Motors came up with a $1.50 solution that saved the company $50,000 a week; Western New York developed strategies that were incorporated into a plan that was awarded One Billion dollars for economic development. Called “The Gold Standard” of creativity training by his clients, he has presented programs in creativity to over 600 organizations nationally and internationally. The author of six books, including Leading on the Creative Edge and Why didn’t I think of that? His expert views on creativity have been reported in Fast Company, Forbes, Investor’s Business Daily and The New York Times. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx