Club Advisors as Creative Problem Solvers

All student organizations face challenges. Most seek help from an advisor when they have reached a high level of discord among group members or feel frustration due to poor planning. Often these groups find themselves fighting one another because they fear change or have a small number of club members forcing their ideas upon the group. This workshop would provide advisors with tools to assist student groups in generating new ideas, evaluating new and useful solutions, and creating action plans. In this interactive session participants will learn to facilitate activities that deliberately apply creativity to the challenges student groups may face. These activities are based on the six-step Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model developed by Dr. Sidney Parnes and Alex Osborn in the 1950’s and its contemporary adaptations.

Participants will be able to to: • Identify methods in which to frame problems or challenges into statements that help student seek solutions. • Apply the appropriate divergent or convergent thinking activities to a student organization challenge. • Have knowledge of various creativity resources available to them online.