You can actually hear participants say “A-Ha!” or “Aah!” as something “clicks” in their understanding or approach.

After that, we’re able to quickly remove the roadblocks and solve their problem or issue. 

One hospital executive said it best:

“We moved further ahead in two hours than we had in 18-months!”

And, because the CPS process provides clarity in situations when people just “can’t see the forest for the trees”, sometimes these “Eureka!” moments seem obvious with 20/20 hindsight. 

My First CPS “A-Ha!”

A resident approached Council and wanted his neighbour to stop building a 5-foot berm around his property with truckloads of dirt from construction sites. The resident worried about water contamination, the impact on wildlife, and his property value.

His proposed solution – a “site alteration bylaw” – met fierce opposition from landscapers, farmers, the Landowner Association, and others. Each opposed controls on their ability to modify their properties.

While using the CPS process, we experienced an “A-Ha!” moment when we clarified the real problem as “How might we protect the rich agricultural soil in our community?”

That clarity allowed us to develop an “Environmental Protection Bylaw” for agricultural lands while allowing farmers to farm and landscapers to improve their client’s properties.

A Major “Eureka!”

Our next “Eureka!” came about from our Town’s recreational services.

Over more than 25 years, the Town had issued or received 14 reports expressing the desire for new recreational facilities.

Taking one side or the other, people intently argued how we needed or didn’t need a twin pad arena, an indoor pool, fitness facilities, a walking track, a rock-climbing wall, etc. We also argued about where to build a facility and how much it might cost.

We used the CPS process to clarify the problem. We had an “A-Ha!” moment when we realized that none of the previous work tested the business case nor evaluated the operating costs for a new facility. This realization broke the historic “log jam” and helped clarify the path forward. 

Three-years later we broke ground on a multi-purpose recreational facility and opened it 18-months after that.

Other Examples

Our Creative Problem Solving process helps to uncover many “A-Ha!” moments:

Work & Live Here

We worked with a Town’s Council and Senior Staff to develop their new Strategic Plan. In discussing housing growth and economic development, their “Eureka!” moment became “How might we ensure that people working in our community can also afford to live here?”

Another Site

We helped a Montessori school that operated their programs in two, separate sites along the same road. They wanted to combine their programs into one location and thought their problem involved getting land from a neighbour so they could renovate one of the sites. They experienced an “A-Ha!” when realizing they could look to other nearby lands. Their real challenge became “How might we get all our students under one roof?”

Streamline Tasks

We helped a small group at a Children’s Aid Society. They wanted to support the emotional health and well-being of their colleagues who felt “burnt out.” During the CPS session, they said they felt increasingly overwhelmed because the same number of staff helped more children and families in increasingly complex situations. They had an “Eureka!” moment when they realized that many routine, non-mandatory tasks took time from their clients. Their challenge became “How might we streamline our tasks that aren’t directly related to child protection?”

The Healthy Choice

We worked with a public health unit to update their Strategic Plan. They bemoaned that eating “junk food” seemed easy, cheap and fast, and, being full of sugar and salt, was “engineered” to taste better. Our process led to a “Eureka!” moment when they articulated their challenge as “How might we make the healthy choice the easy choice?”