No abstract

This research article describes and constructs a model of performance readiness. The goal of this article is to illustrate how one might meet the challenges of change effectively. The author explores the factors and principles driving the positive transformational change of a high-performing soccer team. Framed by theories of cognitive appraisal, stress, and coping, the study reveals critical variables to the change readiness process to be appraisal, focus, and perceived control. By inquiring deeply into individual appraisals of a change, it may be possible to facilitate a focal shift from “resistance” to “resolution” and from a desire for “power over” a change to a recognition of one's “power to” change effectively.

Recent research has reported successful training interventions that improve insight problem solving. In some ways this is surprising, because the processes involved in insight solutions are often assumed to be unconscious, whereas the training interventions focus on conscious cognitive strategies. We propose one mechanism that may help to explain this apparent disconnect. Recognition of a barrier to progress during insight problem solving may provide a point of access to the tacit constraining assumptions that have misled the solution process. We tested this proposal in an experiment that examined the effects of different training routines on problem solving. The experiment compared four training routines, focusing either on barriers and assumptions combined, barriers alone, assumptions alone, or goals, with two control conditions. Outcomes were measured using eleven spatial insight problems. The results indicated that training that combined focus on barriers and assumptions was significantly more effective than all other conditions, supporting the proposition that recognizing and reinterpreting barriers may assist in surfacing the unwarranted assumptions that prevent problem solving. Kokinov et al., (1997)

The purpose of this study was to explore and develop a conceptual model for how individuals unlock insight. The concept of insight -the 'out of the box' or 'aha!' solution to a problem -offers a framework for exploring and understanding how best to enhance problem solving skills due to the cognitive shift insight requires. Creative problem solving (CPS) is inherent to a variety of performance realms including effective decision making, innovation, and organizational development; however, related processes of insight, innovation and creativity remain intangible. The model, based on a review of the problem solving literature, proposes that insight involves a five stage, cyclical process emerging as: primary appraisal of the problem, secondary appraisal based on prior knowledge, initial focus, problem representation, and solution generation when, if no solution is found, the cycle begins again. The research has implications for individual, team and organizational settings suggesting that performance on a wide variety of problems may be improved by utilizing an integrated focus rather than a barrier or goal focus alone.

No abstract