University of New South Wales

COMM 1120 Assessment 1B

COMM1120 Assessment 1B
Set 1: Self-reflection on innovation journey
Figure 1: Fishbone Diagram (Paradies, 2020)
During the innovation progress, my key area of personal growth was learning to develop my
convergent way of thinking. Before I had started COMM1120, my understanding of the innovation
journey was simplified from ideating a problem to finding a solution. As an engineer, we are simply
given a problem to solve and are tasked to use different tools and techniques to solve that problem.
However, we rarely have to understand the problem on a deeper scale, thus creating an idea about a
potential solution for a problem that’s not defined properly will maximize the risks of the solution
not being feasible. Coming into COMM1120, I identified myself as a divergent thinker, who was
capable of ideating many different solutions whether it be unconventional or a solution that
provided value. It was through the process of the discover phase that I was able to gain an
understanding of the differences between creativity and innovation, thus elevating my divergent way
of thinking. One of the activities that significantly improved my convergent thinking was using the
Fishbone Diagram to apply root-cause analysis. This task proved to be challenging as I had to identify
possible causes of a problem and sort them out into useful categories. Using the 5 Whys technique, I
personally found it difficult to not only find one or two whys but also five unique whys. However, my
team’s organisation entailed working together through creative abrasion, and using this process
allowed us to communicate effectively and vigorously debate about specific topics relating to the
problem. It was also through this process that I gained an understanding of why creative abrasion is
so important for sustainable teamwork as once the fishbone diagram was complete, we were able to
identify clear gaps within our problem space. This process helped developed my convergent thinking
by surrounding myself with people who are comfortable with understanding the problem and heavily
focusing on that area to ensure maximum collaborative efficiency.

References:
Jiménez, J 2021, Compassion vs. empathy: Understanding the difference, image, viewed 4th February
2022, < https://www.betterup.com/blog/compassion-vs-empathy>
Paradies, M 2020, Fishbone Diagram Root Cause Analysis – Pros & Cons, image, viewed 4th February
2022, < https://www.taproot.com/fishbone-diagram-root-cause-analysis-pros-cons/>
Proactive Worldwide 2016, Top 3 Tips to Make Collaboration a Competitive Advantage¸ image,
viewed 4th February 2022, < https://www.proactiveworldwide.com/resources/market-andcompetitive-intelligence-blog/top-3-tips-to-make-collaboration-a-competitive-advantage/>