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GE2134 – Critical and Creative Thinking

Learning outcomes

✘ Creative Thinking / Lateral Thinking

✘ Six Thinking Hats
Creative Thinking, Problem Solving, and the Six Thinking Hats
✘ Problem solving

Week 7
SemA 2024

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The Lateral Thinking Theory

The brain is not intended for creative thinking

The brains power is in forming patterns and sticking to these patterns

Lateral thinking
SO

To become creative you need to block normal channels and “cut

across patterns in a self-organizing information system”

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Explaining lateral thinking Creativity

✘ Mind is like mud – grooves are formed where ✘ The ability to

water/thoughts run - build something from nothing

- Need to form new avenues - think of a common idea in an uncommon way

- move a concept, task, idea, or product in new directions
✘ “Discovery consists of looking at the same ✘ Under the aspect of problem solving and as a type
thing as everyone else and thinking something of improvisation
different” - Creating something that o
did not exist
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel Prize Winner the faculty of forming mental
ideas, images, or concepts
Imagination that are not perceived through
the five senses

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What is Creative Thinking? Why Do We Need Creative Thinking?

✘ It is imaginative thinking directed toward innovation ✘ It provides a necessary complementary balance to the
✘ Based on questions that ask analytical, rational, and logical powers of critical
- “what if,” “why,” or “why not,” “how,” and “how else?” thinking
✘ Grounded in consideration of alternative, of other possibilities, ✘ Critical thinking utilizes our left-brain capacities
other ways of seeing and doing
✘ Creative thinking uses our right-brain potentialities
✘ At the heart of creative thinking is imagination
- American philosopher John Dewey defined as looking at things “as ✘ Both kinds of thinking are needed for us to develop
if they could be otherwise.” our minds fully
✘ Dispositions and attitudes that foster creative thinking include
- patience and perseverance, along with a sense of wonder
To make full use of our mental capacities
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What Creative Thinkers Do Seeking Alternatives and Possibilities (1/3)

✘ Ask persistent and insistent questions ✘ One general definition of creativity is “The purposeful
✘ Maintain a sense of wonder about the world generation and implementation of a novel idea”
- Selling books online
✘ Are deeply and constantly curious
✘ An open mind can stimulate creative thinking (can be
✘ Play with things and with ideas termed as “cognitive flexibility”
✘ Experiment and explore 1. Different ways of categorising objects e.g., different uses for an
everyday object like a safety pin
✘ Collect and connect things
2. Describe objects in unusual ways e.g., in terms of features rather
✘ Tinker and tinker some more than functions
3. How common task be performed in an unconventional or unusual
✘ Are positive and optimistic order
✘ Learn from error and failure

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Seeking Alternatives and Possibilities (2/3) Exercise

Quota of Alternatives 1. In two minutes, describes as many uses as you can for the
✘ A technique to push thinking beyond the first things that come to mind followings: (how about 5 different uses?)
with the goal of discovering something surprising and interesting - A safety pin

✘ Set a quota before deciding on one of them

- A paper clip
-
- A pencil
✘ Using a quota strategy to generate possibilities– a chance to come up
with something better of at least different than our initial idea
✘ APC (Alternatives, Possibilities, Choices) 2. For each of the following, provide three alternative
- Useful to consider alternatives and different approaches explanations or approaches → control
- Often find more and better ideas when we consider such alternatives
- Discourage people from driving their cars into the centre of a city
- Helps to develop our capacity for thinking
-
- Enables us to see more than two “sides” Encourage people to donate money to charity
- Consider issues and ideas, problems and solutions along more of a spectrum of - Meeting deadlines for work project
possibilities
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Seeking Alternatives and Possibilities (3/3) Reversing Relationships

(To help) Broadening our Perception ✘ Another strategy for considering alternatives is to reverse
relationship
✘ Expanding the possible way we look at the world
- “Flipping,” “spinning,” or considering another person’s point of
✘ Most errors of thinking are errors of perception view
- E.g., One possibility is to consider the opposing arguments for and against a
public policy
PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) ✘ Can spur reconsideration and rethinking
✘ A thinking strategy for generating and evaluating ideas
✘ Might have the benefit of enabling us to see the “logic” of the
✘ A perception-broadening tools designed to focus attention
other side
1. Only on the positive features of a subject
2. Only on its negative features ✘ Can lead us to new and deeper insights about a topic, or help
3. Any interesting features (neither positive nor negative ones)
solve a problem
✘ Encourages us to think beyond our normal binary analysis of pluses and
minuses, positives and negatives as we consider an issue ✘ To think more creatively and break away from fixed ways of
thinking

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Cross fertilization Shifting Attention

The process of bringing ideas and approaches to ✘ An analytical technique and problem-solving strategy
thinking from one discipline to bear upon another that involves turning one’s focused attention from one
- Using concepts of physics (gravity, for example) to think aspect of a situation, text, or problem to another
about me
literary character ✘ For example, the costs of alcohol abuse to a drinker’s family
- Or, using concepts from the visual arts (colour and and friends—to his/her personal relationships
texture) to describe music - Might also consider the effects on the drinker both
physically and psychologically
Metaphorical thinking - The effects of alcoholism to its causes
✘ A form of analogical thinking that seeks unusual connections - Considering causes sends our thinking in another direction

to promote the discovery of fresh ideas - Why do people turn to alcohol in the first place

✘ Cross fertilization is a special kind of metaphorical thinking

- It does not matter that all these points will be included, at
this stage is to generate ideas to think about
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The Eight Commandments of Ideation

Denying the Negative, Pursuing the Possible (Josh Linker’s eight ways of igniting ideas)

✘ A creative thinking strategy that avoids a negative 1. Thou Shall Not Judge
- =
attitude and instead encourages pursuing possibilities
2. Thou Shall Not Comment
✘ Asking “what if” and “why not” enables us to entertain
possibilities and discover promising options through
3. Thou Shall Not Edit
denying the negative and pursuing the possible 4. Thou Shall Not Execute
5. Thou Shall Not Worry
✘ “Why don’t we get together soon for lunch” vs. “Let’s do 6. Thou Shall Not Look Backwards
lunch tomorrow or the next day”
7. Thou Shall Not Lose Focus
- Which sounds better to you?
8. Thou Shall Not Sap"Energy
negative

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SCAMPER The Creative Habit

✘ A creative strategy—really a suite of techniques— Twyla Tharp argues that creativity can be learned, developed,
and fostered through habitual effort. Focused attention and
that appears in the writing of a number creative sustained concentration over time  can increase our creativity
thinking consultants dramatically
1. Substitute 1. Rituals
2. Combine 2. Creative DNA
3. Memory
3. Adapt
4. The Box
4. Magnify, Minify 5. Scratching
5. Put to other uses 6. Accidents
6. Eliminate 7. Spine
8. Skills
7. Rearrange and Reverse
9. Failure
10. The Long Run
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Developing Creative Confidence Idea Killers and Idea Growers (1/2)

✘ Having confidence in our ability to be creative is fundamental Idea Killers

to improving our creative capacity. ✘ We tried this before (and it didn't work)
✘ Creativity is a muscle that can be strengthened with discipled ✘ It would cost too much
and regular practice ✘ It would take too much time (and/or too much effort)
1. Choose a project or activity you are interested in doing, and break
✘ That's not my (your, his, her, our) job
it down Into small steps. Take the first small step. Tackle a
doable piece ✘ That's not how we do things here
2. Lower the stakes ✘ That sounds crazy. It's impossible
3. Establish a milestone, or series of milestones ✘ What we have (do) now is good enough
4. Set mini- and multiple deadlines ✘ My mind is made up-- definitely
5. Don't worry about perfection at first ✘ Maybe next year
6. Seek help from others. Perhaps create support network. ✘ If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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Idea Killers and Idea Growers (2/2)

Now
Idea Growers alternative
✘ Let's review the options
✘ Is there anything we haven't yet considered?
-
To sum up
✘ What other ways might there be to do this?
✘ Where else can we get more information?
✘ How could we improve?
✘ I’ve changed my mind
✘ Let me ask you for some ideas about this
✘ Is this what you mean?
✘ Who else has a suggestion?
✘ Wouldn't it be fun (interesting) if we …
✘ I’d like to get your help (thinking) about something
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Vertical Thinking vs. Lateral Thinking

Vertical thinking
Lateral thinking
1. Take a position
1. Take a position
2. Develop arguments
which are: 2. Put forward different views which are:
• related to 1 • not derived from each other
• derived from 1 • all correct
• all coexisting
Six Thinking Hats
Area of focus
Truth Area of focus
Logic Possibilities, alternatives, what “might be”
“What is”

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Parallel Thinking Why Different Coloured Thinking Hats?

✘ A form of thinking in which a group of people think 1. The hat colours remind us to think in a particular
together direction
- in the same direction 2. The hats take our individual egos out of the discussion
- at the same time for a common purpose - We are all advancing and sharing ideas rather than criticizing
- A problem, issue, or challenge and evaluating each other’s contributions

✘ The thinking is collaborative and cooperative rather 3. Hats have a natural association with thinking
than argumentative and adversarial - “Put on your thinking caps”
4. The hats make the whole process playful–but with
serious intentions–to engender and develop good ideas
✘ An alternative to adversarial thinking
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Six Thinking Hats Six Thinking Hats

✘ It is a technique that helps meetings become more ✘ By mentally wearing and switching "hats," the whole
productive meeting focuses better attention at the problem
✘ The whole meeting wears one hat at a time and it is the
- Each person wears (symbolically), in turn, each of six hats
role of all the attendees to come up with information
- Everyone wears the same-colour hat at the same time which is relevant during that part of the meeting to the
✘ The attendees of the meeting separate thinking into hat being discussed
six distinct categories ✘ The hats can be worn in any order and more than once
in a discussion on a particular topic
✘ Each category is identified with its own coloured
✘ The hats can also be used by an individual thinking
metaphorical “thinking hat” about a problem
✘ The hats are red, black, yellow, green, white and blue

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Results of Six Hat Thinking Dr. Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

✘ Change from adversarial to parallel thinking

✘ More focused thinking
✘ Saving time from doing one thing at a time
✘ Removing ego from decisions and more collaboration
✘ More creativity and innovation
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The White Hat The Red Hat

✘ The White Hat is the- information hat ✘ The Red Hat is the emotion, or feeling, hat
we-

✘ Neutral and objective - Signifies participant’s feelings, hunches and intuition

-
- Our intuitions are not always correct, so we need to check
them under the White Hat
✘ What do we know? And how do we know it? ✘ Knowledge and experience are two broad general
✘ What don’t we know that we want or need to know? components
✘ How and where can we get the required information ✘ Do not have to give any reasons or justification
✘ How trustworthy is the information we have? ✘ Keep it short, acknowledge, and move on

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The Black Hat The Yellow Hat

✘ The Black Hat is the judgement hat– the critical hat, ✘ The Yellow Hat is the complementary partner of the black hat
the skeptical hat, the argumentative hat - Associated with benefit and values of an idea or proposal
- The negative side of an idea - Symbolizes brightness and optimism
- The “worst-case scenarios” - Look for good prospects and possibilities
- the devil’s advocate or why something may not work - The “best-case scenarios”
✘ Cautious, dangers, problems, faults - The positives (good point) associated with an idea
✘ Why it may work
✘ Logical reasons must be given
✘ Positive Thinking
✘ Can block or stifle thinking ✘ Constructive
✘ Give logical reasons
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The Green Hat The Blue Hat

✘ The Green Hat is the creative thinking hat—the ✘ The Blue Hat is the organising, the management hat
creative energy hat - used to manage the thinking process
- focuses on creativity novelty - Control the process of using the other hats
- Invites idea, alternatives, possibilities—even models, images, - Set the sequence of hats for the session
metaphors, and designs - In the beginning of a discussion, is to define the purpose
- Can be intimidating because creative thinking is the province of the thinking session and its focus
of everybody ✘ Making summaries

✘ How to overcome the Black Hat problems ✘ Overviews

✘ How to reinforce Yellow Hat values ✘ Conclusions

✘ Action Plans

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The Blue Hat Paring The Hats

• Pairing the hats with their different thinking directions
• Easier to remember three pairs of hats then six hats
✘ Serves three basic functions: • The white hat’s objectivity and fact finding is balanced by the red hat’s
1. Initiates the session and set its direction subjectivity and e -
emotional response -

2. Guides the thinking discussion • The yellow hat’s eager optimism is balanced by the black hat’s
3. Brings things together at the end cautious warnings
• D
The blue hat for organisation and control, and the green hat for
creativity
✘ The blue hat questions associated with these aspects:
1. What are we here for? • This reminds us that critical and creative thinking involve seeing things
from more than a single perspective (a key aspect for the green hat)
2. How are we engaging in the process; what is emerging from our
hat-based discussion?
3. What have we achieved, and what should we do next?
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Facilitator’s Role Participant’s Role

✘ Define the focus of your thinking ✘ Follow the lead of the facilitator
✘ Plan the sequence and timing of the thinking
✘ Stick to the hat (type of thinking) that is in current use
✘ Ask for changes in the thinking if needed
✘ Handle requests from the group for changes in the ✘ Try to work within the time limits
thinking
✘ Contribute honestly and fully under each of the hats
✘ Form periodic or final summaries of the thinking for
consideration by the team

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Summary

✘ Six Thinking Hats is a useful technique to make

meetings more productive
✘ The whole meeting wears one metaphorical hat at a
time Problem Solving
✘ It can save time, bring about more focused thinking,
more collaboration and more creativity
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What are the effects of Global Warming? Brainstorm- Create a newspaper headline

• All will be able to name at least 4 possible

impacts of climate change
• Most will understand that increased CO2
emissions are linked to climate change
• Some may be able to explain how these may
impact everyday life

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Today you will be THINKING about Climate Change
De Bono’s Hats- Imaginary Hats using these SIX HATS
by Dr. Edward De Bono

Give an Give just Show your

Your group will be given a piece of task such as Overview the facts emotions

the GE2134 group project

Your Task- take on the role of the ‘hat’

(imaginary) when instructed and select the
relevant information from any source such as
Internet …

Write down what you found! Think

Think of new
Spot the
ways to do
positively things problems
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White Hat – ‘facts & figures’ Red Hat – ‘emotional thinking’

✘ What are the facts and figures?
✘ What words sprang to mind as soon as you looked at the
(HINT - look for a number and write down the fact) starter image?

Extension- Place names and dates?

✘ What did you feel as soon as you saw this?

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Yellow Hat – ‘positive thinking’ Black Hat – ‘critical thinking’

✘ Be positive! ✘ Assess the issue

✘ What are the good points? ✘ Is there an agenda?

✘ Are the facts & figures accurate?

✘ What happy things are
there?
✘ What are the positive/negative impacts?
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Blue Hat – ‘problem solving’ Green Hat – ‘creative/future thinking’

✘ What are the problems with this? ✘ What are the alternatives?

✘ What are the scary points?

✘ What suggestions would you make?
✘ What might go wrong?
✘ What ideas do you have?
✘ Be negative.

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Discussion / Feedback Your group’s performance)

White Hat- I can:
Red Hat- ✘ (All will be able to) name at least 4 possible
impacts of climate change.
Yellow Hat- ✘ (Most will) understand that increased CO2
emissions are linked to climate change.
Black Hat-
✘ (Some may be able to) explain how these may
Blue Hat- impact everyday life.
Green Hat-
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See you!
In Week 8
Individual Assignment due!!!