Critical Thinking,

Creative Problems Solving

and Decision Making
 Critical Thinking
• What makes some thinking critical, others
uncritical?
• ‘Critical’, ‘criticism’ and ‘critic’ all originate from
the ancient Greek word kritikos, meaning able to
judge, discern or decide.
• In modern English, a ‘critic’ is someone whose job
it is to make evaluative judgements
 Critical Thinking

• The objective analysis and evaluation of an

issue in order to form a judgement.
• It involves the evaluation of sources, such as
data, facts, observable phenomena, and
research findings
 Critical thinking is not
– Restating a claim that has been made
– Describing an event
– Criticizing someone or what they do (which is
made from a personal, judgmental position).
 Top Critical Thinking Skills
• Analysis
• Creativity
• Communication
• Open Mindedness
 Top Critical Thinking Skills
Analysis
Examine information, understand what it means,
and properly explain to others the implications of
that information.
• Ask the Right Questions
• Organize the Data
• Evaluate the Information
• Questioning Evidence
• Recognizing Patterns
• Draw Conclusions
 Top Critical Thinking Skills
Creativity
• Different approach from all other approaches.
Use Non-Linear Thinking
• Step Out of the Comfort Zone
• Don’t Jump to Conclusions
• Expect and Initiate Change
• Being Ready to Adapt
 Top Critical Thinking Skills
Communication
Able to communicate with others to share your
ideas effectively.
• Active listening
• Verbal Communication
• Written Communication
 Top Critical Thinking Skills
Open-Mindedness
To be able to put aside any assumptions or
judgments and merely analyze the information you
receive. You need to be objective, evaluating ideas
without bias.
• Diversity
• Fairness
• Objectivity
• Observation
Creative problem solving
 What is a problem
Desired / Ideal
Situation

Gap = Problem

Current
Situation

We need to understand the Current Situation (Measured),

Ideal Situation (Standard)
 Understanding the Current Situation
We need to understand
• Why is it a problem?
• What is the KPI mostly affected?
• What is the cost on the current &/or the
future situation if not solved?
• Relation to Objective (s) of the company?
• Why is it a priority
 Problem Solving process

The method of closing the gap between

the actual situation and the desired
situation
Problem solving process
IDENTIFY AND SELECT PROBLEM

ANALYZING PROBLEM

GENERATING POTENTIAL Solution

SELECTING & PLANNING Solution

IMPLEMENTING SOLUTION

EVALUATING SOLUTION
Benefits of using a systematic approach in
problem-solving process

Systematic approach in problem-solving process

can help to avoid common pitfalls of
ineffective problem solving
Common pitfalls of ineffective problem solving
• Jumping to a conclusion before effectively analyzing all
aspects of the problem.
• Failing to gather critical data: about problem or proposed
solutions.
• Tackling problems that are beyond the control or influence
of group members.
• Failing to involve critical people when looking for solutions.
• Failing to plan adequately how to implement and evaluate
the recommended solution.
 IDENTIFY AND SELECT PROBLEM
• Identify and Define the root causes --To solve
problems so they remain solved, the group must
identify and define
– Root causes :Reasons for the problem
Rather than
– Symptoms: Something that indicates the presence
of the problem.
 ANALYZING PROBLEM
• Define possible root causes of the identified problem

• Gather information on the possible causes

 Analyzing the problem
Define possible root causes of the identified problem

Examples for techniques used to Define the root causes

of the problems:
• Brainstorming
• Fishbone
• 5 Why?
• Mind mapping
 Brainstorming
• Brainstorming is a process designed to:
– Obtain the maximum number of ideas relating to a
specific area of interest
– Group of people put social inhibitions and rules aside
with the aim of generating new ideas and solutions.
– Time dedicated to generating a large number of ideas
regardless of their initial worth.
 Rules of brainstorming
Rule 1: Postpone and withhold your judgment of ideas
– Avoid discussing the ideas at all, all ideas are potentially good
– Don’t Evaluate ideas, valuable brainpower should be devoted
to the creation of ideas.
Rule 2: Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas
– Exaggerate ideas to the extreme
Rule 3: Quantity counts at this stage, not quality
– Go for quantity of ideas at this point; screen the list later.
– Keep each idea short; capture its essence. A brief
clarifications can be requested.
 Rules of brainstorming
Rule 4: Build on the ideas put forward by others
– Build and expand on the ideas of others. Try and add extra
thoughts to each idea.
Rule 5: Every person and every idea has equal worth
– Always put forward ideas purely to spark off other people
and not just as a final solution
– Each idea presented belongs to the group, not to the
person who said it
 Nominal group technique

• Silent generation of ideas

• Sharing ideas
• Group discussion
• Voting and ranking
 The ‘5 Whys’
• It is a question asking method
• Used to explore the cause/effect relationships
underlying the problem.
• The investigator keeps asking the question ‘Why?’ until
meaningful conclusions are reached.
• A minimum of five questions are generally need to be
asked
• Additional questions are sometimes required or useful
to ensure that real cause is identified rather than a
partial conclusion.
 The Mind Mapping technique
• The Mind Map is an expression of Radiant
Thinking and is therefore a natural function of the
human mind.
• The Mind Map has four essential characteristics:
– The subject of attention is crystallized in a central
image.
– The main themes of the subject radiate from the
central image on branches.
– Branches hold a key image/word printed on the
associated line - details radiate out.
– The branches form a connected nodal structure.
• Source: The Mind Map Book, Tony Buzan
 Generate potential solution
• The focus of this step is to generate potential
solutions for the short list of the prioritized
root causes
• Use creative thinking to generate potential
solutions
 Creative thinking
Thinking process
• Thinking pattern
• Escape Mechanism
 Basic Pattern of Thinking
• Vertical thinking:
Traditional logical thinking
Focuses on or getting down to specifics &
closing down to definite answers
• Lateral thinking:
Thinking openly with more possibilities
associated with exploration & creativity
 Potentially Smarter Thinkers
They posses the ability to master both vertical &
lateral thinking together with the ability to
visualize connections between previously
unconnected ideas
Decision Making
 Risk Assessment Matrix
•
Type of decisions made in organizations
• Reactive decision
Must be carefully prepared in order to act
quite automatically when the event occurs.
The first
step is to carefully study the risks which could
strike your business.
 Type of decisions made in organizations

• Proactive decision
– Define the problem
– Collect information
– Assess the consequences of each option
– Define your options and the best alternative
 Decision making techniques

Tools we will consider are as follows :

• Selecting the most important changes to make
• Evaluating the relative importance of different
options
• Selecting between good options
 Pareto Analysis - Selecting the most
important changes to make
• It uses the Pareto principle - the idea that by
doing 20% of work you can generate 80% of
the advantage of doing the entire job*.
• Pareto analysis is a formal technique for
finding the changes that will give the biggest
benefits.
• It is useful where many possible courses of
action are competing for your attention.
 Pareto Analysis - Selecting the most
important changes to make
• How to use tool:
• Write out a list of the changes you could
make. If you have a long list, group it into
related changes.
• Then score the items or groups. The scoring
method you use depends on the sort of
problem you are trying to solve. “trying to
improve profitability, score options on the
basis of the profit”
 Pareto Analysis
• The first change to tackle is the one that has
the highest score. This one will give you the
biggest benefit if you solve it.
• The options with the lowest scores will
probably not even be worth bothering with -
solving these problems may cost you more
than the solutions are worth.
 Grid analysis - Making a choice where
many factors must be balanced
How to use Grid analysis method
• List your options and then the factors that are
important for making the decision. Lay these
out in a table, with options as the row labels,
and factors as the column headings.
• Next work out the relative importance of the
factors in your decision. Show these as
numbers. We will use these to weight your
preferences by the importance of the factor.
 Grid analysis
Most decisions in business result in
money but some of them deal with non-
monetary issues.
Cost Benefit Results
Decision A -30 16 -14
Decision B -8 37 +29
B is shown as the best solution
 Force Field Analysis - Understanding The
Pressures For and Against Change
• Force Field Analysis is a useful technique for looking
at all the forces for and against a decision. In effect, it
is a specialized method of weighing pros and cons.
• By carrying out the analysis you can plan to
strengthen the forces supporting a decision, and
reduce the impact of opposition to it.
 Force Field Analysis
How to Use the Tool:
• List all forces for change in one column, and all
forces against change in another column.
• Assign a score to each force,
from 1 (weak) to 5 (strong).
• Draw a diagram showing the forces for and
against change. Show the size of each force as
a number next to it.