Critical thinking Creative Thinking

Use Facts and logic to evaluate ideas to decide the Generates many creative ideas
best solution
Converges around a solution
(Hội tụ xung quanh 1 giải pháp) Diverges into many solutions
Involves Brainstorming
Critical thinking involves convergent thinking and focuses on coming up with a single solution
to a problem, while creative thinking involves divergent thinking and generates many creative
ideas by exploring (khám phá) several possible solutions. Together, they give you powerful
ways to solve problems as effectively as possible.

Now let’s look at how these two types of thinking apply to problem solving.

Critical thinking means identifying and analyzing a problem, and then using facts and logic to
evaluate ideas to decide which potential solution is likely to deliver the best outcome. This
method applies convergent thinking, as we begin with pieces of information and converge
around a solution.

Creative thinking means generating creative ideas by brainstorming potential ways to solve a
problem. This method applies divergent thinking as we begin with a prompt (lời nhắc) or
question and generate many solutions.

I. The problem Solving Process

in which you identify and clarify the problem

Iden
tify

in which you examine what's happening and why

Both these steps involve critical thinking. Critical thinking in this context involves using facts and logic to identify and analyze the problem. This is where you
Anal figure out what's going wrong and what you might do about it.
yze

in which you think of several possible ideas to arrive at a solution

. Creative thinking in this context involves devising potential ways to solve the problem
Expl
ore

in which you decide the best solution.

Sele And the final step of the five step process is implement, in which you put that solution into practice and define how you'll measure it's success. Now, working
logically, rather than by intuition or guesswork, you'll decide which of the possible solutions will be most effective and then figure outhow to put it to work.
ct

a comprehensive approach to problem solving. It helps you to not only think through a problem and arrive at a suitable solution, but also gauge if a solution
Impl works
eme
nt
 II. Identify
You identify the problem by creating a problem statement, which clarify the exact nature of the
problem. To write a problem statement, you should include key information about the who, when,
where, and what of the situation, and omit the situations causes such as why and how and
not predict solutions as it is too early in the process to begin identifying potential solutions.

III. Analyze
You analyze the problem to uncover its root cause by asking the five whys. In the five whys
model, you first state the problem and keep asking why until you arrive at the root cause of a
problem.
IV. Explore:

You learned how you can use brainstorming to generate creative ideas to solve a problem. You
also learn that you can be agile (linh hoạt ) by taking the lead to collaborate and brainstorm with
others to bring their diverse thinking styles and experience into play. This increases the richness
of ideas explored, which in turn, helps you find new and better solutions to the problem.
Remember the rules of brainstorming: go for quantity, not quality, expand and improve other
people's ideas, and do not criticize. Up to this point, you have a small number of ideas that have
real potential as solutions

V. Select

1. The selection process can be made easy by answering three questions.

Identify Decide Choose

What type of Who will help Which

solution are you make the solution will
you looking decision? you actually
for? implement?

 These questions will help you to demonstrate (thể hiện) the agile (linh hoạt) principle
(nguyên tắc) of being self directed. (tự định hướng)

2. All possible solutions for a problem, whether good or bad will fall into one of these
five categories. Let’s find five solutions for one problem.

 Corrective Solution (khắc phục): A corrective solution corrects (khắc phục) or fixes
the root cause of the problem, after which the problem disappears. It's highly desirable
(mong muốn), but it's not always possible.
  Adaptive solution (thích ứng): An adaptive solution accommodates the problem. It's a
work around that doesn't fix the root cause but reduces the impact of the problem.

 Interim solution (tạm thời) : An interim solution is a make-do type of solution. It puts a
temporary bandage of the problem. It can buy you time while you continue to search for
something better.

 Contingent Solution (dự phòng): A contingent solution is a backup plan. You have it
ready in advance in case the problem develops sometime in the future.

 Preventive Solution (ngăn chặn): A preventive solution is created before a problem

occurs, but you don't just keep it ready, you implement it. So that the problem is
prevented and will never occur.

Example:

The Global Offering Management team is scheduled to meet face-to-face in a different city
for a team-building program in two weeks.You are in charge of organizing this. You are
done with all the arrangements for the meeting, including hotel and flight bookings. But you
just learned that the city where you plan to meet is experiencing political unrest (tình trạng
bất ổn chính trị) and will not be safe. There is no update on when the situation will be under
control. What will you do now?
Let's look at a problem and come up with at least one solution to resolve this problem, for
each solution type.

 Corrective Solution: consider changing the venue (địa điểm) of the team building
program. This solution corrects the root cause of the problem, but you'll need to make
sure that hotels and flights are available for the new location.
 Adaptive Solution: ensure that all activities are scheduled inside the hotel. That way, the
team members will not need to go outside and compromise their safety. This does not fix
the real problem of safety, but definitely reduces the danger.
 Interim Solution: consider postponing the meeting to a later date when the political
unrest settles down. You may have to make fresh flight and hotel bookings, but the safety
of your team members will not be compromised.
 Contingent Solution: You may want to keep the setup ready for doing a virtual meeting
in case of face-to-face meeting runs into hurdles. Now, moving on to the next solution
type.
 Preventive Solution: consider a virtual team building exercise. That way, the political
unrest in the city will not affect the team plans in any way.
3. Using Ease and Effectiveness matrix to select the best solution
Case: Suppose you lead a team of 24 Service Analysts. On reviewing the team’s performance,
you realize that the team members need to improve their skills in the Operations Excellence tools
they use. After much planning and effort, you’ve organized a workshop to be conducted on two
dates to allow the full team to participate. For a workshop to be cost-effective and of good
quality, you need a minimum of nine participants. However, with the first workshop a week
away, you find out that only five participants have registered. Many participants have cancelled
their registration due to high workloads.What can you do to run the workshop successfully?
Create a plan to manage the Identify colleagues to assist
workload and timelines of project, interested participants with their
to allow those who cancelled their work so they can enroll in the
Effectiveness registrations to enroll workshop
Low High
Begin the first workshop with five Reschedule the workshop to a
participants to start the skill later when there are a minium of
building process. Assign the nine participants
solution to the specific quadrant
Ease
Low  High
VI. Implement
Implementation has two parts. The first part is to determine how you will know the solution is
successful. This involves three steps, establishing the criteria of success, determining what will be
measured, and deciding how you will conduct the measurement. The second part is to act on the
solution. This involves building an implementation plan which indicates what needs to be done and
in what order, who will do it, when will they do it.