CERTIFICATE IN

INVESTIGATION
SERVICES

CSI 1322
CRITICAL THINKING
SKILLS
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 CSI 1322

CHAPTER 1 (TOPIC 1):

INTRODUCTION TO
THINKING SKILLS
OUTLINE OF CHAPTER
• Definition of thinking skill
• Problem Analysis
• Cause and Effect Analysis
• Lateral thinking
• Brainstorming
• Idea evaluation
DEFINITION OF THINKING SKILL
• Activities you use to
– process information,
– make connections,
– make decisions, and
– create new ideas.
• This skill are used when we try to make sense of
experiences, solve problems, make decisions, ask
questions, make plans, or organize information.
• They are habits of mind or thinking behaviors that
define attitudes and dispositions of good thinkers.
5 Types of Thinking
• Analytical thinking
• Implemental thinking
• Practical thinking
• Critical thinking
• Creative thinking
PROBLEM ANALYSIS
• An investigation of the causes of an incident,
issue or failure.
• This is done to identify improvements to systems,
processes, procedures, designs and culture.
• STEP FOR PROBLEM ANALYSIS
1. Understand your problem
2. Break the problem down into small parts
3. Define problem goals
4. Decide how to measure progress towards goals
CAUSE & EFFECT ANALYSIS
• Problem analysis is focused on identifying cause
and effect.
• It’s a type of relationship between events
whereby a cause creates an effect.
• This techniques is like fishbone diagrams,
because they look like the skeleton of a fish.
Eg : Fishbone Diagram
LATERAL THINKING SKILLS
• Lateral thinking is the ability to use your
imagination to look at a problem in a fresh way
and come up with a new solution.
• It also encourage thinkers to disrupt logical
thought and arrive at the solutions from another
angle.
• General lateral thinking questions are asked in
interview to test ability of a person.
BRAINSTORMING
• Brainstorming is the process of free thinking and
generating ideas without being bound by
restraints such as “is this a good or bad idea?”
• Its also a way to generate ideas within a group
setting.
• It is usually used in the beginning stages of a
project, where the possibilities for the project
are not clearly understood or defined.
Brainstorming Rules
• No Judgements
• Think Freely
• Big Numbers
• Many Heads Are Better Than One
Brainstorming Technique
• Solid quality ideas
• Encourage everyone to participate
• Encourage freewheeling and expression of
different ideas
• Do not criticize or evaluate ideas
• Build upon other group members ideas
• Record ideas accurately during the session
IDEA EVALUATION
• Evaluation is a tool for making decisions, not a
decision-making system.
• In most organizations, it’s usually one person or a
group of people that makes the go/no-go decision,
and evaluation is simply a tool for providing them
with the best possible information for making that
decision.
• The only way to know whether these ideas will work,
is to simply test them out with real customers or
users so make sure you’re prepared to do that from
many of the raw ideas.
DE BONO’S SIX THINKING HATS
• Six Thinking Hats is a designed by Edward de
Bono which describes a tool for group discussion
and individual thinking involving six colored
hats
• Its provide a mean for groups to plan thinking
processes in a detailed and cohesive way
DE BONO’S SIX THINKING HATS
YELLOW HAT STRENGTH – brightness and optimism

BLACK HAT WEAKNESSES – judgment, why something won’t

work

RED HAT FEELINGS – hunches and intuition

WHITE HAT INFORMATION – known or needed

GREEN HAT NEW IDEAS – creativity, possibilities, alternatives

BLUE HAT THINKING ABOUT THINKING

THE IDEA GENERATION PROCESS
• Idea Generation is described as a process of
creating, developing and communicating
abstract, concrete or visual ideas.
• It’s the front end part of the idea management
funnel and it focuses on coming up with possible
solutions to perceived or actual problems and
opportunities