COGNITIVE SKILLS,

LEADERSHIP & DECISION

MAKING
Module 1
Problem Solving & Creative Thinking

-Sugandh Katyal
“The world as we have created it is a
process of our thinking. It cannot be
changed without changing our
thinking.”

― Albert Einstein
 What is 'thinking'?

In a general sense, thinking is the intentional

use of cognitive capabilities for some
purpose.

–Recall some kind of information.

–Make sense of some incoming stimulus.
–Develop a judgment on some person or
thing.
–Make a decision.
 •what there is
•what is happening
•what our problems are
•what our options are
•what threatens us
What does •what is important
thinking entail? •what is unimportant
•who our friends are
•who our enemies are
•what our “history” is
•who we are
•who loves us
 Thinking determines:

what we learn
how we learn
what we think is important to learn
what effort we should expend
what we think is true

what we think is false

how things should be viewed
whether our learning is of high or low quality
whether our learning is deep or superficial
Keep your beliefs positive

Because

Your Beliefs become your Thoughts

Your Thoughts become your Words
Your Words become your Actions
Your Actions become your Habits
Your Habits become your Values
Your Values become your Destiny

-Mahatma Gandhi
 Mind, Brain, Behaviour
Mind-body connection: The substance or
the instrument through which a man
functions in thinking. They are closely
linked and affect each other. This is not
the same as saying your physical
symptoms are ‘all in your head’ or not
real. It means that your thoughts and
feelings can affect your body and physical
symptoms can have an effect on what you
think, how you feel and what you do.
E
‘Fight-Flight’ mechanism
X
Chronic vs. acute stress
A Digestive System
Changes Skin Conditions
M
Heart Symptoms
P Breathing Difficulties

L
E
S
 Eureka Moment

Eureka moments feel like flashes of insight

because they often come out a period when the
mind isn’t focused on the problem, what
psychologists call a period of incubation.
Incubation is the stage where people briefly step
back from their work/thoughts or problem at
question.
 Activity:
Let's share our eureka (AHA) moments.
 Analytical thinking

Analytical thinking involves using your

understanding of an entire idea or challenge
and identifying the parts that compose it.
Analysis is usually an orderly, step-by-step
way of thinking. Many people who think
analytically approach tasks in a methodical
and structured way.
 Critical Thinking & Learning

Critical thinking occurs when students are analyzing,

evaluating, interpreting, or synthesizing information
and applying creative thought to form an argument,
solve a problem, or reach a conclusion.

The aim of Critical Thinking is to promote

independent thinking, personal autonomy and
reasoned judgment in thought and action
 Thinking Skills
•Thinking skills are cognitive processes that enable us
to make meaning from and create with information.
•They are habits of mind or thinking behaviors that
define attitudes and dispositions of good thinkers.
•We can improve our thinking skills by
understanding specific types of thinking, how they
work, and practicing to improve our thinking abilities.
If we become more conscious about those skills, we
become better as a person, family member, and in our
work life.
 Thinking
Skills

Low order High order

Thinking Thinking
Skills Skills
 Low order thinking skills
Low order thinking is the foundation of skills
required to move into higher order thinking. These
are skills that are taught very well in school systems
and includes activities like reading and writing. In
lower order thinking information does not need to
be applied to any real life examples, it only needs to
be recalled and slightly understood. If a person only
obtains lower order thinking skills they will not be
prepared for real life situations such as work life.
 High order thinking skills
To understand, infer, connect, categorize, synthesize,
evaluate, and apply the information they know to find
solutions to new and existing problems.
2. To be able to reason, reflect, and make sound decisions.
3. Wisdom and judgment are crucial aspects
4. Meaningful learning: Analyze, Evaluate, and Create
5. Individual ability be able analytical, creative and practical
in his approach.
6. Equipping students to be able to identify and solve
problems in their academic work and in life
7. “Being able to think” means students can solve problems
and work creatively.
Language is essential to facilitate thinking.
Express your views.
 Many people think that creativity is innate—that is, a
talent a fortunate few are born with and that cannot be
taught or learned. This could not be further from the
truth. Yes, creativity is innate in the sense that we are
all born with it.

But, as we grow up, most of us slowly unlearn it. The

good news is that what is unlearned can be learned
again. It’s just a matter of figuring out how.
 Activity:
Are you a creative person?
Share the reasons.
 Creativity

Creativity in simple words is the use of imagination or

original ideas to create something, inventiveness.

Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or

recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be
useful in solving problems, communicating with others,
and entertaining ourselves and others.

To be creative, one needs to be able to view things in

new ways or from a different perspective, are able to
generate new possibilities or new alternatives,
uniqueness of those alternatives.
The ability to generate alternatives or to see things
uniquely does not occur by change; it is linked to other,
more fundamental qualities of thinking, such as flexibility,
tolerance of ambiguity or unpredictability, and the
enjoyment of things heretofore unknown.

Creativity can also be defined by saying it is about rising

above the conventional way of thinking, to improve and
create unique approaches to ideas.
Creativity can be seen as an ability; either a natural ability
to perform, or one can learn and improve on what they
have, as everybody has something they can tap into.

Creativity can be subjective as many might measure creativity

differently and include things like imagination, gratification,
the value of an idea, differences in the creative process, and
how original the idea is.

The way we think of or define creativity today is something

that has only recently come into being. This is because, in
past cultures, any ideas were seen more as discoveries or
reproductions of what already existed.
 McDonald’s would come to be a larger-
than-life household name; it may seem
hard to see in the 21st century, but the
philosophy behind its ‘formula’
revolutionised the old style of restaurant
experience.

Take, for example, McDonald’s founder, Ray Kroc. As he’s

already done all the hard work, it’s now easy for us to identify
some of the ideas he used - Selling restaurants and real estate
instead of just simply hamburgers, letting customers serve
themselves and thereby avoiding the use of expensive waiters and
having customers pay before they eat.
 What Blocks People From
Creativity?
1. Mental Blocks
9. Personal Problems
2. Assumptions
10. Not Separating Creation from
3. Over reliance on logic
the Critique
4. Fear of Failure
11. Burnout
5. Following the Rules
12. Poor Communication
6. Being Too Routinized
13. Being Afraid of Taking Risks
7. Being Too Serious
or Being Wrong
8. Not Having Creative Outlets
14. Perfectionism
15. Believing They Aren't the
Creative Type
16. Not Knowing What's Expected
 Tips to Boost Creativity

Establish a Clear Vision

Continuous Learning
Move to a Different Environment
Surround yourself in a Creative Atmosphere
Encourage Individuality
Act on Good Ideas
 Sudden Spark or Structure ?

One simply cannot wait for the sudden bolt of life-

changing inspiration. Creativity is mainly planning,
however, and that means that it must be an organised
process. The idea of the flash of inspiration or the
inspired artist simply doesn’t fit with the process of
running a business.

The bottom line is that creative work must be planned

and structured as much as any other function of my day.
By approaching it as a task, structuring it and then
having a process helps immensely.
 ‘Divergent thinking is a thought process or method used
to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible
solutions. Divergent thinking typically occurs in a
spontaneous, free flowing, ‘non-linear’ manner, such
that many ideas are generated in an emergent cognitive
fashion.
Many possible solutions are explored in a short
amount of time, and unexpected connections are
drawn. After the process of divergent thinking has
been completed, ideas and information are
organized and structured using convergent
thinking.’
‘Convergent thinking is ‘opposite’ way of thinking, ‘Divergent
Thinking’). ‘It generally means the ability to give the “correct”
answer to standard questions that do not require significant
creativity, for instance in most tasks in school and on
standardized multiple-choice tests for intelligence.
It focuses on coming up with the single, well-established
answer to a problem. Convergent thinking is used as a tool in
creative problem-solving. When an individual is using critical
thinking to solve a problem they consciously use standards or
probabilities to make judgments. This contrasts with divergent
thinking where judgment is deferred while looking for and
accepting many possible solutions.’
Lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and
creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately
obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by
using only traditional step-by-step logic.
To understand lateral thinking, it is necessary to compare
lateral thinking and critical thinking. Critical thinking is
primarily concerned with judging the truth value of
statements and seeking errors. Lateral thinking is more
concerned with the “movement value” of statements and
ideas. A person uses lateral thinking to move from one
known idea to creating new ideas.’
Idea Generation & Evaluation
“Idea generation could be
thought of as a search for
novelty, while its process
partner, idea evaluation,
might be thought of as an
effort to make novel
thinking practical, useful or
relevant.”

— Gerard Puccio and John

Cabra.
 Ideation is often thought to be mostly about idea
generation. However, balancing idea generation with
idea evaluation is crucial to the creative process.

Generating creative solutions is a complex cognitive

process. Idea generation and idea evaluation rarely
happen in a neat sequence. In fact, the iterative nature
of ideation means we tend to alternate between the two
phases.
Instead of a specific Eureka moment, researchers have identified
two main elements in the ideation process, which involves the
“generation of candidate ideas or solutions followed by extensive
exploration of those ideas.”

Idea generation - This phase of the creative process is about

coming up with many blind variations to solve a problem.
Quantity is the measure of performance.
Idea evaluation - In this phase, selective retention is applied
by assessing how practical, useful or relevant each idea is.
The goal is to only keep quality ideas.
 Brainstorming
We have an implicit conception that good work takes
time. It may sound counterintuitive, but science shows
that quantity yields quality when it comes to creativity.
In simpler terms, this means that the more ideas and
work you produce, the more creative they will be.

Brainstorming is a method individuals/teams use to generate

ideas to solve clearly defined problems. In controlled
conditions and a free-thinking environment, teams approach
a problem by such means as “How Might We” questions.
They produce a vast array of ideas and draw links between
them to find potential solutions.
Brainstorming combines an informal approach to problem-
solving with lateral thinking, which is a method for
developing new concepts to solve problems by looking at
them in innovative ways. Some of these ideas can be built
into original, creative solutions to a problem, while others
can generate additional ideas.
 How to Brainstorm Ideas

1. Focus on quantity over quality.

2. Selectively apply constraints to keep the session focused.
3. Don’t prune ideas as you brainstorm.
4. Never finalize or commit during the brainstorming
session.
5. Look to other sources for inspiration.
6. Use a whiteboard (and take pictures of each
whiteboarding session) or post-it notes.
7. Take breaks.
 Activity:
Problem:
What will happen if examinations are abolished in
schools?
In this exercise, participants simply write down a few rough
ideas for solving the problem on a piece of paper. Each piece
of paper is then passed on to someone else, who reads it
silently and adds their own ideas to the page. This process is
repeated until everyone has had a chance to add to each
original piece of paper. The notes can then be gathered,
ready for discussion.
 Image generation & evaluation

Creative thinking is all about approaching your

challenge from a different angle. One of the easiest ways
to do this is by making use of a random image.

The Random Image is one of the thinking techniques to

start a brainstorm with. By looking for a connection
between a random image and your challenge, you force
yourself to find surprising ideas.

The technique consists of three simple steps.

Step 1. Generate a random image
By using a random image, we can challenge and approach
challenge from an unusual angle.
Select an image randomly. One way to do it is by simply
opening a magazine and selecting the first image you see.
What kind of image you use doesn’t really matter. You
should never steer the selection, or else this technique will
be much less powerful.
Step 2. Write down properties
Describe your image. What are its characteristics?
What makes your subject unique?
Write down approximately 5 properties of the subject on
your image.

The more specific you describe your properties, the

better. Keep in mind that you are looking for unique
properties.
Step 3. Pick one property & generate ideas
Next, you select one property. It doesn’t matter which one
you choose, yet it’s best to pick one that seems totally
unrelated to your challenge. The more illogical a
combination seems, the more interesting it is to use as a
way to spark creative ideas.

After you have chosen one property, it’s time to generate

ideas. Combine the selected property with your challenge,
and force a combination.
What new ideas can you come up with?
Stretch your mind and try to develop as many new ideas as
possible.
 Debating
A debate is a structured contest over an issue or policy.
There are two sides - one supporting, one opposing.

Benefits of debating include:

Allowing you to think about aspects and perspectives

you may not have considered.
Encourages you to speak strategically.
Improving public speaking skills.
Learning how to create a persuasive argument.
When you have to argue against your personal view you
realize that there are two sides to the argument.
 To structure an argument follow these steps:

Claim - present your argument in a clear statement. This

claim is one reason why you're in favour of/against the
motion.
Evidence - the evidence supporting your claim, such as,
statistics, references, quotes, analogies etc.
Impact - explain the significance of the evidence - how does
this support your claim?
 Important points in Debate

Content / Matter - What the debaters say, their

arguments and evidence, the relevance of their
arguments.
Style / Manner - How the debaters speak, including
the language and tone used.
Strategy / Method - The structure of the speech, the
clarity and responding to other's arguments.
 How Debating helps in Creativity ?

A debate can be a creative debate as any debate where

participants create the layout, reach agreements, manage its
own development and assess the results, all lead
autonomously and creatively. One of the items that define the
debate as creative is the participants’ design of the
“discussions”, that is to say, the design of the activities that
bring the topics to be discussed into play on a more
experienced way. And this means to previously work on
developing a script and a phase of pre-production for those
activities that will help to boost, generate, create arguments
within the debate
 The Six Phase Model of Creative
Thinking : ICEDIP model

Geoff Petty’s ICEDIP model of the creative process

outlines six key working phases: inspiration,
clarification, distillation, perspiration, evaluation
and incubation.
During a particular piece of creative work, each phase
should be experienced many times. They will not be
visited in any particular order, and you may visit a
stage for hours or for just a few seconds.

Petty refers to each stage as having its own ‘mindset’

and believes that creativity can be increased by
making sure that you use the most appropriate
mindset at a given time. The model recognizes,
therefore, the importance of thinking dispositions in
the creative process.
1. Inspiration: where you explore, generate a large
number of ideas, have visions, research similar
projects, brainstorm and dream.
2. Clarification: where you discuss your aims, focus on
your goals, research costs and assess risks.
3. Evaluation: this is a review phase in which you look
back over your work in progress, where you assess
which ideas have best potential, and how to improve
your work as it moves forwards.
4.Distillation: where you look through the ideas you
have generated and try to determine which ones to
work on, the process of concentrating ideas down into
a single vision.
5.Incubation: where you leave the work alone, though
you still ponder about it occasionally, leaving it ‘on the
surface of your mind’.
6.Perspiration: the hard work phase where you
actually put plans into action, you work determinedly
on your best ideas.
 Activity:
Solve the following problem using ICEDIP
Model of Creativity.

Spend 20 minutes undertaking the "I" phase

(inspiration) of the ICEDIP method for a
new idea for a website design, and then
spend 10 minutes evaluating the results.
thank
you!