Brainstorming and Critical Thinking as Important Processes of Solving the Problem - Essay Example

Critical Thinking and Brainstorming Name: Institution: Course: Date: Critical thinking plays a significant role in the lives of human being. Currently, people are being faced by difficult situations that require critical decisions. Therefore, critical thinking involves logical thinking and reasoning. This mainly integrates skills such as comparison, classification, sequencing, webbing, analogies, and forecasting. Furthermore, it might involve deductive and inductive reasoning, planning, critiquing and developing hypothesis to find a solution. While thinking critically, a person tries to come up with something new which has not been in existence. Therefore, one must possess the skills of flexibility, originality, and fluency. The main aim of this process is to stimulate curiosity and promote divergence, an aspect that plays a significant role in coming up with new ideas. For one to think critically, he/she must have the knowledge and comprehension of the idea. This is significant in application and analysis of this idea (Wilson 2013). Once it is applied, it is then synthesized in order to ensure that it meets the set parameters. Later, it is evaluated to ensure that it is viable and can be applied to solve a particular problem. In a work setting, employees are required to think critically in order to come up with solutions to different challenges that are affecting the organization. Currently, the organization has become dynamic. Therefore, new challenges keep on arising each day. This requires that employees think critically in order to come up with the best decision that will spearhead growth and development in the organization. Brainstorming is a creativity technique by a person or a group of people which is used to come up with a conclusion to a certain problem. This is achieved by gathering a certain list of ideas and analyzing the best solution which is compatible to the problem under investigation. One of the major benefits of brainstorming is that it activates the person’s prior knowledge. In addition, it provides the person with plenty of materials for forecasting. Furthermore, this strategy enables the person to be conscious with what he knows in relation to a certain given issue (Moore 2010). Lastly, it activates the person schema. Therefore, the person is able to come up with an array of ideas which are critical in solving a problem. This is significant in enabling a group of people to know in advance about an idea, vocabulary, and culture which might be initiating the problem. In an organization, teamwork has become a critical aspect towards the success of many firms. This is because teams have been able to brainstorm ideas which are critical towards strengthening the competitive position of the business in the market. Through working together as a single unit, the subordinates are encouraged to come up with different ideas which are likely to solve a particular problem. They challenge each other to be more creative while developing these ideas. In addition, they analyze all possible solutions before making a conclusion. This strategy is very significant in ensuring that the organization deals with different challenges some of which can affect the competitive position of the business in the market. Brainstorming is an important part of critical thinking. It is a tool that is used by people to come up with a new idea, find a lasting solution, or simply answers to a question. Brainstorming works through considering a lot of bad ideas that had bad results and then getting into good ideas that are likely to change the current scenario. This is done by ensuring that people have open minds and assuming that a lot of failures will be part of the process and a stepping stone towards better ideas. Brainstorming is a simple and a natural process. Nevertheless, when a group of people come together to brainstorm, there can be different experiences. For instance, the process can generate very good ideas that can make immense positive changes or it can be chaos. Therefore, the process should be guided by some rules and all participants must observe ethical guidelines in order to remain true to the process. In an organization, brainstorming is a frequent activity that brings together all teams. It can be self-generated or it can be initiated by the top-level management. The low-ranked employees are the ones who interact with the customers daily. As a result, they know the consumption behavior of the target market. Any slight change in this behavior is a course of alarm to these employees. Therefore, in order to enable the organization to initiate internal changes, the employees brainstorm for ideas which could be of great importance to the firm. The is reason is that with the increasing levels of globalization resulting from liberalization of markets, efficient flow of information, and integration of economies, the level of competition in the local and international markets has increased tremendously. This has resulted from the entry of multinational companies in the market. These are firms that have a strong financial base to segment the market, attract customer loyalty towards their products and services, and position their products strategically in the market. In order for the businesses to remain competitive, they are using brainstorming as a strategy to come up with new ideas that ensure that the customer remain loyal towards the products and services being offered by the organization. Brainstorming combines a relaxed, but informal approach to problem solving with more emphasis on lateral thinking. This strategy plays a significant role in encouraging people to come up with thoughts and ideas that can be crafted into original, creative solutions to a problem. This enables people to unstick through jolting them from the normal way of thinking. During the process of brainstorming, people should avoid criticizing or even rewarding ideas. The reason is that judging or analyzing ideas at this stage limits the level of creativity. Therefore, during this process, evaluation of the ideas that have been raised by the group should be done at the end of the sessions. In the working environment, some employees might have good ideas but they can hold them back because of fear of being criticized or jeered at. As a result, the process should be free from analysis until all the ideas are exhausted (Morrow & Weston 2011). This should be followed by appreciating all participants for their effort to come up with a solution. All ideas should be taken as important but the best ideas should be picked and refined in order to come up with a final conclusion. This process should be inclusive and no employee who is willing to participate should be excluded. This is because a simple idea can be the solution to a major problem that might have been affecting the organization. Therefore, all employees should be listened to and their ideas jotted down before they can analyze for compatibility. Critical thinking plays a significant role in finding connections between various concepts, seeking answers to relevant questions, and solving personal, professional, and even problems that occurs in the academic field. People are faced by constant problems that require very detailed solutions. However, they cannot be able to answer them unless they think critically and engage with their minds in order to mediate on the most effective solutions. This process enables them to generate justifiable ideas and questions which enable them to identify the link between various concepts which leads to the most effective answers (Cory & Slater 2003). Furthermore, critical thinking is significant in determining the problems hypothesizing possible solutions, and evaluating the results. This is significant in enabling the person to make the necessary changes where necessary in order not to deviate from the initial plan. The process is critical in coming up with an in-depth conclusion which is based on facts. In addition, it enables people to communicate ideas, positions, and suggest possible solutions to other people. In an organization setting, critical thinking acts as a gateway to new way of doing things. In addition, it exposes the employees to various ideas which are viable (Rollins 2010). Therefore, the employees can select the best ideas that are compatible to the goals and objectives of the organization. On the other hand, brainstorming entails increasing personal or group awareness through searching for a deeper and clearer understanding of a concept or issue before making a decision. It involves a spontaneous contribution of ideas in trying to look for a better solution. In organizations, this process can occur anytime without the supervision of the top-level managers. However, a lot of care should be taken because the process can bring conflicts, an aspect that might affect the working relationship of the employees. This is because some employees might find the process as intimidating especially if some subordinates hijacks the process and dictate which is the best ideas and those that cannot make any difference. Critical thinking can simply be defined as an intellectually disciplined process that entails active and skillful conceptualization, application, analyzing, and evaluation of information which has been collected through observation, experience, reasoning, or reflection. The process involves the ability to think about one’s thinking in a way that recognizes the strengths and weaknesses of a particular intervention. Unlike those who brainstorm ideas, critical thinkers are always skeptical, open-minded, and they respect evidence and reasoning. Furthermore, they have a lot of respect to clarity and precision and they prefer to look at an issue using different dimensions. Therefore, they are able to challenge a certain position and initiate change when reason forces them to do so. They are also guided by a criteria and conditions that should be met in order for the final judgment to be believable. On the other hand, brainstorming is very critical in increasing self confidence. In many cases, people lack the confidence to tackle a problem. Therefore, this process is significant in giving them a point to start from. In addition, they feel that they have what it takes to initiate a problem solving process (Wilson 2013. On the other hand, critical thinking provides people with a base to solve a problem. Therefore, both process aim at similar results. However, the processes are different with critical thinking being more formal rather than brainstorming which is a more spontaneous process. In addition, critical thinking is a more individualistic process while brainstorming can involve an individual or a group of people. In conclusion, the organizations have become more dynamic. They are employing subordinates emanating from different cultural, religious, and racial background. This is to enable them come up with varying solutions to the problems that affect their levels of competitive. Therefore, both brainstorming and critical thinking are important processes of solving problem. However, the processes differ in terms of formalities. References Cory, T., & Slater, T. (2003). Brainstorming: Techniques for New Ideas. New York: iUniverse. Moore, D. T. (2010). Critical Thinking and Intelligence Analysis. New York: DIANE Publishing. Morrow, D., & Weston, A. (2011). A Workbook for Arguments: A Complete Course in Critical Thinking. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Rollins, B. V. (2010). Critical thinking. San Diego, CA: Classroom Complete Press. Wilson, C. (2013). Brainstorming and Beyond: A User-Centered Design Method. Burlington: Elsevier Science. Read More