1. Wynalda Teaching and Learning Institute
“Creative Problem Solving and Critical Thinking in the Classroom”
Facilitated by:
Daniel Rundhaug

3. Bell, Einstein, Ford

4. Jobs, Zuckerberg, Brunnet

7. Thinking Free
Thinking Gray

8. Thinking Gray: “Don’t form an opinion about an important matter until you’ve heard all the relevant facts and arguments, or until circumstances force you to form an opinion without recourse to all the facts (which happens occasionally, but much less frequently than one might imagine)” (Sample, 2002, pp. 7-8).

9. Thinking Gray: “Don’t form an opinion about an important matter until you’ve heard all the relevant facts and arguments, or until circumstances force you to form an opinion without recourse to all the facts (which happens occasionally, but much less frequently than one might imagine)” (Sample, 2002, pp. 7-8).

10. People tend to believe what they sense is strongly believed by others
Form opinions too early and closes our mind to facts and arguments that may be made later
Flip-Flopping
People tend to believe what they sense is strongly believed by others

11. Skeptical Thinking Gray Thinking
Places everything in the “not true” box
Implied willingness to transfer to “true” box if evidence warrants
Cynicism toward a “skeptic”
Inspiration by a “Doubting Thomas” is unlikely
Gray Thinking
Places things in neither the “true” nor “not true” box
Enthusiastically willing to embrace a new idea as to reject it
Ability to compliment a subordinate for a new idea without indicating the leader believes it to be good or true or useful

12. Thinking Free: “Allow your mind to contemplate really outrageous ideas and only subsequently apply the constraints of practicality, practicability, legality, cost, time and ethics” (Sample, 2002, pp ).

13. “A leader brings a group of people together who share a common goal (e
“A leader brings a group of people together who share a common goal (e.g. keeping their company afloat in a brutally competitive market), but who have widely varying opinions as to how the goal might best be achieved. The leader asks each person in turn to propose an off-the-wall idea for achieving the goal, with the proviso that every other person in the group must respond with at least two reasons why the idea will work” (Sample, 2002, p. 13).

14. Congenital naysayers are among the greatest stumbling blocks to thinking free. Rather than imagining how a new idea might possibly work, they instinctively think of all the reasons why it won’t. What they really do is undermine the creativity that can be harvested from thinking free ” (Sample, 2002, p. 13).

16. Qualities of _____Decision Makers
Systematic analysis
Knows limitations of decision making process
Seeks true opinion
Evaluates risk
Happy to change position
Not emotional
Explores options that may not be promising initially

17. Qualities of _____Decision Makers
Focuses more on symptoms than facts
Does not learn from experience
Does not put his decision into context
Hasty and impatient
Decides before analyzing
Treats pros and cons equally

18. Organizing Thoughts… Lists
Key words are obscured
Visually boring
Difficult to remember
Difficult to search
Re-reading is time consuming
Difficult to make associations
Lose concentration

19. Organizing Thoughts… Mind Map
Tony Buzan – 1970s
Invented to exploit the extensive visual power of the brain via the large visual cortex

20. Organizing Thoughts… Mind Map
Basic Ordering Ideas

24. Organizing Thoughts… Mind Map
Basic Ordering Ideas

27. Five-Whys Background:
This technique was first popularized by Toyota production systems in the 70s. The technique was developed to find the root of the problems rather than wasting time over examining the symptoms. This type of questioning is closely related to the ‘Ishikawa Diagram’ which aims to find contributing root factors when investigating a problem.
This is how it works:
When you want to find about a problem, ask 5 questions starting with ‘why’. Based on each answer, probe deeper into the real cause of the problem to learn more.

28. Gradients of Agreement

29. What We’ve Covered Creativity and Innovation
Thinking Gray / Thinking Free
Mind Mapping
Paired Comparison Analysis
Force Field Analysis
Five-Whys
Gradients of Agreement