CHAP 1:

Definitions – Creativity:

-Creativity is the production of novel and useful ideas.

-Creativity is the development of ideas about products, practices, services, or procedures that are
novel and potentially useful to the organization.

Definitions - Creativity Skills:

-The capacity to generate ideas; things that have value to the individual. Looking at things with a
fresh eye: examining problems with an open mind: making connections: learning from mistakes and
using the imagination to explore new possibilities

Definitions - Creative Thinking

-Skinner (1968): creative thinking means that the predictions and/or inferences for the individual are
new, original, unusual. The creative thinker is one who explores new areas and makes new
observations, new predictions & new inferences.

Definitions - Organizational Creativity:

-Organizational creativity is the creation of a valuable, useful new product, service, idea, procedure,
or process by individuals working together in a complex social system.

Creative level:

Bloom’s taxonomy (developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956)

The Components of Creativity:

-Expertise: the necessary knowledge to put facts together

- Creative thinking: the ability to imaginatively solve problems

- Task motivation: persevering or sticking with a problem to a conclusion

Stages in the Creative Process:

• Preparation: This is where you define the problem you want to solve or the need. Then you start
gathering as much knowledge about the subject as you can.

• Incubation: In this stage, you’ll be processing the information you have gathered.

Instead of consciously trying to solve the problem, you’ll let your mind wander on its own, working
its way through the subject. This will lead to more creativity. Basically, your unconscious mind will be
at work here.

• Illumination: This is the “Eureka” moment that really occurs when you are not actively thinking of a
creative solution. You could be literally having a shower when all of a sudden you have found the
answer you’ve been looking for.

• Verification: Now it’s time to see if your idea will really work out or not. In this last stage of the
creative thinking process, you need to test your idea. Use your critical thinking skills to fine-tune your
idea and ready it to reach the audience.

Creativity Killers:

• Excessive focus on extrinsic

motivation

• Limits set by superiors

• Critical evaluation

• Close, controlling supervision

• Competition in a win-lose

situation

• Control of decision making

• Control of information
Six Thinking Hats Technique:
• The 6 Thinking Hats method is a catalyst that helps during the brainstorming stage.

• Each hat in the six thinking hats method represents a different perspective.

• It is used during meetings or brainstorming sessions to allow team members to look at possible
solutions from different perspectives or thinking directions.

• Six Thinking Hats = Six ways of thinking

• Thus, the Six Thinking Hats framework is a widely used method in the planning stage of a project.

CHAP 2:
When do you get your best ideas?

• Ideas come to us when our brains and bodies are relaxed and on our own; usually they happen
when we least expect them.

• Breakthrough ideas might come from a lot of ideas

The top five catalysts for best ideas were ranked as follows (Moore and Ditkoff, 2008):

1. When you’re inspired

2. Brainstorming with others
 3. When you’re immersed in a project
4. When you’re happy
5. When you’re collaborating with a partner

Brainstorming:

Brainstorming – Definition: a process for developing creative solutions to solve a particular

commercial or technical problem, in which participants are encouraged to think without interruption.

- Brainstorming works by focusing on a problem, and then deliberately coming up with as many
solutions as possible and by pushing the ideas as far as possible.

- One of the reasons it is so effective is that the brainstormers not only come up with new ideas in a
session, but also spark off from associations with other people's ideas by developing and refining
them.

- Brainstorming is a commonly used tool by academics researchers and business teams.

Basic rules in brainstorming:

1) Focus on quantity: If lots of ideas are generated it will be easy to produce a radical and effective
solution.

2) Reserve criticism: Don’t comment on any ideas. First accept all, at a later stage judge.

3) Welcome unusual ideas: To get a good and long list of ideas, unusual ideas are welcomed.

4) Combine and improve ideas: Good ideas may be combined to form a single better idea (Build on
each other’s ideas)

Group Brainstorming vs. Solo:

• Everyone involved to feel that they’ve • Individual brainstorming creates better

contributed to the end solution, and it quality ideas
reminds people that other people have
• You do not have to worry about other
creative ideas to offer
people's egos or opinions, and can therefore
• Brainstorming is fun, and it can be great for be more freely creative
team-building!

ADVANTAGES

• Many ideas can be generated in a short time.

• Requires few material resources.

• The results can be used immediately or for possible use in other projects.

• Is a democratic way of generating ideas.

• The concept of brainstorming is easy to understand.

DISADVANTAGES

• Requires an experienced and sensitive facilitator who understands the social psychology of small
groups.
• Requires a dedication to quantity rather than quality.

• Shy people can have difficulties in participating.

• May not be appropriate for some business or international cultures

5W1H: The 5W1H Canvas helps to get a grasp on the real problem by asking ‘What, Why, Where,
Who, When, and How’, helping to understand the problem from a variety of standpoints.

CHAP 3:
What is critical thinking?

-Critical thinking is the process of analyzing, evaluating, and questioning assumptions or

suppositions so that a person can form a way of thinking, give an opinion on a certain issue, prove,
and defend his or her opinions in a logical and consistent manner as well as refute opposing
opinions.

• People with critical thinking often do not accept problems at the surface but often dig deeper to
understand related arguments and issues.

• They see the world from different perspectives, adapt to changes, and handle situations more
easily.

• Instead of receiving and perceiving information passively, everyone should own this necessary skill,
for both studying or working environment.

Levels of Critical thinking:

Level 1: Unreflective thinkers

-Failure to clearly state the content will cause meetings and discussions to take a long time without
resolving the problem. Therefore, it’s necessary to state clearly about a specific content at first hand

Level 2: Challenged thinkers

-Structured expression is necessary for the listener to understand the problem without spending too
much time explaining. For example, when expressing your opinion, you can start with the structure:
"My opinion on this issue is...

Level 3: Beginning thinkers

-Arguments can come from two or more perspectives with the purpose of refuting your initial
opinion. It is necessary to come up with scientific arguments and to provide authentic evidence in
order to defend your point of view or accept other people's opinions if you find them positive.

Level 4: Practicing thinkers

-if you keep practicing regularly, critical thinking will help you think more logically when evaluating
opinions about a certain field or problem.

Level 5: Advanced thinkers

-The debate will be positive and constructive when you clearly identify the implicit assumptions
behind the opposing opinion. Being consistent and logical is also required for critical thinking in this
level.
Level 6: Master thinkers

-In this level, critical thinking skills have completely met the elements of fairness, integrity, courage,
humility, persistence and sympathy.

Two popular types of critical thinking:

-Divergent critical thinking (tư duy phản biện phân kỳ):

It is the act of giving one's own opinion to criticize other people's opinions on the same issue.

This type of thinking is often encountered during teamwork, when members discuss a certain issue.

Each individual often has a different solution, and the whole group must analyze and criticize
together to achieve a common conclusion.

Thanks to conflicting thoughts and opinions, the problem is considered more diversely and
objectively.

Then, more comprehensive and appropriate solutions are given

-Convergent critical thinking (tư duy phẩn biện hội tụ): is the process of coming up with the best
answer to a question using our memory, resources around us, or logic.

When faced with problems, we often make many different judgments, including right and wrong.

A convergent thinker simply needs to apply already established procedures and memory recall to
reach the ‘correct’ answer.

Those with self-regulated critical thinking are calm, thoughtful, and rational.

They rarely make hasty conclusions without thinking

The roles of critical thinking:

Important for the economy

Promote creativity

Improve presentation skills and language capacities

Self-reflection

CHAP 4:
-Design Thinking Defined: A thinking process most
commonly used to solve complex problems, navigate
uncertain environments, and create something that is new
to the world