Creativity is the art of expanding possibility. It is ability
to think “out of the box” while the rest of us barely realize that we are in
the box. The term critical thinking points toward certain skills. Successful
executives use critical thinking skills every day, to sift through incomplete
and complex information, ask the right questions, recognize strong versus weak
arguments, and to assimilate the information they need to make logical business
decisions. Critical thinking is not just the province of executives. Employees
at all levels make decisions that affect their level of productivity and the
efficient use of resources. The best thinkers can move quickly and
appropriately through the different modes as required by a situation. We don’t
need to be a transformational genius to practice meta thinking (thinking about
thinking). If we can’t give a compelling version of our opponent’s argument we
really have not thought through our own perspectives. Da Vinchi counseled that
we should look anything through minimum of three perspectives :
·
Through our own
perspective.
·
An alternative
perspective.
·
Find a third
alternative and view them all with an open mind.
Only then we can say that we have actually thought about
something.Greatest genius who ever lived Leonardo Da Vinchi, who is supreme
role model of creative thinking. He integrated scientific and artistic way of
thinking. There are seven principles of thinking like him :
- Never ending curiosity
- Become an original thinker
- Thrive in the face of ambiguity
- Thinking using the whole brain
- Balance body and mind
- Be system thinker
- Sharpening of the senses
Most importantly the principle lacking in the business
world is using the whole mind. Most universities students learn a range of
brilliant left hemisphere strategy, but they pretty much have their intuition
beaten out of them.
Critical thinking
skills cannot be developed overnight. Nonetheless, practicing these habits described
here will improve one’s critical thinking ability. As individuals become more
successful in using good critical thinking in their everyday decision making,
their companies and their life will be more successful in meeting the
challenges of continuously changing expectations of peoples.