Ledership management

BSBCRT511

Develop critical thinking in others

BSBCRT511 2

Table of Contents

ABOUT THE BUSINESS SERVICES TRAINING PACKAGE ................................................ 4

ABOUT THIS UNIT OF COMPETENCY .......................................................................................... 5

CHAPTER 1: ASSESS INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING SKILLS ...................................................................................................................................... 7

1.1 Research Models of Critical and Creative Thinking ....................................................................... 7

1.2 Develop Questions to Identify Individual and Team Knowledge Gaps ..................... 27

1.3 Facilitate Formal and Informal Learning Opportunities for Addressing Identified Gaps ............................................................................................................................................................... 29

1.4 Articulate Key Features of Critical and Creative Thinking Concepts to Relevant Personnel ........................................................................................................................................................................... 35

Activity 1 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 40

Key Points: Chapter 1 ................................................................................................................................................ 42

Chapter 1 – ‘True’ or ‘False’ Quiz ....................................................................................................................... 42

CHAPTER 2: ESTABLISH AN ENVIRONMENT THAT ENCOURAGES THE APPLICATION OF CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING ............................................... 43

2.1 Analyse Current Organisational Systems to Identify Gaps or Barriers to Critical Thinking .............................................................................................................................................................................. 44

2.2 Develop Processes That Create a Safe Environment for Critical and Creative Thinking Approaches................................................................................................................................................ 52

2.3 Facilitate Opportunities for Team Members to Apply Critical Thinking Skills to Workplace Problems ................................................................................................................................................ 57

2.4 Provide Feedback to Team Members on Performance of Tasks ................................... 61

Activity 2 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 63

Key Points: Chapter 2 ................................................................................................................................................ 65

Chapter 2 – ‘True’ or ‘False’ Quiz ....................................................................................................................... 65

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CHAPTER 3: MONITOR AND IMPROVE THINKING PRACTICES............................... 66

3.1 Collect and Analyse Feedback from Individuals and Teams on Critical and Creative Thinking Opportunities ..................................................................................................................... 67

3.2 Identify Additional Support Required for Teams and Individuals ............................... 70

3.3 Develop Recommendations for Improvements in Future Learning Arrangements According to Relevant Legislation and Organisation Policies ........... 79

Activity 3 ...........................................................................................................................................................................83

Key Points: Chapter 3 ................................................................................................................................................85

Chapter 3 – ‘True’ or ‘False’ Quiz .......................................................................................................................85

SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................... 86

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................ 87

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About the Business Services Training Package

The BSB Business Services Training Package covers a diverse range of industries and occupations. Business Services covers a range of cross-industry functions and services supporting the commercial activities of all industries.

Defining Qualifications When units of competency are grouped into combinations that meet workplace roles, they are called qualifications. These qualifications are aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). Each qualification will have ’packaging rules’ which establish the number of core units, number and source of elective units and overall requirements for delivering the qualification.

Delivery and Assessment of Qualifications RTOs must have the qualifications (or specific units of competency) on their scope to deliver nationally recognised training and assessment. RTOs are governed by and must comply with the requirements established by applicable national frameworks and standards. RTOs must ensure that training and assessment complies with the relevant standards.

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Qualification Training Pathways A pathway is the route or course of action taken to get to a destination. A training pathway is the learning required to attain the competencies to achieve career goals. Everyone has different needs and goals, and therefore requires a personalised and individual training pathway.

Foundation Skills Foundation Skills are the non-technical skills that support the individual’s participation in the workplace, in the community and in education and training.

Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) This Assessment meets the five ACSF core skills as described in the Foundation Skills mapping.

About this Unit of Competency

BSBCRT511 - Develop critical thinking in others

This unit standard BSBCRT511 Develop Critical Thinking in Others narrates the particulars of skills and knowledge required to develop critical thinking in others in the context of the workplace.

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This unit applies to individuals who are typically responsible for coaching and developing teams of people for whom critical thinking skills play an important role in their work. Critical thinking skills include analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

This Learner Resource is broken up into three elements. These include:

1. Assess individual and team critical and creative thinking skills

2. Establish an environment that encourages the application of critical and creative thinking

3. Monitor and improve thinking practices

At the end of this training, you will be asked to complete an assessment pack for this unit of competency. You will need to access a supervisor, a manager, or your assessor who can observe you perform project or workplace tasks and verify your competency or performance.

On competent completion of the assessment, you must have demonstrated skills and knowledge required to facilitate formal and informal learning opportunities for team members to apply critical and creative thinking approaches.

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Chapter 1: Assess Individual and Team Critical and Creative Thinking Skills

Critical thinking, in its simplest term, is the ability to think clearly and rationally. It is constantly asking yourself whether you view situations and events accurately and whether the conclusions you arrive to are logical. Creative thinking, on the other hand, is the ability to look at things differently. It involves finding new ways of solving problems.

In the workplace, both critical thinking and creative thinking are vital. To be an effective worker, both skills must work in tandem with problem-solving and decision-making. The former is essential in narrowing down the root causes of the issues - when faced with decisions based on careful and comprehensive analysis - while the latter creates other possibilities of addressing the issue by thinking outside conventional methods. It could be said that critical thinking narrows and creative thinking expands.

1.1 Research Models of Critical and Creative Thinking

Research models are graphic representations of key concepts that illustrate the relationship among variables. There are many different models of critical and creative thinking. Because the workplace has diverse components and problems within it can be unique from one to another, the approach you choose to use can differ.

Critical thinking and creative thinking are two different ways of using your brain and performing the problem-solving process. The difference between the two is best illustrated as follows.

CRITICAL THINKING CREATIVE THINKING

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Analytic Generative

Convergent Divergent

CRITICAL THINKING CREATIVE THINKING

Vertical Lateral

Probability Possibility

Judgement Suspended Judgement

Focused Diffuse

Objective Subjective

Left Brain Right Brain

Verbal Visual

Linear Associative

Reasoning Richness, Novelty

Yes But Yes And

1.1.1 Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the skill to think logically and rationally. It is stopping yourself and evaluating

whether your reasoning makes sense. To think critically is to constantly probe your thinking and

constantly ask questions which will force thinking to a higher level. This means asking questions

which assess thinking and uncover flaws within it. Questions like: ‘Am I clearly stating what I am

thinking?’ or ‘Is there a better way of telling the story so people understand me better?’ Critical

thinkers use the information they already know to identify the problem, seek other relevant

information to know more about the situation and resolve the problem.

Critical Thinking Concepts

Critical thinking concepts are general notions or abstract ideas that help you understand critical

thinking by delving into its fundamentals.

As critical thinking skills are practised, you will come to realise the importance of applying

intellectual standards to thinking. This concept is what is used to assess thinking.

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There are a number of critical thinking concepts. The following are some of the most important:

Clarity • Expressing ideas in a manner that is clear and easy to understand

Accuracy • Being free from errors, mistakes or distortion

Logicalness • Thinking that is consistent and makes sense step-by-step

Precision • Being exact and accurate • Different from Accuracy in that it demands more details

Relevance • Refers to the appropriateness of data included in the thinking

process

Depth • The quality and thoroughness of the thinking process • If an argument includes all the nuances necessary to make the

point, it has depth Breadth

• The range of perspective taken into account • All points of views should be considered and all arguments

discussed Significance

• The inclusion of all the most important ideas

Fairness • A balanced argument that is free from bias • Being objective

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Critical Thinking Approaches

A critical thinking approach is a way of going through the critical thinking process. Critical thinking seems like an abstract concept but knowing how to approach it will give you a clearer picture of what it is about and how to attain it.

Analysis

Analysis in critical thinking is the ability to carefully examine something, be it a problem, a set of data or a text. Analysis is an essential step in critical thinking and being analytical is a crucial part of developing critical thinking skills.

Though the process for analysis varies from person to person and from situation to situation, it must have the following characteristics for it to be effective:

 Objective

Objectivity in analysis means the approach was made without internal or external influences. Personal biases or opinions must be avoided, and the approach should focus entirely on facts concerning the information. Objective thinkers keep their emotions at bay and prevent them from affecting their judgment.

 Curious

Curiosity in analysis means the approach was made with more thought rather than just accepting information at face value. A curious person will always wonder why something is the way it is and will strive to get answers to satisfy that curiosity.

 Observant

Being observant in analysis is the ability to document details and collect information through the senses. It is about being mindful of the whole picture while paying attention to the moving parts of the issue, problem or challenge. Observations can lead to insights and a deeper understanding of things.

Synthesis

Synthesis, in a sense, is the opposite of analysis. While analysis studies the parts of a whole, synthesis studies the combination of the parts to form a whole. To effectively go through the synthesis process, critical thinkers need to have the following characteristics:

 Flexible

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Flexibility in synthesis allows thinkers to determine other possible interpretations of critical thinking ideas. Flexibility opens the opportunity to find new manners of forming ideas.

 Open-minded

To have an open mind is to be willing to accept ideas and to be willing to try new things. Being open-minded in synthesis prevents you from being boxed into the obvious circumstances, allowing you more freedom for approaching the problem, issue or challenge.

 Creative

Critical thinkers are also creative people. Creativity in synthesis is being able to innovate the norms and rearranging them to create something new.

Evaluation

Evaluation in critical thinking is where you make judgements and examine the significance of something which will then lead you to reasonable conclusions, solutions or recommendations. To effectively evaluate, one must be impartial. Impartiality is exhibited when the evaluation of critical thinking ideas includes both positive and negative aspects and considers which points work well with each other and those that do not.

Critical Thinking Models

Critical thinking models are graphic representations of key concepts in critical thinking. The

following are some examples of models to help you get a fuller understanding of what critical

thinking is and how it works.

Three-Stage Model

A key factor in critical thinking is asking meaningful questions. A good basic model for this is the

Three Stage Model which has the following stages:

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The description stage is where you establish the background and context – asking what, where, why, and who will point you in the right direction. The goal is for you to understand, not just be able to describe, what the topic or issue is. For example, if you are reading a journal article, you might ask what the aim of the article is and what it is about. This will then move you to the analysis stage.

In the analysis stage, you will examine methods and processes, reasons and causes as well as alternative options to your problems, issues or questions. The aim is to break down the whole topic into parts so that you can analyse the relationship between each part, the part to the whole and the whole to the parts.

If you are thinking through a problem for example, you might want to determine the factors involved. Then, consider what happens when one factor is removed or altered, and how one factor might impact another. This will help you develop more analytical answers and thrust you into deeper thinking.

The evaluation stage is where you make judgements and examine the significance of something which will then lead you to reasonable conclusions, solutions or recommendations. This is the ‘so what?’ and ‘what next?’ phase. For example, you might ask yourself what you think about the topic or how it is relevant to you.

The Three-Stage Model is not a strictly linear process wherein you have to start with description followed by analysis and evaluation; you can go back and forth between the stages.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Model

Bloom’s Taxonomy Model is based on the principle that using critical thinking skills to arrive at an informed decision requires the thinker to go through six levels of cognitive thinking, as illustrated below.

Evaluation

DescriptionAnalysis

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According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, in any learning environment, it is critical to start from the bottom and then work your way up.

The first stage, Remember, consists of facts and basic concepts. Example activities at this level include listing business objectives and memorising organisational structure.

The next stage is Understand. This is being able to understand facts and concepts. At this point, the thinker can describe an idea in detail and explain what it means. Example activities include describing work tasks to team members and explaining what the work tasks entail.

The next level in the hierarchy is Apply which requires a higher level of understanding. To apply is to use learned material in new situations. Example is using the knowledge acquired in doing work tasks to address problems that come up.

In the Analysis level, thinkers will be required to go beyond knowledge and application. They will have to look and figure out the patterns to analyse a problem and draw connections among ideas. An example activity includes comparing and contrasting different methods and techniques to solve a problem.

In the next stage, Evaluate, thinkers will be able to justify a stand or decision by appraising a situation. An example activity includes defending a specific decision and being able to back that justification up with knowledge.

Finally, in Create, thinkers will be able to generate new work from already known facts, i.e. design a new solution to an old problem. Thinkers will be able to demonstrate full knowledge from knowing and understanding an idea and applying what they know and analysing and evaluating the idea to create some new thought out of it.

• Produce New or Original Work • design, assemble, construct, conjecture, develop, formulate, author,

investigate Create

• Justify a Stand or Decision • appraise, argue, defend, judge, select, support, value, critique,

weigh Evaluate

• Draw Connections among Ideas • differentiate, organise, relate, compare, contrast,

experiment, test Analyse

• Use Information in New Situations • execute, implement, solve, use, demonstrate,

interpret, operate, schedule, sketch Apply

• Explain Ideas or Concepts • classify, describe, discuss, explain, identify,

locate, recognise, report, select Understand

• Recall Facts and Basic Concepts • define, duplicate, list, memorise,

repeat, state Remember

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The Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Framework or the Paulian Approach

A critical thinking model that is more comprehensive than the Three-Stage Model is the Paul-Elder Framework. This is based on the premise that the thinker can improve the quality of their thinking by taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking. The critical thinking process is broken down into three interrelated elements - Intellectual Standards are to be applied to the Elements of Reasoning in order to develop Intellectual Traits.

In the element of Intellectual Standards, thinkers impose standards on reasoning to improve its quality. Recall the critical thinking concepts discussed earlier in this section; these concepts are known as intellectual standards in the Framework. In the table below, you will see questions for each intellectual standard.

These questions will guide you in the thinking process and can be used to assess the quality of your reasoning.

Clarity  Can you elaborate?

 Can you give an example?

Accuracy  Is the information true?

 How can the information be verified or tested?

Logical  Does all this make sense together?

 Does what I say follow from the evidence?

Precision  Can you be more specific?

 Can you give more details?

Relevance  How does the information relate to the problem?

 How does the information help with the problem?

Depth  What factors make this difficult?

 What difficulties will you need to deal with?

Breadth  Do you need to look at this from another

perspective?

Significance  Which of these facts are most important?

 Is this the most important problem to consider?

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Fairness

 Am I considering all the relevant viewpoints?

 Am I being selfish or am I being fair to myself and to

others?

Based on content from How to Apply Critical Thinking Using Paul-Elder Framework. Designorate.

Whenever discussing a given topic, a number of thinking types are used to understand it. These are known as the elements of thought or reasoning.

The elements of thought or reasoning are the capacity to think rationally. It is the process of

thinking in a logical, sensible fashion.

 Purpose is the part of thinking that defines goals or objective.

 Attempt in reasoning refers to the number of tries to solve a problem or how many times the topic was addressed.

 Assumption is something that is accepted to be true or as a certain thing to happen even without proof.

 The Point of View is the perspective taken while thinking about the topic. For example, as a businessman, you might think about a product from a consumer perspective.

 Data, Information, and Evidence refers to knowledge related to the topic and the details that support it.

ELEMENTS OF

REASONIN G

Purpose

Attempt

Assumptio n

Point of view

Data, informatio

n and evidence

Concepts and ideas

Inferences and

interpretatio ns

Implication s and

consequen ces

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 Concepts and Ideas covers the principles, models and theories relevant to the topic. For example, this part may include all the theories related to the application of a specific solution.

 Inferences are the conclusions that come from analysing information while interpretations are inferences that come from a specific point of view.

 Implications have more to do with ideas – what follows next after the inferences and interpretations you come up with – while consequences have to do with actions – what happens when you act on interpretations and inferences.

When intellectual standards are applied to the elements of reasoning, a person has the potential to grow into an individual who exhibits intellectual character manifested as intellectual traits.

Intellectual traits include:

 Intellectual Humility

Individuals who exhibit intellectual humility accept that they are human, and as such, accept that they do not know everything. They acknowledge their limitations and strive to continue learning as they grow.

 Intellectual Courage

Individuals who exhibit intellectual courage stand up for their beliefs, especially when it is difficult to do so. These individuals have thoroughly thought through their stand before arriving at their conclusion.

 Intellectual Empathy

Individuals with intellectual empathy have developed the ability to put themselves in other people’s shoes. They can see the reasoning of others.

 Intellectual Integrity

This trait eliminates standards and hypocrisy. Intellectual integrity requires individuals to uphold the standards that guide actions and thoughts in the same manner to everyone. If this is the standard set unto others, it applies to you as well. There are no exemptions or biases.

 Intellectual Perseverance

Individuals with this trait are the personification of the phrase ‘to never give up’. Intellectual perseverance helps build rational reasoning despite difficulties, frustrations and obstacles.

 Confidence in Reason

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Individuals with this trait display a habitual tendency to think reflectively in order to solve problems and make decisions. As a result of this habit, individuals with this trait are self-assured that they are using accurate and relevant information as they come to conclusions.

 Fair-Mindedness

Individuals with this trait strive to treat every viewpoint relevant to the situation in an unbiased way.

1.1.2 Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is defined as a way of looking at problems or situations from a fresh or different perspective that suggests unusual solutions. It means to ‘think outside the box’.

The word ‘creative’ has three connotations – it is an ability, an attitude, and a process. As an ability, to be creative is to be capable of inventing something new. As an attitude, it is the capability to accept change and the willingness to embrace new things. As a process, it is the perseverance to continually improve existing ideas and solutions, making refinements and alterations to your work.

Creative Thinking Concepts

Creative thinking concepts are general notions or abstract ideas that help you understand

creative thinking by delving into its fundamentals.

There are several creative thinking concepts. Some of these include:

 Evolution

Evolution operates under the principle that there is no such thing as an insignificant improvement. It improves on existing ideas bit by bit and makes something a little better every time. In short, it improves pre- existing ideas by creating new ideas from them. For example, evolution happens in the workplace when existing procedures are examined as to how they can be improved.

 Synthesis

Synthesis is a concept common to critical thinking and creative thinking. As a creative thinking concept, it involves combining two or more existing ideas to form a new idea. Through this, you will be able to combine even two projects into one design. For example, books and voice recorders are two distinct things. Audio books blend the two well and provide a way for blind people to hear their favourite books.

 Revolution

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Revolution is employing a completely different idea compared to the previous idea. Similar to evolution, an idea already exists but while evolution looks for ways to improve that idea, revolution generates a new idea out of it. In the workplace, revolution is applied by coming up with products or services that no other business has come up with before to enhance the consumer’s lives or experiences.

If in evolution, a restaurant establishes a buzzer system in tables so they don’t have to call out for service, revolution would be the restaurant installing a computerised system that allows customers to make and customise their order without having to call for service and without leaving their seats.

 Reapplication

Reapplication is to take something old and apply it in a new way. With this concept, a broken mirror could be an art centrepiece and a paperclip could be used as a tiny screwdriver if filed down.

Creative Thinking Approaches

A creative thinking approach is a way of going through the creative thinking process, considering how to go about it and how to apply it.

There are many approaches to creative thinking. Some of these include:

 Brainstorming

A classic creative thinking approach, brainstorming is when a group of people try to find a solution to a problem by pooling their spontaneous ideas. There are several ways to brainstorm, but all revolve around the same principle: to focus on a problem and come up with as many solutions as possible.

Brainstorming session types are done in all sorts of ways. One way is free-form wherein participants can freely contribute to the discussion of their own accord. Another way is through round-robin wherein each participant takes a turn to voice their opinion. There is also the silent pen & paper type wherein participants of the session jot down ideas and pool them all together.

 Lateral thinking

Lateral thinking is using a unique perspective to look at a problem to generate ideas or solutions. It involves breaking away from established patterns and preconceived notions to enable you to find creative solutions that you might not consider otherwise.

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The following are lateral thinking techniques:

Sourced from Lateral Thinking Techniques. The Peak Performance Center

• Use concepts as a source for new ideas

• Think of as many ways as possible to implement a concept and then assess each specific idea to produce other ideas.

Alternatives

• Sharpening or changing your focus to improve creative efforts

• Concentrate on areas that other people would not have bothered themselves with.

Focus

• Draw your mind to find connections between seemingly unrelated things

• Open your mind and stimulate your thinking with a random word, picture, sound or other stimuli.

Random Entry

• Generate new thoughts and use them to build new ideas

Provocation and

movement • Shape selected ideas into workable solutions.

• Usually done at the end of a thinking session as it helps you identify which ideas could be implemented right away and those that need more work but could be valuable in the future.

Harvesting

• Reshaping ideas to be more specific and cater to your situation

• For example, you have an idea, but there are constraints to its implementation. So you strengthen, reshape and restructure your concept so that it fits within the constraints

Treatment of Ideas

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 What-Iffing

What-iffing is basically asking ‘what if’ to generate new perspectives. This creative thinking approach releases the mind from being blocked by reality. It seeks to question what you know to be true to go beyond it. It involves describing an imagined solution, and then examining the solution to determine probable consequences or events. So instead of immediately shutting down an idea ‘because it sounds dumb’, you explore its possibilities.

 Attribute analysis

Attribute analysis involves breaking down a problem, idea or thing into attributes or component parts. It is sometimes called the Smashing Technique as it smashes your collection of fixed thoughts so you can focus on the more specific parts of the problem. For example, you want to solve the problem of poverty. First, you will want to ask what the attributes of poverty are. Some answers you might come up with are crime, lack of jobs, lack of education, poor economic judgment, etc. These attributes can be addressed directly, indirectly, or through further attribute analysis. Attributes of poor economic judgement, for example, can go through further attribute analysis, with some of the attributes being the inability to prioritise the essentials or the inability to buy in bulk.

Creative Thinking Models

Creative thinking models are graphic illustrations that provide insight into how creative thinking works and is applied. Three creative models will be discussed in this resource.

The Wallas Model for the Process of Creativity

One of the earliest models of the creative process is attributed to Graham Wallas. In 1926, he proposed that the creative thinking process follows four phases:

Preparation Incubation Illumination Verification

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The first period of conscious work is preparation. This is where information is gathered regarding the problem, and the need or desire is defined. The next stage is incubation wherein information gathered is reflected upon and processed.

The third stage in the Wallas Model is illumination. This is the ‘Aha!’ moment wherein ideas form and provide the basis for a creative response. Finally, the verification stage is where the idea is implemented and the outcome is tested.

Osborn’s Seven-Step Model for Creative Thinking

The Seven-Step Model embraced a theory of balancing analysis and imagination. It is based on

the premise that ideas developed in brainstorming sessions are good starting points but that

improving on such ideas come at a later time.

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The Seven-Step Model starts with Orientation wherein the problem is described and identified.

Based on the problem description, all relevant data is gathered in order to get as much

understanding of the subject matter. This is the Preparation Stage.

The third step is Analysis wherein all content is evaluated. Here, the material is broken down

into key elements. The aim is to understand the parts and how it contributes to the whole

problem. From there comes Ideation or the creation of alternative solutions and identifying

other ways to approach the problem start.

Orientation • Identify and select keypoints of issue

Preparation • Gather all relevant information

Analysis • Break down material into key elements

Ideation • Identify alternative solutions

Incubation • Allow ideas to ferment and modify

Synthesis • Fit ideas together in different ways

Evaluation • Judge the quality of the ideas achieved

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Osborn believes that developing starter ideas into better, rounded solutions take time. As such,

what comes next is the Incubation where ideas generated from the previous stage are left to

simmer and the thinker ponders over them.

After this come Synthesis wherein the thinker puts the pieces back together and assembles the

information to arrive at the best possible solution. Lastly, in the Evaluation stage, the thinker

judges the results. If the problem is satisfactorily addressed, that ends the process. Otherwise,

it is back to the drawing board and the process starts again.

Creative Problem Solving (CPS) Learner’s Model

The CPS Learner’s Model is a modern four-step model that aims to explore how you can use

creative problem solving to generate innovative and effective solutions. Creative problem

solving operates under two assumptions:

 Everyone is creative in some way.

 Creative thinking skills can be learned and enhanced.

The CPS Learner’s Model has four stages.

CLARIFY

Explore the Vision

Identify the goal, wish or challenge.

Gather Data

Collect information and develop a clear understanding of the problem.

Formulate Questions

Ask questions that will generate solutions.

IDEATE

Explore Ideas

Generate ideas that answer the challenge questions identified. Veer

away from solutions you have tried before. Explore options and think

outside the box.

DEVELOP

Formulate Solutions

Transition from ideas to solutions. Evaluate all possible options, consider

how you can strengthen the options, and pick the one which best fits.

IMPLEMENT

Formulate a Plan

Develop a plan of action for your chosen solution. Identify resources you

will need and actions that need to be taken for implementation.

Communicate your plan to all relevant stakeholders.

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There are four core principles involved in CPS:

 Divergent and convergent thinking must be balanced

Convergent thinking is linear and systematic; it narrows down many ideas into one

solution. In contrast, divergent thinking is web-like and focuses on the connections

between ideas. The key to creative thinking is to balance the two and to know when to

practice them.

 Ask problems as questions

Restating problems as open-ended questions make solutions to the problems easier to

develop. Asking this type of questions brings forth multiple possibilities since it tends

to generate information.

 Defer or suspend judgement

Refraining from immediate judgment in response to an idea paves the way for a more

open-minded approach whereas giving in to judgment and bias shuts down idea

generation.

 Focus on ‘Yes, and’ rather than ‘No, but’

‘Yes, and’ allows opportunities for expansion and continuation of ideas while the ‘No,

but’ instantly closes down conversation.

Based on content from The CPS Process. Creative Education Foundation

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1.1.3 Critical and Creative Thinking in the Workplace

It is important to keep in mind that while critical and creative thinking seem like opposing ideas,

both exist to complement the other in decision-making and problem solving.

To illustrate how both work in harmony, critical and creative thinking are organised into four

interrelated elements.

The complex environmental, social and economic pressures of this day and age require people to be creative, innovative and adaptable. One must be capable to purposely put critical and creative skills into practice.

Critical and creative thinking are not interchangeable, but they strongly complement each other. While the former draws from seasoned conclusions and uses information to solve problems, the latter identifies alternative explanations and involves a process of seeing new links that generate a positive outcome. Together, when done right, critical and creative thinking form a whole process that leaves minimal errors in problem solving.

Organising your approach for critical and creative thinking is a good way to systematically go through the thinking process. It is as follows:

Reflecting on thinking and processes

Identifying, exploring and organising information and

ideas

Generating ideas, possibilities and actions

Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and

procedures

Critical and Creative Thinking

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Based on content from Learning Continuum of Critical and Creative Thinking. Australian Curriculum

The case study below will help you better understand the critical and creative thinking approach and how both are interrelated.

In the case presented, the thinking process that Jackie used is forming a hypothesis. Forming a hypothesis is critical and creative thinking at work. In this process, a question is first posed from which experiment/s are then designed and conducted with the premise in mind. The analysis of the experimental data is done through logic and reasoning; hence critical thinking is used.

In the case study, the logical questions posed would have been:

 ‘What is a good marketing activity for Mother’s Day?’

• Ask questions to identify information and clarify ideas

Inquiring

• Consider alternatives and translate them into actionable items

Idea generation

• Review your thinking process

Reflection

• Apply logic and reasoning to form conclusions and design a course of action

• Evaluate procedures and outcomes

Analysis, synthesis and evaluation

Case Study 1

Jackie is a manager in a lady’s fashion retail store. She must create a marketing activity for Mother’s Day in twelve weeks’ time. She wants to attract new customers, so her goal is to create a different activity than what she has promoted in previous years.

Jackie held a meeting with the team and they decided to hold a ‘Ladies’ Day’ in the store, complete with a fashion parade using the clothes from the store.

As this is a new concept, they are predicting the outcome will be a success if the event is promoted properly.

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 ‘Is it a different activity from all others the store has done?’

During the brainstorming session, which is a creative thinking approach, critical thinking still applies to the analysis.

 ‘Were there similar activities previously, i.e. Valentines sale on the week leading to Valentines or Christmas sale on December?’

 ‘Were the activities a success?’

From there, Jackie and her team predicted that the outcome would be a success if the event is promoted properly. Where then did creative thinking come to play?

 ‘How can we make ‘Ladies Day’ unique?’

 ‘What makes it different from all other events?’

 ‘What can we offer?’

In developing solutions to problems, critical and creative thinking goes hand in hand. Critical thinking gives a structure to work with while creative thinking involves coming up with new ideas and creative thought. Creative thinking can also be used to formulate questions so the thinker can explore subjects which have not been covered.

1.2 Develop Questions to Identify Individual and Team Knowledge Gaps

Knowledge gaps, as the term itself suggests, are those gaps between what people know and what they do not know. In a workplace setting, employees often believe that they have the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions. However, people tend to overestimate their knowledge. This knowledge gap can impact their effectiveness and the performance of the organisation.

Addressing knowledge gaps benefits both individuals and the team. You might have heard of the saying ‘a chain is as strong as the weakest link’; an organisation can only be as strong as its weakest member. To identify knowledge gaps is to build individual members, personally and professionally, and to fortify the weakest parts of the team. What comes out is a stronger team capable of facing problems within the organisation head on.

1.2.1 Developing Questions to Identify Knowledge Gaps

Now that you have acknowledged that there are knowledge gaps, you must develop questions

that will help you understand the extent of the gaps. Asking the right questions will encourage learning and sharing among the team which can lead to improved performance. It also builds empathy and trust among members, thereby reducing conflict and misunderstanding. Better individuals form a better team which produces better outputs.

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What do the individual team members currently know? What is needed for the successful completion of the objective? When answers for both questions connect, there is no gap. But if it does not connect, there is a gap that needs to be addressed. Your next question would then be how to bridge that gap.

To put knowledge gaps into the context of the workplace, take a closer look at the previous study and break them down into parts.

It is established that Jackie is the manager. Let’s say she has three members on her team: (1) Anna who is creative and has a good eye for colours and design, (2) Sara who is a very organised person and great with coordination and (3) Niki who has been with the store the longest, spanning eight years of service.

To assess knowledge gaps within the team, Jackie must discuss with her team their backgrounds, experience, skills, etc. to find out what they know and what they don’t in consideration of the task at hand – Ladies’ Day.

1. What are the ways to promote an event?

2. What happens in a fashion show?

3. Who are the people involved in a fashion show, both onstage and backstage?

4. How is a fashion parade run?

To identify the gap, phrase them as a set of questions that need answers. Formulate the who,

what, when, where, why and how of the task at hand.

Case Study 1

Jackie is a manager in a lady’s fashion retail store. She must create a marketing activity for Mother’s Day in twelve weeks’ time. She wants to attract new customers, so her goal is to create a different activity than what she has promoted in previous years.

Jackie held a meeting with the team and they decided to hold a ‘Ladies’ Day’ in the store, complete with a fashion parade using the clothes from the store.

As this is a new concept, they are predicting the outcome will be a success if the event is promoted properly.

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5. Where is a fashion show ideally run? What are the considerations that need to be noted?

Answering these questions will help Jackie evaluate what her team knows. From there, she can match the necessary tasks with what each of her team knows, utilise each of their strengths and weaknesses, and identify the knowledge gap/s on running an event.

In addressing individual strengths and weaknesses in your team, teambuilding exercises can be a fun and effective way. If you do decide to run one, make sure you select the exercises carefully so that it meets training objectives. For example, if you notice that poor communication is a problem within your team leading to missed deadlines and backlogs due to work errors, you will want to centre your exercises on communications skills like listening, empathy and verbalisation.

You can also hold training sessions or consult with experts on the best ways to address gaps. For training, you can choose to run pre- and post-training assessments or guide team members in self-assessment sessions to identify what learning has or has not been retained. In choosing the method you will use to identify and address knowledge gaps, always consider the circumstances; bridging the knowledge gap has no set formula and will vary from case to case.

1.3 Facilitate Formal and Informal Learning Opportunities for Addressing Identified Gaps

Formal and informal learning are two opposing learning styles that occur in every aspect of life. Formal and informal learning opportunities in the context of this unit are the circumstances that make learning possible in the workplace.

1.3.1 Formal Learning

Formal learning is a type of learning program wherein the goals and objectives are defined by the training department, instructional designer and/or instructor. It is organised, systematic and goal driven. In formal learning, learners are instructed in what they have to learn and the goals are clearly established at the start of the activity. It occurs in an organised environment with a rigid curriculum. Think of a classroom setting where there is structure, deadlines and a definitive goal. Other examples of formal learning include web-based training, workshops, seminars, webinars and the like.

Also called structured learning or synchronous learning, formal learning has the following benefits:

 Better employee performance

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Every formal training has a specific objective as to what skill and knowledge is targeted to be taught and learned. Because of this nature, you can implement the training as necessary, helping your team get the tools they need to succeed in their role.

 Standardised training

Since formal learning is structured, every learner gets the same standard of training. In organisations, each employee needs a baseline of knowledge to effectively perform their tasks. The formal training makes sure that your team is on the same page. You can be assured that what your team is learning is just as you planned and that at the end of the training, they have the skills and knowledge that they need.

 Quantifiable training

The structure of the formal training makes it easier to capture – you can keep track of the training as it happens, see how your learners are progressing and whether the training is meeting its objectives.

Formal learning opportunities used to be limited to classroom settings but with technology, the avenues for formal training have expanded. There are mainly two ways to go about formal training:

1.3.2 Informal Learning

On the other hand, informal learning exists outside the traditional learning environment. It is spontaneous in nature and generally driven by the learner’s motivation to learn. Informal learning, also known as asynchronous learning, has the following advantages:

 Low stress and learner driven

• The conventional way • Examples: seminars, tutorials, orientation, refresher

training

Face-to-face

• Done primarily using training softwares such as a learning management system

• Allows employees to learn when it is convenient for them

Online

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Informal learning gives learners a semblance of control. Since they can pick what they learn, they also tend to engage in the learning process more. There is also no high-pressure situation.

 Intuitive and flows with daily work

With informal learning activities, it easily fits into the workday. It feels more natural and people learn according to what they need.

 Expands employee reference and knowledge points

It is good to provide your team with formal training, but subjects created by experts can be restrictive since it focuses only on specific points. By encouraging your team to research the subject themselves, it could potentially have them discover new thoughts and processes which will broaden their knowledge.

 Business saves time, money and resources

While some kinds of training need to be formalised, others don’t have to be and can occur naturally. It does not take significant time off from work as when mandating employees to attend conferences and isn’t as expensive as in seminars where travel fees and lecturers have to be paid for.

Informal training opportunities occur in settings that are not structured and organised. Some informal learning activities in the workplace include the following:

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1.3.3 Using Formal and Informal Learning Opportunities to Address Gaps

To better distinguish formal and informal learning, refer to the comparison below.

FORMAL LEARNING INFORMAL LEARNING

Structured Unplanned

Goal-oriented No set goals

Instructor-led Self-directed

METHOD

• Consultations are great for on-the-spot clarification of work tasks.

Conducting consultations

There are many tutorial videos available online. Organisations may also have a compilation of videos for different functions.

Watching tutorial videos

• Forums are great venues for technical and specialised matters.

Participating in a forum

• Pair new employees with seasoned employees to give the former an opportunity to see how business is conducted in the company. The new employees can learn by example and incorporate their learning in how they do their job.

Workplace mentoring

• Add a new challenge to your team’s job or increase the complexity of their job. This will help them develop their skills and gain new insights.

Assigning assignments and special projects

• Assign people in a different work or location for the purpose of having them improve their existing skill or gain a new skill.

Job rotation

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Face to Face: On-the-job learning, tutorials, group talks, seminars, etc.

Workplace mentoring, special projects, job rotation, consultations, tutorial videos, forums, etc.

Online: Learning Management System (LMS) courses, ILTs, podcasts, videos, VR, etc.

As for the learning bases, the differences between the two can be found in the following:

 Organised learning environment

At this point, it is clear that formal learning has a structured course outline. This is best for people who are required to acquire a certain set of skills. However, that is not to say that informal learning is disorganised. It simply means that learning can occur at anytime and anywhere in different contexts.

 Engagement of learners

Formal learning requires strategic and engaging content. Learners in a formal approach such as in seminars are usually motivated to learn, but in the absence of specific activities, they may start losing that eagerness. In contrast, informal learners are generally more attentive and more motivated because they learn from experience in a contextual environment.

 Learning process

During a formal learning situation, because the learning course is taken up intentionally with a clear objective, the learning process also offers results in a predefined timeframe. It is set with a particular duration with set guidelines. The same is not applicable to the informal learning situation as this is a spontaneous and lifelong learning activity.

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 Quantifiable learning

Formal learning is quantifiable. There is an objective and the skill set learned during the course of the instruction can be measured or can be graded. Informal learning is difficult to quantify as there is no pre- designed measures to know whether learners have achieved a particular set of skills within a given timeframe.

Addressing knowledge gaps in the workplace is not limited to either formal learning or informal learning only. Each has its own pros and cons, and the decision of which to utilise depends upon the target knowledge or skill to be gained and the people who will be learning. If the circumstances call for it, you can even blend the two approaches.

Take formal and informal learning within the context of the case study mentioned in this chapter, taking into account the added information from Section 1.2. To refresh your memory, the case is as follows:

Now, determine the formal and informal learning opportunities that can be used in the case above. The formal learning opportunities could be a short training course on:

 Organising events

 Essential elements of a fashion show/parade

 Determining appropriate concepts and ideas for events

Case Study 1

Jackie is a manager in a lady’s fashion retail store. She must create a marketing activity for Mother’s Day in twelve weeks’ time. She wants to attract new customers, so her goal is to create a different activity than what she has promoted in previous years.

Jackie held a meeting with the team and they decided to hold a ‘Ladies’ Day’ in the store, complete with a fashion parade using the clothes from the store.

Jackie’s team is composed of: (1) Anna who is creative and has a good eye for colours and design, (2) Sara who is inherently a very organised person and great with coordination, and (3) Niki who has been with the store the longest, spanning eight years of service.

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Outside the Ladies Day event that Jackie and team wants to put up, other formal learning opportunities that Jackie could facilitate would be training courses for:

 Customer service

 Communicating effectively

 Organising store inventory

For the informal learning opportunities, each of the members could learn from each other. As they work together, they might see how Anna works through her creative process and how she puts together the elements of the design to make their concept work. They could learn how Sara handles the coordination with different suppliers. Niki could give them tips on how to handle different types of customers or how to entice customers into buying their products. The team members could even observe Jackie as she makes the decisions for every issue that comes up.

There really is no limit as to the learning opportunities, either formal or informal, in a given situation. The key is recognising the opportunity for learning.

As an exercise, think about other formal and informal learning opportunities for the given situation.

1.4 Articulate Key Features of Critical and Creative Thinking Concepts to Relevant Personnel

In Section 1.1, you learned about critical and creative thinking concepts and their definitions. To

refresh your memory, take a look at the table below.

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This section will discuss the concepts in more detail to further your understanding of how each kind

of thinking concept works for both critical and creative thinking.

For critical thinking, the concepts and their characteristics are as follows:

CRITICAL THINKING

CONCEPT CHARACTERISTIC

Clarity

Distinct

Critical thinking ideas are well-thought-out and defined. The ideas

must not entangle with other ideas and create confusion.

Accuracy

Correct

Critical thinking must be correct when it comes to details. It must

contain correct theories, interpretations, processes, significances,

etc.

Logicalness

Consistent

Critical thinking must be consistent in that it makes sense when

the trail of thought is followed. Ideas must be presented without

distortion.

Precision Exact

Critical Thinking Concepts

Clarity

Accuracy

Logicalness

Precision

Relevance

Depth

Breadth

Significance

Fairness

Creative Thinking Concepts

Evolution

Synthesis

Revolution

Reapplication

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Critical thinking must be exact and specific to the necessary level

of detail.

Relevance

Related to the Matter at Hand

Thoughts and ideas in critical thinking imply a close relationship to

the matter under consideration.

Depth

Thoroughness in Thinking

Critical thinking necessitates thinking through and considers the

interrelationship of the variables in a situation, context, idea or

question.

Breadth Comprehensive

Critical thinking involves encompassing multiple viewpoints.

CRITICAL THINKING

CONCEPT CHARACTERISTIC

Significance

Having Substantial Meaning

Critical thinking takes into account the most important ideas or

concepts which are of consequence to the subject at hand.

Fairness

Unbiased Treatment

Critical thinking implies the treatment of all viewpoints without

reference to personal feelings or interests.

For creative thinking, the concepts discussed in 1.1 were evolution, synthesis, revolution and

reapplication. Its key features are the following:

CREATIVE THINKING

CONCEPT CHARACTERISTIC

Evolution

 Relies on the existence of another idea on which to base

the new idea on

 Reviews existing procedures to see how they can be

improved on

Synthesis Relies on the existence of two or more ideas combined to bring

about a new idea

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Revolution

 Brand new and unique ideas are generated without

being referenced from a previously existing idea

 Coming up with products or services that no other

business has come up with before to enhance

consumers’ lives or experiences

Reapplication Repurposes an old idea and applies it into a new concept to give

birth to a new idea

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1.4.1 Relevant Personnel and Instilling Critical and Creative Thinking Features in Them

Each workplace has its own organisational structure which establishes internal control. This is important as it creates a path of accountability for every project and activity done within the organisation.

For this unit, however, there are mainly two relevant personnel: the team leader or manager and the team members or the subordinates. As the team leader or manager, you are responsible for the coaching and development of teams of people for whom critical skills play an important role in their work – the target learners for this unit. The members of your team or your subordinates are the personnel you will be helping develop critical and creative thinking skills.

As the leader, promoting, developing and instilling critical and creative thinking skills in your team members start with you. Walk the talk and be a role model for your team. Practise critical and creative thinking skills and they will follow.

You can start by integrating critical and creative thinking features in your leadership and management practices. For example, encourage your team members to ask questions and provide their input during meetings or stress the importance of keeping an open mind.

Another way to instil the essential features in your team is through team meetings. These meetings are the perfect venue to discuss your team members’ everyday tasks and have them identify which require critical thinking or creative thinking or both. Encourage them to share their insights and ideas and acknowledge their efforts. Offer feedback and help them organise their thoughts once they have preliminary conclusions.

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Activity 1

Determine formal and informal learning opportunities in your team.

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Notes

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Key Points: Chapter 1

 Distinguishing critical thinking from creative thinking and understanding how both

are interconnected in their application in the workplace paves the way for a better

organisation with team members capable of critical and creative thinking skills.

 Critical thinking and creative thinking seem to be at opposing ends but actually

complement each other.

 Identifying and addressing knowledge gaps help improve the critical and creative

thinking skills of the team members and the team as a whole through helping them

make better and more informed choices.

 Formal and informal learning opportunities can be facilitated to bridge knowledge

gaps in the team.

 As the leader, promoting, developing and instilling critical and creative thinking

skills in your team members start with you.

Chapter 1 – ‘True’ or ‘False’ Quiz

Tick ‘True’ if the statement is correct, and ‘False’ if not. True False

Critical thinking and creative thinking are opposing ideas.

Critical thinking narrows, creative thinking expands.

To identify the gap, phrase them as a set of questions that need answers.

Formulate the who, what, when, where, why and how of the task at

hand.

An organisation can only be as strong as its weakest member.

Formal learning occurs in an organised environment with a strict

curriculum.

Testing hypothesis is a concept that is only found in critical thinking.

One of the key features of critical thinking is to synthesise information

which means to think through and see beyond existing ideas to discover

higher order ideas.

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Chapter 2: Establish an Environment that Encourages the Application of Critical and Creative Thinking

Developing critical and creative thinking skills in your team will help build your dream team. To aid you in that objective, you have to establish an environment that promotes and encourages the use of those skills.

Critical and creative thinking is a teachable skill. Exploring trainings and methods to improve your workplace’s overall critical and creative thinking proficiency is highly recommended. To begin, those in executive and managerial positions can make an assessment as to which areas of the workplace seem to be lacking. Once the gaps to critical and creative thinking have been identified, processes can subsequently be developed to create a safe environment for critical and creative thinking.

This chapter will also discuss facilitating opportunities for thinking skill applications and providing feedback to team members on performance of tasks.

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2.1 Analyse Current Organisational Systems to Identify Gaps or Barriers to Critical Thinking

An organisational system is the structure of how an organisation is set up. This includes the framework for each division, the communication flows and the hierarchy of who is in charge of whom and who reports to whom.

Organisational analysis is the process of appraising that structure, for the purpose of enabling the management to identify areas of weakness and strengthening them. In this, existing organisational objectives, processes and resources are examined and evaluated to determine whether the organisation is working as it should be and whether improvements could be made.

Organisational or business objectives are the goals that the organisation seeks to accomplish. In order to achieve those objectives, a series of steps that lead to its accomplishment must be followed. This is called the process.

Further Reading

Access the links below to learn more about Bounce Fitness and their business objectives.

Bounce Fitness Homepage

Business Objectives and KPI

To help you better understand this concept, refer to the following example:

In order to achieve these objectives, processes must be developed. One process that should be established is the communication process, not only for this particular example, but throughout different organisations.

Bounce Fitness is a premier fitness centre with four centres across Australia. Its head office is currently located in Cairns, Queensland.

From their strategy and planning documents, some of their business objectives are identified as the following:

 Generate a 10% increase in sales through boosting gym membership sales leads by the end of the fiscal year.

 Increase market penetration by 15% through utilisation of marketing strategies every quarter.

 Decrease customer acquisition costs by 4% every two quarters through the implementation of the USP strategy.

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The communication process is a cycle; it begins with the sender forwarding a message to the receiver and back to the sender again in the form of feedback. The challenge is to select a channel or means of communication wherein barriers that prevent the clear sending and receiving of messages are overcome. The communication process in this context refers to the procedures followed by an organisation to address gaps and barriers that may hinder the completion of business objectives.

Further Reading

Access the links below to learn more about the communication processes used in Bounce Fitness.

Communication Processes

Following the example on Bounce Fitness scenario, the following communication processes are viable:

 Setting daily reminders for meetings

Meeting reminders are to be sent to relevant members through their Bounce Fitness Gmail account. If there is no reply within two hours, a follow-up message should be sent through Skype or Slack.

 Contacting staff members in the event of a delivery

If no payment and proof of identity are required, reception staff is to accept the package and leave a tagged Slack message in the team channel for the relevant staff. Otherwise, the reception staff is to contact the relevant staff through Slack. If within 10 minutes there is no response received, the reception staff is to make an announcement on the PA system.

 Contacting staff members in the event of missed phone calls

If a staff member misses a call, the reception staff is to send a private Skype message that indicates the name of the caller, phone number the caller can be reached, and the message, if applicable. The message should be sent via Private Conversation on Skype to ensure that the staff member has received it.

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Resources refer to the assets of the organisation that is available to use in the production process. Resources could be human resources, capital resources, monetary resources and raw materials.

Further Reading

Access the link below to learn about Bounce Fitness’ On the Job Training Plan.

On the Job Training Plan

Organisations need to make sure that there is no gap between employee skills and the tasks assigned to them. Hence, there is a necessity of On the Job Training and the creation of plans towards this end. Taken from Bounce Fitness, a plan can address the following:

Reasons why tasks must be

presented to the trainee

 To make sure the trainee understands what to do

and why

 To ensure retention

 To avoid giving the trainee more than he or she can

absorb

Reasons why the trainer must try out

the trainee’s performance

 To be sure the trainee has learned the correct

method

 To prevent poor habit development

 To be sure the trainee knows how the task is to be

performed and why

 To test the trainee’s knowledge

 To avoid putting the trainee on the job prematurely

Reasons why trainer does a follow up

 To show the trainer’s confidence in the trainee

 To give the trainee self-confidence

 To be sure the trainee has been trained properly

 To foster a feeling of self-sufficiency in trainee

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One way organisations can analyse organisational systems is through policies and procedures targeting the personal development of staff.

Further Reading

Access the links below to learn about Bounce Fitness’ Personal Development Policy and Procedures.

Personal Development Policy and Procedure

Again, using Bounce Fitness as an example, an appraisal process could be implemented. An appraisal process is a chance for staff to discuss their performance with the managers formally and for managers to identify the areas in which the staff can improve on. It is also the process to record the training and development needs regarding individual Personal Development Plans.

Following the appraisal, training could be conducted or an external course of study could be suggested. For training courses targeted for personal and managerial skills, available training courses could be Customer Care, Interpersonal Skills, and Stress Management. These training courses provide the staff members with the opportunity to develop and enhance their skills and to improve work performance as well.

Should employees want to participate in an external course of study, they can submit a case for sponsored education that indicates the benefits to both Bounce Fitness and the individual. This case must be passed to their respective Centre Manager.

Within the context of this unit, the purpose of analysing current organisational systems is to identify the gaps or barriers to critical thinking. Gaps refer to something that is missing that prevents team members from fully practising critical thinking methods. Barriers, on the other hand, are anything that hinders team members from exercising and applying their critical thinking skills.

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In order to analyse the organisational system, you must first take a look at the components of an organisation. This unit identifies five, as seen in the illustration below.

People

One of the primary components of any organisation is the people. They are the ones who give rise to the organisation’s culture, the ones who design structures and operate the technology. The skills and competencies of the organisation’s people are what make the organisation function to its capacity.

Culture

When people show up at the workplace, they do not just bring themselves. They bring with them their attitudes, values and belief systems. These factors play a big role in workplace interaction both in the formal and informal setting. Over time, workplace culture is established. Workplace culture is generally not intentional; it is something that just happens. In workplace environments, a massive replacement

Organisatio nal

System

People

Culture

StructureTechnology

Processes

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of people rarely happens, so when new people arrive, the additions adjust and adapt to the existing culture.

Structure

Structure refers to the basic arrangement of people in the organisation. It addresses the question about who is in charge, how different departments are connected and relate to another and the internal arrangement of people. Structures are developed as a necessity – to have control over the resources, to legitimise the exercise of authority and to hold one another accountable for deliverables.

Technology

This refers to the mechanical process necessary in an organisation to turn inputs to products or services. The work of the organisation depends not just on its people and their respective competencies but also on the technologies employed.

Processes

This refers to the step by step combination of people and machines organised to create the organisation’s products and services.

To help you in the conduct of your organisational system analysis, you may use the following guide questions:

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2.1.1 Barriers to Critical Thinking

The workplace can be a chaotic atmosphere and making decisions with the element of time pressure, uncertainty and conflicting opinions can be tough. As a critical thinker, you need to be aware of these barriers and acknowledge the challenges they present so that you can consequently overcome them.

Pinder (2007) summarises the barriers to critical thinking, easily remembered through the acronym CAT MAGIC.

 Confirmation bias

This is a type of cognitive bias wherein people tend to seek information that confirms their existing beliefs. This also means that information that does not support their beliefs is discarded. As a result, what is retained is a severely lopsided set of information that does nothing to deepen your understanding of a subject matter as a whole. To combat this, actively seek information that disproves your beliefs instead of soliciting support.

 Attribution or self-serving bias

This type of bias is the tendency to give credit to yourself for successes and blame others for failures. To avoid this, put yourself in the shoes of others and try to look at circumstances from their perspective.

Do the people get along well inside and outside the workplace? Are they comfortable batting ideas with each other?

Is the workplace culture a conducive environment for critical and creative thinking approaches to be exercised?

How stringent is the workplace structure? Does it allow free-flow discussions among different levels of authority? When any of the team members have concerns, can they easily approach their immediate supervisor for discussions?

Is technology sufficient to address issues and achieve goals? Are there ways to make technology work better for the organisation and promote critical thinking skills among the team?

Are workplace processes designed efficiently and effectively? Is there room for improvement?

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 Trusting testimonial evidence

This is the tendency to trust in something, such as a product or an ideology, when it is recommended by someone else. For example, did you notice that when a colleague or a co-worker gives a testimonial, you are also more likely to trust the information even if there is no evidence to support it? To avoid this, always verify and fact-check.

 Memory lapses

This is a cognitive bias that enhances or impairs the recall of memory. Memory lapse happens and it usually is not a huge problem. However, the real danger is the common human trait of filling in those gaps with other information that may or may not be true. This means that people tend to make things up as they go along. Thus, verifying information and fact-checking is extremely important.

 Accepting authority without question

Authority is the legitimate power that a person or a group practise over another. It is human nature to follow someone recognised as an authority. However, you must remember to be discerning and to not just follow blindly.

 Generalisation

Generalisation gives an overview of a given subject. This is extremely helpful in tight situations that need immediate decision-making. However, you have to be mindful of the source of the generalised information. For example, a group of executives or board members discussing an issue have a tendency to be swallowed by their built-in bias. One way you can counter this is to seek out the input of employees in the lower tier of the organisational chart. A broader spectrum and wider perspectives mean better representation for your general overview of the subject.

 Ignorance

Sometimes, rather than admitting a lack of knowledge, a person may fake it rather than ‘look foolish’. Ignorance and the failure to admit it is a barrier that can be overcome through humility.

 Coincidence

Coincidence or the Law of Truly Large Numbers is the mistaken belief that pieces of information are connected to one another when in fact, they are just pure coincidence. For example, you notice that a lot of artistic people in your department are left-handed. This does not mean that all left-handed people have artistic skills or that artistic people are all left-handed.

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Recognising critical thinking barriers and taking steps to address them is a matter of practice. The first step is to recognise the areas where you are good at and areas that do not come naturally. Then, work on the skills you are good at to improve them and develop those that are lacking.

Critical thinking is not an inherent skill in everyone. As such, barriers vary from person to person. It can, however, usually be overcome. Of the barriers above, which one applies to you?

2.1.2 Gaps to Critical Thinking

Critical thinking involves a multitude of thought processes at a deep level. In order to identify the gaps in critical thinking, you must understand its difference to all the other types of thinking that are more superficial in nature.

 Passive Thinking

Passive thinking is to take the information as they come at its face value. In passive thinking, there is no question and no analysing of information. You must go beyond that and step over to the line of proactive thinking. This means asking questions in order to understand the situation. Be active in your thought process; ask the ‘whys’ and the ‘hows’ to gain a deeper level of understanding.

 Impoverished Thinking

Critical thinking is heavily intertwined with creative thinking. As such, impoverished thinking in this context means thinking without imagination – without taking the time to catch trends or discover hidden connections. Impoverished thinking means being limited in the thought process when dealing with issues, thus always leading to the same solutions.

 Convenience Thinking

Convenience thinking is to just believe what is told without making an effort to find out the truth. To overcome this, you must be present and notice new things. Make an effort to get out of the ‘think less’ mentality; don’t just blindly believe in what you are told in order to avoid thinking deeply.

2.2 Develop Processes That Create a Safe Environment for Critical and Creative Thinking Approaches

A safe environment is an environment that actively encourages the performance of certain skills, in this case, critical and creative thinking approaches. Fostering a safe environment for critical and creative thinking approaches is not an easy task; it

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involves consistent and habitual encouragement of certain ideals until it becomes work culture.

Some of the ways to foster a safe environment are the following:

 Offer safe space in the office – offsite and online

Designate an area where team members can just relax and take a break like a lounge area or a break room. It could also be an online platform where team members can share thoughts without the watchful eyes of the management. Consider it an outlet for your team to be able to take much needed mini breaks to reorganise their thoughts before continuing with their tasks.

 Adapt a dignity framework for workplace interactions

A dignity framework is generally a structure that defines behaviours necessary to affirm human value and dignity. In the context of the workplace, a dignity framework encompasses what is above and beyond labour laws, making clear the mutual respect that team members must afford each other.

Set ground rules for your team. You can start by establishing dos and don’ts during meetings. It could include:

o Come on time and come prepared.

o Show respect by listening attentively.

o Do not interrupt and wait to be acknowledged before speaking up.

o Ask clarifying questions and do not personalise conflict by attacking a person’s character.

 Offer a collaborative and fun environment

It is good practice to encourage employees to question assumptions and explore different ideas to develop solutions and approaches. In order to do that, they have to have an environment where face-to-face relationships are developed and collaboration can take place.

Provide employees with the opportunity to get together and have fun; allot time for them in which they can get away from their everyday routine and explore what is happening in other areas of the company. Having a communal space or a lounge of some sort where they can collaborate or just throw ideas with each other is also a good idea.

 Provide freedom within boundaries

Meeting deadlines and productivity targets is always a must in every business and every organisation; it is worthy to note that there is more than one way to accomplish this. Providing employees with a flexible schedule could be one way. You can also come up with an arrangement that allows them some freedom to meet their deadlines in a way that best works for them.

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2.2.1 Learning Strategies

Learning strategies can also be integrated into workplace processes to help create a safe

environment for thinking approaches. Learning strategies are tools and techniques that are

developed to optimise the learning process which includes retaining information,

accomplishing tasks, etc.

The following are five learning strategies you can encourage your team members to follow to promote a safe environment for thinking approaches:

Learning to Learn

Learning to learn is perhaps the most important learning strategy. The ability to learn new things is a necessity to keep up with the ever changing trends especially in business and in organisations.

There are four elements to consider in order to apply this strategy:

 aspiration

 self-awareness

 curiosity

 vulnerability

The first step is to put your focus on aspiration. What is your mindset when issues or challenges come your way? Do you want to adapt and learn? If yes, you are on the right track. Otherwise, that is something you have to work on.

Self-awareness is the ability to accurately recognise your own emotions, thoughts and values, and how they influence behaviour. This is difficult to

Learning to learn Systematic

problem-solving

Experimentation Learning from

past experience

Transferring knowledge

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gauge as humans cannot typically be objective on how they see their selves. You can, however, start with mind shifting. Instead of thinking you do not need to learn this, you can ask yourself what your future would look like if you did. Or instead of thinking a learning opportunity is boring, try to figure out why others find it interesting.

Curiosity is to wonder how something will help you in your work. Ask yourself why others are so interested in these.

Vulnerability is to accept your limitations. You might be afraid to do something new thinking you will be bad at it. You must understand that no one comes out an expert on the first try. Shift your idea from ‘I do not know this’ to ‘I have not done this ever before, but I will learn.’

Systematic Problem Solving

This is a straightforward learning strategy based on:

When delegating new tasks or projects to team members, have the member in charge submit an action plan and monitor the project via progress reports. As the team leader, make sure to provide guidance where necessary.

Experimentation

This strategy is based on the scientific method wherein new perspectives and new knowledge is tested. It is divided into two forms: ongoing programs and demonstration projects.

Ongoing programs are small projects which give data for continuous improvement. For example, a construction company might experiment with their recipe for concrete to create a better product.

Demonstration projects, on the other hand, are more complex. These projects are usually done by multi-functional teams who report directly to the senior

Continuous improvement process (Plan-Do-Check- Act)

Using data (rather than assumptions) to support decision-making

Using simple statistical tools (e.g. histograms, charts, etc.) to organise data and make presentations

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manager. This is a good way to share knowledge between different teams with different functions.

In your team setting, you can divide your members into groups and have them pursue different approaches for the same project. For example, if you are launching a new product and the goal is to market it to its target audience, have one group do traditional marketing and another group do social media marketing, letting each group develop their own methods for each approach.

Learning from Past Experience

There is no better teacher than the past. To acknowledge the mistakes of the past and to learn from it will help organisations move forward without repeating the same mistake. There are three categories of failure that need to be examined:

For every project completed, have the team submit a S.W.O.T (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) report and schedule a debriefing session to discuss the findings. This method will help everyone in the team be on the same page about the situation, and analyse what could be improved upon and what to replicate when a similar activity is to be conducted in the future.

Transferring Knowledge

Knowledge transfer in organisations usually occurs through reports. Information from these reports is gathered and analysed. After which, the conclusions are presented to the organisation or relevant individuals.

Encourage team members to read reports that are sent their way. Then, during meetings, ask them what they think about it. This will encourage collaborative discussion and will help them exercise critical and creative thinking skills in the process.

Learning strategies have an introspective nature and ultimately lies with your team member’s

acceptance of its process. As the team leader, it is your duty to provide some insight to your

members. When your team members apply learning strategies to their own thinking process,

Failures in routine operation

Failures in complex operations

Unwanted outcomes which generate knowledge

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they will feel more confident to demonstrate their critical and creative thinking skills and apply

it to their everyday task. If team members feel they can freely do that without judgement, that

is a sign of a safe environment for thinking approaches.

2.3 Facilitate Opportunities for Team Members to Apply Critical Thinking Skills to Workplace Problems

Critical and creative thinking is a vital function in the workplace. It is also a crucial element in employee development. Unfortunately, many organisations feel that putting resources with the goal of developing these soft skills in their employees is tedious and that they would rather focus on day-to-day operations and profit growth. The long-term benefits of developing critical and creative thinking in employees outweigh the time and resources spent in fostering the skill. Organisations that develop these skills in their team members see an increase in teamwork and productivity. Furthermore, activities that facilitate opportunities to apply critical thinking skills to workplace problems can be incorporated into the workday without a need for external training programs.

Critical thinking is a skill that should be taught and developed so they become second nature. To have employees well-versed in this is to have an effective and efficient team which will ultimately save your business time, money and stress.

2.3.1 Facilitating Opportunities for Critical Thinking Application

In order for the application of critical and creative thinking to be the norm, there has to be consistent and continuous opportunities for such. The workplace provides many opportunities to facilitate critical thinking applications; the key is to recognise those opportunities and turn them into workable plans. This section will discuss just some of the techniques and methods you can use to assist your team members in applying critical thinking skills.

Skills training

A formally structured opportunity to help your team develop the skills is through critical thinking skills training. This includes training that is geared towards analysis, logical reasoning, recognising similarities and differences, making a plan and predicting its likely outcome and evaluating one’s thought process.

Plan and plot skills training in your team schedule and organise a seminar or workshop to this effect. You can also hold mini training sessions during your team meeting or project briefs; ask team members for their input regarding

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projects and how best to approach it. Involve your team in addressing problems and rectifying issues.

You can also do skills training on individual members of the team through the following methods:

Asking the right questions

The right questions are those that promote critical and creative thinking. For example, a critical thinking question is ‘How do you think we can make this better?’ while a creative thinking question is ‘Why are we doing this in this particular way?’

Do not be condescending or impose your ideas on your team members. As the team leader, you have inherent authority over them and they may feel that they have to agree with you. Imposing your ideas might also discourage your team from thinking further and make it seem pointless since they are not listened to.

Encouraging discussion and debate

Discussions and debates encourage reflection and provide team members with points of view different from their own. This will also help them recognise their own biases and look at problems from different angles.

Allow your team members some space to discuss and debate on their own. Sometimes, the most constructive discussions are ones without the ‘boss’ included. Team members can be freer with their ideas and opinions when they feel like they are not under scrutiny. If you must be there, facilitate the differing opinions but do not manipulate your team members into agreeing with your preconceived notions.

Assess which areas a team member needs to develop

Assign a team member to head a project

Arrange for a coach or mentor for the team member

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2.3.2 Sources of Reliable Information Relevant to Workplace Procedures

One way for team members to apply their critical thinking skills is to have them assess the reliability of sources of information relevant to workplace procedures. In the process of evaluating a source’s reliability, your team will be using critical thinking concepts such as accuracy and relevance. The following questions may guide them in evaluating the source.

As an example, assume that you are looking for a source that can provide additional information related to Bounce Fitness’ Market Research Procedure. You don’t know much about it yet and you are looking for supplemental information. During the course of your research, you came across this blog on How to Conduct a Market Analysis the Right Way. You understand that market research is a subset of market analysis and you want an overview before going over the nitty-gritty details. You must now evaluate the reliability of your source.

Accuracy • Does the source provide valid information for your research?

Authority • Is the content authored and published by a reputable and qualified

organisation or person?

Audience • Who is the intended audience? • Is the information appropriate for the intended audience?

Relevance • Is the source relevant to your procedure?

Likelihood of bias • Is the information provided in this source biased?

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Using the guide questions provided in the previous page, assess if the article is reliable.

Criteria for Evaluation Evaluation Results/Reliability

Accuracy

The webpage provides valid additional information, starting with

defining market analysis and its importance and then proceeding

to enumerating the steps for market analysis in detail.

Authority

The blog author is Mike Kappel who has in-depth knowledge of

the business industry. He is a serial entrepreneur, the CEO of

Patriot Software, and has over 20 years of experience offering

payroll advice to small business owners.

Audience

The audience are people in the marketing or business industry

who intend to know more about market analysis to boost

strategies and evaluate decisions based on gathered data.

They can use the information given because it provides a detailed

explanation as to how the marketing analysis procedure is done,

helping the audience understand its importance in the business.

Relevance

It is relevant to the market research procedure of Bounce Fitness

because market research is a subset of market analysis. The

processes are the same with the exception that when applied to

market research, the procedures are more tunnelled and

specifically applied.

Likelihood of Bias

Each of the steps of market research indicated on the webpage

covers every critical aspect of researching and analysis. It is not

biased because it fully explains each process and considers the

things to watch out for every stage.

Another example for information relevant to your workplace could be researching an emergency evacuation plan. Assume that you were tasked to look for a source that can provide additional information related to Bounce Fitness’ Emergency Evacuation Plan and Implementation Procedures. During the course of your research, you came across this article.

Again, using the guide questions provided on the same page, assess if this source about evacuation planning is reliable.

Criteria for Evaluation Evaluation Results/Reliability

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Accuracy

The source provides bomb threat safety information and helpful

tips that can be added to the existing procedures of Bounce

Fitness.

Authority

The source is posted by the Australian Bomb Data Centre and

published by the Australasian Fire Safety, a South Australian

owned company that delivers Nationally Recognised Training and

Consultancy Services for the workplace Emergency Response and

safety for various businesses and industries.

Audience

The source gives bomb threat safety procedures for those who are

interested in implementing one for their respective businesses.

It is appropriate because it is in the workplace context, providing

suitable information for the procedures needed to be done in the

office or building.

Relevance

Tips and techniques are provided by the source in case of a bomb

threat event in the workplace. It is relevant to the procedures of

Bounce Fitness because it follows the same information regarding

bomb threat safety, therefore confirming that Bounce Fitness’

procedures are correct and accurate.

Likelihood of Bias

The information is not biased because it covers everything a

workplace needs to know and have regarding bomb threat safety.

It discusses bomb threats in general and not just a procedure from

their workplace.

2.4 Provide Feedback to Team Members on Performance of Tasks

Feedback is the process of giving constructive suggestions by supervisors, reporting managers, and/or peers. The purpose of feedback is to provide opportunities for improvement as well as to reinforce good behaviour and boost employee morale.

2.4.1 Effectively Giving Workplace Feedback

During the feedback process, it is not enough to just point out the mistakes. It has to be constructive in that it guides and motivates employees to reach their goals. If done the wrong way, people may instead feel demotivated and some might even take the feedback as a personal attack on their character and loyalty. As such, feedback needs to be clear, purposeful and concise.

To effectively give feedback, use the following as a guide:

 Start with the positives

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Start with positive feedback before easing into constructive criticism. Clarify that the purpose of giving feedback is to make room for improvement and not as a personal attack. Do not be condescending when speaking to your team member and give credit where credit is due.

 Be direct, clear and specific

Give feedback in a structured manner. Be direct and tell your team member which parts of the whole process were nicely executed and which ones need improvement. Use clear words and be specific. Providing feedback can sometimes be an uncomfortable situation, but if you are indirect, unclear and vague in your words and manner, your employee will not be able to know how they can improve moving forward.

 Be objective

Stick to facts and place personal biases at bay. Explain why the feedback is an opportunity for improvement.

 Provide solutions, not just criticisms

Give actionable feedback where possible. It is not enough to state something is wrong; give suggestions for improvement. Understand that the reason why you are the one giving feedback is because you are more experienced and have more knowledge on the subject matter.

 Provide immediate feedback and follow up

Provide feedback as soon as there is a need to so that the error can be immediately corrected. Then, follow up on it after and check to see whether feedback was implemented the next time around. Do not wait for annual employee appraisals before doing so.

 Do it face to face

Giving and receiving feedback can be very personal and it helps if both parties are ‘present’, assuring employees that they are important and they matter.

2.4.2 Importance of Workplace Feedback

There are many benefits to providing feedback to your employees or to your team members. The key lies in being able to communicate effectively. Benefits include:

 Increases motivation

Receiving feedback lets team members know that their efforts do not go unnoticed and that the work they do is not taken for granted. As such, they are more likely to improve their performance as they will also feel more invested in the work that they do.

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 Improves performance

Clear and constructive feedback can lead to improved work methods. An increase in motivation can also result in better performance of the team and its members.

 Continuous learning

Every feedback is an opportunity for growth and improvement. Taking the feedback to heart and integrating them into their current work method results in continuous learning and improvement.

 Improves relationships

Regular constructive feedback fosters trust and respect. Feedback shows that you appreciate what your team members do and you want to help them be better in how they do their jobs. When team members realise that you only have their best interest at heart, they are more likely to come to you for advice when they encounter a problem.

 Good for personal growth

Constructive feedback points out both strengths and weaknesses. Knowing the strengths will boost employee morale while knowing the weaknesses will help them be more self-aware. All parties in the feedback process are then able to grow as a person.

Further Reading

Giving workplace feedback is a good way to provide opportunity for improvement. To learn more about how to effectively give workplace feedback, you may read through the article linked below.

What is Workplace Feedback?

Activity 2

Identify possible barriers to critical thinking in a workplace setting for each organisational

component (people, culture, structure, technology and process).

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Notes

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Key Points: Chapter 2

 Critical and creative thinking skills are teachable skills. They can be honed and

developed with practice.

 Critical thinking is not an inherent skill and barriers to critical thinking can vary from

person to person. However, these barriers can generally be overcome.

 A safe environment is an environment that actively encourages the performance

of certain skills, in this case, critical and creative thinking approaches.

 Part of a leader’s role is to facilitate consistent and continuous opportunities for

critical thinking application.

 Constructive feedback guides and motivates employees to reach their goals.

Chapter 2 – ‘True’ or ‘False’ Quiz

Tick ‘True’ if the statement is correct, and ‘False’ if not. True False

Critical thinkers need to be aware of critical thinking barriers and

acknowledge the challenges they present in order to overcome them.

Companies should just focus on day-to-day operations because the time

invested to develop critical and creative thinking skills in their employees

outweigh the benefits.

The components of an organisation are people, culture, structure,

technology and processes.

Past experiences should just remain in the past. As a learning strategy, it

is best to just look forward to the future.

Distance learning is also called eLearning or online learning.

The most constructive discussions are those facilitated by the boss.

Regular constructive feedback fosters trust and respect.

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Chapter 3: Monitor and Improve Thinking Practices

As a leader or manager or someone responsible for a group of people, the responsibility does not stop at encouraging your team or employees to perform to the best of their abilities. To stay on top and keep up with the changing trends of your industry, you have to constantly monitor and improve thinking practices.

This chapter focuses on monitoring and improving thinking practices. It starts with the collection and analysis of feedback on thinking opportunities. By doing this, you can evaluate whether the opportunities available to your team are sufficient and effective in developing critical and creative thinking skills. After receiving feedback, additional support for the team and its members are identified as part of the process for continuous improvement. The chapter ends with developing recommendations for improvements in future learning arrangements according to relevant legislation and organisation policies.

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3.1 Collect and Analyse Feedback from Individuals and Teams on Critical and Creative Thinking Opportunities

Feedback works both ways for team leaders and team members. The previous chapter discusses the importance of giving feedback to team members in order to provide opportunities to improve their critical and creative thinking skills. This chapter focuses on collecting and analysing feedback on critical and creative thinking opportunities in order to determine whether opportunities provided and facilitated for the team’s consumption is sufficient.

Gathering Feedback

There are a lot of ways to gather feedback, with each method having its own benefits and drawbacks. Some of the methods to gather feedback are the following:

One-on-one interviews

One-on-one interviews as a means to gather feedback are advantageous in that the less outspoken members of the team are given the opportunity to present their opinions with more liberty. Feedback is also more undiluted as it is not affected by the opinions of other team members.

An important reminder for this type of gathering feedback is to not create a stressful atmosphere; approach the interview as a friendly talk. Assure your team that their opinions are welcome and valued. Employees often feel like their opinions do not matter in the grand scheme of the operations, so they hesitate when it comes to giving feedback. Make sure they understand that their feedback is crucial in improving processes in the organisation.

One-on-one interviews Team meetings

Feedback surveys Suggestion box

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Team meetings

Team meetings are also great for getting feedback from your team members. Sometimes, it is easier for members of a team to share in a group setting especially when they feel like they have the support of their fellow colleagues.

Feedback surveys

When creating a survey, make sure that the questions are straightforward and understandable. Make it brief so people do not waste their time filling the survey. Also make sure that the survey questions are well-customised as necessary to fit the recipients and their expertise. This method for gathering feedback is great if you do not want to interrupt your team members’ workflow since they can answer the survey without taking too much of their time.

Suggestion box

Suggestion box as a means of gathering feedback offers anonymity. As such, it may yield more frank and open feedback. This is ideal if you want to gather feedback on matters that tend to be on the sensitive side.

To effectively get feedback, here are a few tips:

Ensure Anonymity

Show Interest

Pay Attention to Non-Verbals

Give Honest Feedback

Ask them to Envision their Ideal Situation

Follow Through

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 Ensure anonymity

It can be nerve-wracking when lower level employees or team members are asked to share feedback with those in the higher-level management or leadership. A good way to ease their mind about it is through ensuring anonymity. Whether it is through old-fashioned methods like suggestion boxes or through a more modern take like an online ticketing system, anonymity can help employees be more open and will let you get more truthful feedback.

 Show interest

Show genuine interest in how your team is doing. If they have problems, make them feel that you are truly interested and ask how you can help. Gauge how employees feel about their environment, workload and productivity. Ask questions about their assignment.

How is their project coming along? What do they need in order to reach their goal? These types of questions will help you determine which areas the employees need support.

 Pay attention to non-verbals

Look around the room when you talk to your team. A lot of things are conveyed through body reaction and non-verbal cues which can then be the basis of your questions. If you regularly see non-verbal reactions that convey frustration, you might have to take a little more time to dig deeper.

 Give honest feedback

To get honest feedback is to give honest feedback. Create an environment where your team feels like it is safe to give their opinion or suggest ideas. The best way to do that is for you, as the leader, to take the lead. Give your team feedback on what they are doing well and what they can improve on. It is important that you don’t do it condescendingly, rather, with the honest intention of helping them do better.

 Ask them to envision their ideal situation

Ask each of your team to envision what their ideal situation is. Assessing the gap between the current situation and the ideal one will help you identify the gaps that can be filled in.

 Follow through

The purpose of asking for feedback is to provide opportunities for improvement. As a leader, asking for feedback without the determination to follow through with meaningful actions may result in the loss of trust from your team members. Accommodating each and every feedback and suggestion can be impossible. What is important is that you share the reasons for the decisions that were made in connection with the feedback.

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3.2 Identify Additional Support Required for Teams and Individuals

A team is composed of individuals with different skill sets. To develop critical thinking skills in your team, you have to assess their current skill level in order to identify additional support that can be facilitated. A good way to accomplish this is by monitoring the team and its individual members.

You can monitor the team and your members by seeing them in action. By being in the moment, interacting with team members, spending time with them and actually observing how they go about their work, you get a feel of what additional support they may require. You can also get some insights as to additional support they might need by going through regular review of their work progress.

As the person responsible for team/s and the members in it, you get to know them over time and develop a sense of each person: their strengths and weaknesses, habits, level of motivation, etc. With these in mind, you also get to know where your team members and employees will shine the most and who needs help in improving some areas. Each one of them will require different modes and opportunities to learn new things. Watch out for training sessions, seminars, workshops, or any other learning opportunity that any of your members or employees could benefit from.

As the leader or manager, you can assess or at least get a general grasp of the team’s current skill level. Think of instances when individuals in your team needed to use their critical thinking skills. How did they react to the situation? What was the process used – from identifying the root of the issue to addressing the problem and finally completing the task? By asking those questions and analysing the situations, you will know which areas the team and the individual are good at and which ones need more improvement.

Supporting the individual is different from supporting the team. While supporting the individual is to take note of each one of them personally, supporting the team is to make sure that each one works in harmony and as one unit.

Providing additional support for individuals will contribute to the overall strength of the

team after all, a team is as strong as its weakest member.

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3.2.1 Providing Additional Support to Individuals and Teams

Comprising your team is a group of individuals with different personalities and different skill sets. Each individual will require additional support depending upon these factors.

Additional support, in the context of this unit, can include supplemental resources or practices that can be implemented when completing workplace tasks that require critical or creative thinking. Examples of a supplemental resource are articles and online video tutorials that team members can study on their own time. To illustrate, a team member is tasked to design a website for a new product being launched. You could send the team member articles on the psychology of colours to help choose a colour scheme that is in line with the product’s branding.

Additional support can also be exhibited in other forms. For example, idealistic team members or those who see everything as either right or wrong will need a gradual introduction to the world of grey areas. Rather than direct teaching of critical thinking, you can help them understand through real-life situations. For example, a client is asking to have their project be entertained first rather than wait on queue. Rather than directly explaining to your team member the ethics of skipping the queue or the rule on ‘first come, first serve’ , have your team member evaluate the importance of the project and the capability of the team to cater to the request without compromising the other projects. From there, the team member can see other angles to the situation – the urgency of the request, the ability of the team to accommodate the request without compromising other clients, the related projects that might potentially come from accommodating that one request, etc.

For individuals of your team, consider mentoring sessions. Having a mentor can help develop a variety of skills, aside from being able to collaborate on solutions and decisions. Mentors can help learners focus while using critical thinking techniques, or the mentors could have resources to help learners improve their critical thinking skills. The mentor, in this case, could be you in your function as the leader or you can have individual members shadow other competent individuals for a period of time.

Giving individuals leadership opportunities will also help individuals as they will be thrust to manage conflict resolution and make crucial decisions. Consider asking individuals to lead new projects. By leading a project, the individual put in charge will necessarily be thrust in a more proactive role, dealing with issues and challenges that will require critical and creative thinking in their decision- making.

While identifying the additional support required for individuals, you can also simultaneously work to identify the support needed for the team. Teambuilding activities are a great way to improve critical thinking skills both for groups and individuals. If your organisation employs these exercises, encourage your team to participate. If your organisation does not currently

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employ them, consider introducing your team to similar exercises during your team meetings. Set aside time for activities that will require them to work together and tap into their critical and creative thinking skills. These activities need not be elaborate and could be as simple as a short game before or after a meeting.

An example of an activity that can be done is ‘Game of Possibilities’. This team building exercise inspires creativity and individual innovation. All you need are random objects and about 5 minutes. The mechanics are simple, you give a random object to each person in the group. One at a time, someone then has to go up in front and demonstrate a use for that object other than what the actual object is used for. The rest of the team must guess what is being demonstrated. The demonstrator cannot speak and the demonstrations must be original ideas. So, supposing that the random object is a pen, it could be a hair tie, a magic wand, a gun or even a chopstick missing its pair. Imagination is the limit for this game.

Another teambuilding activity that you can do with your team is ‘If You Build It’. This will promote critical thinking and teamwork. Divide the people into smaller teams. Then, give them equal amounts of a certain material like popsicle sticks or dried spaghetti and have them construct something, like a castle or a tall building, out of the material given and within a time frame.

To summarise, additional support can be any or a combination of the following:

Articles and online video tutorials

Real-life situations

Mentorship

Leadership opportunities

Teambuilding activities

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3.2.2 Organisational Learning Environments and Related Learning Systems

Organisational learning environments play an essential role in how the team and team members are able to effectively absorb critical and creative thinking skills taught to them in a formal learning process.

The learning environment is the educational approach or the physical setting in which the teaching and the learning occurs. It refers to how the ‘classroom’ environment is set up. There are mainly two learning environments:

Depending upon the circumstances and the resources available for the conduct of formal learning geared towards developing critical and creative thinking, you can choose which learning environment can best support your team.

Classroom learning is the traditional type of learning environment. It is usually composed of one teacher and a number of students who actively listen and participate. Both teacher and students need to be physically present in the classroom so they can instantaneously discuss topics or agenda items.

On the other hand, distance learning is a form of education in which the teacher and students are physically separated during instruction. Student- teacher and student-student communication are facilitated by the use of various technologies. Chat, email, forums and discussion boards, among other means, are used. Distance learning is also called eLearning or online learning.

There are five main differences between classroom learning and distance learning.

Classroom learning

Distance learning

The Place to Learn

Social Interaction

Instructional Material

Audio, Visual and Beyond

Learning Time

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The place to learn

With classroom learning, the place to learn is typically one physical classroom. With distance learning, a physical class is not necessary as it can be accessed through various technological platforms.

 Social interaction

Depending upon the place to learn, social interaction differs as well. In a classroom setting, the teacher and students engage in personal communication every time there is a class. Learning occurs synchronously in real-time since the set-up allows students to ask questions and get immediate feedback.

With distance learning, students typically reach out to the teacher via email or phone should they need assistance. In online classrooms wherein everybody is logged in at the same time, students could ask questions while the class is ongoing. Mainly, student-teacher and student-student interactions occur through chat, forums, email and discussion boards.

 Instructional material

In classroom learning, the instructional materials are usually presented verbally, sometimes with the help of visual presentations. In distance learning, visual and written notes are presented in place of the traditional instructor. To put emphasis on important parts of the lecture, the notes are highlighted or in bold text, or come in the form of headlines, bulleted lists, subheadings and the like.

 Audio, visual and beyond

In classroom learning, materials to aid the discussions are limited, and the majority of the teaching techniques cannot be transferred directly to an online environment. Distance learning, on the other hand, has a broader range of tools and media that can be used like simulations, visual storytelling and moving graphics.

 Learning time

Learning time in classroom learning consumes more time than in distance learning. However, the way the learning environment is designed allows the students to be guided through the discussions. Distance learning takes less time to complete, and participants can choose to take smaller sessions to understand the lectures better.

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Learning Systems for Classroom Learning

Learning systems are the different ways that learning can be delivered using each learning environment. Classroom learning is the more traditional method between the two types of learning environments. There are a number of ways this is conducted. Among them are the following:

Training sessions

Training is the act of providing information and instruction to enable the effective performance of tasks and duties. It aims to address a need that was found in employees to help improve their capability, capacity, productivity and performance.

In a corporate setting, training sessions refer to the act of training recruits or new employees – providing them with relevant information, skills, and resources for their job.

Workshops

Workshops are like small discussion groups wherein there is a sharing of knowledge or experience, and demonstration and application of techniques and skills. It can last from a couple of hours to a few days. Its purpose is to provide additional information so that employees may develop new skills and incorporate that in their jobs.

Seminars

In seminars, there is only the main lecture. Speakers only share information; they do not usually give exercises or activities for employees to apply the knowledge they have just learned. Seminars tend to have a big audience or

Training sessions

Workshops

Seminars

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more participants than in workshops or training sessions because of how it is designed – one expert sharing information with the audience.

Learning Systems for Distance Learning

Distance learning incorporates developments in technology in the learning environment. Some of its learning systems are the following:

Webinars

Webinars are informative presentations done online, such as seminars and workshops. The speaker cannot hear or listen to the audience. If the audience wants to communicate with the speaker, they must type their questions in the chat window.

Teleconferences

A teleconference is simply a meeting through telecommunications platform. It is used for meetings whose purposes are usually sharing news and information and making decisions. There are four types of teleconferences:

 Video teleconference – a combination of audio and video providing voice communications and video images

 Audio teleconference – voice only or conference calling

 Audiographics teleconference – also called desktop computer conferencing and enhanced audio; a mix of visual information such as graphics, documents and video supplemented with voice communication

 Web teleconference – information such as emails, memos, reports, updates and newsletters are simultaneously shared from one computer to another

3.2.3 Industry Best Practice for Instructing Others

Webinars

Teleconferences

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Industry best practice for instructing others refers to the most effective method for teaching people in that industry. As such, what could be considered best practice will vary according to the industry you are in and the workplace task identified. Critical and creative thinking methods applied to a workplace task can subsequently be developed into an industry best practice for that particular task.

The Scaffolding Method

Scaffolding is an instructional method that describes the support a learner gets from an instructor throughout the learning process. The method operates under the principle that at the beginning, learners will need a lot of help. As the class progresses, learners will be able to do and understand more on their own and will require less support from the instructor. In this case, the learners are your team members and you are the instructor.

Wood (1976) states that integral to scaffolding is the social interaction between the learner and instructor. Together, they develop a mutual understanding of the activity and its goals, thereby sharing ownership of the process. Through this, the instructor provides support and ongoing diagnosis of the learner’s abilities by altering the scaffold to accommodate the learner’s needs. Eventually, the instructor removes the scaffold so the learner takes responsibility for his or her own learning, which, once completed, leaves the learner more capable than before the use of the scaffold.

Several scaffolds have been identified to help team members move forward in their learning. These are the following:

Based on content from The Novice to Expert Shift. Usable Knowledge.

The scaffolding method is considered a best practice approach to the critical thinking method. While developing critical thinking skills in others is no easy task, it is not impossible. In the workplace, assigning your team members to projects can help build critical thinking skills. Incorporating a scaffolding guide, like a mentoring system, can help guide them while deepening their skill sets at the same time.

Asking team members to put what they are learning into context

Having team members ask open-ended questions

Encouraging team members to take risks

Pushing team members to be more thoughtful when hearing ideas that may not mirror their own

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Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a creative thinking approach wherein individuals come up with a solution to a specific problem by sharing various ideas with each other. It operates under four rules:

Withhold criticism

All criticisms of ideas generated in a brainstorming session should be put on hold – all ideas are welcome and no idea is too bold, too big or too crazy. By doing this, the team will feel more at ease and is able to generate more unusual ideas. Criticisms are reserved for a later stage when all ideas are pooled and it comes down to determining the best possible, workable idea.

Go for quantity

Quantity breeds quality. The more ideas, the more options to choose from. This principle is based on the assumption that the greater the number of the ideas generated, the greater chance of finding an effective solution.

Welcome wild ideas

Wild ideas are encouraged in the session. Wild ideas can be generated by suspending assumptions and looking from different angles and new perspectives. The premise is that wild ideas might be able to give you better solutions.

Build upon other’s ideas

Take multiple ideas and combine them or build on an existing idea to provide a better solution.

Withhold criticism

Go for quantity

Welcome wild ideas

Build upon other's ideas

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3.3 Develop Recommendations for Improvements in Future Learning Arrangements According to Relevant Legislation and Organisation Policies

You now have a full grasp regarding the critical and creative thinking models, approaches and its application to the workplace, learning strategies and creating an environment that is conducive for critical and creative thinking approaches. As such, you now possess all the data you need for development, continuous improvement, and developing recommendations for improvements in future learning arrangements.

Times are constantly changing. Whatever industry you are in, there are bound to be changing trends as well. Having all the related data and the full documentation of your continuous learning processes and subsequent implementation will be your armour for future improvements.

Include learning arrangements for team skill development in your future planning. Plan ahead for formal and informal learning opportunities to develop critical and creative thinking skills for your team.

Identifying relevant legislation and organisation policies relating to workplace procedures is also a must. This is important when developing recommendations for future learning arrangements; you want to be sure that your recommendations are legally compliant while hitting the objectives for which the recommendation is for.

Workplace procedures, no matter how inclined the purpose is to improvements, must always be compliant to legislative requirements. The projects must remain well within the acceptable boundaries required by various legislation and other community interests.

3.3.1 Legislative Requirements

Legislation is the act of making or enacting laws. When people talk about ‘the legislation’, they mean a law or a body of laws. The legislation in a state or territory is the laws enacted specifically to control and administer the state or territory. These laws absolutely have to be abided. This section discusses three pieces of legislation relevant to developing recommendations for future learning arrangements.

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Equal Employment Opportunity Act (Commonwealth Authorities) 1987

This Act refers to the right of all employees to be treated fairly and equitably regardless of their culture, religion or beliefs through the recruitment, selection, access to information, supervision and management.

The main focus of EEO is to ensure:

 fair work practices

 the making of unbiased decisions

 recognition and respect of various cultural and social backgrounds of all staff and customers

 training development which meets employee needs and customer satisfaction.

The EEO Act looks to dissolve discrimination in the workplace. It works to improving conditions to reduce employees feeling any negative attitudes or feeling isolated at work.

When hired by an organisation, employees are to:

 work at the best capacity and complete all tasks and duties given to them

 work in collaboration with all their colleagues, regardless of any cultural diversity that may exist

 refuse to accept or to tolerate any form of harassment.

The EEO Act identifies the following requirements related to the policy that organisations must comply with. Organisations must:

 inform employees of the contents of the program and of the results of any monitoring and evaluation of the program.

 confer responsibility for the development and implementation of the program (including a continuous review of the program), on a person or

Equal Employment Opportunity Act (Commonwealth Authorities) 1987

Privacy Act 1988

Work Health and Safety Act 2011

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persons having sufficient authority and status within the management of the relevant authority to enable the person or persons properly to develop and implement the program.

 consult with employees of the relevant authority, particularly employees who are women or persons in designated groups.

From the get-go, organisations must:

 collect and record information of applicants relevant to the program; and

 inform applicants of the results of the monitoring and evaluation done for the program implemented.

This legislation provides for the recognition and respect of various cultural and social backgrounds of all staff and customers. Its significance lies in that it would mean there are certain considerations to be taken into account when recommending the conduct of seminar and workshops. For example, if the workshop is labour-extensive and your team is comprised of many Muslims, it would probably be best not to conduct it during Ramadan.

Privacy Act 1988

The Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) is an Australian law which regulates the handling of personal information about individuals. This includes the collection, use, storage and disclosure of personal information, and access to and correction of that information. The Privacy Act protects individual rights, allowing you to:

 know why your personal information is being collected, how it will be used and who it will be disclosed to

 have the option of not identifying yourself, or of using a pseudonym in certain circumstances

 ask for access to your personal information (including your health information)

 stop receiving unwanted direct marketing

 ask for your personal information that is incorrect to be corrected

 make a complaint about an organisation or agency the Privacy Act covers, if you think they have mishandled your personal information.

The Act requires organisations to:

 ensure that the information it collects is accurate, updated, and complete

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 protect customers’ information from misuse and unauthorised access or disclosure.

This law provides for the regulation of the handling of personal information about individuals. For example, you collected personal information of participants in one of your training sessions as part of an exercise. You now wish to conduct the same training to a different team. Considering the legislation on privacy, you will want to avoid using the information on previous training participants as points for discussion in the succeeding batch.

Work Health and Safety Act 2011

The Work Health and Safety Act of 2011 provides for a balanced and nationally consistent framework to secure the health and safety of workers and workplaces. WHS mandates, among others, to:

 protect workers and other persons against harm to their health, safety and welfare

 provide for fair and effective workplace representation

 provide a framework for continuous improvement and progressively higher standards of work, health and safety.

3.3.2 Organisational Policies

Organisational policies provide the guidelines for decision -making and regulate how procedures in the organisation should be carried out. Organisational policies must necessarily be geared towards improvement for future le arning arrangements in order to achieve long-term success. This section discusses two pieces of organi sational policies relevant to developing recom mendations for future learning arrangements.

Personal Development Procedure

A Personal Development Procedure is a plan of action that aims to improve, develop and enhance the quality of work life of staff members.

Personal Development Procedure

Minimising Use of Resources Procedure

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Personal Development Procedures require that a range of training courses be made available yearly for staff to attend. These training courses should provide support to staff with regards to developing the skills they need.

Since the procedure must be responsive to the needs of the staff, it can vary from organisation to organisation. It can start with an appraisal process wherein the training and development needs are recorded for every individual member.

Examples of training courses that can be included could be those that are geared towards customer care, interpersonal skills and stress management.

Minimising Use of Resources Procedure

Sustainability is becoming more and more identified with improvement to future learning arrangements. In the same vein, more and more workplaces are implementing procedures that aim to minimise the use of resources.

An example of this is a paperless workplace concept. All documentation system could be transferred online and/or iPads could be provided in the workplace as a substitute for paper.

Minimising the use of resources need not be grand. It can start with small changes like installing LED lights instead of fluorescent lights and giving employees reusable water bottles instead of providing disposable cups.

Activity 3

Determine formal learning opportunities for your team and identify the best learning

environment that goes with it.

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Notes

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Key Points: Chapter 3

 To stay on top and keep up with the changing trends of whatever industry, you

have to constantly monitor and improve thinking practices.

 Gathering feedback from the team is an effective way to determine additional

support that the team may need.

 Supporting individual team members is different from supporting the team. Each

individual in your team will require different support according to their strengths

and weaknesses.

 Organisational learning environments play an essential role in how the team and

team members are able to effectively absorb critical and creative thinking skills

taught to them.

 Workplace procedures, no matter how inclined the purpose is to improvements,

must always be compliant with legislative requirements.

Chapter 3 – ‘True’ or ‘False’ Quiz

Tick ‘True’ if the statement is correct, and ‘False’ if not. True False

Feedback works both ways for team leaders and team members.

To develop critical thinking skills in your team, you have to assess their

current skill level in order to identify additional support that can be

facilitated.

To effectively get feedback, you have to pay attention to non-verbal

cues.

Feedback surveys make it easier for members of a team to share because

they will feel like they have the support of their fellow colleagues.

Individuals tasked to lead a project will necessarily be thrust in a more

proactive role, dealing with issues and challenges that will require critical

and creative thinking in their decision-making.

The scaffolding method operates under the principle that learners will

need a consistent and steady amount of support from the beginning to

the end of the instruction.

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Summary

Developing critical thinking in others is one of the roles and responsibilities of team leaders, managers, and those who are responsible for teams and individuals. Not everyone is instilled with critical and creative thinking skills. However, these are skills that can be honed and developed. Developing this skill in others will be beneficial not only to the individual and the team but also to the organisation.

Employees need the right tools in order to get the job done. However, simply having the tools without maintenance or upgrades can only go so far. Critical and creative thinking is what sharpens the tools and upgrades them so that it evolves and becomes capable of doing so much more, enabling thinkers to conjure up ways of solving problems and addressing issues effectively and efficiently. When your team members are able to demonstrate their critical and creative thinking skills, problems in the workplace become less tedious and more manageable.

Continue to encourage critical and creative thinking skills in your team and team members. With dependable people working with you, success is likely within reach.

“The world rewards those

who take responsibility for

their own success.”

Curt Gerrish

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References

These are some references that we feel may be of assistance to you in completing the Assessment for this unit of competency:

 Arends, R. I. (2012). Learning to Teach. McGraw-Hill.

 Privacy act 1988. Www.Legislation.Gov.Au. https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2020C00168

 Arends, R. I. (2012). Learning to teach. McGraw-Hill.

 Boss, J. (2019). Think critical thinking and logic skills for everyday life (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

 Boudreau, E. (2019, December 12). The novice to expert shift. Harvard Graduate School of Education. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/19/12/novice-expert-shift

 Chaffee, J. (2014). Think critically. Cengage.

 Clarke, L. (2015, April 15). 4 killer methods to collect employee feedback. The 6Q Blog. https://inside.6q.io/4-killer-methods-to-collect-employee-feedback/

 Cottrell, S. (2011). Critical thinking skills  : Developing effective analysis and argument. Palgrave Macmillan.

 Creative education foundation. (2019, February 27). Creative Education Foundation. http://www.creativeeducationfoundation.org/creative-problem- solving/the-cps-process/

 Edmondson, A. C. (2014, August). Strategies for learning from failure. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2011/04/strategies-for-learning-from-failure

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 Emergency training, emergency response training, emergency training SA. (2015, June 23). Australasian Fire & Safety. https://www.australasianfiresafety.com.au/what-you-need-to-know-about- bomb-threat-safety/

 Equal employment opportunity (commonwealth authorities) act 1987. (2012). Legislation.Gov.Au. https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018C00220

 Kappel, M. (2019, August 15). Conducting a market analysis for your small business. Patriot Software. https://www.patriotsoftware.com/blog/accounting/how-to-conduct-a- market-analysis/

 Kettner, G. (2017, August 16). 4 reasons why giving and receiving performance feedback is important | govloop. GovLoop. https://www.govloop.com/community/blog/4-reasons-giving-receiving- performance-feedback-important/

 Lane, C. (n.d.). Teleconferencing. Www.Tecweb.Org. http://www.tecweb.org/eddevel/edtech/teleconf.html

 Lateral thinking techniques. (n.d.). Thepeakperformancecenter.Com. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational- learning/thinking/types-of-thinking-2/lateral-thinking/lateral-thinking- techniques/

 Learning continuum of critical and creative thinking. (n.d.). Australian Curriculum. Retrieved May 31, 2020, from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general- capabilities/critical-and-creative-thinking/learning- continuum/?isFirstPageLoad=false&element=Inquiring+%E2%80%93+identif ying%2C+exploring+and+organising+information+and+ideas&element=Gen erating+ideas%2C+possibilities+and+actions&element=Reflecting+on+thinki ng+and+processes&element=Analysing%2C+synthesising+and+evaluating+r easoning+and+procedures&level=Level+4

 Mary Bellis. (2019). Benjamin bloom and critical thinking. ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/benjamin-bloom-critical-thinking-models- 4078021

 Meegan, G. (2014, April 2). The intellectual standards. The Elements of Thought. https://theelementsofthought.org/the-intellectual-standards/

 Pinder, G. (2007, September 7). Eight barriers to critical thinking. EzineArticles. https://ezinearticles.com/?Eight-Barriers-to-Critical- Thinking&id=716694

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 Rafiq Elmansy. (2017, June 26). How to apply critical thinking using paul-elder framework. Designorate. https://www.designorate.com/critical-thinking- paul-elder-framework/

 Sadler-Smith, E. (2015). Wallas’ four-stage model of the creative process: More than meets the eye? Creativity Research Journal, 27(4), 342–352. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10400419.2015.1087277

 Samuel B. (2019, June 20). What is workplace feedback? (How to effectively give workplace feedback). Open Sourced Workplace. https://www.opensourcedworkplace.com/news/what-is-workplace- feedback-how-to-effectively-give-workplace-feedback

 What is brainstorming and how is it helpful? (2019). Imindq.Com. https://www.imindq.com/uses/brainstorming

 Wood, D., Bruner, J., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Child Psychiatry.

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BSBCRT511 Student Materials/BSBCRT511-PPT-V1.0.pdf