Creative thinking and critical thinking mean more or less the same. Critical thinking can be well-defined as the ability to contemplate coherently and rationally about what to do or believe. Creative writing is involved coming up with new ideas from a different perspective while avoiding unorthodox elucidations. These two skills go hand in hand. Critical and creative thinking are both skills that an employee must have when it comes doing work diligently. The major importance of critical thinking in a workplace is the ability to have effective leadership, ability to have teamwork in the organization, improved performance, ability to save time and the ability to solve challenges that face the organization. One must possess the skills as it comes with many advantages of handling complex tasks and co-relating well with other workmates.
Critical thinking depends on a person’s personality. According to (Anon, 2O17), a person with indispensable thinking skills is self-centered, self-monitored, self-disciplined and self-directed. It entails effective communication and problem-solving aptitudes and a responsibility to strongly affect our innate ego-centrism and socio-centrism. With these, problem-solving and decision making becomes much effortless. In a business venture, these skills are a must because they help a lot in a company’s growth. Things such as analyzing, assessment, interpretation, and evaluation require a mind that is focused and creative. Therefore, someone with the inventive and critical thinking skills will be able to handle these problems as compared to those without expertise. There are certain benefits that are associated with these magic skills to a business organization.
Critical thinking promotes creativity. To come up with a solution that is creative, not only is a new idea needed, but also a useful and relevant notion. In an organization, employees might come up with different new ideas that might be of great importance to the management. The management then needs to analyze and choose the best thought that will be most beneficial to the company. In an article by (Siddiqui, 2017), he argues that critical thinking plays a significant role when it comes to evaluating new ideas and selecting the best one and modifying them where necessary. Also, thinking clearly and steadily improves the way we express our thoughts. By gaining knowledge on how to scrutinize the analytical edifice of texts, critical thinking also betters comprehension abilities.
In a work place, creative and critical thinking is important as it brings lots of benefits to the company. One of the main importance of critical thinking is that it helps in maintaining effective leadership. This skill is very vital when it comes to people who hold positions such as managerial roles in a company for they can perceive situations properly thus enabling the leaders to have a balanced reasoning. The skill of critical thinking is vital in the leadership of any organization because it allows the leaders to weigh different ideas, decision, and even solutions when trying to solve different problems. Some instances that require critical thinking might come up and if one is intelligent enough, it will be unproblematic to come to a solution. Business leaders can come together and weigh all the possible solutions before settling on one solution that is the best (Black, Soto and Spurlin, 2016). Therefore, since creative and decisive thinking is a form critical thinking, it involves intellectual creativity thus letting corporate leaders merge research and knowledge. A critical thinker is perceived to be an improved crisis solver and an improved decision-maker hence business leaders should be critical thinkers to be efficient leaders.
Critical thinking perfects team performance. The employees within the organization have different roles that they all do to contribute to the common goals of the business. In a business venture, there are various departments which are caused by the division of labor. In turn, these divisions or different disarmaments in an organization These includes team building, enriching social relations and elucidating unit members’ roles and resolving interpersonal predicaments concerning the operational status of a business structure. For a successful team building to occur, the team members must be experienced and critical thinkers to offer ideas on how to better the performance. Being creative will definitely help them encourage the discussion and strengthen teamwork.
Critical thinking improves reasoning. When a problem arises in an organization, new ideas are brought in, and only the best will be incorporated. Employees are given an opportunity to express themselves and come up with creative ideas to solve the problems at hand. By doing so, they are encouraged to think more to benefit the organization they work for. According to (Fallon 2014), Critical thinking involves setting aside all emotions involved to make a credible and logical decision that is advantageous for the business. Once a single idea is solved, the employees will be motivated to become more creative when handling their work. Critical thinking, improves ones’ judgment and reasoning thus improving decision making in a company.
Critical thinking is significant when it comes to evaluation. Every business organization has goals that it needs to achieve in the long run. Evaluating what the company’s value and needs is an essential segment that requires creative and critical thinking. To assess eminent data in an organization requires minds that are competent and on track. Any wrong move could put the company in jeopardy thus critical thinking skills are important. Since a critical mind is sharp and focused, the decisions made will be of great value to the company. Therefore, critical thinking is of great worth when it comes to evaluating the company’s needs and wants to the right value.
The Employees and leaders of an organization with the skill of critical thinking have an added advantage because the skill provides them with an opportunity to handle their operation uniquely. Especially during this globalized world where competition in the marketplace has increased, there is a need to come up with ways of carrying out the business operation in a different way from the rest, and it can only be achieved if the employees and the leaders have critical thinking skills. The skills of creative thinking enable the officials of a certain organization to develop strategies that will ensure the business runs in a unique way and strategies that will enable the clients to differentiate the operation of that business with the operations of their competitors.
A creative mind can solve many tasks without haste. With creativity every operation at the workplace is carried out efficiently hence wastage of tie is prevented. The skills require one to be self-driven at all times and not depending on anyone at any time. Critical thinking enables one to not only think, but also present evidence for the ideas at hand before coming to any conclusion. The benefit that comes with mastering these skills is that one can gain full control of personal learning. Consequently, critical thinking enables one to comprehend the reasonable connections among ideas, structure and assess arguments, detect inconsistent errors and resolve problems analytically. Critical thinking is also thought to expose fallacies but also helps us reason well, acquire knowledge and improve our reasoning.
University students can be able to get hold of these skills in some ways. One of the ways to improve their skills in critical and creative thinking skills is by writing more. It was found that a vast number of college students graduates in the U.S cannot solve problems adequately and think critically (Quitadamo and Kurtz, 2007). The research was conducted to show the difference between the writing students in a biology experiment and those who did not write anything in class. The results showed that those students who wrote in the biology test showed an improvement regarding critical development. The non-writing part did not show any improvement at all. It is hence evident that writing can increase the level of thinking in a person. This, therefore, is a good way for university students to start training early to gain the skills required. Regular writing exercises with students will certainly improve their creative writing skills.
Students can also create their own time for writing short essays and past experiences. This will greatly help them become creative as time goes by and by the time they finish up with their university level, they will have incorporated some creative skills. Coming up together to form groups will help the students think critically. They can all come up with different ideas and together, they can think of the best resolution of all the ideas they presented together. In a research conducted using a Solomon four-group design to study the effect of critical thinking among different students. It was found that the students improved their thinking skills without any intervention (Howard, Tang and Jill Austin, 2014). This proves that the idea is all on our minds and that with constant practice, the skills are incorporated into our system.
Apart from what creative and critical thinking does to people, there are other benefits that it brings directly to the workplace. Some of those include bringing new ideas, fostering teamwork, promoting options and uncovering spinoffs. When an issue arises on a company, it forces the employees and managers to come up with a solution that will address their problems permanently. Henceforth, teamwork is fostered and the more the employees are in a company, the more solutions the company will get. A report from (Smallbusiness,2017) states that the benefit of this the company is offering a wide range of solutions to clients thus promoting innovation.
In conclusion, it is evident that having creative and critical thinking skills is vital. Not only are skills imperative in the workplace, but also in our day to day activities. These skills help us in our reasoning, making everyday decisions and also for self-reflection Although many people assume the importance of having these skills, they are important. Students should make an effort and gain these skills s they will need to use them at their workplaces. An organization that has employees and leaders with critical thinking skill will always remain competitive in the market during this era where the world is globalized. The competitiveness of the business or an institution will be achieved because the institution will be able to make valid decision and solutions to the threats and challenges they face, they will be able to effectively utilize time, there will be cooperation in the organization. More importantly, there will be teamwork in the organization.
- Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-importance-benefits-critical-thinking-skills-islam [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].
- Black, H., Soto, L. and Spurlin, S. (2016). Thinking About Thinking About Leadership: Metacognitive Ability and Leader Developmental Readiness. New Directions for Student Leadership, 2016(149), pp.85-95.
- Fallon, .N. (2014) Is Your Team Missing This Important Business Skill? Retrieved from: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7532-critical-thinking-in-business.html
- Howard, L., Tang, T. and Jill Austin, M. (2014). Teaching Critical Thinking Skills: Ability, Motivation, Intervention, and the Pygmalion Effect. Journal of Business Ethics, 128(1), pp.133-147.
- Quitadamo, I. and Kurtz, M. (2007). Learning to Improve: Using Writing to Increase Critical Thinking Performance in General Education Biology. Cell Biology Education, 6(2), pp.140-154.
- SIDDIQUI, F. (2017). Benefits Of Critical Thinking In The Workplace – Careerandeducation Blog. [online] Careerandeducation.expertscolumn.com. Available at: http://careerandeducation.expertscolumn.com/benefits-critical-thinking-workplace [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].
- Smallbusiness.chron.com. (2017). What Are the Benefits of Critical Thinking in the Workplace?. [online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/benefits-critical-thinking-workplace-11638.html [Accessed 4 Dec. 2017].