Team C: Tamika Frazier, Rashida Funches, Sharon Jones,
Alexander Merrill, Vivian West
January 17, 2011
Anthony Di Gaetano, Instructor
Critical thinking involves various types of thinking styles that may be applied during the decision making process within a company, business, or organization. Any team concerned with this process and wish to be efficient, effective, and successful in this should be comprised of individuals not only well versed in the application of critical thinking as a whole but also diversified in their thinking styles.
This paper will discuss three of those thinking styles: Creative Thinking, Pessimistic Thinking, and Optimistic Thinking. Although these 3 styles are not the only ones that can be found within any team of critical thinkers, they are presented to provide some brief highlights as to their specific definition and nature of thought.
The creative thinker thinks outside the box in a non-traditional fashion when seeking ideas or solutions. The pessimistic thinker who may think the worst can actually help the team prepare for this by the introduction of their realistic thoughts and concerns. And the optimistic thinker seeks to motivate, encourage and lead their teams to achieve goals against all odds.
Being aware of these thinking styles among team members can make for the “efficient and effective” all-star teams (Whitt) all organizations desire.
A simple definition of creative thinking is “the ability to create”. (Dictionary) Thinking creatively allows for possible alternatives in making ultimate decisions. As explained in the course readings, “A particularly useful way to trigger people into thinking creatively about options is to disturb their natural tendency to look for a solution…” (Goodpastor) An effective critical thinker must consider any other possible options and to do this creatively, one must think outside of the box. Effective ways of...