Carrier Success Skills

Assignment: Write up.

Presented by: M. Hamza Akeel ( C08216)

Last class we were supposed to reason about creative thinking that was something that we
learned with time or were born with it? So we came up with the idea that every person in his/her
capacity has deep within himself the ability to be creative and how much he unleashes it depends
on him as an individual. Creative thinking is primarily concerned with judging the true value of
statements and seeking errors. Lateral thinking is more concerned with the movement value of
statements and ideas. A person would use lateral thinking when they want to move from one
known idea to creating new ideas. Edward de Bono defines four types of thinking tools as:

• Idea generating tools that are designed to break current thinking patterns—routine
patterns, the status quo.
• Focus tools that are designed to broaden where to search for new ideas
• Harvest tools that are designed to ensure more value is received from idea generating
output
• Treatment tools that are designed to consider real-world constraints, resources, and
support

Furthermore we defined creative thinking as an ability of the brain to think of something

new. As a practice session we were allowed to think for a minute and write things that came to
our mind in provided situations.

Next thing we did was to solve mind teasing puzzles which made us think of a lot many
dimensions and certainly was a way to make us think to a practical solution. Then we studied the
random input technique. It is by far the simplest of all creative techniques and is widely used by
people who need to create new ideas (for example, for new products). Chance events allow us to
enter the existing patterns of our thinking at a different point. Lastly we discussed about vertical
and horizontal thinking. Thinking vertically is seeking out solutions based on existing knowledge
or ideas. Vertical solutions are solutions with which other people have already found some
measure of success. Thinking horizontally is coming up with new ideas by thinking expansively,
in new and different directions. Horizontal thinking is akin to brainstorming.