A "Basic Tool Box" for Productive Thinkers

By Don Treffinger, Marion Sortore, and Mary Tallman, Center for Creative Learning.

Originally appeared in the International Creativity Network Newsletter, volume 1, number 2, 1991, page 5.

We believe that it is both important and possible for everyone children, teenagers, and adults to become more productive thinkers. By this we mean that they will be able to use their knowledge base, their values and styles, and their information-processing, intellectual management, creative thinking, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision-making skills effectively and confidently in many situations. To grow as a productive thinker means, of course, to become more competent as a person (cf. , Raven, 1984), a challenge in which a vast array of specific methods, techniques, or strategies could easily be identified.

More specifically, however, we have observed growing interest among educators in the school setting, as well as managers and trainers in the corporate setting, in providing people with practical but powerful tools for better thinking. Quite often, this interest is manifest in statements or training objectives and activities that focus on critical or creative thinking. Too often, unfortunately, these two emphases are separated, and it is not even uncommon for a program to focus entirely on one or the other. We believe that divergent (or creative thinking) tools and convergent (or critical thinking) tools should be considered as mutually important components of a systematic education or training experience; they are, really, two sides of the same coin. The tools for diverging help us to generate many, varied, or unusual possibilities, or to elaborate and make ideas richer and more complete. They create a rich and varied pool of possibilites from which to draw as problem solving, planning, or decision making tasks continue. They provide the raw material for more complex intellectual challenges and successful action. The convergent tools are also important and necessary, because they guide us in our efforts to analyze and refine the possibilities, and to choose and develop the possibilities that offer the greatest potential for implementation and action. Either set of tools, without the other, is incomplete and unsatisfying. To generate ideas, without having powerful tools to analyze them, is an invitation to becoming mired in a hopeless and bewildering array of choices. Conversely, if the possibilities are meager and insufficient, the most powerful converging tools will not produce a satisfactory result (this has been likened to shooting fleas with a cannon).

Even when we focus our attention specifically on the divergent and convergent tools within the broader construct of productive thinking, however, there is still a very extensive array of methods, techniques, and strategies from which to draw. Might some of these be considered as more fundamental, the basic tools that ought to be part of the repertoire of any productive thinker? To our knowledge, there is very little carefully-designed and controlled experimental research to guide us in answering this question or to establish that certain tools are, in fact, more essential or fundamental than others in determining subsequent ease of processing or successful outcomes. It would be very worthwhile, then, to pursue a series of studies that would consider the nature and demands of certain tasks in comparison to each other, and in interaction with various personal styles or characteristics and systematic variations in content or tasks. Such research might yield valuable information concerning the most appropriate ways to select or sequence a variety of tools.

In the absence of such a thorough empirical foundation, however, it seems reasonable to pose the question from a more experiential basis: do experienced productive thinkers, facilitators, or trainers find that there are some divergent or convergent tools that appear to be basic tools? Do some seem to be useful across a wide range of users and settings? Do some seem particularly helpful in laying a good foundation for more complex problem solving, planning, or decision-making efforts? In our work with groups, and in creating curriculum and training resources, we have begun to formulate a working response to this question. We share it in this article, not as a final or definitive response to the question, but as a proposal for review and discussion. If it is useful to you, we invite you to apply it. If you perceive gaps, either by way of omissions or inappropriate inclusions, we invite you to communicate with us about your ideas and experiences. Our current, working edition of a Productive Thinkers Basic Toolbox is below:Productive Thinker's ToolboxDivergent Tools for Generating IdeasBrainstorming: For any open-ended question, list many possible responses. Don't praise or criticize any ideas. What If/Just Suppose: Using imaginary exaples; (e. g. "What if you had a magic wand?") or posing questions contrary to fact ("What if pigs had wings?") Atttribute Listing: List the attributes of a particular item or situation and generate new ideas from each of the attributesIdea Checklists: Use words to "triiger" new ideas. Example: SCAMPER-Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Minify/Magnify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, Reverse or RearrangeForced Relationships: Consider a word an object, or a picture that seems unrelated to the problem and try to "force fit" ideas or connectionsMorphological Analysis: Generate many options for each of several main issues, then "mix and math" new combinationConvergent Tools for Analyzing IdeasAnalogies, Comparing and Contrasting: How is one thing like another thing? Tell how two things are alike or differentSequencing: Arranging items in relation to one or more ordering criteria (e. g. , "List these from biggest to smallest, or by which one might happen first to last. ")Making Deductions: Reaching a logical conclusion based on date or evidenceMaking Inferences: Based on the data, making and supporting reasonable guesses or likely predictions about the results or consequencesHits & Hot Spots: Select the most important / intriguing ideas, then gather them into categories or clusters that are related or "belong together"Analyze, Refine, Choose Ideas: ALU (Advatages-Limitations-Unique Possibilities); PPC (Pluses-Potentials-Concerns); PCA (Paired Comparison Analysis); or use an Evaluation Grid or Matrix.

Reference

Raven, J. (1984). Competence in modern society. London: H. K. Lewis and Co.