Ideation and critical thinking

Creativity and critical thinking, as well as communication and collaboration skills, are considered core workplace attributes for the 21st century, and particularly in relation to complex problem solving. Generally speaking, creativity is associated with generating ideas, while critical thinking is associated with judging them. In practice, however, the two are not so easy to separate. That is, creativity without critical judgment tends toward the fanciful or the impractical. At the same time, critical thinking gets short shrift when reduced to making a judgment, since, at its best, critical thinking is also a way of making a contribution. That is, critical thinking is fundamentally creative in the sense that its aim is to produce something new: an insight, an argument, a new synthesis of ideas or information, a new level of understanding. Thus creativity and critical thinking are improved when in symbiotic relationship with one another. This suggests that ideation, as a creative act, benefits from recognising the role of critical thinking in ensuring the value of novel ideas. See also: https://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/11/at-the-intersection-of-creativity-and-critical-thinking/

Pandemic as generator of ideas

As circumstances are changing under the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic so too must certain ways of living, working and even thinking. For example, rules on social distancing are having an impact on the ways people work and how they travel to work (working from home affects the use of public transport and office space requirements), on the ways people do their shopping (online sales impact distribution and point of sale arrangements) or on the ways education is organised and delivered (online learning impacts the need for traditional teaching and learning spaces). Faced with such challenges to contemporary ways of living and working, designers, through creative questioning (what-ifs), are well placed to help deliver innovative solutions. But attention should be given to the limits to idea communication during a period of social distancing, that is, online communication at the expense of physical presentation and encounters. Or, what is being lost if ideators cannot show, share or collaborate ideas face-to-face?