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/