Establish a critical and creative thinking environment

Cultivating the work environment

It is essential as a leader to cultivate an environment where your team can apply critical and creative thinking to their work and interactions with each other. Being aware of the barriers to critical thinking is just as important.

Consider the following when identifying barriers to critical and creative thinking in your workplace.

1. Time constraints when assigning new projects.
2. Selection and availability of key stakeholders.
3. Policies and Procedures.
4. Legislative policy and process.
5. Code of Conduct.
6. Vision, Mission, Values, and the overall culture of the organisation.

Barriers to critical thinking

There following are barriers to critical thinking that may be present within the workplace.

Barrier	Description
Lack of opportunity	Little to no opportunity to practise critical and creative thinking within the job role
Lack of understanding/ comprehension	Individual or team finds understanding and comprehending tasks difficult.
Time	There is not enough time to practise creative and critical thinking due to deadlines/ timelines.  The opportunity was never scheduled as a part of project completion.
Lack of leadership support	Leaders and managers do not allocate enough time to spend with the team or individuals to teach, let alone nurture these skills. Leaders and managers do not offer support to practise these skills within the job role.

Self-Awareness

Innovative leaders have self-awareness, which allows them to know their strengths and weaknesses.

Critical thinking requires us to be self-aware to factor in anything that may influence the decision-making process leading to poor decisions and outcomes. Awareness of any barriers to critical thinking allows us to work on them to ensure we choose the right solution to any problems we encounter and make sound decisions.

As a leader, you, too, will need to practice your self-awareness and identify any possible barriers you may be experiencing. Self-reflections and self-evaluations are great tools you can use to practice self-awareness.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What was successful?
• What learning opportunities were offered?
• Were all points covered?
• What was most enjoyable?
• What was least enjoyable?
• What are the areas that need improvement?
• What critical and creative practices have been implemented in the workplace?

It is important to consider self-reflections may look different depending on the context you are applying them to. Questions are usually generic in nature and should cover a range of areas.

The following are some tips you should consider when writing a self-evaluation.

Be specific and provide examples

Write down what was successful, including your diligence, expertise, and abilities that warranted this success.

Back up your contributions with numbers

The numerical data collected provides a clear connection between performance and the results. They can be used to support claims and highlight areas of your success.

Frame weaknesses as opportunities

When practising self-reflection, you must ensure you capture improvement areas, not just your successes. Be honest with areas where you may have fallen short of the mark. However, do not frame this as a failure but as an opportunity for growth.

Keep track of your accomplishments

It is important to keep track of your overall performances throughout the year rather than on timely events. It is easy to forget certain achievements that were accomplished at the beginning of the year when you are ready to wrap up in December. Write about your successes as they happen. This can be achieved by keeping a running logbook entailing your reflections. (Tansey C, 2021)

Existing workplace objectives, processes, and resources

Within your workplace, systems will monitor progress and discover gaps in training.

Some of these systems may include workplace policies and procedures and staff evaluations. These procedures are a point to refer to when underpinning the expectations of managers and the team. Key performance indicators (KPIs) should be outlined within policies and relevant documentation to support them.

As a manager, you will often find yourself in a position where you must analyse your team's performance to help identify the gaps in their knowledge and training. These documents should be easily accessible, for example, via the workplace intranet.

Some policies you can refer to will help identify the gaps and steps to help fill them. These may include:

• Project Quality Policy and Procedure
• Professional Development Policy and Procedure
• Staff Management Policy and Procedure.
• Staff evaluation templates
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

The policies must be the most current and up-to-date version. The author of the policy must have the appropriate credentials and conduct proper research to have completed it.

Your research skills will have equipped you with the tools to identify where a policy may be outdated, inaccurate or unreliable. Your critical thinking skills will support you in analysing the validity and accuracy of the procedure to make decisions on whether it needs to be updated.

Policies and procedures should be reviewed frequently to ensure they have updated any changes to industry trends, requirements, and legislation.

Some organisations implement a Critical and Creative Thinking Policy and Procedure. The aim is to encourage and engage their team to practice these skills and apply them to projects.

Analysing workplace systems

When analysing the current workplace systems, there are questions that you need to factor in to determine whether or not updates are required.

Establish evaluation criteria

To improve the existing system, you will need something to measure against; this is an evaluation criteria. The criteria should include:

• Effectiveness
• Efficiency
• Quality
• Accuracy
• Currency
• Relevant legislation.

(Patton C.V, 2011)

When evaluating, you will need to consider the current system's impacts on the workplace, individuals, the budget, and the repercussions changes may have on the involved stakeholders.

The following list serves as a checkpoint when analysing workplace systems.

• Is the existing policy or system relevant to the current workplace environment?
• Has anything changed?
• Are there changes to organisational goals?
• Is the existing policy and procedure being followed correctly?
• Are the gaps in knowledge being addressed accurately?
• Are there any compliance changes in the workplace or legislation?
• Is there a need to change the implementation process? For example, when additional communication or staff training activities could be required.
• Does the policy need a complete rework? (EIT, n.d)

One of the key indicators of reliable sources is where the information came from. Government websites, for example, would be classified as a reliable sources of information. These websites are more than likely to house the most current information.

Identify alternatives

Consider whether there are alternative options available. In some cases, systems may only need a minor update rather than a complete rework, rewrite, or purchase (for example, software). Look for ways that combining alternatives generates better solutions. Relying on past experiences from other groups or evaluations/analyses helps to create a more thorough analysis and understanding. Ensure you brainstorm, research, and develop scenarios for new alternatives where possible.

Implement 

Once you have established the areas that need to be updated, you will need to implement the changes. Update the system where appropriate and put it into practise. For example, you may have updated the professional development policy and procedure. Instead of professional development being carried out once every six months, it may need to be facilitated once every two to three months to enhance knowledge and support progress.

Monitor

The changes made will need to be monitored to ensure they are working and maximising efficiency for the workplace and the employees.

Legislative requirements relating to workplace procedures

• Privacy and Protection of Personal Information Act 1998
• Work health and safety Act 2011

The following are the Work Health and Safety Acts relevant to each state and territory within Australia.

• Australian Capital Territory-
• New South Wales-
• Northern Territory
• Queensland -
• South Australia-
• Tasmania-
• Victoria-
• Western Australia-
• Anti-discrimination Acts
  • Age Discrimination Act 2004
  • Disability Discrimination Act 1992
  • Racial Discrimination Act 1975
  • Sex Discrimination Act 1984
• Intellectual property law

Workplace procedures must be built to adhere to the relevant legislation. This ensures best practice is implemented, and employees and stakeholders are covered where applicable (particularly in line with the mentioned procedures.

Legislation	Legislative requirement	Aim	Application in the workplace
Privacy and Protection of Personal Information Act 1998	The use of personal information	The privacy act sets out the rules for using and sharing personal information.	Employees’ personal information cannot be shared without the individual’s consent.
Work Health and Safety Act 2011	Personal health and safety in the workplace – identify your state or territory and the related act.	Employee health and safety must be prioritised to minimise risk of accident, injury or illness to all workers. WHS legislation also sets out the process for communication around workplace risk, hazard identification and incidents across the organisation.	Hazard identification review and reporting is completed regularly to ensure that employees have access to a safe and secure work environment.
Anti-discrimination	The right to fair and equitable treatment	Anti-discrimination legislation states that no person should discriminate against another based on age, race, gender, sex, and disability	All employees must be given equal access to opportunities for development and/or promotion.
Intellectual Property Law	The right to the protection of Intellectual property (IP) and other intangible assets related to doing business include patents, trademarks, designs, and secret processes and formulae.	Australian IP law is designed to encourage innovation and protect businesses that develop original IP to have a competitive advantage. Australia is also a signatory to several international agreements protecting IP in other countries.	The company’s trademarks, designs, and secret processes are protected from those who claim them to be their own.

Create a safe work environment

Creating a safe work environment is crucial under any circumstances. Toxic work environments are detrimental to health and mental well-being, teamwork, and professional rapport.

Some approaches that can be implemented to ensure a positive work environment and foster a strong team have been outlined in the following table, along with some processes to implement.

Approach	Description	Process
Act on good ideas	To build confidence and encourage participation, it is important as a leader to recognise and act on good ideas as they come. When a good idea has been proposed or suggested, it should be implemented, and acknowledgment or credit is given where it is due.	Identify strong suggestions, providing credit where credit is due. Ensure all who contributed to the collaboration process and idea specifically have been recognised and acknowledged. Narrow down ideas to identify best option Implement the most effective idea possible Allow the contributors to be involved in the implementation where possible Formally and informally, provide credit/recognition to those involved for their ideas/work.
Model critical and creative thinking	As a leader, you need to lead by example. If you want your team to practice critical and creative thinking, you must use role models it. You set the expectations for the team. Therefore, you need to set the tone for the type of critical and creative thinking you wish to see in others.	Involve your team in brainstorming sessions for your challenges/tasks. Where their ideas are applied, involve them in the implementation if appropriate. Share learnings and successes of these ideas/solutions for future consideration.
Encourage collaboration	Creativity often thrives in the group or team-orientated environments. As a manager, you should encourage teamwork and collaboration by allowing the team to collaborate and collate their ideas on specific tasks. Working in a collaborative team often inspires motivation, and they will likely come up with creative ideas bouncing off each other’s ideas for inspiration. Creativity often thrives in the group or team-orientated environments. As a manager, you should encourage teamwork and collaboration by allowing the team to collaborate and collate their ideas on specific tasks. Working in a collaborative team often inspires motivation, and they will likely come up with creative ideas bouncing off each other’s ideas for inspiration.	Regularly allocate time for the team to meet and collaborate/discuss challenges for consideration. This can be scheduled through calendar invites.  Encourage all those involved to participate and share their experiences and insights. Provide a structure that supports the flow of ideas, analysis, and implementation where appropriate.

Click on each of the following headings to learn additional practices that can be implemented when creating a safe environment for critical and creative thinking.

Managers must take the time to see the potential and analyse the risk.

Create a culture of critical thinking

When learning how to apply critical thinking in the workplace, it is important to create a safe learning environment for your team, and a culture of healthy debate and learning.

As a leader, you can facilitate debating within the work environment to develop critical thinking skills within your team.

Debating is a great tool that can be used to motivate critical thinking as it requires the participants to consider all angles of a topic (or motion as it is referred to in debating) for the team to effectively ‘win.’ The teams must be prepared for any argument against their claims and refute it confidently with facts they have researched.

As a leader, you may wish to encourage such sessions to practice critical thinking. However, you should set the motion/topic yourself. This allows you to stay in relative control of the debate avoiding sensitive topics (such as politics, money, religious reviews and so on) that may cause conflicts between the team.

Some of the ways you can encourage healthy debates are:

Rewards	Plan to disagree	Expect to be wrong
Reward participation, not winning ideas.	Critical and creative thinking can take time to debate and work through the options.	Expect to be wrong half the time. If you do not believe you could be wrong, it defeats the purpose of a healthy debate.

Creating the environment

To create an environment where exceptional thinking is the norm, you also need a structured process for generating and evaluating ideas.

Build your evaluation processes using the evidence-based practices illustrated in the following graphic.

1. Step 1: Generate and Evaluate Ideas.

   • Generate and evaluate ideas in the same time block. Interrupting idea-generation sessions with idea evaluation exercises produces ideas with higher originality. Take breaks during generative sessions to ask:
     • Which ideas have the highest potential?
     • Can we combine them?
     • Are there any new ideas stirred?

2. Step 2: Use your intuition

   • Use your intuition before conducting an analysis. Rather than choosing between your intuition and rationality, using both together will lead to better quality and faster decisions. Order matters. Start with your intuition by asking:
     • Which idea(s) do I feel would best answer the questions? Then, use rationality to validate your intuition.

3. Step 3: Ask the right questions

   • Ask the right questions at the right time. While common, simple rating mechanisms such as thumbs-up or down ratings or 5-star ratings do not produce valid idea rankings and are significantly outperformed by the multi-attribute scale. Instead, ask specific questions when evaluating:
     • Which would be most profitable?
     • Which would most quickly solve a customer complaint?

4. Step 4: Evaluate the feasibility

   • Evaluate feasibility in a group. Group work produces more feasible ideas, while individual work produces more original ideas. To get both original and feasible ideas, you need to start with individual time and end with group time.

The learning environment

Listed are the steps that can be taken to improve creating a workplace learning environment in your organisation. Begin by asking the right questions.

Step 1: Current state
What does your workplace environment look like?
Step 2: Improvements
Are there ways to improve it? Are there ways to improve it with your team?
Step 3: Process
What process will you put in place
Step 4: Learning opportunities
Formal or  informal learning opportunities available for their for critical and creative thinking
Step 5: Take charge
What will you do as a leader to facilitate these learning opportunities?
Step 6: Action plan
Be sure to use your critical thinking skills by beginning and asking yourself

Learning organisations and systems

Learning organisation has been interpreted and defined in many ways. For example, one definition stipulates, ‘A learning organisation is an organisation that actively creates, captures, transfers, and mobilises knowledge to enable it to adapt to a changing environment.’

The concept of a learning organisation was developed through the research of Peter Senge (a systems scientist) and his team. Organisational learning environments refer to how learning is facilitated within the workplace to ensure it continuously evolves. Learning organisation aims to encourage an interconnected way of thinking, bringing a sense of community culture to the workplace. Establishing a strong community culture fosters the feeling of dedication and commitment to the workplace; this is a key motivator for employees to work harder since they are committed.

Many characteristics make up a learning organisation.

Characteristics of organisational learning environments and related learning systems

There are five main characteristics of learning organisations. These have been outlined in the following graphic.

^{Adapted from IspatGuru, A Learning Organization and its Characteristics, 2014}

Systems thinking

Systems thinking is a conceptual framework that allows people to study businesses as constrained objects. Learning organisation uses this method of thinking when assessing the organisation and has information systems that measure the organisation's performance, including its various components.

Systems–thinking states that all the characteristics must be present at once within the organisation for it to be declared as a learning organisation. If some of these characteristics are missing, the organisation is less likely to reach the desired goal. Systems thinking is essentially the order that integrates the employees within the organisation and merges them into a cohesive body of theory and practice. The skills that are present within systems thinking include the ability to comprehend and address an issue as a whole and examine the interrelationship between the parts. It also involves the integration of various topics within the organisation.

Personal mastery

Personal mastery refers to employees' individual learning and growth. It involves training and continually improving on the following:

• Vision
• Energy
• Patience
• Professional and personal development.

Personal mastery requires commitment and dedication of an individual to learn- it cannot be forced on someone who does not want to learn. Those who learn quickly within their organisations have a competitive advantage over others.

Mental Models

Mental models have essentially instilled assumptions, generalisations, or images that play a role in influencing the way the world is understood and action is taken. Mental models need to be challenged in a learning organisation to be deemed as such. Organisations often have passed experiences embedded which essentially instil certain behaviours, norms, and values. When creating a learning organisation, replacing these confrontational attitudes with open culture encompassing curiosity and trust is essential.

If the organisation is to develop a capacity to work with mental models, then the employees need to learn new skills and develop new orientations. The only way for this to work is to implement and foster changes.

Building share vision

Developing a shared vision is essential in motivating employees to learn, as it creates a common identity that provides focus and energy for learning. The most successful visions typically build on the individual visions of the employees at all levels within the organisation. The creation of a shared vision can be hindered by traditional structures where the organisational vision is imposed from the top. As a leader, you need to nurture and encourage a shared vision for it to succeed.

The outcome of a successfully shared vision is the motivation and dedication of employees. Their engagement is based on their willingness rather than out of obligation.

Imagination and looking towards the future are the key to building a shared vision. It is essential to encourage a conversation to continue building on the vision.

Team learning

Team learning is viewed as aligning and developing a team's skills and capabilities to create the results its members truly desire. Team learning builds on personal mastery and shared vision. For this to truly succeed, employees need to be able to work cohesively and actively engage in discussions to share their visions. The team's skills will flourish because they are learning from one another.

As a leader, your responsibility is to strongly encourage team learning through open discussions, brainstorming sessions and group work.

The following video provides an overview of some of the key characteristics of learning organisations.

Critical thinking exercises

As a leader, it is important to facilitate critical and creative thinking opportunities for team members to apply critical thinking skills to workplace problems. There are many workplace problems that you can apply critical thinking to include:

• Training
• Projects requiring innovation
• Course development
• Transitions to hybrid working environments.

The following table illustrates some of the opportunities you can facilitate with the team within the workplace to address problems that may arise.

	Beginner	Progressing	Intermediate	Advanced	Threshold
Execute	Ask the team to rearticulate each assignment you give them before they begin.	Ask them break the assignment into sub-tasks. Approve sub-tasks before they begin work	Show examples of quality work and take them through step by step how their work differs	Ask the team to provide an estimation of how long each subtask is going to take and add it to a calendar	Ask them to share what they think should be done next or what could be done better
Synthesise	Provide opportunities to carry out low-risk synthesis work. That is work that will have minimal impacts on the existing project.	Ask the team to review their work and half it by at least 25-50%. This is to highlight they can filter the important aspects.	Have the team do resource-cons-trained thought experiments (For example, what if you could only share one insight, what if you only had five (5) minutes)	During updates, ask them to share insights first and concisely; interrupt them if they do not do it.	Have them wrap up internal, low-stakes team meetings.
Recommend	Request the team break down what they think before answering their question	After they make a case for their recommendation, ask them to make the case against their recommendations.	When making recommendations, ask them to propose two to three (2-3) recommendations in the order they would recommend- from most important to least important.	Ask them to convey the logic behind their recommendations visually (for example in the form a sequence model.	During team meetings, ask them what they think should be done about others’ work and have them answer questions of others in the team
Generate	Request they keep a list of ideas they have for the team based on upcoming projects or work tasks and share it regularly	When you run into a blocker (something preventing you from doing your work, delegate solving said blocker to them	Share only your vision or provide inspiration for a project and have them create a plan to turn the vision into a reality.	Regularly pose questions to the team. Where do you see the organisation progressing in 1 year, 3 years?	Encourage them mentor less experienced, emerging leaders

^{Adapted from Zarvana resources, Critical Thinking Roadmap Toolkit How to Become an Exceptional Thinker, n.d}

Practical exercises

Once you have understood the various levels of critical and creative thinking, various practical activities can be implemented for the team to practice these skills. As the manager, you need to come up with the initial goal, project or idea for the team to flesh out.

Some of these exercises have been outlined in the following table.

Mind Mapping session	Mind mapping sessions involve the team exploring a central idea. The team makes up the mind map branches with ideas and contributions. These ideas are fleshed out with keywords, images where applicable and suggestions on acting on ideas.
Wishful thinking	The sky is the limit in these sessions. Encourage the team to devise any possible idea for accomplishing a goal or target. For this exercise to succeed, all limits on budget, time and resources must be removed to truly dive into their imaginations.
Word Clusters	This exercise requires the team to describe a project or idea using 4 different keywords. These keywords become the pillar or the head of the cluster. Encourage the team to develop words that naturally align with the keywords they have come up with until they reach at least ten per keyword.
Brainstorming	Brainstorming has many techniques to execute it. One is splitting the team into small groups and giving them 2-3 minutes to jot down as many ideas as possible about a specific goal or problem. Points that should be covered include, what the team understand or already know about the goal or problem, what needs to be researched, the significance and any ideas they may think of.
SWOT Analysis	This exercise requires the team to come up with a solution to a problem or challenge and document the following: Strengths – what everyone likes or agrees regarding the idea Weaknesses – what is unappealing Opportunities – what could be improved Threats – what risks does it involve
10 ideas in 10 minutes	Putting a time limit on these tasks adds a little pressure to the team when generating ideas. However, it is designed to push the team to think on their feet. Split the team into pairs or groups of three and ask them to devise 10 possible solutions to a problem you have given them.  *Note: this exercise does not have to last the full 10 minutes; you can adjust this as you see fit, with fewer ideas in a shorter time period. For example, five ideas in 5 minutes. (Strimaitye A, 2019)

The following video provides you with tips on making a mind map.

Feedback

As a leader or manager, providing feedback is integral to your role. Feedback is given to help encourage, nurture, and build on your team's existing skills and confidence, especially where critical and creative thinking is concerned.

When you are issuing feedback, you will need to consider the language you are using because this profoundly impacts the individual, especially for future learning. They will likely become confused if your feedback is too complicated and not structured. Too vague or not enough detail may hinder improvement.

You can use three types of language when providing feedback. These include:

• Facilitative
• Directive
• Corrective.

Facilitative

Facilitative feedback involves raising questions to encourage and prompt independent reviews. By asking questions such as ‘what was the purpose of this argument?’ or 'what were you aiming to achieve in this project?'

By asking such questions, you may be able to encourage your employee to identify their own errors. It is important to pair the questions with details of what it is they did not meet to ensure they understand the future improvements.

Directive

Directive or instructional feedback essentially tells your employee (s) what needs improvement and how to improve. Your language here is important as you need to tell them what it is you want them to do, for example, ‘expand on this point further,’ ‘remove this section as it is not relevant to the argument,’. By providing directive feedback, you can ensure your employees are addressing exactly what needs work and not missing the mark.

Corrective

Corrective feedback requires you to mark up exactly where errors have been made. This is commonly used when checking spelling and punctuation; you may wish to highlight or circle the text with the errors. You can also use it to highlight chunks of information that need reworking or removal.

One other factor to consider when producing feedback is prioritising. As you work through this, identify what the highest priority is. For example, you may highlight work that does not meet compliance; there are incorrect dates, timelines are not accurate and so on. This is commonly known as higher-order concerns or HOC. Spelling, punctuation, grammar, word choice and sentence structure are considered lower-order concerns or LOCs.

The following table highlights the key points you need to consider for feedback to be beneficial.

Constructive	Feedback needs to highlight both strengths and weaknesses. But for feedback to be constructive, it needs to include areas in which your team can improve.
Timely	Feedback needs to be provided as soon as it is necessary. This can be done throughout different stages of a project or right at the end. This ensures the task completed is still fresh and has not been left for too long.
Meaningful	For feedback to be meaningful, it needs to target the team's individual needs and be linked to the specific areas of improvement or the task at hand.

There are many types of feedback you can provide to your team based on their performance of tasks, including the following.

• Informal
• Formal
• Formative
• Summative
• Peer.

Informal

Informal feedback generally occurs at any time and often occurs in the moment. Informal feedback thrives on the rapport between yourself and your team to encourage, train and guide them in critical and creative thinking.

Formal

Formal feedback is usually planned and involves a process. Formal feedback may come through after proposals or projects have been submitted for review or a project is yet to be finalised. In these cases, feedback will be carried out and measured against compliance requirements.

Formative

Formative feedback is designed to monitor progress. It is usually given to help improve and prevent repeating errors and occurs regularly.

Summative

Summative feedback is designed to evaluate the individual's learning and is carried out upon completion of a task or project. Summative feedback comprises detailed comments on specific aspects of the work that need further development or rework.

Peer

Peer feedback comes from sharing work with others. This is a great opportunity for the team to share their work with others, gain perspective and practice giving feedback themselves. Peer reviewing and feedback helps sharpen the eye for detail from both the reviewer and the one who produced the work.

The following video outlines the importance of giving constructive feedback.

Knowledge Check

Work through the following three (3) questions. Click the arrows to navigate between the tasks.