Effective problem solving: analytical and creative thinking in decision making

¶ … real life situation, there is need for both the creative analytical thinking, indeed the two more often than not work together in adding value to each other when making decisions or giving solutions to a situation.

Creative thinking relates to crating things and forming ideas which hitherto were non-existent. It shows up in the imaginative capability of the individual as he thinks outside the normal realm that all others would think in and brings out a solution or observation that would otherwise remain concealed from the rest.

Analytical thinking on the other hand concerns the attention to the little details and narrowing down on every little aspect that there is. It is ore systematic and well arranged to details every single concept pre-arranged and thought out before being scheduled for or put where it is finally put, nalytical thinking is quite systematic.

The modern workplace requires people, who can make decisions that will give the company an upper hand in the competitive market, solve complex business problems and as well se the bigger picture as they consider the possible consequences. This is where creativity is required, it has no schooling but the details about the rules of the trade, the technical calculations and professional guide to the company are acquired from academic institutions and that is the analytical skills that are required. The two cannot work separately but a balance of both works perfectly to give impressive results (Perner, L.,2011).

The other balance of the two comes in a situation where creative thinking is viewed as divergent and gives many possible solutions to a problem. The creative thinker will feed the group will a number of workable and sensible solutions to a problem. The creative mind on the other hand gives specific and well considered solutions to a given problem or challenge. The two will them complement each other, in that, the analytical mind will sieve the many ideas presented by the creative mind and narrows them down to the most likely solutions to a problem, then the creative mind will come in again to ensure implementation process is affected. This forms another co-existence between the two approaches (Ban Jar, S., 2010).

The analytical thinking is more convergent, narrowing down to the single most important aspects and picking on those as the answers hence producing answers, while the creative thinking will generate the various options hence giving the ideas. There is again a relation between the two since the answers could be derived from the ideas given since the analytical mind will ask 'why' as the creative will ask 'why not'.

When providing a solution, the creative thinker will give room to all the possible solutions, assistance and all the possible action plans while the analytical thinker will formulate one particular cut out plan for action. If the two thinkers are left to work independent of each other, then there can be stagnation in the application of the solutions since the analytical fellow will deem it a failure once his single solution fails. Here the support of the creative mind will be needed to help look at the next possible solution.

The creative thinkers have a strong gut feeling in them and once they make a decision they trust their decisions and go by them. On the other hand the analytical thinkers depend upon the guided experimental systems in order to make decisions and are hesitant of making decisions without a pre-formulated way or formula that have been used before. The two will complement each other again here for instance a situation where an urgent decision has to be made and it is a new decision then the creative mind will help, but if it is a decision that needs precision like a previous one then the analytical mind will come into play.