There are many forms

of thinking style. Psychologists,

sometimes post these, in terms of helpful
and unhelpful styles. You will find many
lists for these, particularly focusing
on unhelpful forms of thinking such as
overgeneralizing, all or nothing thinking, awfulizing, perfectionism
and cognitive dissonance. You can also find
survey tools that can aid in classifying your preferred or
dominant thinking style. Here, we will
consider a series of widely acknowledged
thinking styles that can be useful in creativity
and problem-solving. For example, divergent thinking
concerns the approach to generate many possible solutions to a challenge or
opportunity. Conversely, convergent
thinking is a process of consideration of various ideas and
their refinement and selection in order to identify which ones
to take forward. Design thinking tends to
evolve phases of iteration, coming up with ideas, prototyping and
testing, revisiting previous considerations, problem-solving and
implementation. Through the iterative
process of ideation, prototyping and testing, problems can be transformed
into opportunities. This approach can be applied to both physical products
and services, and non-physical entities such as enterprises and organizations.
Systems thinking involves taking a holistic approach to how
different parts interrelate. Analytical thinking
involves breaking down a challenge or information
into its constituent parts. Critical thinking involves
taking into account a wide range of relevant
factors in evaluating an issue. The key aspect of critical
thinking is exploring the evidence that supports
a view or otherwise. Analogical reasoning involves
finding relation between two scenarios and
seeing if something of value can be inferred
as a result. Inductive reasoning involves
the use of knowledge and theories to inform a
conclusion or a new theory. Conversely, deductive reasoning
involves verification of a new or emerging theory by testing it against
different scenarios. Aspects of creative thinking can also involve some
of the following; brainstorming, using any of the approaches that we've
already introduced. Then, there's leveraging
your personal knowledge and experience. This can be shared with
others in order to distill any insights and help
keep the thinking real. You can deliberately
move into new territory, at the edge of
existing knowledge, using both familiar and
unfamiliar sources can help. Experimenting, exploring
connections and relationships, combining opposites. Regularly, re-examining
and revising an idea. We're going to give particular
attention to divergent, convergent, and
design thinking here.