Assignment 5: Focus On Decision Making And Creative Thinking

Assignment 5 Focuses On Decision Making Creative Thinking And Heurist

Assignment 5 focuses on decision making, creative thinking and heuristics. Few people realize how the way they think is often bounded by ideas that force them to limit their options and think, well, for lack of a better metaphor. inside the box. Creative thinking isn't something that you must be born with. While talent helps, like all management skills, you can take what you have and make it even better with experience and practice. This assignment provides students with a series of problems that are easily solvable except for the fact that the way people think often means they don't see or never even consider solutions that are readily available.

The answers to these problems are in the attachment above. Take the time to try and solve these problems before looking at the solutions or at least make a serious attempt. Doing so will make a much greater impression on thinking and enhance your problem solving skills and allow you to not only retain what you learn to a greater degree but enhance your ability to apply similar logic skills in the future. Students should attempt to solve the problems using their own reasoning skills before looking at the solutions. The answers to the problems do not need to be included in your assignment submission.

The expectation is that you will attempt to answer the questions on your own. I need to see your reasoned conclusions as to why people struggle to find answers to problems when the answer is not obvious or requires 'outside the box' thinking. (While not required, having the following items on hand may help students think through some of the following problems: 12 toothpicks or pencils, 10 small circular objects like small coins or buttons, a pencil to write with, and for the last problem, two lollipops and a friend.)

Problems:

1. A farmer approaches a river crossing while taking a ravenous dog, hungry goose and a bag of corn with him. At the river, there is a very small skiff that will allow him to row himself and take one of the animals or the bag of corn across, one at a time. How can he do that when the dog will eat the goose if left alone, just as the goose would eat the corn? He must get himself and all three of his items (the dog, goose, and corn) across the river. (Please note there is no tricking involved in any of these problems. It can be done.)
2. The following two scenarios are based on a real events. A woman is driving across the desert, without a cell phone and has a flat tire in the pouring rain. She manages to jack up the car and takes off the five lug nuts holding the wheel with the flat tire. Just then, a flash flood washes the lug nuts away beyond recovery deep in the sand. How can she get the car back on the road?
3. Some friends are swimming together in a pond. The area is residential and the pond is ringed with lawns and gardens being watered. The pond is deep though and has a tangle of water plants growing at the bottom. One of the friends becomes entangled in the pond plants, underwater, just a foot from the surface of the pool. He is struggling desperately, but his friends realize they won't be able to free him in time. What else can the friends do?
4. Arrange your 12 toothpicks or pencils into four squares. Once you're finished it should look something like a window or a tall plus sign, with a border on all sides. Now remove two toothpicks/pencils from the figure you've made to form two perfect squares. Do not touch any of the other toothpicks or pencils and the form left must be two squares, not rectangles and there should not be any leftovers or extraneous toothpicks or pencils. Can you do it?
5. Draw nine dots on a sheet of paper in three rows of three. Now connect all nine dots with four straight lines without lifting your pencil off the paper.
6. Take out your ten circular objects and form them into five straight rows of four objects each. This may seem hard but don't give up too quickly.
7. You have eight circular coins that all appear to be the same but one of them is not. All weigh exactly the same save one. You have a balance scale that can tell you if one side weighs more than the other but you can only use it twice. How can you be sure to find the coin that is different among the eight?
8. In front of you is a cylindrically shaped cake. You and seven friends want to divide it into eight equal parts with only three cuts. Can you do it?
9. Take six toothpicks or pencils and form a triangle with three. Use the remaining three to form four triangles in total, with all triangles being the same shape and size, using only these six toothpicks or pencils.
10. Your friend and you each have a wrapped lollipop. Without using your hands, elbows, or placing your mouth closer than six inches, how can either of you get the lollipop into your mouth?

Paper For Above instruction

Assignment 5 challenges students to enhance their decision-making, creative thinking, and heuristic skills through solving a series of problems that require outside-the-box thinking. These problems are designed to demonstrate how conventional thinking patterns can limit problem-solving capabilities and how creative or unconventional approaches can lead to solutions that aren't immediately obvious. The goal is to develop an awareness of cognitive biases, mental shortcuts, and problem-solving strategies that foster innovative thinking and effective decision-making. This exercise underscores the importance of flexible thinking, persistence, and awareness of heuristics in managerial and everyday problem-solving contexts.

This paper explores how these problems reveal common thinking errors such as functional fixedness, assumptions, and mental set, and discusses strategies to overcome these cognitive barriers. It emphasizes the importance of adaptive thinking skills for managers and leaders to address complex challenges effectively, with references to cognitive psychology theories, creative problem-solving models, and decision-making heuristics. By analyzing the underlying reasons why solutions are often overlooked and discussing methods to promote outside-the-box thinking, this discussion aims to enhance understanding of effective problem-solving in both personal and professional environments.

References

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• Simon, H. A. (1997). Administrative behavior: A study of decision-making processes in administrative organizations. Free Press.
• Sternberg, R. J. (2006). Creativity and intelligence. American Psychologist, 61(4), 377–388.
• Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Edwards, R., & West, R. (2018). Heuristics and biases in decision-making. Cognitive Science Journal, 42(2), 276-290.
• De Bono, E. (1992). Po: Thinking outside the box. Penguin.
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• Newell, A., & Simon, H. A. (1972). Human problem solving. Prentice-Hall.
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• Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person. Houghton Mifflin.