Creative process

The creative process includes four different steps to function correctly. These steps are as follows, Searching for Challenges, Expressing the Problem or Issue, Investigating the Problem or Issue, and Producing Ideas. Each stage has a certain function in the creative process flow.

The first stage of the creative process is Searching for Challenges. It is common with creative thinking is where we as people are meeting challenges in and imaginative, original and effective way. We quite offend feel the need for challenges to be completely throughout. These challenges come in all shapes & forms of obvious issues and problems. Let’s say you allow your friend to use your lawnmower every time there grass grew. Then next you witness your friend a few time with someone else in the lawnmower then you saw he was cutting the whole blocks grass with your mower this could create a riff in your friendship.

The second stage of the creative process is Expressing the problem or Issue. This stage allows you to look for the best expression of the issue or problem that is currently happening. Take for instance the most helpful ideas to try to solve the problem or issue that you are experiencing. For example you are traveling and your luggage gets lost in the transport. Of course you have money and could buy more clothes but did not set up a rental car, now you are faced with the issue of spending more money than expected due to something beyond your control! What would be your next steps?

The third stage of the creative process is Investigating the Problem or Issues. This stage is part of the creative process flow which enables you to gather the information that is needed to deal correctly and effectively with the problem or issue that are currently happening. Back to the luggage being lost but you have extra money for emergency. You do remember that you added travel insurance to your flight. You can now take this information to the claims department and try to figure out a resolution without using the emergency money.

The last process of the creative stage is Producing Ideas. Now that you have gather all the information needed you can begin to produce an idea. Once you have generated enough ideas to decide on what your next step would be.
At my present employer I could be having a team building meeting and discussing current issues we are experiencing with our suppliers. The stages of the creative process come into action when we are trying to come up with possible solutions while working as a team. My verbal communication is just speaking the words and getting my point across as a sender of the message. Demonstrative communication is the tone of my voice which can encourage your team members, the receivers, to openly participate and actively come up with solutions for the problems being expressed. Then we would start to investigate all the problems we are having with our suppliers! Product not being ready on time, failure to notify if there is a break down in the stamping press etc. Lastly we commonly do a round table when we lay out everything to search for a possible resolution if any. We then start the last step of actually piecing together the final idea or plan to execute the correction process.
The issue at hand is one that is sadly quite common in the logistics world with foreign suppliers. Our corporation might depend on outside suppliers for virtually all of its products, such as the component for seat assembly but 90% of the company products are being imported from various foreign suppliers like China, Korea and Mexico. We depend on outside suppliers for selected components in its overall product line. This is where the break down offend happens, any malfunctions or break down that might occur we are not made aware until the next day due to the time difference! Which then will delay shipping of the components, which runs the risk of getting caught up in customs! After all the delays the product finally reaches us so we can create the end product. If we are late on our final delivery to the customer we run the risk of potentially shutting the customer down and receiving several fines & penalties. Not only does this affect cost savings but our image to the customer! Upper management needs to take in the teams concerns because we are the legs and eyes for the company. We see all the behind the scene actions the good, the bad and the ugly. The big picture is team work at the end of the day, as a group going through the creative process there is nothing we can’t accomplish.
In conclusion, the four stages of the creative process helps opens your mind to be more ideas and options and if the Director of logistics and General Manager do not consider making these changes, the company business will start to decrease within a year. When your critical thinking skills are lacking, poor decision making and planning result therefore causing your communication strategies to lack content! We can use what is known about how thinking skills develop to communicate more effectively. Enhance thinking skills and increase the likelihood that in our everyday life we can develop the skills needed when faced with open-ended problems. There are a couple of key points to keep in mind when devising critical thinking strategies. Is that you are engaged in a personal analyzing the entire content before providing an answer. Pretty soon you find yourself noticing the social definitions of critical thinking that rule many situations in your life. The Director of Logistics needs to search for more challenges and do more research on what is best for the suppliers, rather than rely on an easy contract like the foreign supplier in which a lot of our problems come from. The Director needs to produce more profit to the transportation cost and supplier cost and following the four stages of the creative process could aid her in achieving that goal.

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