em
The human brain has two phases in the creative process: to produce ideas and to judge them. Recently in my work place, I had to use the creative process to solve a problem.
The first stage of the creative process is searching for challenges. As the Assistant Kitchen Manager in the restaurant, I constantly have to look for original ways to meet challenges in an original and effective way. I don’t usually have to seek out challenges as they come to me in the form of an obvious problem. One night, one of our food runners named Mason arrived for his shift at 4:00pm. He had worked earlier that day from 11:30am to 2:00pm. He doesn’t drive a vehicle so he stays in the nearby shopping center and returned later that day for his evening shift. This is where the challenge began: Mason came back to the restaurant reeking of alcohol and bragged to several team members that he drank in between his shift. I immediately identified this as a challenge that needed to be addressed. The first stage of the creative process represents the habit of searching for challenges on a constant basis but this challenge was obvious to everyone.
This is where the second stage of the creative process shifted: expressing the problem or issue. The problem was that we had a team member who had drunk alcohol between his shifts and thought it would be alright to come back to work. In order for me to properly express the problem, I first had to address the most common mistake in making the identification: Was I only seeing this from one perspective? I asked some fellow team members who were working that shift if they had heard the same information that I had and they had confirmed the facts. The issue was as clear as day and thus transitioned into the third stage of the creative process: investigating the problem.
During this process, I developed a personal curiosity about the situation I was dealing with. As a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous for nearly four years, I wondered why Mason would show up to work drunk. I asked myself, “Is Mason and alcoholic or does he just make unwise choices?” I have known Mason roughly three years now and have observed his lack of work ethic and blatant carelessness. He is the type of individual who cares only about his own well being and even less of others. For this particular circumstance, I was able to use three techniques of curiosity that evening. I observed what was going on that evening. Normally, Mason is loud and raucous; but tonight he was far beyond that. He shouted and screamed across the restaurant alarming team members and guests. I took note of the other server’s dissatisfaction in his actions. I watched how he acted and reacted to certain team members and was met with negative responses by all. Not everyone had known that he was intoxicated, only a few did. Lastly, I recognized the opportunity in the controversy. Mason was known for his inept behavior and insubordination on a daily basis. If he left the team it would only benefit the restaurant.
The problem in this situation was that it had personal ties to my own struggles with alcohol which ended four years ago. I needed to try to view this from other perspectives to ensure that mine wasn’t askew. One perspective was that Mason did in fact have a problem with alcohol and needed help. Maybe it was just a blatant case of misunderstanding. He could have lied and said that he was drinking but actually didn’t. Or he could have spilled beer on himself from running food and drinks to different tables.
I was able to refine my expression of the problem and decided the best action to take based on what action I should take. My action was look out for everyone’s best interest that night. As I began to think of a different course of action, the fourth stage of the creative process came into play. I began to produce ideas about how to handle the situation. Should I confront Mason and question him? This wouldn’t be a good idea because he might become hostile or something could backfire. Do I call the crisis hotline? The crisis hotline is usually for things that would involve the press or news interaction. Should I just say nothing and completely ignore my own morals and ethics? I definitely wouldn’t just stand by and let something like this pass as acceptable. The objective in this stage is to generate enough ideas to decide on the proper action to take based off of personal ethics and beliefs. Chapter 5 in the text states that “a creative idea is both imaginative and effective”. I constructed the pros and cons of what could potentially unfold and quickly constructed how the scenario could turn out.
Once I had the facts, I confronted the manager on duty and we discussed the situation. We knew that he had been drinking and admitted to several employees that he had done so and I knew that the right action would be taken. The manager pulled Mason into the office and questioned him. After they both came out of the office, Mason was allowed to return to his shift and continue to work. I couldn’t believe it! I questioned the manager and he said that he couldn’t smell the alcohol on Mason but he did admit to him that he had consumed alcohol just an hour ago. Now I was dealing with a drunken team member and a manager who failed to make the correct judgment call. This posed a huge health and safety hazard to the team and the guests.
I decided to text message the General Manager who was not working that evening. I informed her of what happened and she quickly got hold of the manager who was working that night. Mason was sent home shortly thereafter. When I left the restaurant and went home that night, I wrote an account of what happened and sent it to my GM and the Regional Operations Director and informed him exactly what happened that evening. The next morning Mason was terminated and a message was sent to the entire team about what can happen if you show up under the influence at work.
Using critical thinking in this process allowed me to go through the proper course of actions that evening. I believe that the ideas I produced along the way allowed me to thoroughly investigate the problem and come up with some logical solutions.