Creativity and Lateral Thinking

CAF: Consider All Factors

THE FACTORS INVOLVED

CAF is a crystallisation of the process of trying to consider all the factors in a situation. This thinking operation is essentially related to action, decision, planning, judgement, and coming to a conclusion.

People naturally assume that they have considered all the factors, but usually their consideration is limited to the obvious ones. Turning CAF into a deliberate operation switches attention from the importance of the factors to looking around for all the factors. Clearly it is difficult to consider all the factors, so in the teaching situation consideration can be limited to the ten most important factors (or any other number), or the lesson can be taught in terms of:

·         the factors affecting oneself

·         the factors affecting other people

·         the factors affecting society in general.

This gives the lesson structure.

The emphasis of the lesson is on the factors that have been left out in a decision, plan, etc. In doing a CAF, students try to ensure that all important factors are listed in looking at each other's thinking, students try to spot which factors have been neglected. The CAF may be applied to one's own thinking as well as to the thinking of others: "What factors have I left out here?"

CAF differs from PMI in that PMI is a reaction to an idea whereas CAF is an exploration of a situation before coming up with an idea. The two do sometimes overlap because some of the factors that have to be considered obviously have a plus or minus aspect. The intention with a CAF is to be as complete as possible and to consider all factors rather than looking at them in terms of favourable or unfavourable factors.

CAF = Consider All Factors:

When you have to choose or make a decision or just think about something, there are always many factors that you have to consider. If you leave out some of these factors, your choice may seem right at the time but will later turn out to be wrong. When you are looking at other people's thinking, you can try and see what factors they have left out.