What skills does a critically thinking reader have if he recognizes his own assumptions and prejudices?

While most of our everyday brainpower is dedicated to automatic and routine tasks, employees with sharp critical thinking skills are an essential.

It’s so important that some thought leaders believe a lack of critical thinkers could contribute to business failures.

As a business leader, you might be asking:

1. Is it possible to teach employees critical thinking?
2. How can I assess a person’s critical thinking skills?
3. What are the necessary steps in critical thinking?
4. How can managers improve critical thinking skills in employees? 

To frame the conversation, let’s define what critical thinking is.

What is critical thinking, and why is it important?

Critical thinking is the ability to organize information logically to make a reasoned judgment. It involves the evaluation of data sources, facts and other research to make a reasonable conclusion by “connecting the dots.”

Critical thinking in the workplace means sorting among useful and arbitrary details to come up with a big-picture perspective that leads to an impactful decision or solution to a problem.

If you find yourself stuck in your career path, many times, it’s due to a lack of critical thinking.

Critical thinking skills are immensely valuable to employers because these employees often become high performers.

Can you teach critical thinking skills?

The answer is yes – you can teach critical thinking. It’s a skill that can be acquired and practiced. Over time, employees can become proficient.

The first step in teaching critical thinking starts with building an awareness of what it is.

There are many resources, courses and books available that teach these skills.  

Encourage employees to begin their education on critical thinking by:

• Reading a book
• Researching online resources
• Taking a class 

Initial awareness can then lead employees to find opportunities, including critical thinking exercises, to practice their new skills.

However, there’s more involved than just learning about critical thinking. Employees must also possess certain traits.

How do you assess a person’s ability to think critically?

Improving an employee’s ability to think critically involves more than their scoring well on job-specific hard skills such as software knowledge, writing ability or mathematical aptitude.

Employees also need emotional intelligence (EQ), the suite of soft skills in demand along with critical thinking, creativity and active listening.

To assess those employees who can develop critical thinking skills, start by looking for the desirable traits critical thinkers possess: 

• Curious and interested in learning more
• Sees connections between two different pieces of information that point to a trend or observation
• Open-minded listener eager to hear different perspectives
• Self-reflective in examining their own biases or prejudices
• Naturally creative in crafting solutions
• Self-confident, as confidence is essential in thinking independently, presenting conclusions and making decisions

The bottom line is to look for a healthy combination of interpersonal skills and cognitive intelligence. These employees have a higher potential for critical thinking than those who excel only in the technical sense.

Be aware of employees who may be deferential to the point of stifling their critical thinking skills. Encourage them to appropriately challenge authority and think outside the box as opposed to getting things “right.”

While some people are more inclined to catch on than others, most employees will benefit from critical thinking training. 

What steps are involved in critical thinking?

Coaching your workforce on critical thinking takes time, as there are different skills needed throughout the process.

Here are the five steps to deliberate thinking:

1. Ask basic questions when you set out to solve a problem.

Forming a hypothesis or proposing an explanation based on limited information is a starting point for any analysis.

2. Collect all information needed to prove your hypothesis.

This could include data that might show a broader range of possible causes and effects.

 Thorough data collection can take time and considerable effort.

3. Question underlying assumptions and examine accepted beliefs.

Look critically at processes that have “always been done this way.”

Try to break complex topics into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it.

4. Evaluate all existing evidence and be open to revising your hypothesis.

Pull in related information for a more systemic, broader understanding of the issue.

5. Develop conclusions based on data and present recommendations.

Drawing conclusions is the final and most crucial part of critical thinking.

How can you coach employees on critical thinking skills?

After the employee has read a book, taken a course or researched online resources to learn what critical thinking is, you can help them understand how critical thinking is used in the workplace. 

1. Discuss their everyday tasks and have them identify which require critical thinking.
2. For the highest priority tasks, ask them to launch the five-step approach to solve a problem that they’re facing.
3. Remind them to examine their cognitive biases. In other words, our brains naturally take mental shortcuts to explain what’s happening when there is limited information. Work to overcome this.
   
4. Reinforce their efforts as they look for insights and think about possible conclusions. Help them become a problem solver by encouraging their efforts in proposing a solution.
5. Offer feedback and help them formulate their thoughts once the employee has preliminary conclusions. Even experienced critical thinkers can struggle with clear communication when it comes time to present findings. 

Don’t be surprised if the person is afraid or nervous. It takes confidence to be a critical thinker, especially when failure is a distinct possibility.

Those who take to critical thinking often enjoy stewing on the problem before reaching conclusions, but they often won’t shy away from making a decision.

These employees typically show signs of a budding high performer. They look for challenges, ask to be on exciting projects and are curious about the strategic direction of the organization.

Not everyone will be confident enough to embrace the final step in critical thinking – making a decision and taking action. In this case, identify the employee’s strengths and reassign them to the position that is a better match. 

In summary

With so many changes in the workplace, almost everyone needs to be a critical thinker. Possessing critical thinking skills will help pave the way to retention and upward mobility for your workforce.

If you’d like more insights into developing a talent strategy for your company, download our complimentary e-book: How to develop a top-notch workforce that will accelerate your business.

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See Also: Assessing Internet Information

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas.  Critical thinking has been the subject of much debate and thought since the time of early Greek philosophers such as Plato and Socrates and has continued to be a subject of discussion into the modern age, for example the ability to recognise fake news.

Critical thinking might be described as the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking.

In essence, critical thinking requires you to use your ability to reason. It is about being an active learner rather than a passive recipient of information.

Critical thinkers rigorously question ideas and assumptions rather than accepting them at face value. They will always seek to determine whether the ideas, arguments and findings represent the entire picture and are open to finding that they do not.

Critical thinkers will identify, analyse and solve problems systematically rather than by intuition or instinct.

Someone with critical thinking skills can:

• Understand the links between ideas.

• Determine the importance and relevance of arguments and ideas.

• Recognise, build and appraise arguments.

• Identify inconsistencies and errors in reasoning.

• Approach problems in a consistent and systematic way.

• Reflect on the justification of their own assumptions, beliefs and values.

Critical thinking is thinking about things in certain ways so as to arrive at the best possible solution in the circumstances that the thinker is aware of. In more everyday language, it is a way of thinking about whatever is presently occupying your mind so that you come to the best possible conclusion.

Critical Thinking is:

A way of thinking about particular things at a particular time; it is not the accumulation of facts and knowledge or something that you can learn once and then use in that form forever, such as the nine times table you learn and use in school.

The Skills We Need for Critical Thinking

The skills that we need in order to be able to think critically are varied and include observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation, inference, explanation, problem solving, and decision making.

Specifically we need to be able to:

• Think about a topic or issue in an objective and critical way.

• Identify the different arguments there are in relation to a particular issue.

• Evaluate a point of view to determine how strong or valid it is.

• Recognise any weaknesses or negative points that there are in the evidence or argument.

• Notice what implications there might be behind a statement or argument.

• Provide structured reasoning and support for an argument that we wish to make.

The Critical Thinking Process

You should be aware that none of us think critically all the time.

Sometimes we think in almost any way but critically, for example when our self-control is affected by anger, grief or joy or when we are feeling just plain ‘bloody minded’.

On the other hand, the good news is that, since our critical thinking ability varies according to our current mindset, most of the time we can learn to improve our critical thinking ability by developing certain routine activities and applying them to all problems that present themselves.

Once you understand the theory of critical thinking, improving your critical thinking skills takes persistence and practice.

Try this simple exercise to help you to start thinking critically.

Think of something that someone has recently told you. Then ask yourself the following questions:

Who said it?

Someone you know? Someone in a position of authority or power? Does it matter who told you this?

What did they say?

Did they give facts or opinions? Did they provide all the facts? Did they leave anything out?

Where did they say it?

Was it in public or in private? Did other people have a chance to respond an provide an alternative account?

When did they say it?

Was it before, during or after an important event? Is timing important?

Why did they say it?

Did they explain the reasoning behind their opinion? Were they trying to make someone look good or bad?

How did they say it?

Were they happy or sad, angry or indifferent? Did they write it or say it? Could you understand what was said?

What are you Aiming to Achieve?

One of the most important aspects of critical thinking is to decide what you are aiming to achieve and then make a decision based on a range of possibilities.

Once you have clarified that aim for yourself you should use it as the starting point in all future situations requiring thought and, possibly, further decision making. Where needed, make your workmates, family or those around you aware of your intention to pursue this goal. You must then discipline yourself to keep on track until changing circumstances mean you have to revisit the start of the decision making process.

However, there are things that get in the way of simple decision making. We all carry with us a range of likes and dislikes, learnt behaviours and personal preferences developed throughout our lives; they are the hallmarks of being human. A major contribution to ensuring we think critically is to be aware of these personal characteristics, preferences and biases and make allowance for them when considering possible next steps, whether they are at the pre-action consideration stage or as part of a rethink caused by unexpected or unforeseen impediments to continued progress.

The more clearly we are aware of ourselves, our strengths and weaknesses, the more likely our critical thinking will be productive.

The Benefit of Foresight

Perhaps the most important element of thinking critically is foresight.

Almost all decisions we make and implement don’t prove disastrous if we find reasons to abandon them. However, our decision making will be infinitely better and more likely to lead to success if, when we reach a tentative conclusion, we pause and consider the impact on the people and activities around us.

The elements needing consideration are generally numerous and varied. In many cases, consideration of one element from a different perspective will reveal potential dangers in pursuing our decision.

For instance, moving a business activity to a new location may improve potential output considerably but it may also lead to the loss of skilled workers if the distance moved is too great. Which of these is the more important consideration? Is there some way of lessening the conflict?

These are the sort of problems that may arise from incomplete critical thinking, a demonstration perhaps of the critical importance of good critical thinking.

Further Reading from Skills You Need

The Skills You Need Guide for Students

Develop the skills you need to make the most of your time as a student.

Our eBooks are ideal for students at all stages of education, school, college and university. They are full of easy-to-follow practical information that will help you to learn more effectively and get better grades.

In Summary:

• Critical thinking is aimed at achieving the best possible outcomes in any situation. In order to achieve this it must involve gathering and evaluating information from as many different sources possible.

• Critical thinking requires a clear, often uncomfortable, assessment of your personal strengths, weaknesses and preferences and their possible impact on decisions you may make.

• Critical thinking requires the development and use of foresight as far as this is possible. As Doris Day sang, “the future’s not ours to see”.

• Implementing the decisions made arising from critical thinking must take into account an assessment of possible outcomes and ways of avoiding potentially negative outcomes, or at least lessening their impact.

• Critical thinking involves reviewing the results of the application of decisions made and implementing change where possible.

It might be thought that we are overextending our demands on critical thinking in expecting that it can help to construct focused meaning rather than examining the information given and the knowledge we have acquired to see if we can, if necessary, construct a meaning that will be acceptable and useful.

After all, almost no information we have available to us, either externally or internally, carries any guarantee of its life or appropriateness.  Neat step-by-step instructions may provide some sort of trellis on which our basic understanding of critical thinking can blossom but it doesn’t and cannot provide any assurance of certainty, utility or longevity.