Applying Critical Thinking - An Important Survival Skill For Companies
Every day we make decisions. In the workplace and in our private lives we act on information (incoming and what we already know), to determine our actions, and by extension, affect those around us. Should we revise a certain policy? Should we begin a formal approach to managing poor performance? Who should do what work?
Those that subscribe to a "rationalist" approach to decision-making (and who often teach others rational problem-solving methods), would lead us to believe that the best decisions are those that are made by weighing the information -- the pro's and con's, for each alternative in a formal, systematic way. While this is sensible, people who have taken rational problem-solving seminars point out that it just isn't that simple, and have suggested the following:
Many situations are so complicated that to consider all of the relevant factors results in "analysis paralysis".
There are usually so many unknowns, particularly with respect to the people side of problems that it is often impossible to include those unknowns into one's problem- solving, rendering the process virtually useless. For example, if one is designing a computer chip, one can usually evaluate one design against another, on factors such as cost, efficiency, etc. What is problematic is whether one design or another will be more "attractive" to potential purchasers.
The rational approach to problem-solving is stultifying, boring and time consuming. Life is largely unpredictable and somewhat uncontrollable, so attempting to predict and control everything logically simply is not realistic.
These are valid objections. However, rational, systematic approaches to decision- making are useful tools, to be applied, within reason, to situations where they can be effective. But not everywhere.
So, is the choice between being overly committed to long, logical analysis, vs. decision-making based on intuition (whatever that means), and emotions? No. What we can do is to use a more flexible approach to decision-making that does not require a long, drawn out process, but incorporates critical thinking so that we are not overly swayed by non-rational ways of thinking.
What Is Critical Thinking?
Craig Hassel, of the University of Minnesota defines critical thinking as follows:
It is the process of thinking about one's thinking, a conscious evaluation of one's thoughts. Critical thinking can be understood as a way of becoming aware of and taking control of one's own thinking processes in order to think more effectively. It is consciously directing one's thinking to make it more rational, clear, accurate, and consistent.
Critical thinking helps us ask relevant questions, weigh evidence offered in support of arguments, interpret complex problems, and make wise decisions. This is especially important when you realize that many problems do not lend themselves to clear-cut solutions.
Yes, But What Does That Mean?
To understand critical thinking, one has to have some sense of how human beings process information. We are biologically set up to make sense out of information and experience by summarizing it, or more technically, to reduce the amount of detail through the use of concepts. For example, we can "decide" that an unknown animal is a cat using some very few bits of information...we don't need to count the whiskers, for example. Simply knowing that an animal possesses whiskers helps us decide, regardless of number.
The upside to this is that we can survive in a complex world, by virtue of our intelligence, rather than our physical ability. The downside is that our summarizing of information about problems may cause us to make the wrong decision, particularly when we act upon uncritically accepted assumptions or "experience summaries".
For example, let's take the situation of a staff member working for you. John is a person who clearly differs from you in terms of his values, work ethic and so on. Over time, there will be a tendency for you to apply some summarizing label to John -- perhaps, difficult, or lazy, or even incompetent.
After a time, you note that John has become less productive than other staff members, when previously his production has been above average. If you allow your summarizing labels to influence your decision regarding the situation, you might decide to reprimand, or move to more formal disciplinary processes. If you view John as lazy, you would be more likely to attribute his change in output to this "characteristic". This would be a good example of non-critical thinking, since you would not be examining your own thought processes to determine whether your underlying assumptions were accurate or adequate. The result could well be that your choice of action would be incorrect, and that the situation might be rectified via other, more simple measures.
A critical thinking approach to the issue might yield much different, more constructive actions.
Towards Thinking More Critically
In order to think more critically, we must be willing to identify and explore our own emotional positions on issues, and our biases and "perceptual goggles". Interestingly enough increasing our own awareness of these factors with respect to particular problems helps us avoid ineffective decisions, while at the same time, helping us learn about ourselves.
Professor Hassel, in his paper "Why Critical Thinking", suggests the following:
- Treat your first reaction to a situation, issue or person as temporary. Resist the urge to pass judgment based only upon initial reactions. Have you observed carefully?
- Examine your reaction. Try to understand why you reacted the way you did. What assumptions were you making? Is your reaction a conditioned response? What previous experiences contributed to your reaction?
- Is the issue clear? If not, can it be broken down into manageable questions? Many problems are vague and require effort to identify. Do not assume that your perception of the problem is shared by all.
- Think of alternative responses to the person, situation or issue. Try and put yourself within the perspective of someone else. Try to reason empathetically within opposing viewpoints. Be as open-minded and fair-minded as possible when considering alternative responses.
- Do you know enough to decide among alternatives? Must more evidence be gathered? What kind of information is needed? Often it is not immediately apparent what additional information is needed or where to find it. How much evidence is enough? Remember that no evidence is beyond question.
- Which interpretations or alternatives are best supported by the evidence?
- Distinguish between the person and the idea. Distinguish between personalities and what people think. Remember that interpretation of evidence is a subjective process.
- Understand and articulate as clearly as possible the criteria upon which your judgments are based.
- Qualify your judgments appropriately and without exaggeration. Seldom are solutions unequivocally correct; problems often have multiple solutions that may depend upon context.
Conclusion:
Applying critical thinking can help you learn about your own thinking processes, biases, assumptions and blinkers, while at the same time yielding more effective decisions. A critical thinking approach is a good middle ground, between formal and lengthy "rational problem-solving", and completely off the cuff, unanalytical decision-making. So, what about the example of John, the "lazy" employee mentioned earlier? We will leave you with an exercise. If the manager was applying a more critical thinking approach, what would s/he have done? | 
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