What are the 3 Most Important Critical Thinking Skills You Can Master?
Nick Lechnir, ACB, CPD
Vice President Education TM - Learning and Development Administrator at Optum Serve
Critical thinking skills are incredibly valuable. You have the most in-demand skills in almost every sector of the job market if you can master critical thinking. They are so valuable and sought after because they are considered relatively scarce. That's because critical thinking is much more complicated than it looks.
Critical thinkers do not jump to conclusions. Instead, they take the time to consider different options and don't get too attached to one point of view or the outcome. They do not stick to one solution. Rather, they know that most solutions are temporary and will improve over time with new information.
Critical thinkers tend to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources. They carefully weigh the strengths of conflicting views and apply logical reasoning. Critical thinkers are both open to the viewpoints of others and extremely independent in their judgments.
Mastering these three elements of critical thinking is essential if you want to excel at work or in recruiting:
1. Anticipatory learning
This is why you should care about predictive learning: naturally, the more you learn, the more you know. But here's more: All the leading research shows that learning also strengthens your mind. If you are not actively learning, your mind weakens just like any muscle.
No matter how smart you are, if you are not actively learning, you will steadily lose those wisdoms over time. The best way to build strong mental muscles is the same as physical ones: exercise them regularly. This means researching information, practicing technique, and weighing several competing perspectives.
Stored knowledge is the result of learning good knowledge. Recorded skills are the result of practicing good technique. Stored wisdom is the result of weighing many competing good perspectives. "Good technique" means keeping an open mind when it comes to non-physical skills. This means suspending judgment, questioning assumptions and constantly seeking the best new knowledge, technology and perspective.
2. Solving Problems
In today's information environment, so many answers to so many questions are at hand. Many people today are simply not used to really thinking. Without much experience in problem solving, it's no surprise that many people are often confused when faced with unexpected problems.
In general, you don't need to make major decisions based on your current rating. You will do much better if you can rely on the experience you have gained in the organization you are working for.
External solutions are simply best practices that have been captured, converted into standard operating procedures, and implemented throughout the organization for employees to use as job aids.
The most common thing to do is simply check this sequence:
If A happens, do B.
If C happens, do D.
If E occurs, do F.
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What job aids do you have at your disposal to solve recurring problems? If you already have such job aids, how can you better use them as teaching aids?
Here's the good news. Once you master these best practices, you'll not only be able to solve certain expected problems, but you'll also be much better able to solve unexpected problems. By applying concrete step-by-step solutions to recurring problems, you learn a lot about good problem solving over time.
This takes lots of practice. It's easy to get frustrated and overwhelmed when you don't have a clear path to problem-solving. Take it easy and keep trying by following logical steps.
3. Making decisions
Decision making is not the same as mere brain power, mental capacity or natural intelligence. It is not about accumulated knowledge, memorized knowledge, or rote learning. It is more than mastering techniques and tools.
Good decision making is about predicting likely outcomes, the ability to see cause and effect relationships, and projecting the consequences of one event and action over another. The irony is that learning from the past is the only way to develop the ability to predict the future in order to move forward.
However, experience alone does not teach you good judgment. The key to learning from experience is to pay close attention and aggressively learn from your experiences. If you can see patterns in causes and their effects, you can start to get more familiar with thinking ahead. Ultimately, this is the key to making better decisions.
What have your experiences been with critical thinking, problem-solving and anticipatory learning?
I sincerely appreciate your interest and support. Our mission is to always provide great content in helping you learn more about critical thinking skills and critical speaking skills.
Always keep leaping forward,
NJ
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