Critical Thinking Means Business
When more than 400 senior HR professionals were asked in a survey to name the most important skill their employees will need in the next five years, critical thinking ranked the highest – surpassing innovation or the application of information technology. Such a response reflects how the nature of work – and the skills required – have been changing dramatically.
With globalization and the increased speed of business, employees at every level are facing an increasingly complex flow of information. Work settings are changing rapidly, and employees are moving into new roles, often with limited direction. Employees can no longer rely on others to make key decisions. They often must make them on their own, and quickly. And the decisions have to be good ones. If they fall short, there may be no time to recover.
Good decisions require focusing on the most relevant information, asking the right questions, and separating reliable facts from false assumptions – all elements of critical thinking. And yet too few employees possess these essential skills. A survey of HR professionals conducted by SHRM and The Conference Board found that a full 70 percent of employees with a high school education were deficient in critical thinking skills. Even among employees with a four-year college education, 9 percent were deficient in critical thinking skills, 63 percent had adequate skills, and only 28 percent were rated excellent critical thinkers.
Many business leaders also come up short. Senior executive-development professionals report that the competency that next-generation leaders lack the most is strategic thinking, which hinges on critical thinking skills. Many next-generation leaders also lack the ability to create a vision or to understand the total enterprise and how the parts work together – both competencies that are closely tied to critical thinking.
What can be done?
Once organizations understand the role of critical thinking in everyday decision making, they can begin to take steps to develop that skill in their leaders and employees.
Fortunately, critical thinking can be taught. Pearson Talent Assessment has developed the following RED Model.
– Recognize Assumptions, Evaluate Arguments, Draw Conclusions – as a way to view and apply critical thinking principles when faced with a decision. This model is particularly helpful in critical-thinking training programs.
Recognize Assumptions –
This is the ability to separate fact from opinion. It is deceptively
easy to listen to a comment or presentation and assume the information presented is true even though no evidence was given to back it up.
Perhaps the speaker is particularly credible or trustworthy, or the information makes sense or matches our own view. We just don’t question it. Noticing and questioning assumptions helps to reveal information gaps or unfounded logic. Taking it a step further, when we examine assumptions through the eyes of different people (e.g., the viewpoint of different stakeholders), the end result is a richer perspective on a topic.
Evaluate Arguments –
It is difficult to suspend judgment and systematically walk through
various arguments and information with the impartiality of a Sherlock Holmes. The art
of evaluating arguments entails analyzing information objectively and accurately, questioning the quality of supporting evidence, and understanding how emotion influences the situation. Common barriers include confirmation bias, which is the tendency to seek out and agree with information that is consistent with your own point of view, or allowing emotions – yours or others – to get in the way of objective evaluation. People may quickly come to a conclusion simply to avoid conflict. Being able to remain objective and sort through the validity of different positions helps people draw more accurate conclusions.
Draw Conclusions –
People who possess this skill are able to bring diverse information together to arrive at conclusions that logically follow from the available evidence, and they do not inappropriately generalize beyond the evidence. Furthermore, they will change their position when the evidence warrants doing so. They are often characterized as having “good judgment” because they typically arrive at a quality decision.
Each of these critical thinking skills fits together in a process that is both fluid and sequential. When presented with information, people typically alternate between recognizing assumptions and evaluating arguments. Critical thinking is sequential in that recognizing faulty assumptions or weak arguments improves the likelihood of reaching an appropriate conclusion.
Although this process is fluid, it is helpful to focus on each of the RED skills individually when
practicing skill development. With concentrated practice over time, typically several months, critical thinking skills can be significantly increased.
Excerpts have been taken from a White Paper titled, “Critical Thinking Means Business” by:
Dr. Judy Chartrand, Judy is a Recognized Thought Leader and Consultant Chief Scientist at Pearson.
Heather Ishikawa is a Critical Thinking Expert and National Sales Director Pearson, US
Scott Flander
Visit Resource page on our website to find this White Paper.
