What Happened to Critical Thinking? Learn How To Improve This Top Skill

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An April 2014 report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) asked companies to identify the top competencies they consider to be an “essential need” in college graduates they are looking to hire. Among the top four career readiness competencies, critical thinking and problem solving topped the list.

Critical thinking is a vital skill to have in order to succeed in your career. It is in high demand because you use it frequently throughout each day in almost every aspect of your life.

Critical thinking is when you systematically process information to make the best decision and to gain a better understanding of things.

If you can develop this crucial skill and put it to good use, you will be among the top candidates in the talent pool. Here are a few simple steps to becoming a critical thinker:

Define Your Purpose and Intention

Every decision you make has a purpose, so it’s important to stop and reflect. What’s your goal? Why are you facing this decision?

It’s so easy to get caught up in persisting without any direction or goal, resulting in lost focus and failure to complete tasks. A 2015 study recently published in the Journal of Research in Personality looked at how having a “grittier” personality affected participants’ choices to move on or keep trying. Gritty types persistently work on individual tasks, despite the risk of failing to complete a larger task with a bigger impact.

This is where you need to slow down the automatic thought processes and think deliberately. Overly determined professionals need to be aware of the blind spot their personality creates, and find out what matters the most to them. Is it tirelessly working on one small task to get it perfect, or does the bigger picture matter more?

If you’re faced with the task of outlining a presentation for your client, ask what the goal is. Don’t get bogged down in the little things, like scheduling automatic email reminders. Instead look at the big picture — you’re interpreting information and presenting it in a clear, engaging way to help your client see what you see.

Articulate Your Perspective

Understand the scenario you’re facing. When crafting the presentation, question everything. What are you trying to demonstrate? This questioning should also encourage an assessment of your assumptions. You may assume a slideshow is the best method of communicating this information, which implies that you assume they respond well to slideshows. Perhaps a video presentation would work better.

When you’re questions your assumptions, you need to also bring your biases to light so they don’t cloud your decision making. Cultivating an awareness of your personal prejudices and cognitives biases makes your thinking critical — you’re critiquing how perspective is influencing your thought process.

You may be biased toward slideshows because you’re most familiar with them, both in terms of creating them and seeing them in presentations you’ve attended. By thinking with just your own one perspective, you’re narrowing your scope too much.

You don’t know everything and your instincts are not always correct. Critical thinking is founded on open-mindedness and evidence-based knowledge. While it’s good to look to past experiences to inform future decisions, it’s important to deliberately consider other options and their potential outcomes.  

Look At All Outcomes

Obviously, every decision you make will have outcomes, both positive and negative. Visualization can help you see what those outcomes will look like and how others may perceive them.

Visualization is the process of creating or reforming mental images or pictures. One way to exercise visualization skills involves looking at a picture of landscape. Stare at it for a few moments. Really focus on seeing all the details, then close your eyes and try to see it in your head.

While many positive thinking types, like professional athletes, use visualization to help them achieve their goals, you’re using it to see potential obstacles. Just as a runner who wants to finish a marathon conjures up a detailed account of crossing the finish line, you should create an experience in your mind where you play out some of your choices.

Play out your presentation like a movie. Watch it from others’ perspectives and notice where there may be some issues, like a slideshow being too wordy and distracting or a video disengaging the audience. These mental exercises that force you into other people’s shoes help you see obstacles you may not have seen in your own eyes.

Just like any other skill, critical thinking can be learned and developed. By investing your time and energy into practicing these steps, you can radically change the way you approach decisions in both your professional and personal life. When you can demonstrate your ability, employers take notice. 

How are you improving your critical thinking skills?