Improve Critical Thinking With a Few Simple Steps

Hard skills are easy to quantify in employees. You might have an ability to run a machine, use a computer program or demonstrate a communication skill. However, one of the top soft skills that companies want is critical thinking. This skill is something you use every day, whether you are on the clock or not.

Definition

Critical thinking means you go through a series of mental steps to break down a problem and arrive at the best decision. As an example, you may use this problem solving skill to determine what you want to eat for lunch. You may consider a huge salad since the steak and egg you ate for breakfast provided protein, or you might go light and have a hamburger since you had pancakes and orange juice for your first meal.

To improve your critical thinking ability, go through a few simple steps. Developing this soft skill can make you an indispensable employee and a wonderful job candidate.

Determine the Goal

Why are you trying to solve a particular problem? Work backwards from there to create a cohesive plan to reach the intended target. Otherwise, you may start out the wrong way and perform the same task over and over again without getting the proper result. Knowing your goal lets you determine how best to proceed.

Understand Your Perspective

Question everything as you create a plan of attack. What problem does this plan solve? Are you predisposed to follow a certain order because of your past experiences? Are you set in your ways?

Critical thinking and problem solving means you should open your mind to new ways of doing something and new approaches to reaching your goal. Let go of your presumptions, biases and attachments to ways you did things in the past. What does the evidence tell you about how to proceed?

Visualize Outcomes

Visualize the outcomes of your work, and try to see how others perceive them. This lets you try to discover potential obstacles as you go from one step to the next. What happens when you deliver a finished project? Does your employer like the quality of work, or do you have to improve upon something before it becomes a larger problem? Finding a mental picture of your end game helps you develop a strategy to reach your desired outcome.

The Importance of Critical Thinking

Thinking critically affects many aspects of the office. Employees who use this skill generally have improved performance, better productivity and higher accuracy when they perform tasks. Using a deliberate process to solve problems creates clever strategies to overcome unique challenges as companies take advantage of new opportunities. Innovation and collaboration improve, which leads to more profits, higher revenue and better employee cohesiveness.

The good news is that critical thinking is a skill that can be learned. All you have to do is take the time to become a better thinker as you approach each problem that has to be solved. Eventually, this soft skill becomes easier the more you use it.

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