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The Top 10 Communication Skills to Practice
What does it take to be a good communicator? There’s more to it than just talking for the sake of hearing your own voice. Learn these 10 communication skills to become a better communicator in your personal and professional life.
It may seem counterintuitive to some, but it’s truly impossible to have a good conversation if the only person you’re paying attention to is yourself. You must listen to and really pay attention to the person you’re talking to in order to respond directly to what they say.
Similarly, good conversationalists express compassion and understanding for the people they speak with. Automatically dismissing another person without taking their point of view into aCC0unt does not make you a good communicator.
Active Participation
Have you ever had a phone conversation with someone who doesn’t make any noise, and you end up having to ask if they’re still there? Talking to a person who doesn’t respond to what you’re saying can feel similar. Nodding, saying “OK” or even “uh-huh” when you agree or want to make it clear that you understand helps make the other person feel heard.
Body Language
The signals you send with your posture can be important for face-to-face communication. If you cross your arms and look away, the person you’re talking to is probably going to think you don’t want to be there. Try to sit up and look alert or, if appropriate, you can relax a bit for a casual conversation.
Getting to the Point
It’s essential to be concise and to the point when it’s your turn to talk. Don’t ramble on about irrelevant things or drone on for minutes at a time. A conversation involves two people, and that means you want to speak so the other person can understand and let them respond. It can be hard in the moment, especially if you’re nervous, but that’s why practicing is a good idea.
This relates to other skills, but it’s important to make it clear you’re focused on the conversation. That means always responding to what people say rather than introducing new topics out of nowhere, making appropriate eye contact with the people you’re talking to and avoiding distractions like looking out the window or at your phone.
This is an underrated skill in conversation. There may be times when it isn’t appropriate to give a detailed aCC0unt of something—avoid too much information (TMI)—but in general, a conversation isn’t very useful if you aren’t telling the truth.
Meeting People Where They Are
From email to chat, text, social media and more, there are tons of ways to communicate these days. But it’s important to reach people in a way that’s convenient for them. If someone you try to talk to never responds to email, try a different method. If all else fails, face-to-face is usually a good bet.
Asking Questions
Good communication does not mean that everyone always understands each other. Asking and answering questions can be an important part of communication. It shows you’re listening when you ask and, when you answer, that you care about the other person.
Observing Mood and Response
Following with the theme of “conversations aren’t all about you,” a good conversationalist will pay attention to other people’s nonverbal signs and tonal signals. If you notice that someone seems to be fidgeting and nervous, you can try to put them at ease. If they seem angry and uninterested, you can try to end the conversation.
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5 of the Best Practices for Improving Critical Thinking Skills
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Improving critical thinking skills is a life study and one that's definitely worth pursuing. Thinking critically is the pinnacle of the accumulation of knowledge and experience. The question is, how can we continue improving critical thinking skills long after we've begun the practice?
What wisdom can we give to our learners to help them keep these abilities honed to a razor sharpness all throughout their lives beyond school?
Teaching critical thinking skills doesn’t require hours of lesson planning, and you don’t need special equipment or guest speakers. All you need are curious and open minds, along with a few strategies like the five we have listed below. These are everyday approaches designed to help the journey of improving critical thinking skills to become an unconscious daily process for a lifetime of learning.
5 Best Practices for Improving Critical Thinking Skills
- Waste No Time
- Learn Something New Every Day
- Develop a Questioning Mind
- Practice Active Listening
- Solve Just One Problem
1. Waste No Time
Have you ever had a moment of time you know you wasted and realized there's no getting it back? We all have, even the critical thinkers among us. Like water waste, time waste is unfortunately inevitable. However, we can minimize the amount of time we waste thinking and acting on trivial matters.
In the article, Critical Thinking in Everyday Life: 9 Strategies , Richard Paul and Linda Elder suggest using our quiet time for improving critical thinking skills:
". . . instead of sitting in front of the TV at the end of the day flicking from channel to channel in a vain search for a program worth watching, spend that time, or at least part of it, thinking back over your day and evaluating your strengths and weaknesses."
They go on to provide questions for these moments that are geared toward a review of how we practiced our thinking throughout the day.
- When did I do my worst thinking today? When did I do my best?
- What did I think about today?
- Did I figure anything out?
- Did I allow any negative thinking to frustrate me unnecessarily?
- If I had to repeat today, what would I do differently? Why?
- Did I do anything today to further my long-term goals?
- Did I act in accordance with my own expressed values?
- If I spent every day this way for 10 years, at the end would I have accomplished something worthy of that time?
You can go through them all, or just a few, or even only one. Spend as much time on them as you need to by either pondering your response internally or actually recording it in a journal. The more you practice this, the better you'll get at it and the more patterns you'll see emerging in your thinking habits.
2. Learn Something New Every Day
Lifelong learning is all about making the act of learning an ongoing journey. We're not talking about mastering a musical instrument or internalizing Marcus Aurelius's Meditations , though. We just mean learning something you didn't know before.
What have you always been curious about? Is there a question about something, in particular, you've always wanted to get answered? Go after it. Don't stop until you find the answer you seek, no matter how simple or trivial the question might seem to others. This is about achieving two things: first, fulfilling an intellectual need, and second, developing habits of curiosity.
Of course, if you have higher learning ambitions and want to take your broader knowledge or ability to a whole new level, do that also. Learn that instrument and study ancient Greek philosophy. Ultimately, you will have not only learned a new skill or hobby but also formed valuable new neural connections that contribute to overall brain health and heightened cognitive function.
Learning Has No Boundaries
If you think you're too old to learn something new or accomplish something great, consider this:
- Louise Hay founded the world-famous publishing company Hay House at the age of 50 .
- John Glenn was the oldest person to travel into space at the age of 72 .
- Umberto Eco wrote The Name of the Rose at 48 .
- Distance runner Paul Spangler ran his 14th marathon at 92 .
- J.R.R. Tolkien published the first volume of The Lord of the Rings at 62 .
- Kenyan midwife Priscilla Sitienei learned to read and write at the age of 90 .
- Teiichi Igarashi climbed Mt. Fuji at 99.
- John Wayne won the Oscar for True Grit at 62 .
- Fitness guru and entrepreneur Jack LaLanne swam from Alcatraz to Fisherman's Wharf at age 60 , wearing handcuffs and towing a 1,000 pound sailboat.
- H. G. Wells completed his doctoral dissertation in 1942 at the age of 76 (he was a middle-school dropout).
Improving critical thinking skills isn't an age-specific pursuit. Besides, you don't have to change the world, conquer nature, or write the next great masterpiece—just believe in the possibility of your own potential.
3. Develop a Questioning Mind
Since time began, the human mind has formulated profound questions about practically everything under the sun (not to mention things beyond the sun). In modern learning, we continue to teach our children to question and to explore possibilities. Questions are good; essential questions are even better.
Being able to ask meaningful questions that lead to constructive and useful answers are at the core of critical thinking and lifelong learning. Providing learning with driving questions as the focus ensures that both we and our learners don't just passively accept information. As a result, we train ourselves and our students to search for different views and opinions and take nothing for granted.
He Said, She Said
The following activity for improving critical thinking skills is an excerpt from an article featured on Skills You Need .
Think of something that someone has recently told you. Then ask yourself the following questions:
- Someone you know?
- Someone in a position of authority or power?
- Does it matter who told you this?
- Did they give facts or opinions?
- Have they provided all the facts?
- What have they left out, if anything?
- Was it in public or in private?
- Did other people have a chance to respond and provide an alternative account?
- Was it before, during or after an important event?
- Is timing important?
- Did they explain the reasoning behind their opinion?
- Were they trying to make someone look good or bad?
- Were they happy or sad, angry or indifferent?
- Did they write it or say it?
- Could you understand what was said?
4. Practice Active Listening
Have you ever heard the expression "most people are just waiting for their turn to talk?" Think about that for a moment. If that's really the case, then who is truly listening? What does it mean to actively listen when someone is talking? Above all, how do we adopt it as personal practice for improving critical thinking skills?
To begin with, let's take a look at the scope of the task at hand. Research cited by the University of Missouri suggests that, by and large, people are mostly inefficient listeners:
"Studies have shown that immediately after listening to a 10-minute oral presentation, the average listener has heard, understood and retained 50 percent of what was said. Within 48 hours, that drops off another 50 percent to a final level of 25 percent efficiency ."
Unfortunately, most people think that listening is easy, but it's actually very hard work. This is especially true of active listening—that is, making a conscious and concerted effort to hear the words being said, and more importantly understanding their message. It's also about completely comprehending what the person speaking needs or is trying to accomplish. This translates to having empathy, not offering sympathy or placating the speaker.
Improving Your Active Listening
Active listening can be taught, learned, and practiced like any other communication skill. Start with these 10 suggestions from the article 10 Things You Can Do for Teaching Effective Listening Skills :
- Talk less: It's practically impossible to talk and listen at the same time. Reserve responses and interjections, and be open to giving the other person what they need from having you understand what they're saying.
- Adopt a listening mode: Quiet the environment and mentally open your mind to hearing by getting comfortable and engaging in eye contact.
- Make the speaker feel comfortable: Examples of this might be nodding or using gestures. Seating is also important; is the speaker more comfortable if you stay behind your desk, or if you take a chair beside them? For smaller children, get at their eye level instead of towering over them.
- Remove distractions: This means things like clearing the room, quieting screens, and silencing your phone. If the speaker requests privacy, ask others to give you a few minutes in private and close the door.
- Empathize: At the very least, try “learning instead to embrace and wonder at their “otherness.”
- Don't fear silence: Some people really need time to formulate a thoughtful response. Rushing them through or suggesting what they want to say for them hinders the opportunity to communicate honestly.
- Put aside personal prejudice: This is also quite difficult as our experiences form who we are. Putting all those experiences aside is a skill that requires help and practice.
- Heed their tone: Sometimes the tone can hide the meaning of the words, and sometimes the tone enhances the meaning of the words. Know which is which.
- Listen for underlying meanings, not words: Listen first for comprehension , and then a second time for ideas .
- Pay attention to non-verbal communication: People communicate through body language and facial expressions, which is why eye contact is necessary.
5. Solve Just One Problem
So many problems and so little time; this is the curse of the workaday citizen. Whether they are problems that happen independent of our influence or ones we construct for ourselves through action and choice, they don't go away on their own. The secret is to take them on one by one, one day at a time, and learn how to avoid them in the future. In the end, that's all we can hope for.
Choose one problem every day or so that you want to work on solving and give finding a resolution for it your undivided focus. Do you want to clear up a long-held misunderstanding between you and another person? Are you getting distracted too much at work? Have you been struggling with a project or an activity you want to improve? Is there something around the house that desperately needs fixing?
Consider the words of author and speaker Les Brown : "If you've got a problem that either man or God can solve, then you ain't got no problem." Face it head-on, get it done, and get on with the more important things in life.
Everybody Needs a Process
Once more, let's consider this approach mapped out by authors Richard Paul and Linda Elder. This will give you a roadmap for tackling that one problem you choose to face daily. In addition, you'll see that it's an approach that contains the elements of the more portable 6Ds process of Solution Fluency:
- State the problem as clearly and precisely as you can (this is the Define phase of Solution Fluency).
- Study the problem to understand what you are dealing with. The problems over which you have no control can be set aside in favour of focusing on those you can actually solve.
- Figure out the information you need and actively seek it out (this is the Discover phase of Solution Fluency).
- Carefully analyze and interpret the information you collect, drawing what reasonable inferences you can.
- Figure out what you can do in the short term and in the long term? Clarify all your options for action and visualize the ideal solution you would like to happen. (This is the Dream phase of Solution Fluency.)
- Evaluate your options, taking into account their advantages and disadvantages.
- Adopt a strategic approach to the problem and follow through with it (these are the Design and Deliver phases of Solution Fluency).
- Monitor the implications of your action as they emerge and be ready to revise your strategy if need be. Be prepared to shift your strategy or your analysis or statement of the problem, or all three, as more information becomes available to you (this is the Debrief phase of Solution Fluency).
True enough, the process of improving critical thinking skills takes lots of practice. That being said, with simple activities and systems to refer back to you can’t go wrong.
As you begin to incorporate these ideas, things will get more and more comfortable until they're finally second nature. To really get moving with critical thinking, check out our Critical Thinking Companion .
We'll leave you with this terrific TED-Ed lesson created by Samantha Agoos, called 5 Tips to Improve Your Critical Thinking.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Originally published Sep 30, 2020, updated September 29, 2021
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13 Easy Steps To Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills
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With the sheer volume of information that we’re bombarded with on a daily basis – and with the pervasiveness of fake news and social media bubbles – the ability to look at evidence, evaluate the trustworthiness of a source, and think critically is becoming more important than ever. This is why, for me, critical thinking is one of the most vital skills to cultivate for future success.
Critical thinking isn’t about being constantly negative or critical of everything. It’s about objectivity and having an open, inquisitive mind. To think critically is to analyze issues based on hard evidence (as opposed to personal opinions, biases, etc.) in order to build a thorough understanding of what’s really going on. And from this place of thorough understanding, you can make better decisions and solve problems more effectively.
To put it another way, critical thinking means arriving at your own carefully considered conclusions instead of taking information at face value. Here are 13 ways you can cultivate this precious skill:
1. Always vet new information with a cautious eye. Whether it’s an article someone has shared online or data that’s related to your job, always vet the information you're presented with. Good questions to ask here include, "Is this information complete and up to date?” “What evidence is being presented to support the argument?” and “Whose voice is missing here?”
2. Look at where the information has come from. Is the source trustworthy? What is their motivation for presenting this information? For example, are they trying to sell you something or get you to take a certain action (like vote for them)?
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3. Consider more than one point of view. Everyone has their own opinions and motivations – even highly intelligent people making reasonable-sounding arguments have personal opinions and biases that shape their thinking. So, when someone presents you with information, consider whether there are other sides to the story.
4. Practice active listening. Listen carefully to what others are telling you, and try to build a clear picture of their perspective. Empathy is a really useful skill here since putting yourself in another person's shoes can help you understand where they're coming from and what they might want. Try to listen without judgment – remember, critical thinking is about keeping an open mind.
5. Gather additional information where needed. Whenever you identify gaps in the information or data, do your own research to fill those gaps. The next few steps will help you do this objectively…
6. Ask lots of open-ended questions. Curiosity is a key trait of critical thinkers, so channel your inner child and ask lots of "who," "what," and "why" questions.
7. Find your own reputable sources of information, such as established news sites, nonprofit organizations, and education institutes. Try to avoid anonymous sources or sources with an ax to grind or a product to sell. Also, be sure to check when the information was published. An older source may be unintentionally offering up wrong information just because events have moved on since it was published; corroborate the info with a more recent source.
8. Try not to get your news from social media. And if you do see something on social media that grabs your interest, check the accuracy of the story (via reputable sources of information, as above) before you share it.
9. Learn to spot fake news. It's not always easy to spot false or misleading content, but a good rule of thumb is to look at the language, emotion, and tone of the piece. Is it using emotionally charged language, for instance, and trying to get you to feel a certain way? Also, look at the sources of facts, figures, images, and quotes. A legit news story will clearly state its sources.
10. Learn to spot biased information. Like fake news, biased information may seek to appeal more to your emotions than logic and/or present a limited view of the topic. So ask yourself, “Is there more to this topic than what’s being presented here?” Do your own reading around the topic to establish the full picture.
11. Question your own biases, too. Everyone has biases, and there’s no point pretending otherwise. The trick is to think objectively about your likes and dislikes, preferences, and beliefs, and consider how these might affect your thinking.
12. Form your own opinions. Remember, critical thinking is about thinking independently. So once you’ve assessed all the information, form your own conclusions about it.
13. Continue to work on your critical thinking skills. I recommend looking at online learning platforms such as Udemy and Coursera for courses on general critical thinking skills, as well as courses on specific subjects like cognitive biases.
Read more about critical thinking and other essential skills in my new book, Future Skills: The 20 Skills & Competencies Everyone Needs To Succeed In A Digital World . Written for anyone who wants to surf the wave of digital transformation – rather than be drowned by it – the book explores why these vital future skills matter and how to develop them.
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Critical Thinking test
This Critical Thinking test measures your ability to think critically and draw logical conclusions based on written information. Critical Thinking tests are often used in job assessments in the legal sector to assess a candidate's analytical critical thinking skills. A well known example of a critical thinking test is the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal .
Need more practice?
Score higher on your critical thinking test.
The test comprises of the following five sections with a total of 10 questions:
- Analysing Arguments
- Assumptions
- Interpreting Information
Instructions Critical Thinking test
Each question presents one or more paragraphs of text and a question about the information in the text. It's your job to figure out which of the options is the correct answer.
Below is a statement that is followed by an argument. You should consider this argument to be true. It is then up to you to determine whether the argument is strong or weak. Do not let your personal opinion about the statement play a role in your evaluation of the argument.
Statement: It would be good if people would eat vegetarian more often. Argument: No, because dairy also requires animals to be kept that will have to be eaten again later.
Is this a strong or weak argument?
Strong argument Weak argument
Statement: Germany should no longer use the euro as its currency Argument: No, because that means that the 10 billion Deutschmark that the introduction of the euro has cost is money thrown away.
Overfishing is the phenomenon that too much fish is caught in a certain area, which leads to the disappearance of the fish species in that area. This trend can only be reversed by means of catch reduction measures. These must therefore be introduced and enforced.
Assumption: The disappearance of fish species in areas of the oceans is undesirable.
Is the assumption made from the text?
Assumption is made Assumption is not made
As a company, we strive for satisfied customers. That's why from now on we're going to keep track of how quickly our help desk employees pick up the phone. Our goal is for that phone to ring for a maximum of 20 seconds.
Assumption: The company has tools or ways to measure how quickly help desk employees pick up the phone.
- All reptiles lay eggs
- All reptiles are vertebrates
- All snakes are reptiles
- All vertebrates have brains
- Some reptiles hatch their eggs themselves
- Most reptiles have two lungs
- Many snakes only have one lung
- Cobras are poisonous snakes
- All reptiles are animals
Conclusion: Some snakes hatch their eggs themselves.
Does the conclusion follow the statements?
Conclusion follows Conclusion does not follow
(Continue with the statements from question 5.)
Conclusion: Some animals that lay eggs only have one lung.
In the famous 1971 Stanford experiment, 24 normal, healthy male students were randomly assigned as 'guards' (12) or 'prisoners' (12). The guards were given a uniform and instructed to keep order, but not to use force. The prisoners were given prison uniforms. Soon after the start of the experiment, the guards made up all kinds of sentences for the prisoners. Insurgents were shot down with a fire extinguisher and public undressing or solitary confinement was also a punishment. The aggression of the guards became stronger as the experiment progressed. At one point, the abuses took place at night, because the guards thought that the researchers were not watching. It turned out that some guards also had fun treating the prisoners very cruelly. For example, prisoners got a bag over their heads and were chained to their ankles. Originally, the experiment would last 14 days. However, after six days the experiment was stopped.
The students who took part in the research did not expect to react the way they did in such a situation.
To what extent is this conclusion true, based on the given text?
True Probably true More information required Probably false False
(Continue with the text from 'Stanford experiment' in question 7.)
The results of the experiment support the claim that every young man (or at least some young men) is capable of turning into a sadist fairly quickly.
- A flag is a tribute to the nation and should therefore not be hung outside at night. Hoisting the flag therefore happens at sunrise, bringing it down at sunset. Only when a country flag is illuminated by spotlights on both sides, it may remain hanging after sunset. There is a simple rule of thumb for the time of bringing down the flag. This is the moment when there is no longer any visible difference between the individual colors of the flag.
- A flag may not touch the ground.
- On the Dutch flag, unless entitled to do so, no decorations or other additions should be made. Also the use of a flag purely for decoration should be avoided. However, flag cloth may be used for decoration - for example in the form of drapes.
- The orange pennant is only used on birthdays of members of the Royal House and on King's Day. The orange pennant should be as long or slightly longer than the diagonal of the flag.
Conclusion: One can assume that no Dutch flag will fly at government buildings at night, unless it is illuminated by spotlights on both sides.
Does the conclusion follow, based on the given text?
(Continue with the text from 'Dutch flag protocol' in question 9.)
Conclusion: If the protocol is followed, the orange pennant will always be longer than the horizontal bands/stripes of the flag.
Please answer the questions below. Not all questions are required but it will help us improve this test.
My educational level is
-- please select -- primary school high school college university PhD other
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3 Simple Habits to Improve Your Critical Thinking
- Helen Lee Bouygues
But simple doesn’t mean easy.
Too many business leaders are simply not reasoning through pressing issues, and it’s hurting their organizations. The good news is that critical thinking is a learned behavior. There are three simple things you can do to train yourself to become a more effective critical thinker: question assumptions, reason through logic, and diversify your thought and perspectives. They may sound obvious, but deliberately cultivating these three key habits of mind go a long way in helping you become better at clear and robust reasoning.
A few years ago, a CEO assured me that his company was the market leader. “Clients will not leave for competitors,” he added. “It costs too much for them to switch.” Within weeks, the manufacturing giant Procter & Gamble elected not to renew its contract with the firm. The CEO was shocked — but he shouldn’t have been.
For more than 20 years, I’ve helped struggling organizations. Sometimes they reach out because they have been mismanaged. Sometimes they have not stayed in front of changing technologies. In a few cases, members of the senior team were simply negligent. But in my experience, these organizational problems shared a root cause: A lack of critical thinking.
Too many business leaders are simply not reasoning through pressing issues, taking the time to evaluate a topic from all sides. Leaders often jump to the first conclusion, whatever the evidence. Even worse, C-suite leaders will just choose the evidence that supports their prior beliefs. A lack of metacognition — or thinking about thinking — is also a major driver, making people simply overconfident.
The good news is that critical thinking is a learned skill. To help people get better at it, I recently started the nonprofit Reboot Foundation. Based on my personal experience as well some of the work of our researchers, I’ve pulled together three simple things that you can do to improve your critical thinking skills:
Question assumptions
Reason through logic.
- Diversify thought
Now, you might be thinking, “I do that already.” And you probably do, but just not as deliberately and thoroughly as you could. Cultivating these three key habits of mind go a long way in helping you become better at an increasingly desired skill in the job market.
When I work to turn around an organization, I’ll typically start by questioning the firm’s assumptions. I once visited dozens of stores of a retail chain, posing as a shopper. I soon discovered that the company had presumed that its customers had far more disposable income than they really had. This erroneous belief made the company overprice its clothing. They would have made millions more each year if they had sold lower-priced shirts and pants.
Of course, it’s hard to question everything. Imagine going through your day asking yourself: Is the sky really blue? What if the person next to me isn’t my colleague but her twin sister? How do I really know that the economy won’t implode tomorrow?
The first step in questioning assumptions, then, is figuring out when to question assumptions. Turns out, a questioning approach is particularly helpful when the stakes are high.
So if you are in a discussion about long-term company strategy upon which years of effort and expense will be based, be sure to ask basic questions about your beliefs: How do you know that business will increase? What does the research say about your expectations about the future of the market? Have you taken time to step into the figurative shoes of your customers as a “secret shopper”?
Another way to question your assumptions is to consider alternatives. You might ask: What if our clients changed? What if our suppliers went out of business? These sorts of questions help you gain new and important perspectives that help hone your thinking.
Years ago, I took on the task of turning around the division of a large lingerie company. The growth of one of its major product lines had been declining for years. No one could figure out why.
It turned out that the company had made the reasoning mistake of over-generalization, drawing a sweeping conclusion based on limited or insufficient evidence. Namely, the company believed that all of their international customers had similar preferences in lingerie. So it shipped the same styles of brassieres to every store across Europe.
When my team started talking to staff and consumers, we realized that customers in different countries reported very distinct tastes and preferences. British women, for example, tended to buy lacy bras in bright colors. Italian women preferred beige bras, with no lace. And those in the United States led the world in sports bra purchases.
For this lingerie company, improving their reasoning helped the firm dramatically improve its bottom line. The good news is that the formal practice of logic dates back at least 2,000 years to Aristotle. Over those two millennia, logic has demonstrated its merit by reaching sound conclusions.
So at your organization, pay close attention to the “chain” of logic constructed by a particular argument. Ask yourself: Is the argument supported at every point by evidence? Do all the pieces of evidence build on each other to produce a sound conclusion?
Being aware of common fallacies can also allow you to think more logically. For instance, people often engage in what’s known as “post hoc” thinking . In this fallacy, people believe that “because event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X.”
So, for instance, a manager may believe that their sales agents rack up more sales in the spring because they’re fired up by the motivational speeches offered at the annual sales conference in February — but until that assumption is tested, there’s no way the manager can know if their belief is correct.
Seek out diversity of thought and collaboration
For years, I was the only female partner on McKinsey’s transformation team. And today, while I serve on more than a half-dozen corporate boards, I am typically the only Asian and the only woman in the room during meetings.
By virtue of my background and life experiences, I tend to see things differently from the people around me. This has often played to my advantage. But I’m not immune to groupthink, either. When I’m around people similar to me for whatever reason — age, politics, religion— I try to solicit different points of view. It makes me a better thinker.
It’s natural for people to group themselves together with people who think or act like them. This happens especially readily online, where it’s so easy to find a specific cultural niche. Social media algorithms can narrow our perspectives further, serving up only news that fits our individual beliefs.
This is a problem. If everyone in our social circles thinks as we do, we become more rigid in our thinking, and less likely to change our beliefs on the basis of new information. In fact, the more people listen to people who share their views, research shows the more polarized their views become .
It’s crucial to get outside your personal bubble. You can start small. If you work in accounting, make friends with people in marketing. If you always go to lunch with senior staff, go to a ball game with your junior colleagues. Training yourself this way will help you escape your usual thinking and gain richer insights.
In team settings, give people the chance to give their opinions independently without the influence of the group. When I ask for advice, for instance, I typically withhold my own preferences and ask team members to email me their opinions in separate notes. This tactic helps prevent people from engaging in groupthink.
While these simple tactics may sound easy or even obvious, they’re rare in practice, particularly in the business world, and too many organizations don’t take the time to engage in robust forms of reasoning. But the important work of critical thinking pays off. While luck plays a role — sometimes small, sometimes large — in a company’s successes, the most important business victories are achieved through thinking smart.
- HB Helen Lee Bouygues is the president of the Paris-based Reboot Foundation . A former partner at McKinsey & Company, she has served as interim CEO, CFO, or COO for more than one dozen companies.
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How to Practice Critical Thinking Skills
Robert Ennis defined critical thinking as “ reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do. ” At the workplace, critical thinking forces employees and managers to look at a situation and weigh all possible solutions before coming up with a final answer. As is often the case with soft-skills though, we need to follow the right ways to implement them and for example in this case learn how to practice critical thinking skills!
But before we share a few pointers on that, starting from the start, there are various benefits of critical thinking at the workplace. Some of them are enlisted here:
Why is it important to practice critical thinking skills?
- Brings new ideas : Critical thinking forces employees and managers to look beyond conventional solutions and look for new ideas that can help to efficiently address problems.
- Fosters teamwork : Not only does it give a reason for people of diverse backgrounds to work together on product solutions, it also encourages teamwork and gives each employee a chance to impact the future of the organization.
- Promotes options : Critical thinking helps develop multiple viable solutions to the same issue. This allows your company to offer a range of solutions to clients, and it also assists in workplace innovation.
- Uncovering spinoffs : Once you get started asking questions in a critical thinking exercise for one topic, you begin to address other unresolved topics.
- Appropriate emotional appeal : Critical thinking can help you effectively use emotional appeal, letting your feelings influence, but not control your reasoning.
So can critical thinking be taught? We provide some steps on how managers can practice critical thinking skills.
Key steps to practice critical thinking skills
- Understand your own biases : Understand what your biases are and where they may affect how you deal with information.
- Question your assumptions : Asking questions is perhaps the quintessential act of critical thinking. If you don’t know what questions to ask, or don’t ask the questions in the first place, you may as well not get the answer.
- Don’t take information on authority until you’ve investigated it yourself : Use your instinct to investigate questionable pieces of information. If your gut isn’t satisfied with an explanation, ask the person to elaborate. If you don’t question a fact, read about it or test it yourself.
- Think several moves ahead : Record your observations so that you are forced to spell out details and be explicit in what you recognize and see. As time passes, you will notice patterns in your thinking.
- Put yourself in others’ shoes : Putting yourself in others’ shoes will help you imagine their motivations, aspirations, and turmoils.
- Improve your brain function : Solve a problem a day , walk or exercise for about 30 minutes daily, and eat the right kind of food.
- Analyze the pressures you are facing : Discover what pressure you are bowing to and think explicitly about whether or not to reject that pressure.
- Deal with your ego-centrism : Once you identify egocentric thinking in operation, you can then work to replace it with more rational thought through systematic self-reflection.
- Re-shape your character : Notice when you refuse to admit you are wrong, even in the face of glaring evidence that you are in fact wrong. Notice when you become defensive when another person tries to point out a deficiency in your work, or your thinking. Notice when your intellectual arrogance keeps you from learning.
- Analyze group influences on your life : Closely analyze the behavior that is encouraged, and discouraged, in the groups to which you belong.
We hope these tips on practicing critical thinking skills help you become a more effective manager !
Tagged: Career Tips , Executive Jobs , Management skills , soft skills
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- Career Advice
Top 8 Critical Thinking Skills and Ways to Improve Them
As seen in:
Why is critical thinking essential? Firstly, that’s what almost every employer seeks.
Secondly, in the era of fake news, contrasting data, and so much information to process every day, critical thinking is the only way to make sense of this world. Good thing you came to the right place for everything you need to know about critical thinking skills!
This guide will show you:
- The best definition of critical thinking skills.
- How to use critical thinking skills step by step.
- A list of the most important critical thinking skills for the workplace and how to use them to get more job offers.
- Tools and ideas for improving your critical thinking skills fast.
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Want to learn more about listing all kinds of skills on a resume? See our guide with the ultimate list of Best Job Skills to Put on a Resume
If you are looking for specific skills sets for your resume, check:
- Analytical Skills Examples
- Problem Solving Skills Examples
- Creative Thinking Skills Examples
What Are Critical Thinking Skills and Why You Need Them?
Before we jump into defining critical thinking skills, let’s run a quick experiment.
We’ll try to find out if drinking coffee is good for you.
First, google “reasons not to drink coffee.”
Wow! Decreased anxiety ( source ), healthier teeth ( source ), weight loss ( source ), and a healthier heart ( source )!
Oh God! I’ll never touch a cup of coffee again! How about “reasons to drink coffee?”
Lower rates of depression ( source ), memory boost ( source ), longevity ( source ), and, wait for it, a healthier heart ( source ).
Oh well. I’ll never trust the Internet again.
The twist? These are not some random unsupported online claims. There’s legit, peer-reviewed research that backs up EVERY single one of the above findings.
So how do you reconcile these contradictory claims?
By thinking critically .
What does that even mean, though?
What Is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking is the ability to think in an organized and rational manner in order to understand connections between ideas and/or facts. It helps you decide what to believe in. In other words, it’s “thinking about thinking”—identifying, analyzing, and then fixing flaws in the way we think.
How to Be a Critical Thinker?
To become one takes time, practice, and patience. But something you can start doing today to improve your critical thinking skills is apply the 7 steps of critical thinking to every problem you tackle—either at work or in your everyday life.
Plus, there are some critical thinking questions to help you out at each of the steps.
Steps of Critical Thinking
1. Identify the problem or question.
Be as precise as possible: the narrower the issue, the easier it is to find solutions or answers.
2. Gather data, opinions, and arguments.
Try to find several sources that present different ideas and points of view.
3. Analyze and evaluate the data.
Are the sources reliable? Are their conclusions data-backed or just argumentative? Is there enough information or data to support given hypotheses?
4. Identify assumptions.
Are you sure the sources you found are unbiased? Are you sure you weren’t biased in your search for answers?
5. Establish significance.
What piece of information is most important? Is the sample size sufficient? Are all opinions and arguments even relevant to the problem you’re trying to solve?
6. Make a decision/reach a conclusion.
Identify various conclusions that are possible and decide which (if any) of them are sufficiently supported. Weigh strengths and limitations of all possible options.
7. Present or communicate.
Once you’ve reached a conclusion, present it to all stakeholders.
Let’s go back to our coffee example and examine it critically, point-by-point.
1. The problem in question was: “is drinking coffee good for you?”
This approach is way to broad.
First of all, what does “good” even mean?
Secondly, we don’t know if we’re talking about long- or short-term effects of drinking coffee. It’s also possible that drinking coffee might benefit some aspects of your health while being detrimental to others.
So, let’s narrow down the problem to: “is drinking coffee good for your heart ?”
2. Listed above, there are only two pieces of research on the impact of drinking coffee on your heart.
The first one suggests that drinking coffee “could account for premature deaths in the region of 14% for coronary heart disease and 20% for stroke.”
According to the second one , “moderate coffee consumption was associated with a lower prevalence of the Coronary Artery Disease.”
We’ve made two other major mistakes in reasoning: first of all, two sources only are not enough.
Secondly, we haven’t taken into account that heart is a very complex organ: just like it is the case with the rest of our body, coffee might be good for some of its functions while bad for others.
3. Both articles cited have appeared in prestigious, peer-reviewed journals.
The first one has been based on literature review only; no original studies.
The second one, although conducted in a large (25.000 participants) sample of men and women, includes only Korean population—people whose hearts can be affected by other factors such as diet or climate.
4. While the two sources don’t appear biased, we were.
We based our initial Google searches on assumptions: “reasons not to drink coffee” (assuming: coffee is bad for our health) and “reasons to drink coffee” (assuming: coffee is worth drinking).
Google’s search algorithms made sure we found articles in line with our assumptions.
5. Considering all of the above, we can positively state that the information we gathered was not significant for solving the initially stated problem.
6. The only conclusion that can be reached is: according to the data we gathered, drinking coffee might or might not be good for our hearts, depending on many factors and variables we failed to take into account.
7. Even if the conclusion is “the question cannot be answered at this point,” it’s still worth presenting and communicating.
It’s good to know what the limitations of our knowledge on a given topic are.
The point is—
It’s really hard to be sure of something.
And critical thinking skills are necessary for us to accept the flaws in our reasoning and gaps in our knowledge, and take advantage of them!
Why Are Critical Thinking Skills Important?
When you think critically, you’ll constantly challenge what seems given. Say, in your job, even if something appears to be functioning properly, critical thinking will help you try and identify new, better solutions.
Critical thinking skills are the cornerstone of self-development and improvement. That’s why they’re so critical to have in today’s job market. Just think about this— A recent report by the AACU revealed that 93% of employers value critical thinking over the candidate’s undergraduate degree. So—
Let’s go through how you can showcase your critical thinking skills to boost your chances of landing a better job!
And if you want to learn more about other job-winning skills, we've got you covered! Check out our dedicated guides:
- Communication Skills for Your Resume & Workplace Success
- Management Skills You Must Have (Not Just For Managers)
- Hard Skills for Any Resume
- Computer Skills Employers Want
- Soft Skills vs Hard Skills for a Job: What Employers Look for
When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check . Start building a professional resume template here for free .
When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.
Critical Thinking Skills List for Your Job Search
If you’re just looking for a list of the most important critical thinking skills, we’ve got you covered.
Top Critical Thinking Skills: Examples
Raw lists of skills are pretty useless.
Say, you’re applying for a job and the job description requires “critical thinking skills.” You can’t just dump random entries from the above list of examples on your resume.
You need to prove you can think critically by giving real-life examples of how you used your critical thinking skills.
How to Put Critical Thinking on a Resume: Examples
The best way to present and validate your critical thinking skills is to include examples of them in your past job description bullet points .
Like in these examples:
Critical Thinking Skills on a Resume—Nursing
- Evaluated and analyzed cases at hand to determine the priority of treatment.
- Clearly communicated and explained my rationales to doctors and other members of the nursing staff.
Critical Thinking Skills on a Resume—Engineering
- Identified 8 major hidden design defects with failed constructions.
Critical Thinking Skills on a Resume—Customer Service
- Interpreted the results of phone surveys to develop a new strategy for handling customer complaints.
You get the drill, right? Show don’t tell.
Your critical thinking skills might also be evaluated during job interviews. Again, interviewers will want to see specific examples of how you put your critical thinking to use.
Pro Tip : Most of the interview questions that test critical thinking are situational interview questions. You can learn all about how to handle them from this guide: Toughest Situational Interview Questions and Best Answers
Critical Thinking Interview Questions and Answers: Examples
1. Describe a situation where you challenged the way you and your colleagues did their jobs?
Our online ordering page let clients order incompatible components, causing heavy complaints. I asked if we could put a product check in place. The software engineer added warnings when two products weren’t compatible. Complaints went down by 35%.
2. Describe a situation where you saw a problem and took steps to fix it.
Our rechargeable forklifts had two different plugs. If you used the wrong one, you could wreck a $3,500 battery. I added zip-ties as cord-shorteners so you could only reach the right outlet. We haven’t lost a battery since.
3. Tell me about a time you had to persuade someone to see your side of things.
The owner was convinced our gift shop was a moneymaker. I analyzed our cash flow and found it was running at a 10% deficit. I built data visualizations that showed we could increase store revenue 40% through focusing on more popular products.
Don’t feel like a good enough critical thinker? Not to worry. There are easy ways to improve your critical thinking. You can actually start today!
Because you'll need them—
Employers test your critical thinking skills in many different ways, including on the job interview stage when they ask you lots of different questions.
But these questions actually repeat so you can prepare best answers in advance. How? Read our guide: Most Common Job Interview Questions—And Answers to Impress Your Recruiter
If you came across critical thinking as a job requirement, to land that job interview you also have to list it on your resume and include it in your cover letter, too. Try Zety resume builder and get your resume and matching cover letter ready in a flash . Here’s a resume and cover letter sample made using our builder:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
How to Improve Critical Thinking Skills
To start working on your critical thinking skills, begin with applying these simple strategies:
1. Ask Simple Critical Thinking Questions
- What do I already know?
- How do I know that?
- What am I trying to prove?
- What are my motivations?
2. Oppose “Common Sense”
The problem with common sense is that it’s so… common .
“No way this business idea can ever be profitable.”
Oh really? Why exactly not? Ramit Sethi is making a killing selling a $300 online course on how to choose a good personal assistant. If that’s profitable, think what else can be.
3. Be Aware of Your Biases
The most common types of cognitive bias you need to avoid are:
- Confirmation Bias : we always subconsciously assume we’re right.
- Action Bias : we act too quickly before thinking something through.
- Association Bias : why did the rain dance always work? Because they’d dance until the rain came.
4. Read a Lot
This will not only help develop your critical thinking skills but actually most skills you can think of. To get a sound start on the theory and strategies behind critical thinking, check out:
- Critical Thinking for Dummies
- How to Think Critically: A Concise Guide
- Critical Thinking Skills: Effective Analysis, Argument and Reflection
- Critical Thinking: Your Guide to Effective Argument, Successful Analysis and Independent Study
- What is Unconscious Bias? (+How to Avoid It in the Workplace)
Want to practice important skills even more? Check out these two guides: Situational Interview Questions [+20 Answers to Nail Your Interview] and Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers [STAR Method]
Key Takeaway
Here’s all you need to know about critical thinking skills in a nutshell:
- The key critical thinking skills are: analysis, interpretation, inference, explanation, self-regulation, open-mindedness, and problem-solving.
- In order to apply the basic principles of critical thinking, follow these steps: identify the problem, gather data, analyze and evaluate, identify assumptions, establish significance, make a decision, and communicate.
- To become a better critical thinker: ask simple questions, challenge common assumptions, be aware of your biases, and read more.
Do you have any questions about critical thinking skills? Maybe you’d like to share some tips on how to think more critically everyday? Let me know in the comments. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!
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College Info Geek
7 Ways to Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills
C.I.G. is supported in part by its readers. If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read more here.
When I was in 7th grade, my U.S. history teacher gave my class the following advice:
Your teachers in high school won’t expect you to remember every little fact about U.S. history. They can fill in the details you’ve forgotten. What they will expect, though, is for you to be able to think ; to know how to make connections between ideas and evaluate information critically.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but my teacher was giving a concise summary of critical thinking. My high school teachers gave similar speeches when describing what would be expected of us in college: it’s not about the facts you know, but rather about your ability to evaluate them.
And now that I’m in college, my professors often mention that the ability to think through and solve difficult problems matters more in the “real world” than specific content.
Despite hearing so much about critical thinking all these years, I realized that I still couldn’t give a concrete definition of it, and I certainly couldn’t explain how to do it. It seemed like something that my teachers just expected us to pick up in the course of our studies. While I venture that a lot of us did learn it, I prefer to approach learning deliberately, and so I decided to investigate critical thinking for myself.
What is it, how do we do it, why is it important, and how can we get better at it? This post is my attempt to answer those questions.
In addition to answering these questions, I’ll also offer seven ways that you can start thinking more critically today, both in and outside of class.
What Is Critical Thinking?
“Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.” – The Foundation for Critical Thinking
The above definition from the Foundation for Critical Thinking website is pretty wordy, but critical thinking, in essence, is not that complex.
Critical thinking is just deliberately and systematically processing information so that you can make better decisions and generally understand things better. The above definition includes so many words because critical thinking requires you to apply diverse intellectual tools to diverse information.
Ways to critically think about information include:
- Conceptualizing
- Synthesizing
That information can come from sources such as:
- Observation
- Communication
And all this is meant to guide:
You can also define it this way:
Critical thinking is the opposite of regular, everyday thinking.
Moment to moment, most thinking happens automatically. When you think critically, you deliberately employ any of the above intellectual tools to reach more accurate conclusions than your brain automatically would (more on this in a bit).
This is what critical thinking is. But so what?
Why Does Critical Thinking Matter?
Most of our everyday thinking is uncritical.
If you think about it, this makes sense. If we had to think deliberately about every single action (such as breathing, for instance), we wouldn’t have any cognitive energy left for the important stuff like D&D. It’s good that much of our thinking is automatic.
We can run into problems, though, when we let our automatic mental processes govern important decisions. Without critical thinking, it’s easy for people to manipulate us and for all sorts of catastrophes to result. Anywhere that some form of fundamentalism led to tragedy (the Holocaust is a textbook example), critical thinking was sorely lacking.
Even day to day, it’s easy to get caught in pointless arguments or say stupid things just because you failed to stop and think deliberately.
But you’re reading College Info Geek, so I’m sure you’re interested to know why critical thinking matters in college.
Here’s why:
According to Andrew Roberts, author of The Thinking Student’s Guide to College , c ritical thinking matters in college because students often adopt the wrong attitude to thinking about difficult questions. These attitudes include:
Ignorant Certainty
Ignorant certainty is the belief that there are definite, correct answers to all questions–all you have to do is find the right source (102). It’s understandable that a lot of students come into college thinking this way–it’s enough to get you through most of your high school coursework.
In college and in life, however, the answers to most meaningful questions are rarely straightforward. To get anywhere in college classes (especially upper-level ones), you have to think critically about the material.
Naive Relativism
Naive relativism is the belief that there is no truth and all arguments are equal (102-103). According to Roberts, this is often a view that students adopt once they learn the error of ignorant certainty.
While it’s certainly a more “critical” approach than ignorant certainty, naive relativism is still inadequate since it misses the whole point of critical thinking: arriving at a more complete, “less wrong” answer.
Part of thinking critically is evaluating the validity of arguments (yours and others’). Therefore, to think critically you must accept that some arguments are better (and that some are just plain awful).
Critical thinking also matters in college because:
- It allows you to form your own opinions and engage with material beyond a superficial level. This is essential to crafting a great essay and having an intelligent discussion with your professors or classmates. Regurgitating what the textbook says won’t get you far.
- It allows you to craft worthy arguments and back them up. If you plan to go on to graduate school or pursue a PhD., original, critical thought is crucial
- It helps you evaluate your own work. This leads to better grades (who doesn’t want those?) and better habits of mind.
Doing college level work without critical is a lot like walking blindfolded: you’ll get somewhere , but it’s unlikely to be the place you desire.
The value of critical thinking doesn’t stop with college, however. Once you get out into the real world, critical thinking matters even more. This is because:
- It allows you to continue to develop intellectually after you graduate. Progress shouldn’t stop after graduation –you should keep learning as much as you can. When you encounter new information, knowing how to think critically will help you evaluate and use it.
- It helps you make hard decisions. I’ve written before about how defining your values helps you make better decisions. Equally important in the decision-making process is the ability to think critically. Critical thinking allows you compare the pros and cons of your available options, showing that you have more options than you might imagine .
- People can and will manipulate you . At least, they will if you take everything at face value and allow others to think for you. Just look at ads for the latest fad diet or “miracle” drug–these rely on ignorance and false hope to get people to buy something that is at best useless and at worst harmful. When you evaluate information critically (especially information meant to sell something), you can avoid falling prey to unethical companies and people.
- It makes you more employable (and better paid). The best employees not only know how to solve existing problems–they also know how to come up with solutions to problems no one ever imagined. To get a great job after graduating , you need to be one of those employees, and critical thinking is the key ingredient to solving difficult, novel problems.
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7 Ways to Think More Critically
Now we come to the part that I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for: how the heck do we get better at critical thinking? Below, you’ll find seven ways to get started.
1. Ask Basic Questions
“The world is complicated. But does every problem require a complicated solution?” – Stephen J. Dubner
Sometimes an explanation becomes so complex that the original question get lost. To avoid this, continually go back to the basic questions you asked when you set out to solve the problem.
Here are a few key basic question you can ask when approaching any problem:
- What do you already know?
- How do you know that?
- What are you trying to prove, disprove, demonstrated, critique, etc.?
- What are you overlooking?
Some of the most breathtaking solutions to problems are astounding not because of their complexity, but because of their elegant simplicity. Seek the simple solution first.
2. Question Basic Assumptions
“When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me.”
The above saying holds true when you’re thinking through a problem. it’s quite easy to make an ass of yourself simply by failing to question your basic assumptions.
Some of the greatest innovators in human history were those who simply looked up for a moment and wondered if one of everyone’s general assumptions was wrong. From Newton to Einstein to Yitang Zhang , questioning assumptions is where innovation happens.
You don’t even have to be an aspiring Einstein to benefit from questioning your assumptions. That trip you’ve wanted to take? That hobby you’ve wanted to try? That internship you’ve wanted to get? That attractive person in your World Civilizations class you’ve wanted to talk to?
All these things can be a reality if you just question your assumptions and critically evaluate your beliefs about what’s prudent, appropriate, or possible.
If you’re looking for some help with this process, then check out Oblique Strategies . It’s a tool that musician Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt created to aid creative problem solving . Some of the “cards” are specific to music, but most work for any time you’re stuck on a problem.
3. Be Aware of Your Mental Processes
Human thought is amazing, but the speed and automation with which it happens can be a disadvantage when we’re trying to think critically. Our brains naturally use heuristics (mental shortcuts) to explain what’s happening around us.
This was beneficial to humans when we were hunting large game and fighting off wild animals, but it can be disastrous when we’re trying to decide who to vote for.
A critical thinker is aware of their cognitive biases and personal prejudices and how they influence seemingly “objective” decisions and solutions.
All of us have biases in our thinking. Becoming aware of them is what makes critical thinking possible.
4. Try Reversing Things
A great way to get “unstuck” on a hard problem is to try reversing things. It may seem obvious that X causes Y, but what if Y caused X?
The “chicken and egg problem” a classic example of this. At first, it seems obvious that the chicken had to come first. The chicken lays the egg, after all. But then you quickly realize that the chicken had to come from somewhere, and since chickens come from eggs, the egg must have come first. Or did it?
Even if it turns out that the reverse isn’t true, considering it can set you on the path to finding a solution.
5. Evaluate the Existing Evidence
“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” – Isaac Newton
When you’re trying to solve a problem, it’s always helpful to look at other work that has been done in the same area. There’s no reason to start solving a problem from scratch when someone has already laid the groundwork.
It’s important, however, to evaluate this information critically, or else you can easily reach the wrong conclusion. Ask the following questions of any evidence you encounter:
- Who gathered this evidence?
- How did they gather it?
Take, for example, a study showing the health benefits of a sugary cereal. On paper, the study sounds pretty convincing. That is, until you learn that a sugary cereal company funded it.
You can’t automatically assume that this invalidates the study’s results, but you should certainly question them when a conflict of interests is so apparent.
6. Remember to Think for Yourself
Don’t get so bogged down in research and reading that you forget to think for yourself –sometimes this can be your most powerful tool.
Writing about Einstein’s paper “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” (the paper that contained the famous equation E=mc 2 ), C.P. Snow observed that “it was as if Einstein ‘had reached the conclusions by pure thought, unaided, without listening to the opinions of others. To a surprisingly large extent, that is precisely what he had done'”(121).
Don’t be overconfident, but recognize that thinking for yourself is essential to answering tough questions. I find this to be true when writing essays–it’s so easy to get lost in other people’s work that I forget to have my own thoughts. Don’t make this mistake.
For more on the importance of thinking for yourself, check out our article on mental laziness .
7. Understand That No One Thinks Critically 100% of the Time
“Critical thinking of any kind is never universal in any individual; everyone is subject to episodes of undisciplined or irrational thought.” – Michael Scriven and Richard Paul
You can’t think critically all the time, and that’s okay. Critical thinking is a tool that you should deploy when you need to make important decisions or solve difficult problems, but you don’t need to think critically about everything.
And even in important matters, you will experience lapses in your reasoning. What matters is that you recognize these lapses and try to avoid them in the future.
Even Isaac Newton, genius that he was, believed that alchemy was a legitimate pursuit .
As I hope you now see, learning to think critically will benefit you both in the classroom and beyond. I hope this post has given you some ideas about how you can think more critically in your own life. Remember: learning to think critically is a lifelong journey, and there’s always more to learn.
For a look at critical thinking principles in action, check out our guide to strategic thinking .
- http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766
- http://calnewport.com/blog/2015/11/25/the-feynman-notebook-method/
- The Thinking Student’s Guide to College by Andrew Roberts (the source of several of the seven ways to think more critically)
- What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain (the source of several of the seven ways to think more critically)
- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (the source for the C.P. Snow quote about Einstein and the information about Isaac Newton).
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We make decisions everyday that affect our lives.
Be it in a personal or a professional context, you can never deny the significance and the necessity of good decision making .
Critical thinking helps us to find any flaw, if it exists, in our decision making process and helps us to reach a better outcome by eliminating those flaws. In short, no matter what you are doing, you need to have that set of decision making skills; and for that, you need to be able to think critically and act quickly.
If you are still in doubt about your critical thinking ability or wondering what you should do in order to improve critical thinking, here is a list of steps that you should follow:
1. Know exactly what you want
Knowing exactly what you want is the first step of critical thinking.
We have to think critically to solve problems so that they meets their objectives. Every decision we make has an objective or purpose attached to it and identifying exactly what that is, what we actually want out of it, gives us a starting point to work with.
So ask yourself: What do I want? What do I expect to get out of this? Until you know the answer to these questions you're not going to know what the right decision is.
2. Deal with your biases
We often think from only our own perspective to deal with problems. However, it helps with critical thinking and decision making if you try thinking from someone else's point of view.
Furthermore, it gives you a clearer picture of the overall situation. Let's say you're looking to solve a problem at work. Think of how your best friend might approach it, or how your partner or a sibling might. Now think of how your boss might approach it.
By allowing yourself to consider different perspectives you might find yourself hitting upon solutions you hadn't previously considered.
3. Consider the consequences of your options
Every option we choose has consequences for ourselves, or maybe others involved in the problem.
You need to weigh up the possible consequences which may arise from each of your options and go for the one that benefits you most whilst limiting the negative effects on others involved.
A good way to do this is by writing a list of pros and cons. By asking yourself to think of every possible positive outcome alongside every possible negative outcome, you can make a much more informed decison.
4. Do your research
I'm sure you've heard that knowledge is power. However, many of us tend to rely a lot on what we already know and are reluctant to let go of our own beliefs.
Critical thinking requires you to let go of your beliefs sometimes to solve problems. Reluctance to learn, research or acquire new beliefs will only hold you back and certainly won't help you with critical thinking.
By taking time to do your research and focus on learning you'll find that over time you will evolve and adapt to overcome new situations and improve your critical thinking.
5. Accept the fact that you’re not always right
This one can be harder than it sounds.
It's okay to make mistakes and no matter who we are, we all make them.
However, most of us don't accept this fact which holds us back from thinking critically. If you are doing something wrong and repeatedly keep doing it because you have already assumed that you can never go wrong, then this needs to change for your own good.
Always double check solutions to problems, consider new options and view your mistakes as an opportunity to learn.
5. Break it down
Being able to see the big picture is great but it's even better if you can break things down into smaller sections.
The reason being that smaller sections are easier to mentally digest and work with.
Working with numerous small things is an easier task than trying to solve the bigger picture which can become too much to handle.
So try and think about it in terms of steps: what is the first thing I need to do? Make a list and try and put it in terms of priority, or chronology. By taking a big problem and breaking it into several pieces you allow yourself to start looking at the solutions, rather than spending half your time being overwhelmed by the problem.
6. Don't overcomplicate things
Overcomplicating things is something a lot of us have in common. It's a necessity to think things through but it only makes things difficult if you begin overthinking. You have to discover the fine line between positive thinking and overthinking.
There are a number of occasions where simplicity gets the job done.
If you are still in doubt about your critical thinking ability, just know that you are not alone.
Critical thinking is not something that comes easy. It sometimes needs you to let go of what you believe and work with new ideas. It can be challenging at times but if you do it right, it will be all worth it!
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