Enhance Your Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is key to success in many professional, management and leaderships jobs.  But what do folks mean when they talk about "critical thinking"?  How does one acquire this skill? 

What is Critical Thinking?
These are great questions.  Critical thinking is a complex concept.  We believe, in the most simple terms possible, that Critical Thinking is a process for making judgements or decisions which is reflective in nature and involves discernment, analysis, and evaluation, and in which one is "systematically looking for the merit, quality and worth of the information we are trying to perceive."

In other words, critical thinking is about how we perceive and evaluate information to make decisions or judgements.  

Stairwary to Critical Thinking
One helpful way to think about this topic is to use the "Stairway to Critical Thinking Model" developed by Dr. Jon Warner which is shown below. 

We see in this eight step model that we start with gathering and understanding info to assessing and evaluating it before reaching a decision and reviewing everything else we know in the context of the decision.  Dr. Warner suggests that at each level of the stairway, we continue to ask questions about clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, logic and more. 

While there are many more models for understanding the concept of Critical Thinking, we think this ones gives you a running start at building your own understanding of the breadth and depth of the topic. 

Learning More

Our best introductory resource on this topic is the booklet Critical Thinking by Dr. Jon Warner, from which we excerpted his Stairway to Critical Thinking Model, above.  This short, 16-page booklet covers the following:

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  Critical Thinking Defined: describes the various mental processes supporting critical thinking as a key business skill
•  Elements of Critical Thinking: categorizes the discreet activities involved with critical thinking, defining terms and establishing a common vocabulary  
• The Stairway to Critical Thinking: presents a simple, progressive model of critical thinking with developmental stages and skills in eight steps “up the stairway”
• Bloom’s Taxonomy of Critical Thinking: describes Benjamin Bloom’s well-known six processes in his Taxonomy of Higher Thinking
• Critical Thinking Intellectual Traits: description of the 8 common, observable personal traits that support critical thinking ability
• Practical Use of Critical Thinking: discusses how the appropriate traits of mind (in addition to intellectual skills) can be used to avoid various forms of self-deception.
• Critical Thinking – Elements of Thought: chart showing links to Jungian personality types and connections to 8 different core competencies.
• What is a Good Critical Thinker? Outlines the various skills, knowledge and abilities associated with strong critical thinking.
• Asking Insightful Questions: presents a systematic and self-aware modeling of 30 sound business questions that can be asked to obtain key information.
• Critical Thinking Competencies: elements of a critical thinker described in behavioral terms – what to look for.
• Situational Critical Thinking: applies a new situational model to critical thinking creating a 4-quadrant grid and style response or approach for each.
• Stages in Developing Critical Thinking: Presents five levels of progressive critical thinking ability, from “unreflective thinker” up to “master critical thinker.”

To order a PDF downloadable copy of this Critical Thinking Booklet by Dr. Jon Warner, visit our webstore at http://www.readytomanage.com/  or click here to go directly to a description of this resource.