Critical Thinking - A Primer

A core skill sorely missing from the world of work is critical thinking.

It’s a core skill I’m teaching my boys also, as they do their school “research” via the internet now, and, at least in my opinion, are at the mercy of being fed information that has very little in the way of facts or evidence about it (social media anyone).

It’s always been an important skill but when your research is done online, and your main source of information is from social media, it’s become essential. 

But it's also essential in the world of work, where we're exposed to theories all the time that have no utility, or people with strong opinions, or ways of working that don't work. We need to be more critical and skeptical, even of plausible sounding theories.
 
Critically thinking about information, communication, concepts, methods etc can help you gain clarity, truth and understanding. And as the stoics would say - nobody was hurt by the truth.
 
I prize two core skills when recruiting for my teams: critical thinking and good communication skills. After all, have you ever met a critical thinker who isn’t a good communicator? Painfully difficult and annoying to work with.
 
Critical thinking is annoying. But it’s annoying in a “good for business” kind of way. Especially when it is aimed at improving the work and not just bringing people down or being negative. Negativity and critical thinking are not the same thing.

Critical thinking is a powerful way to cut through the use of absolutes - which I teach people to use sparingly (such as Always, Constantly, NEVER etc) . It is a key skill in getting to the heart of a problem, and it's a way of dissecting information to understand what the real meaning is, and getting to the truth.
 
There are a few core questions I teach people (and my kids) when it comes to critical thinking. And yes, I'm not doing this vast subject justice with this simplification.
 
Here are the questions :
 
1. What problem are we trying to solve? (link to a video I did on this, whilst searching for deer to photograph)
2. Is that statement / concept always right / correct / true?
3. Is there a case of the opposite being right / correct / true?
4. If it is ALWAYS right / correct / true, then the opposite must therefore be wrong / incorrect / fake / false?
 
Let’s look at a contrived, simple example.
 
I remember a few years back when a software developer got very irate if anyone sat down during a stand-up. He said the stand-up was called a stand-up for the very reason that everyone MUST ALWAYS stand up.
 
Let’s look at this a little more.
 
Firstly, what is the purpose of the stand-up? What problem is a stand-up trying to solve?
 
I presume someone figured that if people stood up, they would get tired and hence the meeting would be shorter, sharper and to the point. It would focus people to be effective in the meeting. A solid problem to solve.
 
If we think critically about this though we can already ascertain one obvious critical fact. I for one have seen many stand-ups (in which people are indeed stood up in the office) take AGES and be a complete waste of time. Literally, one team would hold one-hour stand-ups.
 
So, right away we know that just by standing up doesn’t address the main problem of rubbish meetings.
 
Equally, I’ve seen sit-down meetings be very effective and efficient - especially when I run them (link to a post I did on running good meetings).
 
So, if stand-ups really are the ONLY way to be effective and they do indeed require people to stand up, then the opposite must mean that all sit down meetings are long and boring. Many are, but they don’t have to be.  Are there examples of a well-run sit-down meeting? Yes, of course.
 
And now, in remote times, almost all my stand-ups are spent with me sat on my backside in a chair. It’s still a "stand-up" meeting aimed at being an effective form of communication, but I’m sat down.
 
It doesn’t take long to deconstruct absolutes, fake information and loose statements using basic critical questioning.
 
We can apply these sorts of questions to think critically about anything at all.
 
What problem are we trying to solve? Is this statement always correct? If yes, then are there times when it wasn’t? And is the opposite always false?
 
I’ve heard people tell me that ALL agile teams are better than “non-agile” (whatever that means) teams. Not true. I can find countless teams doing things differently and achieving success. I can find teams doing “agile” and failing.
 
I’ve had people tell me that “Bob” is ALWAYS late. Not true. I found many times when Bob started early or finished late, and he was most certainly not ALWAYS late. Therefore I focus on studying what people do - not what others tell me.
 
I’ve had people tell me the software DOESN’T work when they find a bug in it. It does work but they have found a bug, but it doesn’t mean the whole thing is broken. A case for being very accurate when we’re reporting faults in products etc.
 
I’ve had people tell me this tool, or that tool, is the best tool on the market. Maybe, but let’s run a proof of concept with some measures to be sure. How have they ascertained this? What problem does it solve? How do they measure it? Are all the rest really that bad?
 
I’ve seen websites with false information; strategies that lie about the current reality; measures and dashboards that are careful to omit certain information; and stories from people about successful deliveries that are clearly failing (I call this Watermelon reporting - green on the outside, red in the middle).
 
There is so much misinformation, subjective opinions and lies flying around in business that it’s very important a critical view is applied. If more people asked critical questions to get to the truth and facts, business leaders would make much better decisions.
 
By asking questions like the ones above we can start to get to the facts and the evidence and the data. By asking critical questions we can start to make better decisions and do what is right, not what someone with a loud voice and good communication skills tells us.

Asking good questions like these help to keep the business alive. 
 
I am always inspired by Edward Deming’s quote:

 
“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion”

Gather data by applying critical thinking then use that data to inform the next steps.