Upgrade Critical Thinking Skills with Style
by Anne Collier, MPP, JD, PCC, and Cynthia Shaffer, MS, MBA, PCC
It’s a common opinion that critical thinking, creativity, and intellectual agility are among the most sought-after skills by employers today.
It’s a common complaint, however, that more junior colleagues fail to employ the critical thinking skills necessary to solve problems with the necessary efficacy. Their work product is sometimes described as ‘superficial’, or that they ‘miss the real issue’. Many leaders lament these failings or, in anticipation, they resign themselves to doing lower-level work to meet business needs.
They wonder: What’s preventing people from putting their thinking caps on?
Optimally, leaders are surrounded by team members who analyse problems and make clear, concise, and well-thought-out recommendations that are or lead to the best solutions. And that is where Arudia can help.
But can critical thinking skills be taught?
Critical thinking requires a person to purposefully impose criteria and intellectual standards upon their thought processes. New information and considered focus result in the person’s thinking evolving as the person reevaluates the standards imposed, along with the criteria and standards themselves.
Importantly, the person engages in metacognition: the thoughtful examination of their own thinking. This involves the very intentional and objective scrutinization of assumptions, perspectives and biases.
And, in short: yes, critical thinking absolutely can be taught. Keep reading to find out how Arudia does this with the teams we work with.
What’s style got to go with it? Introducing KAI…
Dr. Micheal J. Kirton’s Adaption-Innovation Theory (“A-I Theory”) and the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (the “KAI”) are, in our view, hands down, the best means of expeditiously teaching and improving critical thinking skills.
A-I Theory provides a framework for understanding different creativity styles on a roughly 120-point scale of more adaptive (more structured) to more innovative (less structured), with the vast majority of people falling in the middle.
Learning about problem-solving style can immediately improve critical thinking skills. How?
By learning how one naturally goes about solving problems, a person necessarily learns how their thinking style differs from others’ thinking styles, which leads to curiosity about how another approach might better for a particular problem.
This experience encourages a person to trade reactivity (my idea is best, or fear-based “nothing will work”) or paralysis (I can’t make a mistake) for inquisitiveness about the problem and different approaches to solving the problem.
Armed with an understanding of their own style, team members augment their capacity to examine their own thinking, assumptions and approaches by recognizing that different approaches both exist and might be better suited for the task at hand.
Steps for Improving Critical Thinking and Collaboration
To improve your approach to solving a problem through enhanced critical thinking, we encourage you to reflect on your built-in approach to problem-solving (where you are on the A-I Continuum) and then consider the following:
- What assumptions do you make when solving problems?
- What are your biases?
- What assumptions do you make on account of your problem-solving style?
- How would your work with others improve if you challenged your biases and assumptions?
- What concerns you about approaches that are wildly different than your own? How could you mitigate your concerns?
It is important to remember that everyone is creative, regardless of problem-solving style. Further, recognizing how the different approaches (the more adaptive and the more innovative styles) add value leads to colleagues with different approaches feeling valued. A win for all!
Why Encouraging Diversity of Thought Improves Results
It is essential that all team members feel comfortable to share their ideas. Often, when Arudia delivers workshops, the people at the extreme ends of the A-I Continuum (the very adaptive and the very innovative) tend to ‘keep quiet’ because their ideas are often rejected, ignored, or dismissed because they don’t fit with most colleagues’ initial take on what makes for a good idea.
Being viewed as “different” can be intimidating, which can result in holding back ideas along with the progress of the group. What can a leader do to avoid this adverse result, which not only affects results but retention? How can a leader create a safe space for open discussion?
Coach Critical Thinking in your Teams
To both train critical thinking and exploit cognitive diversity to its fullest, leaders and team members alike can use executive coaching skills. Coaching is a form of dialogue based on the asking and answering of typically open-ended questions to draw out ideas and reveal underlying assumptions, which stimulates critical thinking.
A full coaching conversation follows a problem-solving model in which the coach-leader asks deliberate open-ended questions to clarify the problem and the goal, to brainstorm options, to create an action plan, to identify resource needs and obstacles, to commit to next steps and develop mechanisms for accountability. Sometimes all you need is a few coaching questions to improve critical thinking.
What leaders must remember is that no one learns or master’s a skill without practice, thus making the active and regular use of A-I Theory and coaching essential tools for daily improvement of critical thinking skills and business outcomes.
In analysing your organisation’s culture, what conclusions do you draw about whether your culture supports critical thinking? If it doesn’t, which tools will work best to evolve your culture into a one in which high-level critical thinking prevails?
Get in touch with Arudia today to support your transformation into a workplace in which colleagues regularly employ critical thinking skills to resolve your biggest challenges.
About Anne Collier:
Anne Collier is driven to upgrade each client’s leadership, management, culture, collaboration, and communication. An expert leadership coach, she gives clients a competitive edge by helping them to use their strengths to their greatest advantage while developing robust, innovative, and practical strategies for successfully facing challenges.
Please click here to visit Anne’s website and click here to visit her LinkedIn profile.
About Cynthia Shaffer:
After a twenty-year career in healthcare administration, including in both an academic medical center and a Level I trauma center, Cynthia Shaffer followed her calling to support former colleagues and other professionals through individual and team coaching. She dedicated the last eight years to improving life for her clients through a “whole-person” approach. Clients seek her out because they appreciate that their wellbeing requires a career that works, a healthy culture, and personal resilience. She also specializes in transforming leadership and culture.
Please click here to visit her LinkedIn profile.