In recent years, the job market has undergone significant changes, making it more difficult to find promising talent. Often, there are more job openings than qualified candidates, and HR and L&D managers struggle to find those who can think innovatively and possess technical knowledge.
The management is swamped with reports, which requires employees to become more responsible by making informed decisions using their critical thinking skills. The problem is, only HR and L&D managers are familiar with the concept of “Critical Thinking” and how it can positively impact the organization. Understanding what critical thinking is, will help you convey its importance to management.
Anna Bronshtein, Elevation’s data vertical leader with 15 years of experience, knows how crucial it is to be able to solve problems from the inside.”To think critically, one must challenge ideas and assumptions rather than take them at face value”, she says. Critical thinking is about being creative while examining the surface of issues…” When we use this creative way of thinking, we determine whether the ideas, arguments, and findings in front of us represent the entirety of the issue, or if more questions need to be asked.”
In its training programs, Elevation team members teach critical thinking skills.
Anna highlights the steps you should take to develop this skill by yourself:
Identify the problem or question as specific as you can:
Instead of asking many questions, try to be as precise as possible. The narrower the issue, the easier it is to find solutions or answers and gather the data you need.
Collate data, opinions, and arguments:
Find several sources that present different ideas and points of view. Use inside information, outsource information, and compare it to previous periods, opinions, and arguments. Make sure you analyze the data and remain skeptical. Be specific as you can with your criticism.
Analyze and evaluate the data:
Does the data collected support the guiding question you defined earlier? Do you have enough information to proceed, or maybe you need more time to consider everything?
Identify misleading assumptions that affect your data:
As we are all humans, sometimes the data we collect is influenced by peoples’ conflicts of interest, statistical biases, and prejudices. Various variables paint a picture that might be what we want, but the data it’s based on is flawed.
Establish significance:
Having gathered the information necessary, is it sufficient for us to make an informed decision? What piece of information is most important? Are all opinions and arguments relevant to the problem/question at hand? Can we make a decision, or should we gather more data?
Make the decision needed or reach a conclusion:
Identify possible conclusions and decide which (if any) of them are sufficiently supported. Weigh strengths and limitations of all possible options. If you think you have gathered and handled all the data – you can now make your decision.
Anna says, “You can’t avoid understanding that when searching for a good candidate, you look first for their soft skills, such as communication, listening, solving complex problems, and the ability to think differently.” During our full online training on this topic, we discussed how Elevation’s Data Training academy can help trainees acquire this valuable skill individually or in teams.
Those in the heart of the tech industry eventually recognize that critical thinking is a skill that can be a key to success. In other words, it allows us to make decisions & conclusions based on cognitive flexibility, which provides us with a wide range of perspectives, opinions, and information to consider.
For the complete Hebrew online training, click here.
Consider a costume-made training program if your organization is experiencing a talent shortage. We have the expertise. Contact us.
