Critical Thinking Skills: The Double Meaning
We often use the term “Critical Thinking Skills” to refer to the capabilities employees need to help improve productivity, quality and profitability in their companies. These skills allow employees to make better decisions, avoid problems, solve problems efficiently, take advantage of opportunities, and set priority on actions that should be taken.
For centuries, it was thought that people were born with these abilities and if they didn’t inherit them at birth, they were out of luck. Fortunately, some smart folks determined there were thinking processes behind these abilities. Once the processes were mapped, they could be taught to others who could become proficient through learning and practice. That is what we do: Teach our version of these processes to others and work with them on practicing use of the processes until they become skills.
We like the phrase “Critical Thinking Skills” because of the double meaning of the word “critical”. According to our thesaurus, these skills are:
- Important, Significant, Vital, Essential, Crucial, Key, Indispensible
- Analytical, Diagnostic, Detailed, Searching
Let’s take a closer look at these meanings and why they apply to these skills.
Important – These skills are important because they are the very foundation of how organizations operate. Try to think of a day when you did not have to make a decision, avoid or solve a problem, set priority on tasks or exploit an opportunity. If you thought of a day when you didn’t use at least one of these skills, you were probably sleeping on the job!
While technical knowledge is important in the operation of any manufacturing facility, being able to apply that knowledge to an issue at hand is just as vital. Many senior manufacturing executives have told us that Critical Thinking Skills were very important in their career advancement. It seems technical knowledge got them in the door, but critical thinking skills moved them up the company ladder.
Analytical –These skills help employees think analytically about what is happening around them. The skills keep them focused on the information they have, the information they need and how to use information effectively. Most of all, they can think analytically about their actions.
In problem solving, employees might identify a likely cause of a problem, but they ask themselves, “If that is the cause of the problem, why is it happening on this production line and not other production lines?” Such analytical thinking allows for more pinpoint problem solving and avoids “fixing” things that are not the cause of the problem. In making a decision, when an employee thinks critically about all the objectives the decision has to satisfy and the relative importance of each objective, he or she is more likely to come to the best-balanced decision.
As employees work more and more in teams, Critical Thinking Skills become more vital to the company because they make it easer to understand and document the processes teammates are using. We don’t have to question how teammates came to a conclusion because we know the thinking process they applied. This allows the results from the use of Critical Thinking Skills to be shared throughout the company and applied by others who are facing the same issue.