Building critical thinking skills to solve complex problems

How everything has become more complex

Research suggests that, on average, we have to make 35,000 conscious decisions every day. That’s a huge number of choices to make, so you’d be right in thinking everything feels more complicated than it used to.

Let’s consider your average worker from 50 years ago…

• They didn’t have to consider navigating multiple cultures, languages, social structures, generational differences, gender constructs or legislation setting out required behaviours around all those things.
• They wouldn’t have to wonder if the machinery or tools they would be using next week, would be the same as this week.
• They wouldn’t be worrying about whether their organisation might be acquired by some industry giant or their work outsourced to some place 7000 miles away.
• They wouldn’t have to navigate increasingly complex home and work admin involving around 20 portals, 150 passwords, 5 devices, terms of business on apps requiring a signature that are 1 million words long and written in font size 2, numerous remote controls, and at the same time endlessly worry about security, privacy and data protection.
• They wouldn’t for a second consider that a badly phrased comment or misspoken word could result in either themselves, their manager or even their CEO being out on their ear in a nano second bringing all those around them tumbling down too.
• And finally, they would probably be living in or near family members who would be able to support when raising children or looking after elderly relatives.

So, we have a world of ever-increasing complexity but not necessarily a cohort of employees, managers or leaders who have the skills sets or confidence to manage complex and often competing issues. People skills in particular have often failed to keep up with our skills to do the tasks of our job.

You no longer need someone who can work out how to put a round peg in a round hole. Instead you need someone who can put a square peg in a round hole while using a sophisticated piece of equipment that only hit the market two weeks ago, be in a location 2000 miles away from the actual hole, be mindful that everyone wants to be treated like an individual and be aware that local laws mean that only an appropriately qualified person is allowed to work with square pegs!

Critical thinking is a key skill for complex problem solving

Complex problems are tangled, uncertain and often involve conflicting opinions. Critical thinking allows us to spot biases, omissions, duplications, errors and ‘rabbit holes’ or irrelevances in information. Ultimately, it helps us understand what information we have and what information we need in order to come to a reasoned conclusion or judgement.

The skills for critical thinking involve:

• The ability to stay open minded
• Withhold judgement
• To be prepared to check your own beliefs or thinking
• To question, to listen, to challenge, to evaluate, to research/reflect and to synthesise information.

How do your employees approach critical thinking? Too much fixed thinking?

Did man land on the moon in July 1969?

There has been much debate on this topic over the years with, for the most part, opinion polarised as to whether this did or did not happen. It’s not for us to enter into this debate, but when opinions are polarised and/or fixed then there will inevitably be little or no research done, a lack of questioning and listening, insufficient thinking and reflecting and zero informed discussion. This all results in opinions (or actions) not informed through critical thinking.

A fixed thinker (from either side of this debate) will often belittle those who have a different opinion, demand the other side ‘prove’ their opinion, frequently insult the other opinion holder’s intelligence and generally disengage from or close down the conversation, thereby preventing any discussion from actually taking place.
We will all have seen this approach in recent years on numerous topics within family, friend and workplace settings….but as a rule of thumb any time you observe polarised views and see people shutting others down (through insult, isolation, ghosting, undermining , defensive or attacking behaviours etc) then you can be pretty sure there is no critical thinking going on.

A critical thinker will ask questions, listen to other view points, self reflect, research, be prepared to move their position and always be prepared to challenge and be challenged so that an idea can be ‘worked through’.

Some pros and cons of critical thinking

But whilst critical thinking in a world of complex problems is important for us to reach reasoned conclusions and to understand what we need to do or say/think, it can be as much decried as valued. Here are a few of our thoughts on the pros and cons for organisations considering developing more of a critical thinking mindset:

Pros

• You’ll see improved solutions and problem solving as a result of root causes being addressed just as often as surface level issues.
• Thinking and decisions are likely to be more balanced, more informed and probably freer from bias too.
• You’ll set expectations around a higher standard of work and behaviour when asking people to be accountable (through a critical thinking process) for what they decide to say or do.
• You’ll gain competitive advantage unless it gets out of hand and decision making and adaptability are slowed down through excessive consideration
• Employees will likely feel more engaged through greater participation in decision making.
• Opportunities for individual development and growth.

Cons

• You may well lose the ability to treat your team members as a collective, as they will be forever questioning your decisions and judgement – are you ready for that? Treating everyone like an individual takes a lot more time and effort.
• You can create hostility as every team will have people in it who react badly to being questioned or challenged – the result is defensive and sometimes aggressive behaviours – it’s easier to deflect by pointing the finger at someone else than to accept that you yourself have some learning to do!
• It can take longer to make decisions if too much questioning and discussion goes on – you will need boundaries.
• Some individuals might be seen as aggressive or difficult, especially by those who like a smooth, unchallenged ride. Once viewed as difficult or disruptive it can be hard to change people’s minds.
• Your talent pool may shrink as not everyone likes having to stand up to be counted in today’s world. Critical thinking requires accountability.

A critical thinking culture

You don’t need every single employee to be a critical thinker. Assessing and challenging is hard work and not everyone wants to be doing that or be on the receiving end of that. Teams work best with a balance of strengths – some questioning, some creating, others executing. Too much challenge and debate can cause tension and slow decisions. What matters is having enough critical thinkers at every level of the organisation and encouragement of critical thinking at senior level to benefit from the pros listed above.

When you leave critical thinking to just the senior team

Critical thinking is obviously important for those in strategy, management and leadership roles, but one of the biggest risks to a building a culture of critical thinking is a log jam at senior levels. When (some) in senior roles might struggle with too big an ego, resulting in them rejecting any challenges or alternative thinking, there will also be many in more junior positions who don’t dare to doubt and feel it’s easier to keep their head down and not ask tough questions. A critical thinking culture should never be just about who has the necessary authority or seniority.

Five practical tips to get started

1. Talk about it – what it is, what is means, how it shows up (i.e. asking difficult questions at times) and why it is of value. Get people talking.
2. Model it from the top – ensure your senior team embrace challenges and questions and be the role models in engaging people across the organisation on this
3. Challenge fixed mindsets – Tackle mindsets that are fixed and/or judgemental – there is no room for people to start getting upset just because a colleague doesn’t agree with them.
4. Build people and communication skills – Run a few sessions to help people develop their people and communication skills such as around being assertive, effective communication, speaking up, listening to others, tackling limiting beliefs, defensive behaviours etc.
5. Celebrate wins – highlight when critical thinking leads to ideas generation, innovation, problem solving so people can see the benefit.