blank sharpens critical thinking skills

How to sharpen your critical thinking skills

Amy Herman ’88 trains leaders around the world in how to make tactical decisions. Here, she shares three habits that will help improve any problem-solving process.

ILLUSTRATION BY MIGUEL PORLAN

The FBI. Peace Corps. United States Postal Service. Johnson & Johnson. Georgetown University Hospital. New York City Public Schools. These are just a bite-size sample of the organizations around the world that have enlisted Amy Herman ’88 to empower employees with a vital skill: critical thinking.

The founder and president of The Art of Perception Inc., Herman takes an innovative approach to the professional development training she provides to leaders across industries. She uses artwork as a means to challenge people to change how they see things, make keener observations, and tactfully glean information from any situation to more effectively perform their jobs.

“At Lafayette, I discovered something in my liberal arts education I wouldn’t have otherwise: how powerful art is,” Herman says. “Now, I teach others how to look at art as data they’ve never seen before, ask questions, and use the power of perception to bring a fresh set of eyes to what they do every day.”

At the heart of critical thinking, Herman says, is “visual intelligence,” or the ability to gain clarity by seeing things from different perspectives. As she notes, understanding that there are multiple lenses through which a single situation can be viewed helps us make more acute assessments and better-informed decisions. Ready to see and impact the world in a new way? Here’s Herman’s advice for thinking more critically.

Make yourself uncomfortable

Falling into a daily routine is a common human experience, as it provides a sense of security. But it often causes us to miss out on new experiences that can help us grow our thought processes. Herman suggests making a daily conscious effort to either notice something new in your everyday surroundings or put yourself in an unfamiliar situation. “It could be something as small as taking a different route to work, or as big as traveling to a place where you don’t speak the language,” Herman says. “Making yourself uncomfortable strengthens your situational awareness and neuroplasticity, trains your brain to get out of a linear way of thinking, and expands your ability to adapt.”

Understand “the pertinent negative”

Herman teaches her trainees about “the pertinent negative,” the concept of noticing what’s not present in addition to what is in order to gain a fuller picture of a situation. “In medicine, the symptoms patients don’t talk about are just as, if not more, important than the ones they do talk about, and that’s critical to a doctor’s assessment,” Herman says. “When you’re looking to solve a problem at work, think about what people aren’t saying or what didn’t happen at a meeting. Ask yourself: ‘What do I know? What don’t I know? And if I had the opportunity to get one more piece of information, what would I need to know?’ It makes big challenges less daunting, and it helps you create better solutions.”

Choose your words carefully

Two words you should strike from your vocabulary, according to Herman, are “obviously” and “clearly.” Because we all view things differently, what’s clear to one person may not be so to another. “Never assume we’re all thinking about the same elephant in the room,” Herman says. “We live and work in a complex world where nothing is obvious. Instead, explain why something appears to you the way it does. Not only will that help you better understand your own perceptions, but it’ll help others gain clarity on them too. The words you use to talk to your team during a presentation, a meeting, an investigation—they matter.”

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Sharpening Your Critical Thinking

Arguments .

We’ve all encountered that situation in which we think one thing, and someone else thinks another. Perhaps you think that Roger Federer is the greatest tennis player of all time, whereas I think that Serena Williams is. Or perhaps you think that there is intelligent alien life elsewhere in the Universe, whereas I think there isn’t. Or perhaps you think that Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, while I think it’s Auckland. It’s possible to disagree about almost anything.

Most of the time, people can give reasons for what they think. Why think that Federer is the greatest tennis player? Perhaps, in your opinion, Federer is the most graceful tennis player on court. I might respond by pointing out that Williams has won the most Grand Slam singles titles since tennis professionalised in 1968. And why think there’s intelligent alien life? Perhaps you’d say that, statistically, given the vastness of the Universe, intelligent life is unlikely to have evolved just once. I might respond by saying that, if there were intelligent alien life, we would have come into contact with it by now.

Philosophers like to represent people’s reasons for what they think as arguments . An argument involves one or more claims, called premises , which are presented in support of a conclusion . For example, we might represent our disagreement about tennis like this:

Your Argument

Premise:  Federer is the most graceful tennis player on court.

Conclusion: Federer is the greatest tennis player of all time.

My Argument

Premise: Williams has won the most Grand Slam singles titles since tennis professionalised.

Conclusion: Williams is the greatest tennis player of all time.

Testing Arguments

Displaying our disagreement like this is helpful, because we have tests for assessing arguments. Here are the two most important tests.

• First test: Are all the premises true?
• Second test: If the premises were true, would they support the conclusion?

For an argument to be a good one, it should pass both tests.

Let’s begin by applying the first test to your argument. There is only one premise: ‘Federer is the most graceful player on court’. Is that premise true? There are various ways we might try to work that out. We might survey tennis experts, or the general public, we might discuss what counts as gracefulness in tennis and examine the footage ourselves, or something else. Perhaps, when we do the research, we’ll decide that the premise is true; or perhaps we won’t. It isn’t obvious whether Your Argument passes the first test.

In contrast, My Argument does pass the first test. At time of writing, Williams has won the most Grand Slam singles titles since tennis professionalised. But does it pass the second test? Well, you might reasonably wonder why I am ignoring Grand Slam doubles titles. After all, taking those into account as well, Martina Navratilova has won the most titles since tennis professionalised. And what about Grand Slam titles before then? If we take those into account, then Margaret Court has won the most Grand Slam titles. So, even if we think that Grand Slam titles are indicative of greatness, it’s not clear that Serena Williams comes out on top. So it’s debatable whether My Argument passes the second test.

We would need to do more research, or develop more arguments, to work out whether either argument is a good argument.

Confirmation Bias

Testing arguments, then, is difficult. And it would be difficult even if we could be completely objective. But, to make matters worse, we’re not completely objective.

Repeated psychological experiments have shown that humans suffer from a confirmation bias. What that means is that people – including you and me – tend to be biased in favour of our own thoughts and beliefs.

Repeated psychological experiments have shown that humans suffer from a confirmation bias. What that means is that people – including you and me – tend to be biased in favour of our own thoughts and beliefs. We unconsciously select arguments and evidence that support what we already believe, and ignore or dismiss arguments and evidence that contradict what we believe.

So, if you believe there’s intelligent alien life elsewhere in the Universe, then you may end up thinking your arguments are conclusive, while simply dismissing my counter-arguments. Moreover, you may end up doing this even though you are trying, in good faith, to test my argument objectively.

Suppose, for example, you start by representing my argument as follows:

• Premise: We haven’t come into contact with any intelligent alien life. 
• Conclusion: There is no intelligent alien life elsewhere in the Universe.

So far so good: this is, I think, a fair representation of my argument. And now imagine you try, in good faith, to test it. Applying the first test, you might point out that we might have come into contact with intelligent alien life unknowingly . And applying the second test, you might say that, even if we haven’t come into contact with intelligent alien life, there could be all sorts of reasons why. You might thus dismiss the argument as a bad one.

So what’s the problem? Well, if you reasoned like that, you would be unconsciously favouring your own thoughts and beliefs. Pointing out that the premise might be false isn’t enough to show that the premise is false. And indeed, if I’d asked you prior to the disagreement, maybe you would even have agreed that the premise is probably true. If you claim that the argument fails the first test, you are probably being swayed by your belief that there is intelligent alien life.

What about the second test? Things are a bit more complicated here. To properly apply the test, you need to understand why the premise or premises are supposed to support the conclusion. You need to see the argument from my perspective, to practise intellectual empathy .

Perhaps I think the following: if intelligence has evolved twice, then it is likely to have evolved countless times throughout the Universe; and, if intelligence has evolved countless times throughout the Universe, then many of those species will have reached out to look for other signs of intelligence; and, if intelligent aliens had reached out then, given that we have been looking, we would expect to have made some kind of contact by now. The point here isn’t that this conclusively establishes that there are no intelligent aliens. The point is that it is a reasonable line of thought, and should not be dismissed without proper examination.

There is no simple strategy for overcoming confirmation bias. But practising intellectual empathy is an important step. Try to understand why people judge their arguments to be good arguments. And, even harder, try to understand why those same people might judge your arguments to be bad arguments. Understanding this is the first step to making progress.

Nuance and Complexity

A second reason why testing arguments is difficult is that the truth is normally nuanced and complex. There probably isn’t an objectively greatest tennis player of all time; and we can’t say exactly how likely it is that there is intelligent alien life.

One consequence of this is that we can sometimes find good arguments with contradictory conclusions. For example, perhaps your arguments in favour of Federer and intelligent aliens are good arguments, but perhaps my arguments in favour of Williams and against intelligent aliens are also good arguments. This may be a disappointing resolution to a disagreement – that neither of us is entirely right or entirely wrong – but it is often the appropriate conclusion.

When it comes to tennis, for example, we might come to the conclusion that there are many factors that contribute to being great. Gracefulness is one, grand slam titles is another. But maybe we should conclude that there’s no objectively correct way of weighing up these different factors. Federer might be the greatest in terms of style, whereas Williams might be the greatest in terms of titles. (But even that is too simplistic, for there are different styles of play, and different ways of counting titles, and so on.)

And when it comes to aliens, we might come to the conclusion that there are good reasons for thinking both that there are intelligent aliens, and that there aren’t intelligent aliens. There’s nothing particularly unusual about this sort of situation. It just shows that we’re not able, at present, to work out the answer for certain. You think one thing, and for good reason; I think another, and for good reason. One of us is right, but neither of us is irrational or confused.

Why This Matters

Sometimes, just sometimes, a disagreement has a clear resolution. Recall the third disagreement I opened the piece with, about whether Wellington or Auckland is the capital of New Zealand. Perhaps this was my reason for thinking that Auckland is the capital:

Premise: Auckland is the most famous city in New Zealand.

Conclusion: Auckland is the capital of New Zealand.

And perhaps this was your reason for thinking that Wellington is the capital:

Premise: I remember learning at school that Wellington is the capital of New Zealand.

Conclusion: Wellington is the capital of New Zealand.

Unlike the disagreements about tennis and aliens, there is an objective, empirical yardstick here by which the truth can be measured. My argument isn’t obviously bad: Auckland perhaps is the most famous city in New Zealand, and a country’s capital often is its most famous city. But, even so, I am objectively wrong: Wellington is the capital of New Zealand.

But disagreements are rarely settled so easily, even when you’d think that there’s an objective answer out there. Just because someone is appealing to the latest evidence, it doesn’t mean their conclusion is true. Even when you’re the one who’s appealing to the evidence. Interpreting evidence is incredibly difficult – requiring more than just the skills I’ve been discussing – and it’s important to remain open to alternative interpretations. Even the truth about ‘what the evidence shows’ is nuanced.

People disagree about all sorts of things that affect our lives – sport, the regulation of business, public health, eating meat, who should lead the country, etc. – and people use all sorts of arguments, and appeal to a wide variety of evidence, when giving their reasons. When you and I are involved in a disagreement, both of us would likely think ‘I am right’. This can lead to shouting matches, resentment, and a polarised society.

Sharpening your critical thinking isn’t about finding new ways to show you’re right. It’s about opening yourself up to the possibility that you’re wrong.

Sharpening your critical thinking isn’t about finding new ways to show you’re right. It’s about opening yourself up to the possibility that you’re wrong. It’s about being aware of your confirmation bias, trying to understand what others think, and embracing nuance and complexity. All these skills are difficult, and take a lot of practice. But putting in that practice is worth it. It can give us a richer, more realistic picture of the world we live in.

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• How to Sharpen Your...

How to Sharpen Your Critical-Thinking Skills

5 min read · Updated on October 21, 2021

A critical thinker looks at a situation from all angles. If you're looking to develop this key skill, we have some advice.

Tony Wagner, education expert and author of The Global Achievement Gap , argues that students need 3 basic skills in order to thrive in a knowledge economy:

1. The ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving.

2. The ability to communicate effectively.

3. The ability to collaborate.

What is true for students is true for all of us professionals, or 'students' of the world of work: These skills are invaluable and fall on the skills list of what employers look for. I'd recommend that anyone who cares about knowledge job performance strengthen and continuously exercise all of these skills. I can say they've served me extraordinarily well so far in my career, from teaching English as a foreign language, to helping organizations grow as a writer and editor for a marketing agency.

The supreme importance of critical thinking.

Wagner lists critical thinking first for a reason. It's paramount. In the classic cognitive skills of traditional education, it's the difference between the bottom of Bloom's taxonomy (memorization) and the top (evaluation). Along with the other indispensable skills of a knowledge-based economy, critical thinking is rooted in a rigorous and balanced approach to looking at the world, what many employers look for.

Whether in a classroom, laboratory, online program or live workshop (even self-study), the sharper your critical-thinking skills, the easier it will be for you to apply your knowledge to boost your career growth. To borrow from Bloom's taxonomy again, those who can use their knowledge to analyze, synthesize and ultimately evaluate, can adapt to any job situation and thrive within it. The particular knowledge itself is less important than the types of thought processes you're exposed to and practice on a regular basis.

Essentially, the critical thinker cultivates a mindset (grounded in awareness) that looks at all the angles of a given situation. How do you see more angles? How do you become more aware? Well, it's partly a function of experience, but it's also a habit of mind. Having a healthy curiosity and drive to understand the why behind things, not just the how, broadens perception and awareness. It's also a key skill for a resume.

How do you improve your critical-thinking skills?

To start, we've got no shortage of literary sources to turn to in the current exploding market for productivity advice. Some of these bestsellers can help you reevaluate many of your foundational choices, which translates directly to work choices. Being active and deliberate with your life choices requires critical thinking. A good book I'm reading right now is Eat Move Sleep by Tom Rath; another I'm looking forward to reading soon is Charles Duhigg's just-published Smarter Faster Better . If you're only going to read one book, I'd start with Maria Konnikova's Mastermind , which uses modern neuroscience to explain the ways we can all learn to think like Sherlock Holmes. I have found her take on mental performance to be completely mesmerizing … and integral to my productivity in both work and life.

What employers look for.

At most places where you'd want to be working, employers are looking for people to ask the right questions. Indeed, being inquisitive is one of the fundamental principles of company culture where I work. This knack for probing deeper into what motivates an organization is exactly what smart employers seek. In fact, when I was last on the job market, I relied heavily on a book (maybe this one … sorry, too long ago) that helps job-seekers formulate the best questions to ask during an interview.

I got the job.

With no prior experience in the industry. And very little knowledge. Furthermore, I could tell before getting the formal offer that one reason I was on track was the quality of the conversation my questions enabled. Apparently I tricked them into thinking I was a legit candidate! In all seriousness, by demonstrating a leader's forward-thinking tendency while interviewing for an entry-level position, I showed my commitment and potential. Ultimately, I left a great impression, thanks in large part to my questions.

Ask intelligent questions.

One of the hallmarks of critical thinking is asking intelligent questions … not necessarily knowing the answers, but the best questions to ask. As indicated in the preceding section, the ability to articulate—and refine—a powerful question is a highly coveted job skill and a key skill for a resume. It indicates you care about outcomes and can take a long-term perspective, which are signs of professional maturity. And it starts from critical thinking.

So, ask more questions. Be open-minded. Learn as much as you can. Then debate, explore and play with your new knowledge. Practice thinking critically until it is as natural to you as breathing. This is what employers look for. Before long, you will start to look at the world differently. Even more exciting, your employer and colleagues will start looking at you differently, too.

Want to see how your resume stacks up? Try out our free critique today!

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3 Reasons You Need Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking has been a key pillar of success for me throughout my career. Making the time to think allows for data analysis , clarifying and homing in on our North Star to help ensure that both my teams and I avoid the dreaded hamster wheel of thought — spinning and spinning with no end in sight.

5 Ways to Sharpen Your Critical Thinking Skills

• Set aside an hour of think time each morning to read and absorb news and information pertinent to your job.
• Train yourself to examine data before devising a solution to a problem.
• Take time when making a decision — mull it overnight if necessary. 
• Ask questions of yourself, the data and others to avoid jumping to the wrong solution. 
• Surround yourself with people who have critical-thinking skills and aren’t afraid to use them.

But spend much time on the internet and you will see that many people seem to have forgotten how to check credible sources, access and understand data and look at the facts. Businesses can’t afford to do this – not if they hope to be successful. Decisions made without critical thinking are decisions made in the dark.

Here are just a few ways critical thinking can make a difference in business and in your career.

Food for Thought 5 Essential Business-Oriented Critical Thinking Skills for Data Science

Critical Thinking Helps You Dig Into Data 

When you start thinking and taking a deep dive into data, you won’t always like what you find. That’s when your critical thinking skills really come in handy. 

You may, for example, have found four huge areas that need fixing. In revenue it could be the number of leads, outreach to those leads, the funnel or your product. Think about the one thing that will exponentially change your results and drive that one home.

Critical thinking forces you to dig deep into data . It forces you to stop spinning on the hamster wheel and helps you execute relentlessly. 

Of course, you must use that data wisely. If you have a hypothesis and need to examine data to prove or disprove that hypothesis, look at that data objectively. Some people latch onto a hypothesis and then look for data to support it while disregarding data that disputes it. That defeats the purpose. Don’t let yourself become too attached to your idea until you know it is backed up by supportive data.

Critical Thinking Helps You Challenge the Norm

No one likes to hear the phrase “we’ve always done it that way,” yet we often let things slide without challenging them because they are considered the norm.

Let’s say that you know revenue traditionally is slow during the summer months. In the United States, the Fourth of July and family vacations can cause this to happen. In Europe, August is a wash. So it’s easy to fall victim to this norm: “We never do well in the summer.”

We too often fall back on the idea that something has always been done a certain way or happens a certain way and therefore is not changeable.

That “we never do well in the summer” attitude is just one example of how we allow an accepted piece of conventional wisdom within the organization — or within our industry — to keep us from excelling. We too often fall back on the idea that something has always been done a certain way or happens a certain way and therefore is not changeable.

That’s not always true, though. For instance, most of us pump our own gas routinely without giving it any thought. Yet decades ago, this was unheard of. The norm was that customers expected full service at the pump. Surely you couldn’t persuade them to pump their own gas. Someone challenged the norm – probably in the face of numerous naysayers – and a new way of doing things emerged.

What are the norms in your business or industry? Do you need to challenge any of them? Could your business benefit from you calling into question the attitude of “we can’t do this or that because…” and looking for ways you actually can do it?

think again 9 Pieces of Unconventional Wisdom for Innovators and Change Makers

Critical Thinking Helps You in Any Endeavor

One of the wonderful things about critical thinking is that once you have mastered it, you can apply it to your current career, job and company — or the next one . 

That may be one of the main reasons you need critical thinking skills, because not every skill we master is so versatile and adaptable.

Some skills come with limitations on when and how you can use them. Carpentry is a wonderful skill, but your expertise with tools won’t come into play when you are filing your taxes. Nor will your knowledge of tax law help you construct a backyard deck.

Critical thinking has no such limitations. It’s handy in carpentry, tax preparation or any other circumstance you can imagine. Because of that, critical thinking allows you to replicate success, kind of like scaling a business . 

The ability to analyze, evaluate and problem-solve is valuable, no matter what you are doing.

Built In’s expert contributor network publishes thoughtful, solutions-oriented stories written by innovative tech professionals. It is the tech industry’s definitive destination for sharing compelling, first-person accounts of problem-solving on the road to innovation.

Great Companies Need Great People. That's Where We Come In.

Sharpening Your Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is an important ability that enables students to better solve problems in the real world as well in the academic world. It is important for high school students develop critical thinking skills by playing board games and logical puzzles. Having critical thinking skills allows students to assess outcomes, compare ideas, synthesize information and draw conclusion from a given piece of knowledge. High school students should try these tools to develop their critical and analytical thinking skills necessary for succeeding in college tests, assignments and exams.

1. Improve Your Cognition Ability with Brain Games

Nowadays, websites that offer brain games have gained increased popularity. These websites provide games that improve memory, cognition and problem solving skills. It is important to train your brain in order to approach complex problems on standardized tests such as ACT and SAT.

2. Boarding Games for Strengthening your Memory

Games such as Rubik’s Cube, Checkers, Chess, Mastermind, Boggle, Scrabble are a few games that aid in honing your analytical skills and strengthen your ability to remember details and react to others’ moves and assume motives.

3. Hone Your Analytical Skills with Logical Puzzles

The puzzles are intended to exercise your brain. There are number of crossword puzzles, riddles, word searches and logic problems that can be found at bookstores or libraries. These logical puzzles can activate different parts of your brain, thus helping you to hone your critical and analytical thinking skills that every college student needs.

4. Maintain a Journal to Explore Your Ideas

Keeping a daily journal is a great way to explore ideas and encourage you to expand your thoughts. You can record important ideas, experiences and stories about your life.

5. Find a Book Club

Joining a book club is another good option to think critically. Read the book for understanding and delve deeper and you will be able to ponder complex questions. Analyzing a book will definitely help you hone your skills.

6. Sleep Properly

Getting a good sleep is important to improve your overall performance and the ability to concentrate. Getting around eight to ten hours sleep is essential for optimum performance.

7. Start Preparing for Test in Advance

Your mind can work its best if it is exposed to information repeatedly. Cramming does not work at the last moment, as your brain doesn’t have adequate time to consolidate.

8. Energize Your Brain

The brain needs energy, as it acts badly when it does not get fuel. Proteins, complex carbohydrates, eggs, fruits, cereals and juices are the best option to nourish your brain. Skipping breakfast will never help you out in performing at your best.

9. Exercise Daily

Do exercises that improve the functionality of your mind, as it increases blood flow, or reduces stress and anxiety level. Twenty minutes or so a day of activity will greatly improve your mind and heart function. Aerobic exercise can effectively boost your mental abilities while allowing you to complete your work swiftly and retain more of what you learn.

10. Study in Group

Take good notes and pay attention to your studies. Try to utilize your spare time in clearing the concepts that you did not pick up in the classroom. Complete your assignments and homework as they are assigned to you. Studying in groups will help you complete your assignments quickly and effectively, allowing you to free up time for yourself.

5 Critical Thinking Strategies To Sharpen Your Thinking

• Self-improvement

Using critical thinking is one of the most powerful ways you can leverage your chief organ – the brain.

But besides critical thinking skills . You need one more ingredient to maximize your thinking skills.

You need critical thinking strategies.

After we spawn on a random place on the planet Earth. It takes years to come to our senses. To realize that everyone around us is trying to take advantage of us. To capture our attention and use it for their own selfish purposes.

I admit it. As a parent. I do it, too. I sometimes persuade my kid to do things against his will.

Sometimes it’s in his best interest – telling my kid that he can eat only one chocolate cookie a day because the cookie man can only produce one per day; explaining that he needs to slow down when he rides his scooter because otherwise, the cops will bring him in. Other times, it’s because I’m too freaking tired – sweet-talking him to sleep by saying that his toys are now asleep and he needs to hug the pillow, too.

Within a few months – a year tops. These persuasive techniques will no longer work. I will have to find alternative methods to keep my kid away from doing stupid things.

The problem, however, is that I can only help him to an extent. At a certain stage of his life, it will be up to him to keep his distance from harm. And harm, in the modern age. It’s not the ability to fight wild beasts. It’s expressed in poor decision-making and problem-solving.

Hopefully, I will do a good job at helping him obtain the needed thinking strategies to navigate around the hectic world. Plus, explain how he can use the holy internet so he can land on my website and see how his old man was mentioning him around the vast online ocean.

So, the critical thinking strategies below are not only for you. They are also for my son when he’s old enough to roam the busy online streets.

I’m going to walk you through the best critical thinking strategies. Strategies to develop critical thinking so you can reinforce your problem-solving judo, creativity kung fu, and curiosity jiu-jitsu.

Moreover, the powerful procedures are hand-selected. Curated and documented to allow the user to inflict philosophical fury on any foe foolish enough to stand in the way of his logic.

What Is a Critical Thinking Strategy?

Critical thinking strategies are well-crafted instructions. Directions that allow you to come as closes as possible to the truth while simultaneously not completely removing the need to think.

And while critical thinking strategies and critical thinking skills might seem the same things. They are not.

If we use basketball as an example. You have dribble skills and shooting skills. But these, alone, won’t help you win the game. You also need a strategy. An action plan to progress in the field when other players are attacking you.

Similarly, critical thinking skills do increase the odds of becoming a better thinker. You become better at dribbling – uncovering your biases, recognizing important mental models, etc. But you also need a strategy. A plan, a framework, designed to help you achieve a particular outcome. Close the gap between your current state and your future state.

In thinking, this is your ability to come up with a clever way out of a situation.

5 Critical Thinking Strategies to Enhance Your Problem-Solving Abilities:

Strategy 1: 3d thinking, strategy 2: independent thinking, strategy 3: deconstruct and recombine, strategy 4: intellectual scaffold, strategy 5: futures thinking.

People praise thinking outside the box as it’s some unrealistic goddess that can help you solve any problem that comes towards you.

While surely good, thinking outside the box is still a two-dimensional way you look at things.

Too often. The problems we face are multidimensional.

Let me show you a logic puzzle – called the Greek Cross puzzle – so you can better understand the concept and aid you in clearing the muddy waters of your thinking.

First, take ten coins and arrange them to match the following illustration:

Now, think about how you can move just two coins to form two rows, containing six coins each when added up either horizontally or vertically.

Don’t scroll till you have given up trying to find a solution!

So, there are ten coins, and we are looking for two rows with six coins each. In the two-dimensional world. This puzzle is unsolvable. But if we add the 3rd dimension. We can complete it.

Done trying and ready for the solution?

Here it is:

You can only solve the logic puzzle by moving one coin from the right arm to the left arm and moving the extra coin at the bottom to a position on top of the center coin.

Thinking in 3D is needed so we can solve all kinds of problems in real life.

The most obvious example is with earning money.

Let me explain…

On a typical day job. Every employee is stuck in the same race towards the top of the corporate ladder, with the same desire to make progress and earn more money, and the same inability to do so. Not that people don’t get promoted and don’t earn more. But not everyone does. Statistically, only around 5% of the people in a company will move with a step. The rest will have to swallow their pride and keep feeling worthless about the work they do.

But getting promoted or not. This is still a linear way to solve the need for money. Regardless of how many times you’ll get a bump in the salary. You will remain in the average quadrant of wealth. If you want to increase your earnings exponentially. You need to shift fields. Either start a business or start investing.

When you think linearly. There are a lot of limitations. Conversely, with 3d thinking, as they say, the sky is the limit.

Independent thinking is all about not allowing other people’s thinking to become your thinking.

Independent thinking strategy is having the courage to think differently from the group.

I’m saying having the courage because in social situations. We are pressured to agree with others. Pressured to fall for groupthink – one common critical thinking barrier . And on top of that, fearful about appearing foolish.

This is especially true if we are speaking with someone higher in the hierarchy or with someone older. It’s assumed that fancy titles and age are enough to make you an omniscient entity who doesn’t need to understand and/or listen to others.

For instance, say you have a meeting in your company to discuss entering new markets. The boss states that he wants to penetrate India. Everyone in the room just nodes in unison and moves to the next item on the agenda. Everyone agrees with the statement of the boss because: a) he’s the boss (duh); b) people think that he made his research beforehand; and c) seeing everyone nodding makes you think that it’s an obvious thing, thus trying to confront this statement will make you look like a fool.

Say, however, that you’re willing to challenge the views of your boss. You explain that the eastern market is quite different from the western one and that the typical strategies won’t work. So, it’s better to focus on another market or invest in creating a different strategy, first, before crusading towards the Indian market.

Probably not everyone will agree. But you’ll at least present a fresh concept that can be discussed and considered. Additionally, your boss will probably adore the fact that you’re willing to question his commands. Unless, of course, he’s an egomaniac. In such cases, probably the solution is different – find another job.

But let’s get back to the main point here…

The framework for independent thinking will be to pause for a moment and consider the argument – the presented information. Then, to mentally distance yourself from the opinion of the people around you – including the common solutions to a problem.

Original ideas can’t emerge if you copy what was done before. You need to search for solutions that weren’t tried before.

When you don’t understand something, deconstruct. Deconstruction creates knowledge. You work backward from the end to understand how something was done.

When you want to create something original, though, deconstruct and recombine. Arranging common things in a new way creates value.

That’s how Uber was able to dominate the market. They deconstructed the process of ordering a cab and recombined the pieces in a new and different way.

In a similar way, you can find new and better solutions to the daily challenges you face.

Here’s how to do it. Ask:

• What are the core components?
• What can’t be removed?
• What can be removed?
• What can be added?
• What can be modified?

Break down an idea. An item to an anatomic level.

If we take the book Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows as an example. Unsurprisingly, the core component of the book is systems. Understanding how things connect and influence each other (mainly) in organizations.

Now, if we want to create something different based on this core idea. We can, for example, use it to create alternative training methods. Say, videos or audio recordings of some sort. Or even further, we can think of a way to create a board game on the topic. Helping even kids learn the value of systems thinking.

Admittedly, it’s not entirely our fault that we make dump choices and we progressively fail. Simply put, the capacity of our brain is limited.

In the book Learning How to Learn , the authors explain that we can’t hold more than 3 to 5 things at once in our head. If something is forgettable, we forget it.

But it is our fault that we don’t incorporate systems to help us better organize the information we are so aggressively consuming to make better decisions.

Here’s where the scaffolding idea enters.

As people use temporary structures to support the creation of buildings. We can use an intellectual scaffold to engage in critical thinking.

Here, the term intellectual scaffold is simply a fancy way to express the need to create a document where you place your comprehensive research on a topic.

Good decision-making works in a similar fashion to building a monument.

Everyone external sees the end result. For instance, a company shipping a killer product. But the process of creating something out of nothing is not painless. It requires research, testing, adjusting, course correcting, etc.

A well-conducted report that holds information for a specific decision is the key to success in many fields.

The concept is rather simple – but it takes time to figure out the best way to structure your information.

For instance, if you are considering embedding a list of good habits in your life. Just reading random articles online and books on the topic won’t be enough. To build great habits. You can start by creating a document that will hold your research on the topic. Your goals and your progress.

Personally, what I did in relation to habits falls into these 4 categories:

• Goal : Deciding what specific thing you want to understand, improve, master. In my case, habits.
• Atomic Habits by James Clear.
• The Now Habit by Neil Fiore.
• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
• Creating content : I’ve written a couple of posts on habits not only to help you , the reader, with your habits. But also to help me . These articles ( here , here , and here ) contain my research and my views. Not that you should start a site to embed good habits. But outlining the main things will help you when you need to go back and re-read what you’ve summarized.
• Keeping track : To ensure that I’m executing my habits. I keep a habit tracker . A simply analog system to remind me of the things I need to do daily and also a way to motivate myself.

The structure above can be tailored for anything you want.

The end goal is to create a supporting structure – in a form of a written document. Scaffold structure that will aid you in critical thinking and decision-making.

While decisions are made at a certain point in time, they always have consequences in the future.

That’s why it’s important to understand futures thinking.

Futures thinking is your ability to recognize what will potentially happen in the future. How the future will unfold through observation, strategic foresight, and designing different scenarios. The end goal is to ensure that you’re not caught with your guard down.

Surely we are not playing a fortune-teller here. We don’t precisely know what will happen. We are not even remotely interested in fooling ourselves that we’ll ever be 100% certain about the future. But by considering the past, evaluating the present, and crafting worst-case scenarios. We can arm ourselves with the needed tools, muscle power, to face any incoming challenges.

The most basic example to explain futures thinking lies in the concept of investing.

You invest money in fonds and in yourself – through mastering new skills – not because it’s super exciting. Surely you can spend your time better than reading books or watching boring videos on coding. You can for example have fun playing video games. But your ability to “see” the future tells you that, “Hey, it’s not healthy to waste my time on a video game that will become obsolete within a month. It’s better to focus my efforts on things that will bring me future gains.”

The process of applying futures thinking is achieved – as with all the rest critical thinking strategies – by asking questions.

Here are the main points:

• You identify a specific topic : For instance, you want to improve your income.
• Identify the forces that have an impact on the topic : In our case, inflation, technology adjustments, people’s purchasing habits, your current skills.
• Develop scenarios based on the forces that can impact your future : Inflation wiping all of your savings. Or technology advances and your current skills are no longer valued by the market.
• Search for opportunities within the scenarios : Here you need to ask further questions and do so more research work. For example, how you can protect yourself from inflation? The answer? Nothing new actually. You need to invest in assets – home, stocks, and other forms of investments. Plus, you need to invest in yourself. Ensure that your skills are always up-to-date.

Some Closing Thoughts

We become what we think.

And as cheesy as it might sound. If you change your thinking, you will change your life.

These critical thinking strategies will equip you with the tools you need to solve even unsolvable situations. Give you an edge in your everyday decision-making and help you see what else you need to improve in your life.

When the above techniques become part of your thinking routine. Part of your thinking arsenal. You’ll rarely feel like there is no way out. Even if the situation is incredibly complex. Your ability to reason will create solutions beyond the ordinary. Allowing you to swiftly progress.

If you’re new to the concept of critical thinking and if after reading the above you’re even more hooked. I’ll suggest also checking these three: 7 Powerful Critical Thinking Quotes ; 9 Provoking Critical Thinking Questions ; Critical Thinking and Problem Solving in the Modern Age.

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3 Techniques for Sharpening Your Critical Thinking Skills

Critical Thinking

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Critical thinking is the ability to objectively analyze an issue and arrive at a conclusion that’s supported by evidence. Although critical thinking is absolutely necessary for achieving any level of success in business, this fundamental skill isn’t taught in school.

Critical thinkers take an issue and break it down into its smallest components, analyzing an issue from every angle. Strong critical thinking skills can put you on the path to achieving everything you’ve ever desired. They can help you rid your mind of limiting ideas that you’ve accumulated throughout your life.

Check out these tips for how to sharpen your critical thinking skills:

ONE: Realize that many of your thoughts aren’t your own. How many thoughts do you have rolling around in your head that came from others? As you grew up, you absorbed the ideas of your elders. You also learned cultural norms to avoid conflict and fit in.

• Think back to when you were a child. Was there a family member who had a habit of making disparaging remarks about life and everyone in it? There’s a good chance that person’s thoughts are still echoing in your subconscious, even today.
• Scientists call these contagious ideas “memes.” Memes have the power to travel from person to person through verbal communication.
• Consider racism. Numerous studies have shown that children under the age of three are completely accepting of each other. Racism is a learned behavior, a meme.
• With the power of critical thinking, you can free your mind of any memes that no longer serve you. Take stock of your mental inventory and dispose of ideas or beliefs that are negative or harmful. Some of those thoughts have the potential to sabotage you.

TWO: Empower yourself by analyzing challenging issues. Critical thinking gives you the ability to identify and understand the logical connections between concepts, detect faulty reasoning, systematically solve issues, and test arguments.

• A toddler who places his hand on a hot stove will learn to stay clear of stoves. But that same child probably won’t infer that they ought to also avoid the hot toaster. The toddler lacks the knowledge and ability to draw inferences from his experiences beyond what is immediately apparent.
• Critical thinking allows you to come to conclusions about the world around you and to solve conflicts that aren’t necessarily related to one another.

FOUR: Cultivating critical thinking can free you from superstitions that may be holding you back. As silly as it sounds, many of us still believe the superstitions we hear about as children. However, once you learn how to think critically, you’ll figure out that these stories are illogical.

• Have you ever avoided stepping on a crack in the sidewalk, crossing the path of a black cat, or walking under a ladder for fear of bad luck? Take issues apart to get at their inner workings.
• Remember that your imagination is capable of conjuring up any scenario, and fear has a tendency to make an event seem more likely than it really is.

Take stock of your fears, and get your hands on the cold, hard facts whenever possible. Are you afraid of flying? If so, it’s helpful to consider that you have a 1 in 11 million chance of being involved in a plane crash. Irrational fears are sometimes beyond a person’s ability to rationalize them. Learn how to think critically and you’ll find that life makes a lot more sense.

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Growth Mindset

The decline of critical thinking skills, here's how to get back this important life skill..

Updated July 5, 2023 | Reviewed by Ray Parker

• Young people find themselves stuck in practical or survival thinking as a result of the pandemic.
• Thinking deeply is not easy in a world of distractions, so it's important to practice.
• Here are several ways to boost your critical thinking skills, such as active listening and lifelong learning.

Thinking clearly, deeply, and productively is one of our most valuable life skills. But, research shows that it is becoming one of the most endangered.

Unsurprisingly, there has been a decline in people’s ability to think deeply and reflectively in the past few years. One study, which focused on Millennial and Gen Z workers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Japan, found that many people reported burning out and struggling to make ends meet. So they’ve been spending more time thinking about their immediate challenges, rather than the more profound, meaningful types of thinking that might lead to better outcomes.

One concern in the report (released by the Lenovo computer company ) is that the changes young people had to make to deal with the pressures of 2020 are not temporary. Instead, many young people seem to find themselves stuck in a practical or survival thinking mindset that can negatively impact their ability to function personally and professionally over time.

How can you improve your critical thinking skills? Here are some strategies that can help:

1. Avoid the urgency trap: If you tend to rush through decision-making when under the pressure of too many demands, you can develop self-awareness of your counterproductive habit, and learn to pause or take a break before rushing forward.

2. Engage in reflective thinking: Take the time to reflect on your own thoughts, experiences, and biases. Reflective thinking helps you gain self-awareness, consider different perspectives, and evaluate your own reasoning.

3. Practice active listening and effective communication: Engage in active listening to understand others’ viewpoints and perspectives. Practice expressing your thoughts clearly, constructively, and logically, fostering productive discussions and debates.

4. Solve problems systematically: Break down complex problems into smaller components, identify underlying issues, and consider multiple solutions. Practice problem-solving techniques, such as brainstorming, evaluating alternatives, and anticipating potential consequences.

5. Embrace curiosity and lifelong learning: Cultivate a mindset of interest and a thirst for knowledge. Be open to new ideas, seek diverse perspectives, and continuously expand your understanding through reading, research, and learning from others.

6. Engage in critical thinking exercises: Solve puzzles, riddles, or logical problems that challenge your reasoning abilities. Engage in debates, analyze case studies, or participate in critical thinking workshops or courses to sharpen your skills.

7. Practice self-compassion: Thinking deeply is not easy in a world of distractions. Develop a regular meditation or exercise practice to manage stress . Remember that deep thinking requires nurturing yourself and taking time to slow down.

Copyright 2023 Tara Well PhD

Tara Well, Ph.D. , is a professor in the department of psychology at Barnard College of Columbia University.

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How to sharpen your students’ critical thinking skills.

For the most part, reasoning, deducing, inferring, and critical thinking are not skills that come naturally to our students. Rather, they must be nurtured and developed. We want our students to become critical thinkers so they can reason and apply logic to solve novel problems throughout their lives. These skills will set them up to be the scientists, engineers, researchers, and educators of tomorrow. Unfortunately, these skills are often lacking in many of our students.

Research shows that critical thinking ability is not widespread in students and that many scored poorly on assessments that required them to recognize assumptions, evaluate arguments, and make inferences. I have also seen this when my own students were faced with questions that asked them to infer, analyze arguments, and solve problems with a given set of rules.

The good news is that through practice, students can develop the tools to think critically.

One way to improve this skill is through logic puzzles .

Logic puzzles are a great tool because they stimulate the area of our students’ brains that help them to reason and think critically.

I get it. We barely have enough time to teach the required standards, let alone reinforce another skill. So, that’s why I want to share my Logic Puzzles and Brain Busters . The great thing about this resource is that it’s cross-curricular. It will hit the important critical thinking and reasoning skills (inductive, deductive, problem solving, etc.), and also reinforce important math concepts.

My Logic Games and Brain Busters include a variety of activities to rev up your students’ brains. A few puzzles contain pure logic-based clues that don’t require any prior knowledge.

Other puzzles require your students to apply their knowledge of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, geometry, digital time, and algebra along with their reasoning skills to solve problems.

They are perfect to pass out to your students at any time throughout the year.

These logic puzzles will require your students to apply a combination of inductive and deductive reasoning that is challenging enough to stimulate their thinking, but straight-forward so that they will be successful.

Click HERE or the button below to check them out. You can download the preview to see the entire resource!

This resource is now digital! You can go 100% paperless and assign these logic games through Google Classroom.

Grab the bundle of logic puzzles  HERE . 

Love these fun and cute quiz. Thank you for sharing!! Gonna let my kid try it!

This looks fantastic! Thank you

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Sharpen Your Thinking: 25 Ways to Hone Your Thinking Skills

Leaders should be independant thinkers.

Whether you are trying to develop a vision statement, solve a problem at work, or influence the team, leaders have to think about where they are going and how they are going to get there.

The good news is that thinking is a skill, and it’s one that we can all get better at.  The better we get at thinking, the better our chances to succeed as leaders.

Today we’ll look at 25 techniques to sharpen your thinking that will help you level-up as a leader.

Set the Conditions

One of the biggest challenges to effective thinking can be simply   carving out space to think in the first place.   Once you’ve done that, now what?  Start to sharpen your thinking by setting the conditions for your thinking session to be productive.  Here are some ideas.

Make it a regular thing.   Practice the art of thinking as a habit.  Like anything, you get better at it.  One way to do this is to leverage the time you already are using.  Admiral Thad Allen, former Commandant of the Coast Guard rode his bicycle 15 miles to work each day and used that time to for reflection, planning, and problem solving.

Pick a Topic and an outcome.    It can be helpful to pick a subject to focus on. Even better, put a goal on your thinking session, like coming up with five new ideas in the next 30 minutes.

Bring the right tools .  If you’re a visual person like me, it helps to be able to see your thoughts as they take shape.  Use a notebook and sharp pencil to write what comes into your head.  A large white board and a fistful of colored markers can help with brain storming.  A note pad or voice recording phone app can also help, especially if you will be out and about.  Record your thoughts as they come to you, let them build upon each other and combine into new ideas.

Go somewhere new .  The same environment will start to spawn the same thoughts.  Separate yourself from the usual and surround yourself with something different.  It may be as close as a table at your local library, a bench at a local park, a local museum, or that new coffee shop just down the street.

Allot time.   It’s good to consult other sources – books, blogs, people, but manage how you spend that time.  The goal is not simply to listen and repeat.  The idea is to absorb, process, and come to your own conclusions.  So if you have an hour and want to read up on a topic, save the last 15 minutes to think about what you learned and decide what it means.

Don’t get so lost in other people’s thoughts that you forget to have your own. Click To Tweet

Just write.   Sometimes the simple act of forming your thoughts into words and writing or typing them out can help you focus.  Start with a question or idea, write it down, and then keep writing and see where it leads you.

I write in order to find out what I think. – Stephen King Click To Tweet

Keep the notepad ready .  After your thinking sessions, your brain is often still working subroutines in the background, and results can pop into your head at any time.  Be ready to capture them.  Keep a notepad by your bed, use a phone app like Evernote, record a voice memo, or send an email to yourself.  Whatever you do, capture that good idea before it gets away.

Prime the Pump

With the conditions set, consider injecting new perspectives and leveraging the thinking of other people as part of the process to sharpen your thinking.

Consult thought leaders.   Have a say in what you are exposed to.  Pick a topic and focus in – listen to a podcast during your commute or watch informative videos at lunch.  Have a way to record your thoughts as you go.  Then turn it off, think about what you just heard, and compare it to other sources.

Read a book (twice).   I have taken up the habit of always reading with a pencil.  The first time through, when there is an interesting passage, I’ll put a small mark by the section, and a small circle at the top right corner of the page.  When I finish the book, I go through it again, flipping to the marked pages, thinking about the passages I’ve marked, and writing about them in my notebook.

Talk to someone different .  In his interesting book “ A Curious Mind ” producer Brian Grazer credits a lot of his creative impulse to the fact that he is constantly having deliberate “curiosity conversations” with people from radically different walks of life.  He has tracked down people from Jonas Sauk to Mohammed Ali to ask what their lives are like, where they get their inspiration, and how they do what they do.  He found that exposing himself to radically different perspectives stirred new ideas in his own mind.

Read something different .  A variation on this can be to read books from very different environments.  Exposure to the unfamiliar can trigger new ideas in your own focus area.  For example, reading one of the books from this selection exposes how real leaders solved difficult problems in very different environments.  Their actions may give you some ideas about how to deal with your own challenges.

Start with something unrelated.   Justin Berg, a creativity expert at Stanford, finds that what we start with has a lot to do with where we end up.  He calls this idea the “ Primal Mark, ” like the first brush stroke a painter puts on her canvas.  If your starting point is commonplace, your results are likely to be ordinary, too.  Instead, begin with the unrelated, come up with some crazy ideas, then try to fuse them with a more practical tool to yield a new, novel solution.

In an experiment to develop new interviewing tools, he had subjects start with the idea of in-line skates, and later added a pen.  As a result, one subject came up with a practical tool to tell time by touch.

“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” – Albert Einstein Click To Tweet

Come up with 25 more .   When coming up with ideas, the first ones to pop into our heads are also likely the most conventional ones.  Recognizing this, Upworthy makes a practice of coming up with at least 25 possible headlines for its posts.  The stretching you have to do for those last few options may be just what you need to come up with something new.

Worth Asking

Another way to sharpen your thinking is to ask good questions.  Here are some starting points.

Question the source.   Who are they, why are they writing?  What do they want you to take away?  Why should you value their opinion?

Ask the 5 “Whys.”   This is one way of looking for the root cause of something.  When faced with a problem, ask “Why is it this way?”  Whatever answer you come up with, ask again, “Buy why is that so?”  Like your annoying kid brother, repeat this at least five times to help you dig through the symptoms you are seeing and discover the reason behind them.

Ask, “What if?”   Try out different scenarios in your mind and follow them to see where they lead.

Ask, “What good can come from this?”   Not everything we think about is pleasant.  Sometimes the problems we face are ugly and intractable.  Even so, as you consider your next moves, as bad as things may be, look for what good might come from the experience.  Many foundations, research efforts, and positive causes found their genesis in something bad that a creative mind turned into a positive.

What’s the opposite?   Turning the problem on it’s head is another popular way to look at a problem.   One airport dramatically reduced complaints about waiting for baggage not by getting the bags to the carousel faster, but by making it take longer for passengers to walk there.

Is my ego in the way?   Re-reading Margaret Tuchman’s “ The March of Folly ” recently just highlighted this all the more to me.  When ego gets in the way it can blind us to logic, good sense, and open-minded thinking.  Whether you are working through a personal issue or trying to resolve a problem, if your sense of honor or ego is a key player, there’s a danger you won’t be able to see past it to a positive solution.  Unplug the ego and re-think everything to see what changes.

Other Places to Start Digging

Passive voicing.   I remember my high school English teacher used to always say, “If you hear someone speaking in the passive voice, he is hiding something.”  When it’s not clear who the actor is in any sentence, there may be a reason for it.  Phrases like, “Mistakes were made,” or “Actions have been taken” disguise the identity of the people involved and distance the speaker from the action.  Might be worth asking why.

In the name of tradition.   When you hear the phrase, “That’s the way we’ve always done it,” warning bells should start going off in your head.  Maybe it made sense at the time, but conditions change and the reasons may no longer apply; dig deeper and ask why.

Beware the percentage.   Numbers and statistics lend a tone of authority to any discussion, but look closely.  Percentages can make small numbers seem large and give small sample sizes more power then perhaps they deserve.

People use statistics like a drunk man uses a lamppost; more for support than illumination. – Twain Click To Tweet

Question the default .  Internet Explorer was probably pre-loaded on your PC when you pulled it out of the box.  It was the default, and it does the job.  But that doesn’t mean that’s the one you have to use.  There are better browsers out there.  Similarly, re-look the default settings all around you.  Maybe there’s something better.

Sharpen Your Thinking – The Takeaway

When you have set the right conditions, primed the pump, and asked good questions, you sharpen your thinking, and chances are you may find your mind producing new, creative, and useful thoughts.

The more you do this, the better at it you will become, and the more and better ideas you may generate.

But here’s the thing:  be prepared for some discomfort.  By definition, if you are thinking independently, the answers you come up with will not necessarily agree with what “everybody else” is thinking.

If we all think alike, no one is thinking. – Benjamin Franklin Click To Tweet

If it turns out that some of your thoughts vary from those of the crowd, then good.  You might be doing something right.

Ken served for 26 years in the Infantry, retiring as a Colonel.  From leading patrols in the Korean DMZ, to parachuting into the jungles of Panama, to commanding a remote outpost on the Iran-Iraq border, he has learned a lot about leadership, and has a passion for sharing that knowledge with others.  Look for his weekly posts, check out his online courses , subscribe below, or simply connect , he loves to talk about this stuff.

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Sharpening your critical thinking skills

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• 1 Shriners Hospital for Children, Greenville, South Carolina, USA.
• PMID: 9110811

In the current environment of constant and rapid change in health care, critical thinking is essential. Both personal ability to think critically and a willingness to do so are involved and are related to the individual and to the organization in which the individual works. Knowledge, experience, attitudes, thinking strategies, skills, and an organizational culture that values critical thinking are essential factors in the development and practice of those skills. There is no magic solution. There must be a commitment by all levels of the organization to develop and use the principles and skills of critical thinking.

Publication types

• Clinical Competence*
• Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Models, Nursing
• Nursing Process*
• Organizational Culture

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