Critical Thinking and the Workplace

Critical Thinking and the Workplace

"Critical thinking" is now one of the most common catchphrases in educational settings and policy discussion. This is a major change from the first half of the twentieth century; though the concept of critical thinking had been developed prior to World War II it was really only in the latter period of the modern era that critical thinking really caught on as a concept, and it has only been since the late 1980s that educational institutions have all begun touting their teaching of "critical thinking skills' (Ennis 2011; FCT 2011). There is still not a total agreement when it comes to the actual definition of critical thinking, however, nor when it comes to exactly how it should be utilized and applied. Coming to a useful understanding of critical thinking can help one to understand that these are skills that are already usable and possessed y everyone, though they can always be cultivated and refined.

One rather succinct and fairly comprehensive definition of critical thinking is, "reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do" (Ennis 2011). More specifically, critical thinking refers to the skills and processes involved in analyzing and effectively coordinating information gathered through instruction, observation, or experience (FCT 2011). The ability to take a new fact and verify its reliability through logical conjecture, and/or to utilize that fact along with other pieces of information in a directly practical and effective way, is critical thinking, and the benefits of such thinking are enormous. Critical thinking saves time and resources, and its careful and consistent application helps one to avoid many unnecessary negative outcomes and achieve greater positive results.

Applications for critical thinking abound in all manner of situations, from the pressing and complex to the simple and mundane. One recent real-world example of critical thinking successfully applied comes from the author's own work experience. A full box of small finishing nails was accidentally spilt on the floor of a retail toy establishment, behind the counter where the cash registers were located. Softly clinging to the carpet and embedded in the hols and grooves of a rubber mat that was lying on the floor, the nails were quite difficult to pick up and the task looked like it would be quite time consuming, and with the store about to open time wasn't something there was a lot of. This is where critical thinking came into play: rather than simply dealing with the issue in the first way that came to mind -- i.e. laboriously picking up each individual nail, needing to pick some out of small spaces with some sort of tweezers -- this author recalled the large magnets sold as novelties at the other end of the store. One slow pass of the magnet over the area of the spill and all of the nails were picked up, saving a lot of time and effort. Figuring out how to do this took some critical thinking, albeit not of the highest order -- the various facts of the situation, from the assessment of the spill to the knowledge of a nail's magnetism to remembering that the magnets were in the store, all had to be combined creatively and correctly in order to arrive at this solution.