Your Career: Some Thoughts About a Critical Thinker

By Chip Law

Recently a client sent me an email expressing concern over a news show he recently viewed on national television. The show emphasized the fact that the US is using robots or machines to handle many of the required tasks in a job. In the show a hospital worker was talking about a task being done in the hospital. Her quote, “the robots can't do it because it requires critical thinking”. The client seeks to hire for key positions in his company and felt that getting critical thinkers into the organization was imperative. The client asked: How can I find them?

Some Background

Today businesses, institutions and organizations have a huge deficit in human capital i.e., the small number of their employees that have mastered the ability to think critically. Here are some reasons why:

·         We reward left brain thinking. This is a linear thought pattern and requires straight forward (proven) methodologies for analysis, planning and execution.

·         Our current systems reward those that meet our expectations and give answers that we think are right because we happen to think like them ourselves. If you go against the grain or presupposed thinking, you risk being fired or ruining your career.

·         We confuse strategy with strategic thinking or problem solving.

·         We solve problems one at a time, thinking we’ve done the whole job and a good one at that: think of the medical field where one takes care of the symptom but ignores the root cause.

·         Failure is not accepted, experimentation is not tolerated

·         Our entire educational system is predicated upon measures of success that are almost fully left brain oriented: think GPA and standardized tests. Someone with a good ability for rote memorization can ace these tests and have a high GPA but retain next to nothing.

·         None of the above requires a person to think more deeply about the world they live in, yet by conventional norms they are highly successful. Right?

·         Perhaps one has given deep or unconventional thought to provide a solution to some particular issue and been able to articulate it well, only to have the left brain world tell them that are not coloring within the lines i.e., their opinion is not respected or wanted.

I could go on and on but I think one can easily get the idea. We reward this person, we expect this person to have certain behaviors and when they do, we think they will be the right person for a college, or a job etc.

Tips to discern critical thinkers in the hiring process

So for business situations, how do you identify people that have good critical thinking skills? Here are some thoughts:

·         They would likely have a liberal arts degree with a healthy dose of philosophy and then an MBA with an international global business focus. By the way, at the undergrad level, Jesuit schools produce students with excellent critical thinking skills

·         They’ve conducted and published original research. (Research here meaning an in-depth critical look at a particular area of interest or study).

·         They have demonstrated a passion for something that allows them to go very deeply into the subject area.

·         They can remove themselves from this depth and take a view of the same subject from a mile high. From there they question everything, look at “what if” scenarios and probabilities and then offer solutions, options and contingencies.

·         On their resume they should have the PAR (Problem, Action, Resolution) format which can really help one interview them in a manner that will naturally surface some critical thinking discussion.

·         Present them with real scenarios (both in your business and outside it). When they respond, look at how their thought process addresses the situation.

o    Were they thorough? Imaginative? Unconventional? 

o    Did they ask (the right) questions?

o    Did they clearly explain how they arrived at their conclusion?

o    Did they mention that they had areas where they were not expert but knew what was required and how to get it?

o    Did they offer solutions? If so, were they only immediate or did they think of long term implications? (a changing economy and workforce, social and demographic trends, advanced technologies, etc.)

o    Can they give you a quick SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) synopsis?

                  o    Could they make intelligent connections to areas that might be 

                        considered obscure to others?

When reflecting on the candidate, a good critical thinker should have stimulated your own thinking patterns, made you feel energized and created an urgency for you to take action. These are the special people that can actually teach you a thing or two just by observing how differently and openly they tackle what is put upon their plate.

Stimulate your thinking

For some great insight into this phenomenon I suggest picking up a copy of Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind…In it, he basically says that to survive in the future, we will need to train and reward right brain thinkers. We’ll still need the left brain excellence, but that is taken as a given.

Thomas P. “Chip” Law is an IECA Professional Member and an Educational Consultant. He helps students and adults define their career path and refine their approach to the job market. He can be reached at 843-278-1271 or chip@eduave.com