7 Steps to Using Critical Thinking to Solve Problems

I've been taking courses toward a certificate in Adult Education, and one of my most recent assignments deserves some blog time!

Critical thinking–it's one of those skills that gets listed in job qualifications and gets inserted into resumes, but SO MANY of us don't know what it is, or how to actually use critical thinking skills to solve problems in the workplace.

Critical thinking is the process you use to solve a problem and then evaluate whether or not your solution really does solve the problem.

For example, I once challenged an intern to research what makes a good post-event survey to measure branding objectives. Wow! Where do you begin?

My intern spun his wheels, and spent a lot of time Googling around. Unfortunately, at first, he didn't have a plan for how to solve this problem of how to measuring branding objectives. The problem wasn't out of his league. He was an advanced marketing student, but he never had to try to write a survey before. The problem was he didn't know where to start because, at first, he didn't know what he didn't know.

At the time, I didn't have any better way to guide him. He struggled and in the end, didn't quite come up with the result we were intending, despite obviously trying hard to do so.

Then I started my certificate program and did a research project on teaching critical thinking skills. I had a breakthrough! Below I've are the 7 questions I developed to help a worker, at any level, break down the insurmountable task into simple steps. Answer these questions in detail before you begin, and you'll be well on your way to success:

1) What is my goal with this project? 

The project goal should be supplied by your manager or teacher. But the person doing the work on the project should be the one to write out the goal in their own words. This way, they can go back to the leader, supervisor, whoever and double check that everyone has the same expectations in an end product.

For example, with my intern, the goal was to develop four survey questions that can be used to measure our event's branding objectives.

2) What is the key question I must answer to reach my goal? 

Look at your goal from step one. What one key question do you need to answer to achieve this goal? This might take a little extra thought, but keep it broad. We'll break it down in Step 3.

In my intern's case, the main question he needed to ask before he could complete the goal would be: "How to you measure branding objectives?"

3) What other questions must I answer before I can resolve the key question? 

This is where you start breaking down the goal into simple steps. It's important that you break down each question into their smallest parts. You should find that you have multiple subquestions under each key question, and subquestions under your subquestions. Organize these questions in a logical order, and you've got your plan for how you will achieve your project goal.

For my intern, sub-questions under "How do you measure branding objectives?" might have included:

• What are branding objectives? 
• How do other companies measure branding objectives? 
• What are the objectives we hope to measure? 
• What examples are there of other surveys measuring similar objectives
• What are the goals of the final report? 
• How do you write good survey questions? 
• What's the difference between a good question and a bad question? 

4) What are resources can I use to help me achieve this goal? 
Now that you know what you need to do, it's time to start thinking about the resources you have at your disposal. For interns, you may not have much of a budget (if any at all), but you may have other resources, like books, colleagues, and the internet, to help you.

In my example, my intern had access to the Internet, and an extensive network of professors and me, his supervisor. However, using any of these resources would require him to identify what he didn't know and ask the question. Step 2 would have been very helpful for us here.

5) At what stages of my progress should I communicate with others (co-workers, mentors, supervisors, stakeholders)?
Whether you're an intern, an employee, or the CEO, everyone at an organization is a member of the organization. In one way or another, you all rely on each other to get work done. Look at your list of questions in Step 3, and highlight places were you think you should reach out to those in your workplace. You might reach out to your supervisor at certain steps to check in on your progress. You might wait until you start researching one topic before you reach out to the subject matter expert in your company. If your work will effect the community your business works in, how and when will you reach out to those folks?

My intern and I should have more completely planned his intermediate questions in Step 3, and then noted when he should have reported back on his progress. At these check points I could have offered more guidance or resources if needed, or at least encouraged him that he was on the right path.

6) What assumptions am I making about this project, and how will I check my assumptions before beginning? 

This is a hard one. Basically, what do you assume that you know and how can you double check that you do in fact know it! This is the crux of critical thinking--you need to critically evaluate the knowledge you have.

In my case, my intern had had a lesson on surveys and taken a class on branding. He assumed he knew how to write survey questions. He assumed he knew how to evaluate branding objectives. He was a incredibly smart student, and he did know the overview and the basics, but he didn't know how little he knew about putting those basics into practice. If he listed these assumptions and spent some time investigating whether his assumptions were right, he would have revealed a larger list of questions he would have needed to answer before plugging away at writing a draft survey.

7) How will I know when my project is successfully completed?

Before you start, know what success looks like. Brainstorm a list of conditions that must be met in order for your project to be considered successful. How much research is enough for you to answer your questions in step 3? Do you need one good source? Two? A dozen? What about final product? If the goal was to have a 5 page report, is that too long? Too short? Is there a good reason why you should make it longer, shorter, or not a report at all?



None of these questions are easy to answer. That's why critical thinking is so important to employers--not everyone can do it well! But if you try to answer these questions before you start your next big project, you'll be utilizing critical thinking skills to break down and solve any intimidating problem.