Can Critical Thinking Make You and Your Organisation Happier?
Critical thinking is equated with intelligence, success, business performance and even creativity. But what about happiness?
Happiness - it starts with critical thinking.
Critical thinking has been championed as one of the top 5 in-demand skills to possess by businesses for a number of years. It is equated with intelligence, success, business performance and even creativity. But did you know that your critical thinking ability can make you happier?
Let’s start by looking at what critical thinking is:
Critical thinking is the ability to look at information and pass judgement without showing any cognitive bias or subjectivity throughout the decision-making process. The majority of people will use some form of critical thinking both at home or in the workplace. In the WEF 2020 Future of jobs report ‘groups such as critical thinking and analysis as well as problem-solving…have stayed at the top of the agenda with year-on-year consistency.’ An example of critical thinking will be debating a point of view based on factual information vs anecdotes and opinion, but taking both into consideration to discern the correct judgement based on this situation and information provided.
So how is critical thinking linked to happiness?
Indeed suggests that critical thinkers are generally happier people; because those who possess good critical thinking skills are able to objectively look at their motivations and goals in order to select and apply the elements that matter most to them. In turn, this has an indirect benefit to an organisations working environment. If you are able to facilitate an environment that is engaging and promotes problem-solving it can lead to a happier environment to work in, with happier employees who are able to engage objectively.
“Critical thinking…introduces the spark of freedom and the promise of progress into the world of human action.” Christopher Penfield, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Sweet Briar College | Editor |Author https://upjourney.com/why-is-critical-thinking-important
More Time for Self-Reflection
Something that is not spoken about too frequently with critical thinkers is their ability to self-reflect. Often, critical thinkers self-reflect more than others. This allows them to consider the impacts of their decisions on the wider business, as well as themselves. This level of cognitive ability allows them to preempt the potential outcomes of their decisions, again contributing to better decision making or lessons learned for future problems needing to be solved, and ultimately higher levels of wellbeing in the workplace.
Critical Thinkers Add to Business Planning & Strategy
Critical thinkers are often employed at business strategy planning levels to help objectively navigate potential decisions effectively. Their ability to analyse information and plan for potential challenges or opportunities and how to hone in on them makes them an effective asset during the business strategy planning process. Employees who feel more valued within the work environment are likely to have higher levels of wellbeing and engagement.
Improve Career Growth Opportunities
Critical thinking skills are also useful individually from a career perspective — employees developing and growing their critical thinking skills are better equipped to adapt and find solutions, showcasing value adding capabilities that help them to develop their career within your organisation as well as contribute to helping the business solve problems.
Amy Smyth, Head of Career Management at Right Management Europe predicts that, “2022 will be the year of career development, as 24% of people plan to start the New Year with a new career. It’s important that as people start new jobs, employees empower themselves to step forward and dedicate time to their career development” and future happiness.
Critical thinking ability and happiness are strongly tied together, having positive effects on an individual and business level. So, how do organisations foster this mindset and develop critical thinking skills?
There is no one set process for the analysis and internal development of critical thinking skills within a business. Many organisations will use various forms of critical thinking tests to discern internal critical thinking capabilities, while others will rely on the middle or senior management's general assessments of individual critical thinking skills. The latter is a cause for concern given that cognitive bias can always form throughout the decision making process. An over reliance on one specific person to determine critical thinking capabilities is a recipe for more problems than those who use critical thinking tests to objectively assess both current and potential talent’s critical thinking capabilities.
Determine Why You Need Critical Thinking
Businesses first need to determine why they need to improve their critical thinking capabilities. The business needs to set a goal. For example, Do they need to solve growing business challenges from the market with innovative ways of thinking? Do their clients/customers require more objective solutions to their problems? Or does their team need to up/re-skill to meet the challenges of today’s working environment? Whatever the goal, this will determine the level of critical thinking proficiency the organisation needs in order to succeed.
Determine How to Assess Critical Thinking Skills
There are many ways to assess critical thinking skills. From critical thinking tests such as the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal to simple exercises such as ‘Working Backwards’ or ‘Expressing Yourself in 6 Mediums’. Naturally, using professional tests helps reduce biases or errors during testing/recruiting, however, putting a measurement plan together using these resources will help you create an effective critical thinking assessment strategy.
Testing Critical Thinking in Your Business
TalentLens has provided the Watson Glaser critical thinking test to local governments, global businesses and educational institutions for over 20 years. For more information please contact our team and learn how you can take your employee’s professional development and skill set to the next level.