How to Develop Critical Thinking

Critical thinking, like any other set of skills, can be learned and developed. As you know from our series on growth mindset, one’s skill set and intelligence is not fixed. Whether you believe you have some innate talent for some or all of the critical thinking skills or not, you can still hone the skills you have, and learn the skills you don’t have. So if you’re here because you’re wondering if you can learn critical thinking, the answer is YES! If you’re wondering how to develop critical thinking…well, read on!

Becoming a good critical thinker means you’re thinking more deeply about what’s going on around you and the things you experience. You become more aware of yourself, your surroundings, and the people you are surrounded by. Thinking critically helps you learn more from every interaction than you might otherwise. You gain experience, you see more things, and you broaden your horizons.

Critical Thinking Skills That Are…Critical

First, it’s important to get clear on what critical thinking is. I’m going to approach it from my own perspective, so check out my post on what critical thinking is and why it’s important. Remember that critical thinking is really a set of other skills which, when applied together, allow you to think more deeply about something, then take informed action. That being the case, it’s important to be clear and realistic about where your skills lie today, and where you need to spend some time practicing.

As a refresher, here’s the skills I think are most important to develop in order to become a critical thinker. Some of these we have expanded upon in other posts in this theme, too! I’ve linked them below as well.

• Asking Questions
• Objectivity
• Open-Mindedness
• Observation
• Analysis
• Skepticism
• Creativity

The Art of Asking Questions

If you’re not sure where you want to focus your practice, I recommend starting with practicing asking questions. This is as much an art as it is a skill. In my opinion, asking questions is the first skill you need to master in order to develop critical thinking. How you go about getting answers to the questions you’re asking, and what you do with those answers, is where you use the other critical thinking skills. If I’m having trouble, I like to start with the old standby to get myself going – who, what, when, where, why, how.

It’s important to remember too, that it’s not as important to ask these questions of others, as it is to ask them of yourself. Prompting yourself to think about these answers, and then to ask questions of others to deepen your understanding, will help you to think more deeply and have a greater understanding about what’s going on rather than taking someone else’s word for it.

Resources

In a quick Google for critical thinking questions, I came across 62 Great Critical Thinking Questions by We Are Teachers. Some of my favorite questions in here are “What assumptions am I making?”, “Why is this a problem?”, and “What can I conclude?”. To this list, I’d add “What problem are we solving?” This is a question I encourage my team to ask in every meeting and every interaction with a customer. The problem presented is not always the problem that needs to be solved.

Another good article I found is 6 Critical Thinking Questions For Any Situation by TeachThought. I like these because they are open ended and apply to just about any scenario I can think of:

• What’s happening?
• Why is it important?
• What don’t I see?
• How do I know?
• Who is saying it?
• What else? What if?

Pausing

In order to have the space to ask questions, you also need to practice pausing before taking action, making a declaration, or forming an opinion, and this can be hard. If you’re like me, you may tend to be a “act first, ask questions later” type of person. And there are some situations in which this type of mentality is warranted. You can’t always ask for a timeout in the middle of a tense situation, and sometimes you just have to take the information you have at hand, and act. So you want to develop the skill of asking the right questions, and also get comfortable with the idea of taking action based on what you know and the conclusions you’ve drawn so you don’t get stuck.

Objectivity

As long as we’re on the topic of the most important critical thinking skills, I’ll add that the ability to be objective about what you’re hearing and learning is probably what I’d say is next most important. You can’t make good, well-rounded decisions if you’re allowing your opinions to be colored by what you want to be true. We sometimes let our egos get in the way of the best solution to a problem. For example, if you’re set on YOUR solution because you want to be right, or you’re trying to prove yourself, you may be blind to other, better solutions. Just because it’s your answer doesn’t make it the only answer, or even make it right.

Critical Thinking Checklist

Practice to develop critical thinking can be done any time, anywhere. You can do it at work, at home, with your family, friends, on social media, in your email inbox…the opportunities are endless. The trick is to be intentional about it. Be aware of yourself, what you’re doing, how you’re reacting, and how you’re making decisions, and give yourself the space to inform yourself before you make those decisions.

Who doesn’t love a great checklist? This may be helpful to you as practice to develop critical thinking.

1. Think first, then act. Take a breath and some time (even if it’s brief) to evaluate the situation.
2. Ask questions to understand the situation fully. Question yourself and others to get a full picture.
3. Interrogate your assumptions. Your assumptions may lead you down the wrong path. Check in with what you know versus what you are assuming.
4. Find the evidence. Sometimes you have to go with your gut. However, you can usually find facts to support your conclusions. Or ideally, form conclusions based on facts.
5. Evaluate other options. Look at all the alternatives out there, even if they don’t agree with your own opinions or conclusions.
6. Take action. Don’t get stuck in over-analyzing or over-engineering something. All the critical thinking in the world won’t make something actually happen.

What’s in your own checklist? How do you like to approach problems? Share in comments!

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