Sometimes we are stuck on the rails of life. Just putting one foot in front of the other and feel like we are getting things done. And we are. But, are we stepping back critically and looking at where we intend on going? An important part of thinking critically, is to keep one eye on the prize, the destination – what you intend on accomplishing. This is the vision of what you want.
Vision
Whether a decision is big or small, keeping an eye on goals informs you a great deal about what to do at that moment. Some people keep goals in front of them so they are reminded what to stay focused on. Some use vision boards to keep perspective on what they want for themselves.
When my son was a small boy, he had some medical issues. I became very frustrated while having many health providers be unclear and indecisive about his struggle. Finally, someone told me that the only way to frame my thinking was to be the CEO of my son. Wow, my perspective shifted to a larger vision of what I wanted, what he needed and the dialog suddenly changed as I became critically thoughtful about decisions that were being made. Instead of being a consumer of advice, I became a consumer of information and a peer with my son’s doctors.
Knowledge
Also important is the knowledge that we bring to the table. We have a working base of knowledge about our work, what we have read, our school history and background, the lessons we learned as managers – just about everything we know that is carefully filed in our heads. When making a decision, are we really sorting through all that knowledge to come to bear on a problem? Sometimes, but not always, because thinking takes effort. Unless we are purposeful about sorting through what we know, we might just not mine the information we have. This requires us to be mindful about what we know and put the effort into just thinking about a matter.
Experience
Some say we are the sum of our experiences and I can’t agree more. Every experience we have becomes part of us. Every interaction, conversation, collaboration and event we participate in, is rich in feedback that something is good or bad, works or does not work. And these experiences may come from different fields, social relationships and totally unrelated environments than the one we are currently dealing with. Yet, regardless, they inform what we will do right now about the matter at hand.
While engaging with a group of diverse professionals, I often see this diversity of experience being so critical. Once, while solving a complex marketing issue in healthcare, a lawyer (not in healthcare) explained an experience she had with a merger and the conversation had deep meaning to the matter at hand. Her experience, brought to bear on an unrelated matter was critical to the solution. If you serve on well performing boards, you will see this all the time. Using the collective and diverse experiences of others is a powerful critical thinking tool.
In the next blog, we will cover two final elements of critical thinking, emotions and intuition.