Obstacles in the critical thinking process

INTRODUCTION

In the process of looking for more and better answers, some difficulties could be produced by:

• Rushing to get an answer too quickly
• Don’t want to expand the problem space
• Focusing on the unimportant
• Not thinking about the consequences

All of them could be minimized by using the Critical thinking tools described in the previous chapter.

OBJECTIVES

• Understand the obstacles in the critical thinking process
• Identify the most common pitfalls
• Encourage the use of critical thinking tools in the process of looking for answers to common issues.

COMMON PITFALLS IN THE SOLVING PROBLEM PROCESS

Rushing to get an answer too quickly

Through the critical thinking process to find a solution for a problem, you may find several difficulties that you can avoid if you are aware of them.

The principal pitfall in problem-solving is jumping too quickly to get an answer without taking the time to analyze the problem. We all think we know what the problem is at first glance and rush out to solve it.

You can avoid this difficulty if you take the time to, first of all, define the problem well and have a clear problem statement. Then, you can ask the question behind the first question looking for the reasons why the stakeholder wants that problem to be solved. You can also use focusing questions to get the information more quickly and evaluate prior efforts in other related past situations. Looking through new lenses and points of view will help you to have a stronger statement. You might understand the causality of the facts by diagramming the cause-effect premises.

Going through all those questions will prevent us from rushing and jumping ahead directly to the answers without really understanding the problem.

Don’t want to expand the problem

The second pitfall is don’t wanting to expand the problem space, thinking that, by doing so, you will make the problem bigger or worse. Nothing more away from reality. If you rush for an answer in a narrow description of the problem, you might solve a symptom and not the root cause.

By expanding the scope thinking through what could really be causing the issue, you would have more chances to get the core issue, solve the real problem, and having more impact on the organization. You can do it using the Five whys tool.

Focusing on the unimportant

One typical behavior is focusing on things that do not matter. You come out with a recommendation, and you realize that even if it is insightful, the reality is that it won’t change or impact your organization's performance.

For this, you can use the 80/20 principle and ask yourself if you are solving the 80% that drives the 20% that doesn’t matter or the 20% with a really worth impact. The rule 80/20 will help us to focus on the results that have more impact.

Not thinking through consequences

The last pitfall in this lesson is related to not investing the time to think through the possible consequences of our answer.

Try to think about what would happen if you implement the solution you recommend and how that will impact the future problems and your stakeholders.

For that, the seven so-whats is a suitable tool to help you identify, understand and appreciate the consequences of the solution that you are recommending.

Understanding all these common pitfalls.

Critical thinking tools will help you avoid these common pitfalls and develop better and more valid answers.

CONCLUSIONS

There are some usual pitfalls in the critical thinking process:

• Rushing to get an answer too quickly without really understand what the problem is.
• Don’t want to expand the problem space supposing to solve a symptom and not the root cause.
• Focusing on the unimportant realizing that the solution won’t change or impact the performance of the organization
• Not thinking about the consequences could impact negatively after implementing the solution

Critical thinking tools will help to avoid these difficulties and come to better and more valid answers

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bowell, T.; Kemp, G. (2002) Critical Thinking, A Concise Guide. Routlege

Browne, M.N.; Keeley, S.M (2007) Asking the right questions. A guide to critical thinking. Pearson. Prentice hall

Courseware (2019) Critical Thinking. Courseware.com

Lovell, S. (2018) Critical Thinking. How to improve your critical thinking skills, problem-solving ability and avoid the 25 cognitive biases in decision-making.

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