Think about your personal style as you review each of the techniques and checklists.
Table 4.1 An overview of the various thinking styles discussed in Chapter 3, “Take Stock of Your Style.” Remember, you might have a mix of several of these, and you might have some areas where you’d like to grow stronger.
Use This Checklist to Improve Your Thinking
You can start right now building your toolbox of tips, tools, and techniques. Let’s start with a look again at the five steps in Figure 4.2, and then advance as you examine “Tips for the Five Steps to Develop Your Thinking Skills NOW.”
Figure 4.2 These are the steps. If it helps you to remember the three action steps in the middle by the acronym RED, all the better. The important thing is to employ these steps in all you do.
Source: Pearson
The following section includes a checklist of key questions to ask yourself the next time you need to make a decision to embrace an opportunity or solve a problem. You might find that the act of making notes in a diary or little black book really supports the practice of each of these.
Tips for the Five Steps to Develop Your Thinking Skills NOW
The following are suggestions and techniques to help you develop your personal thinking style.
Stop and Think
• What is the situation?
• Is this situation a high priority/high risk or can it wait?
• When does a decision need to be made?
• What are you trying to accomplish?
Ideally, when you are in the “stop and think” step, you want to respond to a situation and not just react. Major Kevin Jarrard, eager to do something about a two-year-old who turned blue and was going to die, stopped to think first. Captain John Nadeau stopped and thought. Lieutenant Colonel David Bellon did. Even Janet Jarrard, rushed the most for time, stopped to consider, “How am I going to do this?” To help you move from reacting to responding, try the following:
Do not make decisions when you are emotional or upset. Your feelings will override your logic and could negatively impact your thinking. Before you make a gesture to that road rage driver you’ll regret when you learn he’s a seven-foot-tall martial arts instructor, consider the consequences. Even if the emotion is positive, like love, give yourself time to be objective about what might affect you for the rest of your life.
If you are emotional, upset, or simply not on your “A” game, stall for time. Try pausing for 90 seconds or counting to 10 before you respond. If you can, get some space or take a walk. A change in the scenery can have a tremendous impact on your ability to think through a situation. Hesitate before you send that stinging e-mail at work. Think about the longterm need to get along with your fellow workers.
Confirm that you need to make a decision now. Sometimes there can be a sense of urgency around issues (driven by others) that can wait a day to be answered. It is all too easy to have our lives consumed by urgent trivialities. If this is the case, then say, “Let me think about this,” and provide a specific date and time that you will respond to their request. This technique allows you some space and time to think and lets the other party know when they can expect an answer. Although there is an obvious time urgency difference between responding to a proposal and a situation like “What to do? The house is on fire,” there are also situations like buying a car where the salesperson will push you to sign immediately. Do you really need a new car? Can you afford this one? Is there more you can find out about this make and model? Yes, there is. Stop and think.
If you immediately dismiss another’s viewpoint or have an immediate negative response, take note. You could be biased, and it could be impacting your judgment about the issue. If a friend’s political leanings are different from yours, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to the issues discussed in an election. A critical thinker wants to know all sides and aspects of everything. Who knows, you might find there is merit you would have missed.
Quiet time is key to effective decision making; block out time in your schedule for this (early morning/late evening) where you won’t be disrupted. Recall Kevin Jarrard kneeling beside his cot. You might find a walk in the park helps you consider best. Even that time you spend in bed before you fall asleep might prove an invaluable time to contemplate all you’ve absorbed in the day.
Recognize Assumptions
• What do you know? What don’t you know?
• What are the unstated assumptions associated with the goal, problem, or information that you know?
• What are your own beliefs that could lead you to passively agree with information without checking the facts?
As it turned out, there was a whole lot of complexity to the task of taking a little Muslim girl and her mother out of Iraq for an operation in the States. Who knew? Would the Christians of America embrace the plight of a child of another religion for her own sake? But consider the way people like Jonathan Malloch considered all he “could know,” then sought to develop contingency plans for all he “could not know.” Captain Nadeau had friends and influence back at Vanderbilt, but he never assumed getting an operation lined up with a surgeon and the financial help of the hospital was a slam dunk. He reached out and made the right steps to help things happen, or they would not have happened.
Identify the key question that you are trying to answer so that you can clarify the specific decision that you are trying to make and any assumptions that you might have around your thinking. Let’s say you want to buy a house, or pick out a college to attend. You might assume the home is in a neighborhood you’d fit into, or that the college is the right one for you based on the limited amount you’ve heard. A lot of things can go with a house bought with a 30-year note, and it might turn out some other school has a far better program in the area in which you decide to specialize.
Make a list of your assumptions. This is not only helpful for clarifying your assumptions, but is also helpful after you make a decision to explain why you made a certain decision. Let’s say you’re considering a prospective spouse, and the fourth item on your list is that you assume you share the same values, but then you find you don’t, or you have bitter differences about politics or whether to get drapes or venetian blinds. Explore, explore.
Once you know what question you are trying to answer, try to understand the why behind the why. This is sometimes referred to as “the five whys” or the “question behind the question.” Write out your question. Then, ask five “whys” to help you identify the root issue to be addressed. Remember as you read this Q&A that it is so easy in a busy world to forget some thoughtful things we actually did do: a. Why is the payment for your credit card bill late?
The bill is late because I didn’t receive a paper bill in the mail.
b. Why didn’t you receive a paper bill?
I wanted to cut down on physical mail and I signed up for online billing. (Oops—I forgot I’d done this.)
c. Why didn’t you receive an online bill?
Now I remember, I did receive an online bill, but I thought that I had set up auto payments.
d. Why didn’t the auto payments work?
They didn’t work because it turns out that the debit card information was incorrect.
e. Why was the debit card information incorrect?
A new debit card had been sent to me with a new expiration date and I forgot to update the account.
In this scenario, we could have focused on the simple question of “why is my credit card late,” but the real problem was that the debit card information needed to be updated on the auto payment site. If we had not moved beyond the first question, we would have most likely ended up with a late bill next month, too!
Check your understanding with people close to a situation; use active listening to make sure that you understand the situation. Lieutenant Colonel Bellon is a good model here. How could he tell if Kevin Jarrard was “on his game” or thinking up something wacky that could go horribly wrong? He listened, he weighed, a
nd he realized Kevin had given his idea careful thought and even debated it with Captain Nadeau.
Identify what you know and what you don’t know. Prioritize what you still need to know so that you don’t waste time researching what you already know. Being overwhelmed by data is one of the biggest obstacles to making a decision. Also, prioritize what you need to know to make a decision versus what is interesting. Research, especially Internet research, can eat up a lot of valuable time quickly. Let’s say you seek to find a reliable contractor. Which reviews do you trust? And why? Don’t get lured off on colorful displays of fittings or materials when your target issue is, “Who can best do this?”
Evaluate Information
• What are the alternatives to explore?
• Is your information from credible sources?
• Is your information relevant?
• Is your information accurate?
• Are you being objective?
Janet Jarrard was a PR specialist, yet she couldn’t mount a campaign to gather funds because that could have jeopardized the lives of Amenah and her mother. What other ways could she reach out to people for financial and technical help?
Jonathan Malloch examined one alternative scenario where the extraction team would try to take mother and daughter out through Israel instead of Jordan. The information he got wasn’t reliable enough to depend upon. He also heard there was an effort to keep the mission of getting Amenah to the States from happening, and Kevin Jarrard was able to help dismiss that as unreliable. But they examined everything. Here’s how:
Create a process to help you evaluate options. A few ideas include the following: a. Determine criteria for making a decision; this will enable you to focus and prioritize on what is most important, generate alternatives, and use criteria to evaluate them.
b. Make a list of the pros and cons for each option.
c. Ask...if we do this, then...
d. Analyze issues from multiple perspectives.
e. List it out, talk it out, and map it out. Different strategies work for different people; find out what works for you.
Play personal devil’s advocate—list five reasons against your idea. What are potential flaws to your reasoning? Check with others. Do they see any flaws?
When evaluating the best decision, make sure to continually go back to the key question that you are trying to answer. It will keep you focused on the key problem that you are trying to answer.
Look at alternatives and allow for creative brainstorming. Crazy ideas can result in some of the best ideas.
Make sure that the evidence supports your conclusion and if the evidence doesn’t fit your conclusion, don’t try to make it fit.
Draw Conclusions
• Ask yourself: Is anything missing? Are there other alternatives that I might have missed?
• Clarify your criteria for evaluation and identify if any of the alternatives can be eliminated.
• Which alternative best matches the success criteria?
For Amenah to successfully come to America, get operated on, and return to Iraq, think how many different people thought through every step multiple times. Jonathan Malloch had to be ready to pull the plug on his colleagues helping if he felt their lives might be at risk. Kevin Jarrard had to keep up his patrols on the Euphrates by pondering all the possible steps that could go right or wrong, and what he could do to help in each instance. Lieutenant Colonel Bellon had to ensure the mission’s fit was right for all Marines up and down the command from him.
Evaluate different conclusions. Sometimes we can sell ourselves on a solution because it seems to be the best, but we forget to evaluate other options. Identify other possible solutions and evaluate them based upon your established criteria.
What are the implications of your decision? Every decision will have consequences, often unintended; you can’t anticipate everything, but try to identify what you can anticipate.
Ask yourself, is this decision workable? If not, what can you do to make it happen? We can have great ideas, but they are simply ideas if you can’t execute on those ideas.
Think about what you will feel like if you make the decision that you are considering. How will you feel if you had to explain to someone your rationale for making the decision? Does it still feel like a wise decision? If not, why?
What is the time frame for completing the decision? Try to create a reasonable deadline, even if there isn’t one imposed by others. This will help to drive you to action. However, remember that some decisions take time. It is important to be patient with the process. We live in a world where we want all of the answers yesterday. Recognize that some decisions can wait and act accordingly.
Plan of Action
• What are the consequences of this decision?
• What plans need to be made to implement this decision?
• What types of resources are needed to implement this decision?
Lieutenant Colonel Bellon had to consider what resources could be expended, what the consequences would be if Amenah died while across the ocean, and if the task was in the spirit of the mission in Iraq at that moment. Doctors Christian and Doyle, aside from knowing who was going to pay for the operation, had the bigger quality-of-life question about what best to do in handling a little body that had more complex issues than expected. What procedure would give her the best chances of long-term survival when going back to a country where she was not likely to get follow-up care nor would there be facilities for additional surgeries if they should be needed?
Identify the sequence of steps for implementation and make it happen.
What will you do if your decision doesn’t work out as planned? What are your contingency plans? List possible problems and potential solutions to help create a contingency plan. Recall how Glenn Susskind and Gary White had a Plan A, Plan B, and even Plan C for almost every possible challenge or obstacle they might face.
Clear, open, and frequent communication is necessary when informing others about your decision. When possible, offer more information so that you can ease the concerns or anxiety of others who might be impacted by your decision.
Encourage others to share their opinions on your decision. By being open to the ideas of others, you can establish buy-in and help anticipate possible consequences and obstacles that you might have missed. Think of Major Mark A. Lamelza here. He pushed back when David Bellon wanted to support Kevin Jarrard’s mission. That’s exactly the kind of officer Bellon wanted. Not a yes-man, but one who could look at all sides and risks. Corporations want that sort of person too.
After you implement a decision, evaluate what happens—did you have enough information; were there things you missed? If it was a good decision, why was the decision good?
Don’t worry about making mistakes because you are going to make them. The good news from our interviews with some of the world’s most enduringly successful people is this: They make a lot of mistakes—more than you and I. The difference is they recognize their mistakes quickly and apply critical thinking skills to learn useful lessons, which they quickly put to work. You can do this too and build a better life for yourself, family, and friends.
Let Yourself Experience Success
What will success look like for you? Ask yourself questions and let the answer or answers evolve. It helps to practice visualizing what it might look like for you. We added the emphasis here because it needs to be yours, not borrowed or handed down from the outside world. It has to be yours. You have to own it and critical thinking can do this for you. Make notes to yourself. Success might include material or economic gain. For example, our research shows that critical thinking is associated with higher occupational attainment. Good critical thinkers tend to successfully climb the corporate ladder—and receive the financial rewards that go with that rise. Good critical thinkers are also viewed in the workplace with respect for their ability to use sound judgment, solve problems, and make good decisions, and often for their creativity. So in the career
world, critical thinking is tied to reward and respect. However, this is not all there is to it.
Success also includes a number of the qualities shared by the people who participated in “Amenah’s Story.” They were effective thinkers who possessed a quiet confidence, one that comes from knowing that you have the ability to successfully make something happen. They were genuinely humble about what they were doing, but they were also very sure of their capabilities. David Bellon brought this point home: “At no point did we ever think we were doing something extraordinary. I’ll speak for everybody when I say this: We thought we were doing what we were supposed to do. Never once did we sit back and go, holy cow, we’re hitting it out of the park with this one! You know our job was to get out there and find a way to make a bad situation better, and this was an opportunity, and we thought this was what we were supposed to do.” Perhaps the biggest benefit of having good thinking skills is the self-assurance that comes with the ability to think through even the toughest situations and make the right decisions. It is a can-do attitude, a sense of control and confidence, which is priceless.
Now You're Thinking!: Change Your Thinking...Revolutionize Your Career...Transform Your Life Page 10
