Critical thinking is not a new idea; the earliest records of critical thinking are the teachings of Socrates (thank you, Wikipedia). Today at KMGN’s KM advanced methodologies course, Salleh Anuar, SPC led us through the topic of critical thinking and its implementation in KM projects. Undoubtedly, in the new era, critical thinking is one of the essential skills of the new knowledge worker.
Why do we need a skill of critical thinking? Because we are biased; because too many times we base our (KM) decisions on our existing knowledge and what we do already know. When we seek new information and knowledge, we seek and find more answers that confirm what we think. We frame our decisions based on how the information was presented to us, and the list of biases goes on and on.
Some people have skills of critical thinking and naturally do it better, yet we must understand and internalize that critical thinking is a capability that can be learned. Being aware of our biases is a good beginning; however, there are additional methods and best practices that can be adopted:
Decision-making can include steps that deliberately seek data, identify our biases, and remove them. We can train ourselves to reflect, step out of the scene, and re-evaluate the situation. We can stop from time to time and question our basic assumptions, learning if they still are valid. To do these, we should be methodic and well disciplined; we must use our brains. But first, as organizations, we have to provide our workers with a psychologically safe environment. We must make them feel sure and know that they can be critical of what was done and freely fly with their thoughts and understandings towards a better future. For all of us.
This post was initially published in LinkedIn
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