The recent statistics on critical thinking skills do not paint a pretty picture of today’s workforce. Research  conducted by SHRM and The Conference Board revealed that 9% of employees with a four-year college education have underdeveloped skills, 63% are merely adequate, and only 28% of the population—a little better than one in four—were rated as excellent critical thinkers. Worse yet, 70% of employees with a high-school education have deficient critical thinking skills.
 
Despite these less than optimistic figures, the demand for critical thinking skills appears to be on the rise. A survey of HR professionals ranked it the #1 workplace skill, and similarly, the United States Department of Labor labeled critical thinking as the foundation skill for problem solving, decision making, creativity, and strategic planning.

What exactly is critical thinking?
 
There’s a popular misconception that critical thinking is simply collecting ideas and criticizing processes, but it’s far more complex than that. Critical thinking is reasoned, reflective evaluation that is focused on deciding what to believe and what to do. It requires the identification and evaluation of evidence to guide decision making. And it’s a skill that everyone in your organization must use to find smart solutions to tricky problems, avoid emotional thinking decision making, inspire creativity, and work together more efficiently. Oftentimes, the ability to think critically is the difference between success and failure, and it can give organizations a competitive advantage in the business world.
 
Well-honed critical thinking skills are characterized by four traits:

• Curiosity
• Awareness
• Flexibility
• Common Sense

Curiosity
Curiosity requires individuals to let go of their everyday thoughts, be willing to grasp and accept new ideas, get rid of skepticism and negativity, and not to allow pride or ego to get in the way. You can help people do this by encouraging them to remove all preconceived notions, banish the know-it-all attitude, and instead adopt a naïve approach—as if they were a child experiencing the world for the first time.
 
Awareness
Put simply, awareness is knowing what you know—and knowing what you don’t know. The Johari Window Model (shown in Figure 1 below) is an excellent way to illustrate this concept.

Figure 1: Johari Window Model.
 

 
Two quadrants stand in the way of critical thinking: Blind and Unknown. In other words, what individuals don’t know may in fact be more significant than what they do know.
 
Flexibility
Flexible people are open to new information, better equipped to maneuver around unexpected obstacles, able to adapt to new situations, and consider alternative points of view. They’re skilled at playing devil’s advocate and dealing with ambiguity. It’s important to encourage individuals to become more flexible so that they can be on the lookout for better, more efficient ways to do their work.
 
Common Sense
Common sense is all about paying attention to the obvious. It’s what enables individuals to determine if things “add up” and spot possible oversights. But sometimes applying common sense is easier said than done. One of the best ways to help individuals develop this ability is to remind them of the “sniff test” by asking: is the answer or option I’m mulling over one that a reasonable person would consider?
 
In a world where employees are expected to act faster, be smarter, and think on their feet, companies need to incorporate critical thinking into all aspects of their organization if they want to be competitive in today’s environment.
 
Source: Critical Thinking Skills
 

“The dissatisfaction of employees has a direct impact on productivity, turnover, and morale, all of which eventually hit a company’s bottom line hard.”
– Patrick Lencioni

The epidemic your organization can’t afford

Job misery—it’s wreaking havoc on organizations around the world. Gallup recently reported that as many as 75% of people consider themselves to be in miserable jobs. It has cost employers a whopping $350 million in lost productivity and it’s also the main culprit of both low morale and high turnover.
 
A miserable job isn’t the same as a bad job. A miserable job can be characterized by “Sunday blues”, the phenomenon that robs people of their energy, confidence, and self-esteem, and makes them cynical and unhappy.
 
According to Patrick Lencioni, author of the bestselling book The Three Signs of a Miserable Job, there are three underlying factors—or “Signs”—that are the root cause of what he believes has become an epidemic in today’s business world: Anonymity, Irrelevance, and Immeasurement.

Anonymity
The first sign of a miserable job is Anonymity, which is the feeling of being invisible at work. It can affect people in all kinds of work and at every level—from the frontline to the executive tier. Avoiding anonymity in employees requires managers to do one thing: get to know their direct reports. Managers must talk to their employees, be empathetic, and show interest in who their employees are as individuals. It must be done with sincerity and must come from a genuine place, otherwise it will be perceived as robotic, fake, and manipulative.
 
Irrelevance
The second of the Three Signs is Irrelevance. This occurs when employees sense that the work they are doing has no impact. Figuring out exactly who an employee impacts can be more challenging than it seems, but managers must not underestimate its importance. Ultimately, avoiding irrelevance comes down to the manager answering two questions. First, who is the beneficiary of the employee’s work? And second, how exactly does the employee go about making a difference?
 
Immeasurement
“Immeasurement” is the inability of an employee to assess his or her own level of contribution and success. It can be characterized by feelings of ambiguity about one’s performance. Without a measureable means of evaluating success or failure, employee motivation deteriorates as people don’t feel in control of their fate. Managers should start with relevance when thinking about what should be measured, and then involve the employee in figuring it out together.
 
Lencioni points out that while the “Three Signs” are simple—maybe even obvious—most managers fail to satisfy their employees with these fundamentals of a meaningful job because they’re too busy, unaware, or don’t know how. And that’s where the Learning and Development function comes in.
 
As a training professional, you play a major role in providing managers with the skills to help prevent or eliminate the causes of job misery by teaching them how to successfully engage, motivate, and retain employees.

 

Source: Managing for Employee Engagement

Recommended Reading  
This Month’s Editor’s Pick

The Great Workplace: How to Build It, How to Keep It, and Why it Matters
From the producer of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® Annual List, The Great Workplace is a highly-anticipated book that spells out exactly what distinguishes great companies from those that are just good. Authors Jennifer Robin and Michael Burchell share their extensive research and best practices from well-regarded organizations such as Google, Microsoft, FedEx, and Wegmans Food Markets to explore the real business value of creating a great workplace. What makes The Great Workplace so, well, ‘great’, is that it also offers a proven model and practical roadmap that will enable managers to reinforce the core values of trust, pride, and camaraderie in everything they do.

 

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