Critical Thinking

[Elena Romero]

Critical thinking involves two important things, rationale and ability to analyze. Critical thinking evaluates, measures and assesses a situation or issue from multiple angles and does so in a non-reactive way. Critical thinking doesn't allow for knee jerk reactions, instead for well thought out conclusions. Critical thinking is also best done in a team environment where you are able to take a situation or idea and dissect it from many different points of view. Critical thinking is crucial to the survival of an organization because without understanding how programmatic shifts or department needs affect each other, you cannot accurately assess what impact it will have department or company wide.

Name someone famous who you believe is a critical thinker and why you think they are.

Jeff Bezos-Amazon founder is a critical thinker. He revolutionized internet commerce and he did so by utilizing critical thinking to evaluate what he felt was missing in a key area of online shopping. He looked at a problem from multiple angles, evaluated, assessed and analyzed potential solutions and then opened up the doors to maximize effective and efficient distribution of product availability to online shoppers by recommending products to customers based on their browser history.

[Ayia Gospodinova]

I really like how you pinpoint the exact actions of critical thinking as someone who: “evaluates, measures and assesses a situation or issue from multiple angles and does so in a non-reactive way.” I completely agree with this characterization because it proves how this approach is rational and objective.
Jeff Bezos-Amazon is a great example he looked at an environment objectively, determining what the issue is and providing a solution to the problem in the context of the time.

[Laura Traynor]

A question I wrestle with is how do we employ critical thinking skills when we don't have the time for a complete analysis? Do you think there is value to having a circle of trusted advisors who you can call upon for information and advice?

[Roque Gerald]

Sometimes critical thinking is required with not much time to process as in the example in the book Blink by Malcolm McDowell where a police officer may need to make a decision of shoot or not to shot in a fraction of a second and may be processing a lot of data in his/her surrounding all at one time. The brain is a gas imitating organ that is taking in information and data much faster than we consciously register. Within critical thinking , the Intentional, careful, purposeful and deliberate approach while at times in fractions of a second are for me key elements of critical thinking.