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How To Broaden Your Critical Thinking Skills?

Business World

Byline: Shubika Bilkha

Critical thinking has been identified as one of the key skills to stay relevant in the 2020 world. In the World Economic Forum's report titled 'The Future of Jobs' they identified critical thinking, teamwork and collaboration, people management, communication, problem-solving and EQ, among some of the key skills.

This marks a particular challenge in a Country like India, where the educational system has had a significant focus on building technical competencies with an emphasis on marks or grades, rather than promoting learning or individual development.

I remember in my first semester of undergraduate college in the US realizing the importance of developing my own critical thinking skills. A professor of mine gave us a book reading assignment as homework and asked my views on the book in class. When I explained what I had understood of the book, she turned to me and said everyone had access to page 128, but what she wanted to really know was my analysis, reasoning, reflection and perspective on the book.

Critical thinking can be defined as the ability to analyze information objectively and make a reasoned decision. It involves the process of evaluation, research and drawing reasonable conclusions from information and honing in on useful details to solve a particular problem or form a reasoned decision.

It is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.

As a leadership coach and workplace behaviour facilitator who works with millennials on developing critical thinking skills, as well as someone who has actively developed my own skills in this realm my recommendations on how you can broaden your own critical thinking abilities are as follows:

Asking Open-Ended Questions: One of the starting points of developing critical thinking abilities is to ask basic "what" or "how" questions. Don't accept assumptions and statements as is and make sure you develop the mental ability to question. However, it is also important to manage the fine line between asking effective questions and too many questions or posing too many challenges.

Changing Your Perspective: Broaden your outlook by overcoming your inherent biases and assumptions to look at issues or situations through other perspectives. Be aware of your own mental processes and heuristics (mental shortcuts).

Info Gathering: Use facts, data, theories and do your research thoroughly to ensure that you understand the different viewpoints and compare arguments on the subject matter. Don't fall prey to unsourced claims and develop the ability to identify them.

Don't Make It Personal: It is important to self-check to ensure that you take an objective view of the topic at hand. Strong critical thinkers do their best to evaluate information objectively and recognize their own biases.

Draw Conclusions: The ability to make inferences and draw conclusions from the information presented to you is another key skill to mastering the art of critical thinking. Remember, an inference is an educated guess and your ability to make an inference will depend on your ability to gather as much information, understand different perspectives and assess before jumping to any conclusions.

Read Intelligently: In the Forbes August 2018 report, they identified the ability to learn how to learn and read intelligently as key skills to stay relevant. With the volume of information available to us today, it is important to master the art of "reading smart" to hone in on the relevant information.

Be Curious: Curiosity, humility and the ability to receive feedback and critique on our viewpoints are equally important. When presenting our analyses, it is also important to give equal weightage to alternative opinions or recommendations. They could help in making our argument stronger.

Remember, you don't have to think critically all the time but instead, use it as an effective tool for you to deploy when solving important problems or making key decisions.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house

Copyright 2019 BW Businessworld Media Pvt Ltd, distributed by Contify.com

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2019 Athena Information Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Business World http://athena.co.in/

Source Citation:

"How To Broaden Your Critical Thinking Skills?" Business World 22 June 2019. Business Insights: Global. Web. 31 Mar. 2022.

URL http://bi.gale.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/global/article/GALE%7CA590168184?u=nhc_main

Document Number:

GALE|A590168184

It’s no longer good enough for companies to cater to the needs of many di�erent customers. If businesses really want to build loyalty and lasting value, they must �gure out the di�erent needs within a single customer.

That’s the advice from Wharton marketing professor Eric Bradlow, who encouraged �rms to think beyond the old-school de�nition of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) — a metric that captures the worth of the entire relationship between �rm and consumer. He said the modern de�nition of CLV includes how a single customer’s needs change over time.

“Ignoring heterogeneity does not seem very 2021 to me,” said Bradlow, who moderated a recent workshop by Wharton Customer Analytics in partnership with Teradata. The workshop, titled “Analytics in Action: It’s Still All About the Customer,” featured industry experts along with

Nov 15, 2021  Analytics North America

MARKETING

One Person, Many Needs: How Customer Centricity Has Changed

Wharton faculty who o�ered their insights on how companies can become more customer- centric.

To explain how the view of customers has evolved, Bradlow went back to basics with the Four Ps of marketing: product, price, placement, and promotion. These concepts have long been held sacrosanct as the key to unlocking the most value from a business. While the Four Ps are still relevant, they aren’t the only way to capture customer value because they don’t account for the heterogeneity within the same person, he said.

Bradlow o�ered himself as an example. He’s a professor, a radio show host, a business partner, a husband, a father, and a sports fan. What he’s looking for as a consumer largely depends on which role he’s �lling.

–Eric Bradlow

“Ignoring heterogeneity does not seem very 2021 to me.”

“I’m as much to blame for this as anyone else, because I thought for the �rst 20 years of my career that understanding heterogeneity [among customers] was enough,” he said. “What about the concept that there isn’t just one me?”

Customizing at Scale

Realizing and reacting to the full range of needs within each customer is a big challenge that needs big data, according to Kartik Hosanagar, Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions. He encouraged �rms to harness the power of algorithms that can analyze customer preferences and provide a unique experience for all the hats an individual wears.

“To do this at scale, you have to rely on algorithms,” he said.

Hosanagar, who is also faculty co-lead of Wharton’s AI for Business, said Amazon, Net�ix, and YouTube have mastered this technology, showing how machine learning helps keep customers engaged. When he visits Net�ix, for example, his homepage is loaded with o�erings based on his previous viewing habits. But those choices begin to change once he clicks on something di�erent, like a comedy instead of a drama.

“YouTube does this brilliantly, as well,” he said. “We’ve all experienced this. We go to watch one video on YouTube, and before you know it, you’ve lost a couple of hours because they were just so good at recognizing the context and providing that level of personalization.”

Hosanagar did not dismiss the risks associated with automation, including data quality and privacy concerns, and worries over human biases that can get baked into an algorithm. He said companies have to be mindful of such issues while they build out their capabilities.

“No doubt, there’s tons of risk, but I think the opportunities are immense,” he said. “It’s all about having a governance structure in place while you’re embracing all of the upside and the potential.”

–Katy Milkman

“Too often, we’re looking for a single answer and a silver bullet that comes readily off the shelf and is well-tested by science.”

Making a Change

Bradlow said it’s hard for companies to shift their old ways of thinking about customers, so he asked colleague Katy Milkman for some insight. Milkman, a Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions, and co-director of Penn’s Behavior Change For Good Initiative, is the author of How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. The book o�ers science-based strategies for creating lasting, e�ective change.

While the book was written for individuals, Milkman said the strategies it contains have been tested on organizations, making them perfect for business leaders looking to navigate changes both large and small.

“The good news is people seem to be people across the board, whether they’re in managerial roles, employee roles, customer roles,” she said.

According to Milkman, marketers can borrow lessons from behavioral science that can be applied to customers, who often see their life stages as chapters in a book. From college to career to retirement, each chapter is a chance to start anew. It’s called the fresh start e�ect, she said, and it’s what drives consumers to make New Year’s resolutions, birthday promises, and other commitments that companies can capitalize on.

All materials copyright of the Wharton School (http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/) of the University of Pennsylvania (http://www.upenn.edu/). Report accessibility issues and get help (https://accessibility.web-resources.upenn.edu/get-help)

“When you feel like you have a chapter break and you’re turning the page, you feel like you have a bit of clean slate and a fresh start,” she said.

Milkman o�ered one important caveat for companies pursuing a more modern customer- centric course of action: there is no one-size-�ts-all solution.

“Too often, we’re looking for a single answer and a silver bullet that comes readily o� the shelf and is well-tested by science,” she said. “It really depends on the context and what the barriers are to change.”