Timestamps

00:00:00: Introduction

00:01:32: When critical thinking helps

00:03:11: Idea for action 1: problem statements

00:04:36: Idea for action 2: naming the frame

00:05:46: Go-to guru

00:05:52: Relevant podcast episode

00:06:00: Final thoughts

Interview Transcription

Sarah Ellis: Hi, I'm Sarah.

Helen Tupper: And I'm Helen.

Sarah Ellis: And you're listening to the Squiggly Careers podcast.  This episode is part of our Skills Sprint series.  We've recorded 20 episodes, each less than seven minutes long, that we hope are going to help you to build some career development momentum.  In every episode, we talk about a Squiggly Skill, what it is and why it matters, share an idea for action each, and give you a go-to guru and a podcast episode so you can learn more.  And we want you to turn your Skills Sprint into a learning streak.  And so for everyone who completes a 20-day learning streak we'll be offering you a free Five Skills to Succeed in a Squiggly Career virtual workshop in September.  If you post about your progress on social and tag us @amazingif and we'll be in touch to tell you more.

Helen Tupper: In this Skills Sprint, we're going to be talking about critical thinking.  So as ever, let's start with what it is and why it matters.  The reason critical thinking is so important for us in our Squiggly Careers is we are surrounded by so much information coming at us from every direction possible, your inbox, the conversations, whatever you look at on your phone.  We basically need a way to filter things and critical thinking helps you address things that are a bit confusing and complex, so information that feels a bit overwhelming, and it helps you to get to clarity.  And so, when you're feeling distracted or the amount of information you're having to digest feels a bit difficult, critical thinking is the thing that really helps you to cut through.  So we are not immune to feeling overwhelmed by having lots of things to digest.

Sarah Ellis: Just nervous laughter at that point!

Helen Tupper: A very, very present problem!  When does critical thinking help you deal with stuff, Sarah?

Sarah Ellis: I think it helps me to prioritise, because it makes me question what are we doing, are we doing the right things in the right order.  I also think it helps you to make things better, because when you approach things with a good critical-thinking lens you spot opportunities to improve, to think what else or how else could we do this in a way that would add even more value; or for us, I think actually applying critical thinking also using our values as a company is really useful.  So I'm often thinking, two of our values are useful and energy, and I will use that as a bit of a critical-thinking lens.  So, if I'm looking at something critically, I'll be like, "How could this be more useful?"  I think it helps me with some of the questions that get me to that critical thinking.  What about you?

Helen Tupper: I think it helps with coaching a little bit, which I don't know if you'd naturally put those skills side-by-side, because coaching feels like a nice skill and critical thinking feels like a harder one.  But often, when I'm listening to somebody talk through their career stuff, I'm often trying to get to what's the problem behind the problem. 

I'll be listening and I'll be thinking, "Okay, what question can I ask this person now to get a deeper insight?"  So, that individual might be feeling quite overwhelmed, and often when you're coaching someone you just get a lot of information from them at once, and I'm just trying to use critical thinking to cut through to what is actually going on for this person in this situation.  I think that's probably how I use it to help people.

Sarah Ellis: And also, that links back to your description of when we are faced with something that's confusing, complicated or complex, helps you get to clarity.  That's often what you're trying to do, I guess, when you're coaching someone.  So, like you say, not two skills that you would imagine coming together, but then actually when you start to talk it through in terms of the outcome or what you're trying to achieve, it starts to make sense.

Helen Tupper: So ideas then, how can we help people develop their critical thinking skills?

Sarah Ellis: So, I love problem statements.  I'm very into practising problem statements and I think if we all got very used to asking ourselves and each other these problem statements, you'd get to better work quickly and you'd also get to doing the right work.  Some of the questions that I find really helpful are, "What are the problems we want to solve?" and that might be quite a long list, that's usually quite a long list; "What's the most important problem we want to solve?" so at that point you're prioritising; "Why do we want to solve that problem?" and I do think "why" questions are really important for critical thinking, and remembering "why" questions can make us feel defensive, they can feel confrontational, they sometimes trigger that fight-or-flight response in our brain, but when we're doing critical thinking, we need to try and be open to asking why in a way that's constructive; "Who or where else is this problem being solved?" and, "How do we understand more about this problem?" I often think people skip problem statements, particularly if you're a doer and also if you're just very used to being busy, everybody goes straight to the how. 

We were actually in an event earlier this week where someone recognised this, they put their hand up and they said, "We've been working on asking a question around squiggle and stay, how you can help people to reimagine retention".  And she actually said, "I've just realised, with every sort of question or problem statement, I just jump straight to the how.  I just go straight to almost accepting we should do this, how do we make it happen".

Helen Tupper: So my idea for action, it's slightly different, it's about naming the frame, and this came up in the podcast episode that we'll recommend for extra listening after this.  The frame is basically when you are making a decision and you're assessing some information, what is the frame that you're looking through?  So, Sarah and I will have to have different frames, for example. 

My frame is often about getting things done fast and Sarah's is more about sort of getting it done right or making sure it's the right thing to do and you're doing it in the right way.  And it's not that those frames are better than another, it just really affects your thinking in that moment.  And so, naming the frame that you are looking through helps you to maybe try a different frame on. So I might be like, "Okay, so I've got a frame of efficiency, what if I had a frame of effectiveness?" and it just changes the questions that you ask and your thinking.  So, if you know it and name it, it's easier to then try a different frame on. 

And I always find that really useful so you don't just get stuck in one way of thinking about a situation.  And there's a book called Framers that we reviewed in one of the podcasts we did on this topic.  And there's a quote from the book, which I think brings this to life.  It says, "The frames we employ affect the options that we see, the decisions that we make, and the results that we attain.  By being better at framing, we get to better outcomes".  And that summarises that point that I'm trying to make. So, Framers is well worth a read if you want to learn a bit more about this.  And the go-to gurus are the authors of that book, there's three of them, Kenneth, Victor and Francis.  We'll put the links to that so that you can find it.

Sarah Ellis: And if you'd like to learn a little bit more by listening, episode 314 of the Squiggly Careers podcast dives a bit deeper into Critical Thinking.

Helen Tupper: Thank you for listening to the Skills Sprint, we hope you found it useful.  We would love for you to subscribe so you don't miss any of the sprint episodes in this series, and also to let us know how you are getting on, tagging us in your posts.  But that is all for this episode, so bye for now.

Sarah Ellis: Bye everyone!