Five key things to focus on when working with leaders to improve their ability to identify, analyze, solve, and implement effective problem-solving strategies: critical thinking, foresight, analysis, problem solving, and problem solving. Without good critical-thinking skills, leaders will make poor decisions and fail to take advantage of strategic opportunities
Gather more and better data
Good critical thinkers start by collecting as much high-quality data as possible.
- They don’t take things at face value, they question summaries and dig to make sure that they really understand what’s happening on the ground and maximize the raw information they have to work with.
Develop effective models
While these are an abstraction and reduction of reality, they can be useful for simplifying a situation and quickly finding alternatives and strategies.
- The trick with models is to know where and why they work and how they can fall short
- Models can help you quickly generate insights and strategies, but you need to be aware of their limits
Continuously challenge your assumptions
Develop your critical-thinking skills to improve your decision-making and ultimately get better outcomes and long-term results
- These steps may take time and investment but will yield strong returns in the long run
- Create ways of testing and validating assumptions quickly
Learn how to separate fact from inference
A fact is something that is observable by other people; an inference is an assumption or an opinion that may or may not be true.
- For example, if you drive from New York to L.A. and it takes 58 hours, that is a fact; if you use a map to calculate the distance and an average speed to get to 58 hours that is an inference.
Break things down to first principles
First principles are the fundamental building blocks in thinking and decision-making
- They are found by asking clarifying questions, considering alternatives, and testing assumptions
- Once you have a good set of first principles, you then have the elements you need to start creating new options and new solutions
