Is Critical Thinking Enough For Decision-Making?

Understanding Other Factors in Decision-Making

Critical Thinking is one of the essential skills in the workplace, particularly for leaders. Through critical thinking, we can make decisions, solutions or conclusions with fair logic and reasoning.?

The bottom line, the outcomes must be impartial for the benefit of the entire group and not the individual. However, sometimes leaders are trapped in making partial decisions.?

Critical thinking alone is not enough for decision-making, there are some factors to be considered to make impartial decisions.

1. Diversity

We could not gain different perspectives by being surrounded by the same group and background. People with the same background, think alike. That is the reason they tend to make partial decisions that are only beneficial for certain people (mainly people who share the same experiences with them).

Diversity in this context includes but is not limited to gender, race, religion, marital and parental status, sexual preference, mental health, age, experience, etc.?

Group diversity brings a diversity of thoughts, perspectives, and experiences.        

2. Personal Development

Personal Development is a critical asset for leaders. Leaders face diversity among people, but sometimes they do not receive adequate personal development training on how to deal with diversity among people.?

Dealing with different people requires a different approach. Effective communication skills require an understanding of the DISC/personality profiles also. Sometimes a misunderstanding occurs in the decision-making process due to the inability to read people’s cues/intentions.?

3. Questioning Data/Evidence

Most leaders know and understand the process of how to analyze the data/evidence. However, questioning the source/relevancy of the data/evidence is also critical.

Decision-making aims to find a solution at the root-cause level and not a face-value level.?        

4. Intention and Motive of?Advisors

Leaders need to question the intentions and motives of their advisors. This is to prevent making impartial decisions.?

Case Study

The Link between International students housing and housing affordability in Australia. When I listened to the news about this topic, I was so puzzled with the conclusion.?

I was a former international student in Australia. Because I lived in student housing before, I understood that the type of student housings that cater to international students is a completely different market from the standard housing for young Australian families.?

If we rely upon the data only from a group with similar backgrounds, they may not understand the difference.         

If I could use the analogy?—?women’s shoes. There are plenty of variety of women’s shoes, and although they are in the same category they cater to different target markets. Some women prefer high heels, some prefer moderate heels, and the rest prefer without heels.?

International student housing in Australia differs from standard housing for young Australian families. Below are the main characteristics of International student housing

• Mostly studio apartments and if they are 2-bedroom apartments, the size of the apartments is much smaller.
• Some student housing have communal kitchens and communal dining rooms. Some have a shared kitchen.
• No garden
• The location is close to the university/tafe as most of them do not drive.?

The characteristics of standard housing for young Australian families

• Minimum 2.5 bedrooms (two bedrooms with study)
• One kitchen and one dining room per house (no communal kitchen/dining rooms)
• A small garden is the basic requirement?
• The location must be close to the primary school.

In this instance, the research/conclusion is incomplete and irrelevant due to a lack of diversity and questioning data/evidence. This is only based on the characteristics of different markets. We still do not take into consideration other factors such as the number of student housing built vs standard housing.        

To sum up critical thinking alone is not enough for decision-making/investigation. Soft skills play important role.

If you need more information about soft skills, please contact me and I will be happy to help you.

With Gratitude and Blessings,

Yuliana Gunawan