27 Ways to Improve Your Judgement and Make the Right Decision

How often do you think about how you think? For most people, the answer is “not very often”. And yet every day we each make decisions, generate ideas, draw conclusions, evaluate other people’s opinions and so on. These are things that often need deep and careful thought.

Sure, many of us use tools and techniques to help with this. However, we tend to think about specific techniques of ‘decision making’ or ‘idea generation’ rather than the wider process of thinking. These techniques are very helpful, but sometimes things can fall between the cracks: If you use an incorrect assumption when you evaluate something, your final conclusion may be flawed. If you allow your emotions to cloud your analysis, you risk making a biased decision. If you don’t have all the facts, you may miss the best solution. And if you unthinkingly accept what you hear or read from other people, you risk being manipulated.

That’s where critical thinking comes in.

"Critical thinking is the?intellectually disciplined process of actively, rigorously and skilfully conceptualising, applying, analysing, synthesising, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action." (the Dictionary)

Critical thinking requires that we question every step of our thinking process:

• Have I considered all the facts?
• Have I tested my assumptions?
• Is my reasoning sound?
• Can I be sure my judgement is unbiased?
• Is my thinking process logical, rational and complete?

By developing the skills of critical thinking, and bringing rigour and discipline to your thinking processes, you stand a better chance of being “right”. And so you are more likely to make good judgements, choices and decisions in all areas of your life. This is an important part of "success" and "wisdom". To do this effectively, you need to develop the following Critical Thinking Skills;

• Analyse Cause and Effect: separating the motive or reason for an action or event (the cause) from the result or outcome (the effect).
• Classify and Sequence: grouping items or sorting them according to similar characteristics.
• Compare and Contrast: determining how things are similar and how they are different.
• Infer: reasoning and extending logic to come up with plausible options or outcomes.
• Evaluate: determining sound criteria for making choices and decisions.
• Observe: attending to the details of what actually happened.
• Predict: finding and analysing trends, and extending these to make sensible predictions about the future.
• Rationalise – applying the laws of reason (induction, deduction, analogy) to judge an argument and to determine its merits.
• Prioritise: determining the importance of an event or situation and putting it in the correct perspective.
• Summarise: distilling a brief report of what happened or what you have learned.
• Synthesise: identifying new possible outcome by using pieces of information that you already know.

Cultivating a Critical Thinker Mindset;

• Open-minded – Be willing to accept and explore alternative approaches and ideas. If you are closed-minded then you will tend to write off ideas and options too soon, and so you may miss the best answer.
• Well-informed – Know the facts and what is happening on all fronts. If you allow yourself to become "blinkered," you'll miss important information.
• Logical – Emphasise logic over emotion. While emotion can contain useful information, it can cloud your judgement and lead you to take hasty and retrospectively-unwise action.
• Clarification seeking – Ask questions continuously. If something is unclear to you, it will probably also be unclear to other people. And few things are so complex that they cannot be explained simply with just a little effort. Keep asking and clarifying.
• Experimental – Think through “what if” scenarios: create plausible options and then test out your theories to determine what will work and what won’t.
• Contextual – Keep in mind the appropriate context when thinking things through. Apply factors of analysis that are relevant or appropriate.
• Reserved in Making Conclusions – Know when a conclusion is “fact” and when it is not. Only true conclusions support decisions. “Could-be-true” conclusions are assumptions and must be tested further.

By combining the skills of critical thinking with the appropriate mindset, you can make better decisions and adopt more effective courses of action.

A Critical Thinking Process

As every decision or judgement you make needs its own thinking process, there is no single set of steps to follow to ensure you are thinking critically. Rather, using the skills and mindset we have described, you can examine each unique thinking process to ensure you are thinking effectively and so make good decisions and show good judgement.

The Takeaway;

Your Critical Thinking Skills will keep growing when you continue to strengthen the three pillars on which they stand;

1. Your Mindset;
2. Skills, Techniques, and Tools;
3. The Process.

Footnote:

Additional tools and techniques are available to help you think rationally and critically. Remember that critical thinking requires choosing the right thinking process, ensuring you use it rigorously and completely, and choose the best tools and techniques for each situation.

To be continued in Part 2, with references, further reading, and typical application examples.