Critical Thinking
It’s starting to heat up here in Austin, hence spending the afternoon indoors… thought I might get to some writing! Lately I have been doing some research into the concept of “critical thinking” – as I would like for it to have actual meaning in my workshops and not be automatically dismissed as generic or cliché. Treating critical thinking as a “buzz word” would be tragedy, as the concept is essential for success in the new world of automation and big data management. The definition for critical thinking varies widely between publications, it seems there is no universal definition nor even a largely harmonized view. Here is a definition that I think sums up the compilation of viewpoints I have reviewed:
“Considering both what you know and what you don’t know prior to decision-making, with the goal of producing an objective outcome”
The word “critical” comes from the Greek “kritikos” – meaning something to the tune of “to discern”. This is not to be confused with the act of being critical of an idea or proposal… this is much different! In my experience, this is one of the major roadblocks in our industry, the confusion of being critical vs. being discerning… During cross-functional meetings, we often find problem solving difficult because we lack a structured process for discerning the issue at hand, and as a result the project is delayed or just plain cancelled as a consensus cannot be reached as we have no means to deal with critical viewpoints/roadblocks… (hence ancient pH meters floating around out there lacking any sort of data management, the use of flat files, paper-on-glass, annotations… OK I will stop there). The roadblock might be legit, but it must be backed up with objectivity, or it will be taken as an opinion and the project begins to deteriorate quickly.
My recommendation, if your goal is to be a problem solver rather than be seen as a problem creator is to focus on developing a structured approach to discerning the problem at hand, considering what you know and what you don’t know prior to taking any position or especially prior to throwing up any roadblocks. Can you make an objective contribution considering subjectivity in the equation? Yep. ICH Q9 is always there as an excellent and free resource, and of course comes with the regulatory seal of approval if the fabulous four Q9 concepts (criticality, risk, severity, probability) CRSP [pronounced “crisp”] are utilized according to the guidance - or for an even simpler approach, a simple list with two columns works like magic.
Pete
