Critical Thinking Application Paper

¬Critical Thinking Application Paper

How do you think? How you think can be as important as what you think. When a person is faced with a problem, it is how a person thinks and acts on those thoughts that determine the outcome. To stay competitive organizations need to change or modify their methods of doing business as needs require. Everyday business professionals are presented with situations and problems, mundane and difficult, each requiring the person to use critical thinking. How that person analyses the situation can either benefit or hinder the organization. The decision making process is an important function of any business, critical thinking is the key to this process.

What Is Critical Thinking?

"Critical thinking is the art of thinking about thinking while thinking in order to make thinking better. It involves three interwoven phases: it analyzes thinking, it evaluates thinking, and it improves thinking" (Paul & Elder, 2006, p. xvii). This tells us to think about the problem, analyze the problem, and solve the problem. To understand critical think a person must understand how to think.

Analysis allows the person to view a problem from different points of views, to study it and question it. When analyzing a problem the person must try to set aside any preconceived bias and view the problem objectively. The analysis step of critical thinking is the beginning of the whole process. This step is for options, questions, information, and possible conclusions, leading the person to evaluate the available information.

Evaluation is the next step in critical thinking. This important step is used by the person to logically examine their thoughts for clarity, assumptions, bias, accuracy, and fairness. When evaluating their thoughts a person should try and think outside of themselves, look at the process from different angles and perspectives. Doing this the person is able to take each position and examine it critically and without prejudices.

Analyzing and evaluating ones thinking exercises the mind and improves the process of critical thinking. Just like going to the gym and exercising your body to build muscle, critical thinking builds your mind. Critical thinking gives us the tools to develop our minds, to take command of it, and level the playing field Paul & Elder, 2006). People that use critical thinking learn to analyze, evaluate, and improve their own thoughts.

Critical Thinking in the Decision-Making Processes

The decision-making process is an important area of critical thinking, it brings action to our thoughts. "To live is to decide, and to live fully is to decide well" (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2007). Many things affect the decision-making process, fear, ignorance, and conflict are a few. Dealing