Critical versus strategic thinking

The red, don't walk hand symbol on a crosswalk light changes to the white symbol of the stick figure walking. Throughout our careers, throughout our lives, we learn what to think. Follow these procedures, apply these models, use these techniques. Do it like this. Becki stands in an office lounge with floor to ceiling windows, black armchairs and a gray L-shaped couch. Important stuff, what to think? Critical thinking is about how to think. It's not our natural or default way of thinking, but it's something we can all get better at. So how is critical thinking different from creative or strategic thinking? On a white slide, a quote reads, critical thinking is the language of strategy. Stanford Business School in the bottom left haas a green line circle containing green quotation marks icons. According to Stanford Business School, critical thinking is the language of strategy. It's vital to know when you and your team are thinking critically versus thinking strategically. On a white slide is a row of three line circles. A green one is labeled critical. A blue one is labeled creative. An orange one is labeled strategic. Or creatively, so you don't succumb to selective thinking and jump to faulty conclusions. Let's explore the differences. We zoom in on the green circle. A list of statements appear under critical; information quality, information relevance, rational beliefs, rational actions. Critical thinking is the tool for assessing information quality and relevance. It's judging and making rational decisions about what to do or what to believe. We return to the instructor. A critical thinking question might be, how can we find out if this is really true? When you're validating the accuracy of information, checking whether the evidence supports the argument, looking for biases or busting assumptions, that's critical thinking. We return to the circles and zoom in on the blue circle. A list of statements appears under creative; fresh perspectives, new ideas and solutions. Creative thinking is looking at challenges and opportunities from fresh perspectives to conceive of or produce new ideas and solutions. A white slide titled creative thinking in black text has a bullet point reading, how can we rearrange this problem to discover a solution? To the left of the text is a blue graphic resembling a puzzle piece. A question might be, how can we rearrange this problem to see if we can discover a new solution? We return to the circles and zoom in on the orange circle. A list of words appears under strategic; insights, opportunities, barriers, solutions, and goals. Strategic thinking is generating and applying insights and opportunities to overcome barriers, solve problems and accomplish goals. A white slide titled strategic thinking in black text has a bullet point reading, how or why do we do that? To the left of the text is the red and white graphic of a target. Here questions might be, how or why do we do that? We return to the instructor. When you're deriving insight from information, breaking down facts and ideas into their strengths and weaknesses or analyzing trends over time, that's strategic thinking. How does this work in the wild? Let me tell you a story about a company I work with that was evaluating security options for their new building. Over the shoulder of a black man with buzzed black hair, we see that on a laptop screen, a photo of three smiling people has their faces framed in yellow squares. The director, Louis, someone passes him a tablet with a black and white portrait of a man on it. Details in the picture are covered in yellow dots. presented the best option of facial recognition technology. He passes the tablet to a woman sitting next to him at another laptop. His Manager, Vivian, asked why that security option was the best. Louis explained that it would give employees access to the building with their faces. She shows it to another person and passes it back. Vivian asked why that would be the best option. Louis explained that it would provide the company with the best data. We return to the instructor. Vivian asked if this new security system prioritized data over security and why it provided the best data. We return to the circles. The green and blue circles fade, leaving the orange circle labeled strategic. This was strategic thinking. We return to the instructor. The second Manager, Yoli, asked what information Louis used to reach his conclusion. Louis explained that he had used a security consultant to assess options, and they had supported this new facial recognition option. Yoli asked whether the consultant was a credible source and whether their data claims were factually based. We return to the circles. The orange and blue circles fade, leaving the green circle labeled critical. This was critical thinking. It turns out we return to the instructor. Yoli had worked with this technology in the past and had not been impressed, so she was more inclined to look for biases and approached the situation with a critical thinking lens. Yoli's critical thinking was how Louis and his team learned that their security consultant was an investor in the facial recognition technology, and therefore some of the claims he made were biased and more value claims than factual claims. Yes, there is overlap between these types of thinking, but try teasing out the differences and you'll make sure that you're not missing anything.