Everyone needs critical thinking

We all encounter opportunities in our daily lives to engage problems and decisions using strong
critical thinking. Everyone needs to think ahead, to plan and to problem solve. In fact, strong
thinking is the common denominator of success throughout the world.  It’s easy to find examples of 
critical thinking skills being applied, everyday, in everyday life.

Here are fifteen positive examples of critical thinking:

 A person trying to interpret an angry friend’s needs, expressed through a rush of
emotion and snide comments, to give that friend some help and support.
 A manager trying to be as objective as possible when settling a dispute by
summarizing the alternatives, with fairness to all sides to a disagreement.
 A team of scientists working with great precision through a complex experiment in an
effort to gather and analyze data.
 A creative writer organizing ideas for the plot of a story and attending to the complex
motivations and personalities of the fictional characters.
 A person running a small business trying to anticipate the possible economic and
human consequences of various ways to increase sales or reduce costs.
 A master sergeant and a captain working out the tactical plans for a dangerous
military mission.
 A soccer coach working during halftime on new tactics for attacking the weaknesses
of the other team when the match resumes.
 A student confidently and correctly explaining exactly to his or her peers the
methodology used to reach a particular conclusion, or why and how a certain
methodology or standard of proof was applied.
 An educator using clever questioning to guide a student to new insights.
 Police detectives, crime scene analysts, lawyers, judges, and juries systematically
investigating, interrogating, examining, and evaluating the evidence as they seek
justice.
 A policy analyst reviewing alternative drafts of product safety legislation while
determining how to frame the law to benefit the most people at the least cost.
 An applicant preparing for a job interview thinking about how to explain his or her
particular skills and experiences in a way that will be relevant and of value to the
prospective employer.
 Parents anticipating the costs of sending their young child to college, analyzing the
family’s projected income, and budgeting projected household expenses in an effort
to put aside some money for that child’s future education.
 A financial planner anticipating the impact of new income tax legislation on a client’s
future tax liabilities.
 A first responder coming upon the scene of an accident and quickly analyzing the
situation, evaluating priorities, and inferring what actions to take in what order.
 Examples of critical thinking from Facione, P. & Gittens C. Think Critically, Pearson Education
We hope this list stimulates you to find examples of critical thinking in your personal and
professional life 
Critical thinking can be learned, assessed and improved.
Measuring critical thinking: Insight Assessment test instruments are calibrated to objectively
measure the skills and mindset characteristic of strong critical thinkers in education, healthcare and
business.  Each assessment is designed to assess how test takers solve problems and make decisions
in real world situations. Validated group and individual reports provide comprehensive analysis of
strengths and weaknesses in essential aspects of good thinking. Contact us to discuss how our
assessment tools are being used across the world to measure and improve thinking.

EXAMPLES OF CRITICAL
THINKING IN REAL LIFE
1. Choosing a Career Path
Should I go for a full-time college or enroll in an online course? Which
stream do I choose? Should I try to get a job in a private organization, work
as a consultant, or move towards opening a start-up? We all face such
dilemmas in our lives at some point or the other. But every option comes
with its pros and cons and, therefore, it’s important to choose carefully.

Such critical thinking examples in everyday life highlight the importance of

this process. Choosing the right career path certainly takes time. So as a
critical thinker, you weigh the pros and cons of every option.

Also, consider the professional, financial and social context in the form of
some critical thinking examples in real life. Know your interest and skill set.
Answer questions such as “What is important for me?” and “Why is this
important for me?”

Don’t go ahead right after making a choice. If you look at some critical

thinker examples, you will understand the impact your chosen path will
have in the next one, five and 10 years. Accordingly, you may like to rethink
your career path. To be able to do this, some critical thinking will be
required.
Critical thinking is the ability to make informed decisions by evaluating several
different sources of information objectively. As such, critical thinkers possess many
other essential skills, including analysis, creativity, problem-solving and empathy.

Employers have always found critical thinking extremely valuable – after all, no boss
wants to constantly handhold their employees because they are unable to make
their own judgements about how best to proceed.

However, all too often people talk about critical thinking in theory, while never
really explaining what that knowledge looks like in practice. As a result, many have
never really understood the importance of thinking critically in business. Which is
why we’ve created this list of examples of how critical thinking skills are used in the
workplace.

Critical thinking example 1: Problem-solving

Imagine you’re at work. Someone, potentially your manager, presents you with a
problem. You immediately go off and start looking for solutions. But do you take a
step back first to analyse the situation, gathering and reviewing as much
information as possible? Do you ask each of the different people involved what
their opinion is, or how the problem affects their and the broader business’ day-to-
day? And do you decide to run with the first solution you find, or take the time to
come up with a number of different options and test each before making your final
judgement?

While a lot of people may think they have problem-solving skills, if you aren’t taking
the time to follow the above steps, you’re not really being a critical thinker. As such,
you may not find the best solution to your problem.

Employing critical thinking skills when solving a problem is absolutely essential –

what you decide could impact hundreds of people and even have an effect on the
financial health of the business. If you’re not looking at it from multiple
perspectives, you’re never going to be able to understand the full impact of a
decision.
Critical thinking example 2: Risk assessment
Economic uncertainty, climate change, political upheaval … risks abound in the
modern workforce, and it’s an employee’s critical thinking skills that will enable a
business to assess these hazards and act on them.

Risk assessment occurs in a number of different scenarios. For example, a

construction company has to identify all potential hazards on a building site to
ensure its employees are working as safely as possible. Without this analysis, there
could be injuries or even deaths, causing severe distress to the workforce and
negatively impacting the company’s reputation (not to mention any of the legal
consequences).

In the finance industry, organisations have to assess the potential impacts of new
legislation on the way they work, as well as how the new law will affect their clients.
This requires critical thinking skills such as analysis, creativity (imagining different
scenarios arising from the legislation) and problem-solving (finding a way to work
with the new legislation). If the financial institution in this example doesn’t utilise
these critical thinking skills, it could end up losing profit or even suffering legal
consequences from non-compliance.

Critical thinking example 3: Data analysis

In the digital age critical thinking has become even more, well, critical. While
machines have the ability to collate huge amounts of information and reproduce it
in a readable format, the ability to analyse and act on this data is still a skill only
humans possess.

Take an accountant. Many of their more mundane tasks have passed to technology.
Accounting platforms have the ability to produce profit and loss statements,
prepare accounts, issue invoices and create balance sheets. But that doesn’t mean
accountants are out of a job. Instead, they can now focus their efforts on adding
real value to their clients by interpreting the data this technology has collated and
using it to give recommendations on how to improve. On a wider scale, they can
look at historic financial trends and use this data to forecast potential risks or
stumbling blocks moving forward.

The core skill in all of these activities is critical thinking – being able to analyse a
large amount of information and draw conclusions in order to make better
decisions for the future. Without these critical thinkers, an organisation may easily
fall behind its competitors, who are able to respond to risks more easily and
provide more value to clients.

Critical thinking example 4: Talent hiring

One of the most important aspects of the critical thinking process is being able to
look at a situation objectively. This also happens to be crucial when making a new
hire. Not only do you have to analyse a large number of CVs and cover letters in
order to select the best candidates from a pool, you also need to be able to do this
objectively. This means not giving preferential treatment to someone because of
their age, gender, origin or any other factor. Given that bias is often unconscious, if
you can demonstrate that you are able to make decisions like this with as little
subjectivity as possible, you can show that you possess objectivity – a key critical
thinking skill.

Hiring the right talent is essential for a company’s survival. You don’t want to lose
out on top candidates because of someone’s unconscious bias, showing just how
essential this type of knowledge is in business.

What is critical thinking? Critical thinking refers to the ability to analyze

information objectively and make a reasoned judgment. It involves the evaluation
of sources, such as data, facts, observable phenomena, and research findings.
Good critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions from a set of information,
and discriminate between useful and less useful details to solve problems or
make decisions.
Critical thinking abilities are among the most sought-after skills in almost every
industry and workplace.2 You can demonstrate critical thinking by using
related keywords in your resume and cover letter, and during your interview.
Examples of Critical Thinking
The circumstances that demand critical thinking vary from industry to industry.
Some examples include:

 A triage nurse analyzes the cases at hand and decides the order by which
the patients should be treated.
 A plumber evaluates the materials that would best suit a particular job.
 An attorney reviews evidence and devises a strategy to win a case or to
decide whether to settle out of court.
 A manager analyzes customer feedback forms and uses this information to
develop a customer service training session for employees.