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Principle, American Institute for Learning and Cognitive Development
Do any of the following statements apply to you?
- I procrastinate
- I don’t like reading instructions
- I get lost easily
- My desk is a mess
- My living quarters are disorganized
- I don’t know where to get started with new projects
- I don’t like to do research
- I have trouble delegating
- I have trouble paying attention in meetings
- I am frequently late for appointments or dates
- I am frequently late getting work assignments done
- I don’t like to plan
- I am always losing things
- I frequently feel overwhelmed
- Learning new computer programs give me fits
- I am often stressed out
- New situations scare me
- I tend to live in a state of anxiety
If they do, you likely are inefficient in one or more of your critical thinking skills. These inefficiencies can make life difficult for a person and cause you to miss out meaningful opportunities. But don’t worry, we all have some inefficiency and they can be solved if you are aware of them and willing to make a little effort.
Most people don’t think about their thinking. And those who do usually focus on WHAT they think rather than HOW they go about thinking and making decisions. The successful business leader learns how to think and improves their thinking skills. The purpose of this article is to identify critical thinking skills needed in business and how you can improve upon them.
First, what are the basic thinking skills? They are the skills that we first develop as children through interaction with family and the environment. Because no family or environment is perfect for learning these skills, all of us frequently end up with one or more of them being inefficient.
The basic thinking or foundational skills are:
- Shape Recognition
Recognizing and comprehending perceptual images and concepts. Shape may be considered the defining property of a stimulus. Shape recognition helps us be efficient in information management. Also, it assists in focusing on target objects hidden among other irrelevant objects.
- Direction or Orientation
A core recognition skill, it provides a valid and well-founded reference point for our self within our environment. Direction provides boundaries for judgment, and includes effective understanding of orientation relationships for specific tasks, including problem solving. This skill is crucial for being self-organized. Self-confidence results from how one feels about their environmental orientation.
- Classification and Categorization
The abilities that help us develop concept models by allocating chosen stimuli into particular groups. They require one to identify the unifying qualities causing objects to logically belong together in specific contexts. They then call for judgment to decide whether an object possesses the sought after characteristics. These skills assist in summarizing large amounts of information.
- Environmental Awareness
Indicates how generally attentive one is to detail within the environment. It determines one’s ability to respond to socially familiar stimuli of varying complexity. It demonstrates one’s ability to separate essential and non-essential parts from the whole. Environmental Awareness allows us to understand how objects function in our environment.
- Field Discrimination
Indicates the capacity for intellectual curiosity where one is able to focus on a stimulus in the presence of competing stimuli. It is an essential cognitive function for efficient learning and information processing. It allows one to remain focused on tasks without being distracted. This is an important skill for avoiding information overload.
- Analysis and Synthesis
The capacity to disassemble something into its basic parts, so that each part can be looked at individually. Once each part is understood, it is then important to understand how the parts relate to each other. Synthesis is the ability to take parts and re-assemble them in a different manner for another purpose. The parts may be related to an issue, concept or topic and the main ideas supporting them. Analysis and synthesis are essential for efficient comprehension of written or spoken statements.
- Abstract Sequencing
Logic is a component of reasoning. It allows one to discover the most appropriate relationship between one object or concept and another. It requires one to identify the sequence of the objects or concepts being related to a specific context. Abstract logic is the ability to order each phase in succession, providing efficient direction towards a goal. Abstract sequencing is used in comprehension, then in developing strategies for problem solving.
- Concrete Sequencing
Similar to abstract sequencing except that it helps determine performance efficiency for practical situations where logic is observed. Concrete sequencing is more concerned with the recognition of logic.
- Motor Integration
The network between our brain and our motor functions that provides the capacity to carry out specific tasks. It involves the process of critical thinking, developing strategies, and then acting upon those strategies as we interact with our environment. Through this skill, the impact of stimuli from the outside world is transferred effectively into action.
- Pattern Recognition
The ability to quickly see patterns in the physical or abstract worlds. It helps us anticipate things happening and to speed up our learning.
- Short-term Memory
This is the memory that we use that lasts only a brief time. It is important for our ability to attend to things in the moment and to stay focused.
- Tracking
The ability to follow along a line of text. It is crucial to our ability to listen and read.
These last three skills are all important for attention - the ability to concentrate and identify frequently changing stimuli. Attention brings efficiency to learning and to any workplace task.
These foundational skills are needed for the learning we achieve later in school, at work and in life. Our higher level learning will be compromised if any of the foundational skills are inefficient. For example, good reading comprehension requires that seven of the basic skills be efficient. If only one of them is inefficient, it will cause reading comprehension to be inefficient.
If you are inefficient at analysis and synthesis, you will not like or be good at mathematics as it is built on our ability to analyze and synthesize. Likewise all the business skills we learn are based on these basic foundational skills. So if we want to be successful in business and not be under a great deal of stress, then being good at the basic skills is a must. The following is a list of business skills and the primary basic skills related to them for you to work on self-improvement.
- Listening - Abstract sequencing, tracking, analysis and synthesis, classification and categorization
- Communication - Analysis and synthesis, classification and categorization, abstract sequencing, motor integration
- Writing - Field discrimination, analysis and synthesis, classification and categorization, abstract sequencing, motor integration
- Research - Direction or orientation, field discrimination, classification and categorization, analysis and synthesis
- Strategic Planning - Analysis and synthesis, pattern recognition, abstract sequencing, motor integration
- Delegation - Analysis and synthesis, classification and categorization, abstract sequencing, concrete sequencing, pattern recognition, direction or orientation
- Supervision - Direction or orientation, analysis and synthesis, classification and categorization, pattern recognition, concrete sequencing, tracking
- Sales - Direction or orientation, analysis and synthesis, classification and categorization, abstract sequencing, pattern recognition, short-term memory, motor integration
- Design - Shape recognition, direction or orientation, analysis and synthesis, abstract sequencing, motor integration
- Creating - Analysis and synthesis, pattern recognition, abstract sequencing, field discrimination, motor integration
- Visualizing - Abstract sequencing, analysis and synthesis, pattern recognition, tracking
- Training - Analysis and Synthesis, classification and categorization, abstract sequencing, concrete sequencing, direction or orientation, pattern recognition, motor integration
- Computer Skills - Field discrimination, analysis and synthesis, classification and categorization, abstract sequencing, concrete sequencing, pattern recognition, tracking, motor integration
- Monitoring - Tracking, pattern recognition, concrete sequencing, analysis and synthesis, classification and categorization
- Mentoring - Analysis and synthesis, classification and categorization, direction or orientation, abstract sequencing, concrete sequencing, tracking, pattern recognition, motor integration
- Interviewing - Direction or orientation, field discrimination, analysis and synthesis, classification and categorization, tracking, pattern recognition
- Accounting - Classification and categorization, field discrimination, analysis and synthesis, tracking, pattern recognition, direction or orientation, abstract sequencing, concrete sequencing, motor integration
Most of us are not familiar with these basic skills even though we use them every day. No one has helped us be aware of them nor has anyone told us how to improve them. These skills should function at the unconscious level, but if they are inefficient they will require us to use conscious energy to do what should be more automatic. This will slow us down and cause higher level skills to be tedious and more difficult than they have to be.
So if you suspect that you may be inefficient in one or more of these skills, what can you do about it? You should practice things that require that skill. The job is to practice those things you are not good at and often don’t want to do. With practice you will get better.
Some suggestions for improving these basic skills are listed below:
- For Shape Recognition:
Do line drawings
Draw things around you
Notice shapes in the environment
- For Direction or Orientation:
Read maps
Learn to dance
Do aerobics by following an instructor
Do line drawings watching for the relationships of the lines
- For Classification and Categorization:
Do jigsaw puzzles, sorting all the pieces into groups before putting them together
Sort things into groups
Organize your closets or any other mess
Sort your emails and word documents
Organize your files and desk
- For Environmental Awareness:
Consciously notice things that you wouldn’t normally notice and note them in a notebook and then investigate those things.
Find out what function they have and could they benefit or not
- For Field Discrimination:
Do “Where’s Waldo” type puzzles
Do “Life Picture Puzzles”
- For Analysis and Synthesis:
Take things apart and examine them
Break down articles into their main ideas
Break down task into individual steps
Break problems down into individual ideas
- For Abstract Sequencing:
Do Mensa puzzles
Do Sudoku puzzles
Do other brain teasing puzzles
Visualize plans you have
- For Concrete Sequencing:
Do hobby activity
Build models
Learn a new game or sport
Learn to play an instrument
- For Motor Integration:
Plan things out before you act
Plan projects out in all the steps and procedures and visualize through the project before doing it to be sure that everything is planned thoroughly and well
- For Pattern Recognition:
Consciously note patterns in your life and in the lives of others
Watch for patterns in traffic or weather
If you play sports, watch for patterns of different players
- For Short-term Memory:
Play the card game “Concentration”
Play the card game “Golf”
- For Tracking:
Play the computer game “Tetris”
Do a budget and follow it
Go to a forest preserve and track an animal (Winter is a great time for this because of the snow)
Most people don’t think about their thinking. And those who do usually focus on WHAT they think rather than HOW they go about thinking and making decisions. Yet we all possess unconscious mental templates, and we rely on them to filter our experiences and derive our decisions. Remember, practice makes perfect. Think about how you can improve your thinking.
At the American Institute of Learning and Cognitive Development, we help people with these every day. We help people in business, school, sports and even brain injury. We are currently working with the U.S. Marine Corps to help them improve these skills and thus improve their overall effectiveness.
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