Analytical Thinking

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 WHAT IS ANALYTICAL THINKING AND WHY IS IT
USEFUL

Analytical thinking is a specific way of thinking

that helps you effectively collect information and
use it to find the best possible solutions to
various problems.
Everyone can benefit from analytical thinking. It
can be used in many situations, from work and
school to everyday personal decisions like shop-
ping or choosing a healthier diet.

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 If used correctly, analytical thinking will help you:
● Understand connections between information and occurrences;
● Recognise the validity of different information and arguments;
● Recognise the mistakes you make in your thinking and improve;
● Solve problems and make decisions effectively.

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 Importance of Analytical thinking in the workplace

Employers prefer workers with strong analytical

thinking skills because they are independent,
able to collect and understand information and
solve problems quickly.
Analytical thinking is very useful and often
needed in the workplace. Some examples:
● A cleaner must decide which cleaning product
to use to remove a nasty stain from a
carpet without damaging it.
● A manager must decide between two equally
qualified candidates for a job.
2
● A driver must decide which road to take to
reach his destination on time safely.

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 It is good to promote your analytical thinking skills in your re-
sume and during a job
interview. Use words and phrases like problem solving, creativity
and analytical when
describing your abilities. If you have previous work experiences,
you can write something like
“in my previous job I was tasked with selecting the right materi-
als”. If not, you can write
something like “As an avid chess player, I developed strong ana-
lytical skills which I can apply
in practical situations”.

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 WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN ANALYTICAL THINKER

Analytical thinkers are able to collect informa-

tion and do research to determine what is true
and what is not. Then they are able to use this
knowledge to solve big and small problems. It
also means that they are able to think independ-
ently and use reason and logic in their
thinking.
Being an analytical thinker also means that you
must be critical not only towards others but
also with yourself. You must be honest about
your personal strengths and weaknesses and
how they affect your decisions and actions and
being honest with yourself is not easy.

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 To be an analytical thinker, you must always:
• Be an active observer and learner, not a passive
consumer of information;
• Be open-minded and willing to hear all arguments and
perspectives;
• Question ideas and information presented to us;
• Be critical of your own ideas, beliefs and actions
to see if they can be improved;
• Try to determine if your solutions are truly the
best or if they can be improved.

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 Exercises

Think about the following questions:

• Do you think you are a good analytical
thinker? Why do you think so?
• Can you remember the last time you used your
analytical thinking?
• Do you find it hard to be critical about your
mistakes?

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 ANALYTICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING IN PRACTICE

When you are faced with a problem or you must make a decision, the
most important thing is
to form a clear picture of the situation by collecting as much in-
formation about the issue as
possible and analyse it. This will allow you to make the best pos-
sible decisions and find the
most appropriate solutions. In other words, you must be able to
gather and critically examine
the information relevant to the issue that you are dealing with.
Here are some basic steps you
should take. 

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 Gathering information

If there is a problem that you must solve, you must first learn about
it by gathering as much
information as you can. You should read about it, talk to other people,
and ask for their opinion
and advice.
To do this you must be in constant communication with anyone who can
give you useful
information and advice.

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 Critically examining the information

You should never believe something just because someone said so or you
read it somewhere. You must always try to find out if the information is
actually true by researching
it through:
• Active listening – When talking to someone you should always check if
you understand what they are telling you by using active listening
techniques such as paraphrasing.
• Critical reading – Critical reading is similar to active listening. A
critical reader is trying to understand the meaning of the text by fo-
cusing on the details and asking questions such as “What is the text
about?” or “What is the author trying to say?” After reading, the
reader should be able to answer these questions.
• Considering the source of information – It is important to know where
the information you got came from. Not all sources of information are
reliable or trustworthy. Some people can deceive you because it bene-
fits them or simply because they do not know enough about the issue at
hand.

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 You should always be very careful when looking for information on the in-
ternet.
Information from experts such as scientists, doctors and professional
journalists is
always more reliable as advice from unknown persons who claim to know it
all. Using the examination questions above, you should be able to see
which information is
reliable and useful to you and which is bad and you should be careful
about or ignore it.

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 Using logic and reason to understand the problem

After you determine which sources of informa-

tion are reliable, you must use them to
understand what the problem is and what is
causing it.
Sometimes it is not easy to understand what
the cause of the problem is. We often make
wrong conclusions because we are not aware of
the mistakes in our thinking. To avoid this,
you must use logic and reason to find the
true causes of the problems. Let us look at
an
example and try to use logic and reason to
find a cause

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 Exercise

Example of false cause:

All the computers at work have been working very slowly lately. You try to
determine what
the cause of the problem is. You think about it and remember that it star-
ted last Friday,
which was Friday the 13th. You are convinced this is the reason because
everybody knows
that Friday the 13th brings bad luck.
Is this the best explanation? What is more likely, that your computers are
cursed or that you
have a computer virus? Logic and reason tell you that a virus is the real
cause of the problem.

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After you gathered enough information and have a basic understanding of the
problem, there
are some more questions that you should ask yourself to understand the
problem and possible
solutions even more. These six questions can be used in many different
situations.

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 Additional research and conclusion

After answering the six critical questions above, you have two possib-
ilities.
1. If you have all the necessary information to form a conclusion
about the problem and
decide how to solve it.
2. If the questions show you there are still some gaps in your under-
standing of the
problem, you need to do some additional research to find more informa-
tion you need.
If you decide to do more research, you must again gather information
and then examine it
critically again.

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 EFFECTIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES

• Having a reachable goal

• Using creative thinking
• IDEAL problem-solving strategy
• The 80/20 rule or the Pareto principle
• Group discussion

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 How to improve your analytical thinking skills

Read books: Use active reading strategy. Read a few pages, then think,
and analyse
what you read. Try to find main motives, predict what will happen next,
ask yourself questions and try to answer them.
Play brain games: This is a fun way to become more analytical. Play
games like Sudoku or chess, solve crosswords or puzzles.
Be curious: Be interested about things. Ask questions about different
things you see. This will help you improve your memory and problem-
solving abilities.
Practice problem solving: When you have a problem, try to think about
various
possible solutions to it. Try to visualize them and present them to
others, if possible. If
you can, try out different solutions to a problem.

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 EFFECTIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING STRATEGIES

• Having a reachable goal

• Using creative thinking
• IDEAL problem-solving strategy
• The 80/20 rule or the Pareto principle
• Group discussion

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 CONCLUSION

Analytical thinking is a specific way of thinking that helps you

collect and examine information
and find the best solutions to various types of problems. It is
useful when making simple
everyday decisions as well as for solving problems in the work-
place.
Employers like workers with strong analytical thinking skills
because they are independent,
know how to collect and examine information and solve problems.

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 Conclusion

What does it mean to be an analytical thinker? It means

that you are able to collect
information, understand it and use it to solve problems.
It also means to think independently
and use reason and logic in your thinking.

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 PROFICIENCY LEVELS: Analytical Thinking
Level 1

• Undertakes a process of information and data collection

and analysis for integration purposes.
• Identifies and makes sets of information and determines
their relationships.
• Codifies this data to detect trends and issues in the
data and information in a logical and factual manner.
• Makes logical deductions from data.
• Identifies a solution for resolving the problem.

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 PROFICIENCY LEVELS: Analytical Thinking
Level 2

• Collects all the relevant information and data needed to

address the problem.
• Organizes, classifies and synthesizes the data into
fundamental issues.
• From the information, identifies the most probable
causes of the problem.
• Reduces the information down into manageable components.
• Identifies the logical outcomes from the analyses of the
data collected.
• Identifies the options and solutions for addressing the
problems analyzed.

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 PROFICIENCY LEVELS: Analytical Thinking
Level 3

• Collects, integrates and analyses all relevant data and

information and reduces that information down to manage-
able components and/or charts, diagrams or graphs.
• Identifies a number of solutions to complex problems in-
tegrating findings from several different disciplines,
identifies and evaluates the various options developed and
selects the most effective solution.
• Draws logical and objective conclusions from the data and
validates them as the prime cause and contributing causes.
• Identifies a number of solutions to the problem by identi-
fying and evaluating the various options developed and se-
lects the most effective solution.

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 Thank You!

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