Some people are born to be critical thinkers, but some are not and this skill is not like a hard skill where you can simply do it after watching a Youtube tutorial. I have seen many people usually accept whatever happens in their lives, go with the flow, and do what the leaders ask you to do.

There are times when we need to ask the questions, there are times we can just accept, and there are times when questions become annoying. Before getting to how to be critical, let’s dive into why people are not critical. After analyzing and observing different people who typically just follow instructions at corporate life, these are some of the things I personally see:

1. They feel in a lower position that also means they believe they have less knowledge, therefore it’s better for them just to follow instructions
2. They have little exposure to the topic, so they are afraid to ask questions
3. Their thinking process is simply just a straight line
4. They don’t like conflicts and they feel being critical sometimes can start a conflict, depending on whom they talk to

We can dive even deeper of these 4 feelings and actions, the reasoning behind these all. But this is not something we’re gonna have on this blog. Let’s crack down how to be critical for these 4 different types of people.

Lower position = less knowledge and less confidence	1. Make sure to let them know that their thoughts are valuable and we want to hear them 2. At the same time, can keep sharing different interesting resources and tell them that you just read or watched this and you found it useful (this to express that you also just learned something, and it’s okay to just learned about something)
Little exposure	Encourage these people to meet different people, to join communities, to attend different events, to travel and talk with strangers, read more books, watch movies you don’t usually watch
Simple straight line thinking process	Remember that lines are not always straight, there are different perspectives to see one single object. So, always ask ‘why’ or ‘how’, make sure you have at least 2 perspectives in seeing one thing. If you can’t see it from different perspective, ask other people. Or simply ask ChatGPT
Fear of confrontation	Critical thinking often involves questioning the status quo, which can lead to conflicts with others who hold different views. If you are a good communicator, it shouldn’t be a problem to initiate a healthy debate. If you’re not, you can simply say that you just want to make sure that everyone is open to different perspectives, because you are learning too

Some other struggle I see that people usually have is that they don’t know what they don’t know, and this is hard because humans by nature have perceptions. And many times these perceptions are the blockers. Sometimes the perceptions say that these are the only perspectives and you wouldn’t think there is any other thing to ask. For example, if you are born with just black and white, you wouldn’t know there is any other color until someone says something like “hey, did you see the girl in blue?”, then you would be confused on what that ‘blue’ word even means. This is called Unconscious Incompetence. Basically you’re unaware about things before the learning phase even begins. Continuously seeking for feedback can be helpful too, to have a better understanding about yourself. For those who are more critical than others, you can also help them by sharing resources and also keywords for them to search something. Sharing the rationale behind it can be helpful too.

Embracing discomfort, valuing diverse perspectives, and actively seeking knowledge are essential steps on the journey towards becoming a more critical thinker.