I travel often for work, and have become quite critical of the airlines I choose.  Frontier, United, Continental, Southwest, American, Virgin, Delta- each have their own unique advantages and disadvantages.  So, how do you choose the right airline for your needs?

I suggest using a strategic approach to decision making that I learned at the Critical Thinking Boot Camp.  While I cannot share the handy worksheet we used at the bootcamp, I will share a shortened version of the general process for deciding between multiple alternatives.

After I search for the available flights to my destination, I need to decide which criteria I should use to evaluate the airline choices.  What features of this flight should be considered mandatory? Which measurable factors make one flight better than another?

For example, my criteria for a good flight would be:

• timing that works with my planned schedule
• low price
• no layovers
• ability to upgrade to more legroom
• good customer service experience
• low rate of delays/cancellations
• nice boarding area
• TV availability
• Auto Check-in
• Good frequent flyer program
• In-flight wi-fi

Based on this list, it is clear that some of the criteria listed are just “nice to have” versus necessary.  So, next we need to assign a numerical weight to the criteria.  For me, having a direct flight would be a 10 (most important) whereas the auto check-in availability would be less relevant (likely a 2).

Once we have addressed which criteria are most important, it is time to compare the airlines to the criteria.  For example, prior to merging with Midwest, Frontier had TV’s on the headrest of each flight.  Southwest lets you pay a few extra dollars to automatically check in.  Both of those satisfy one of the criteria completely, so they would receive a 10 for those categories.  However, Southwest does not offer any upgrades for extra legroom, so for that category they would receive a 0.

Pricing and flight times would vary for each airline, so the values assessed compared to the criteria would differ for each flight.

As you can see by now, we are taking a qualitative decision and thinking critically about the best possible choice by quantifying the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative.

At the end of the process, you should be able to use the scores assigned to each airline for the weighted criteria to choose the best airline to meet your unique needs.  In the end, the decision you make will be justified by data, and not gut feeling or emotional preference.

How can you imagine using this decision making process today?

One complaint I have about my MBA program is that it felt like a bunch of disconnected courses and assignments that  didn’t gel together (at times). I wanted more help “seeing the big picture” that drives success.

For example, how companies choose an HR strategy to win talent in their specific industry and why. Or which marketing techniques are best at promoting a new product vs an existing product. In essence, I wanted help thinking about my options, not necessarily learning each one.

In the book Rethinking the MBA: Business Education at a Crossroads, the authors offer eight unmet needs that business schools must focus on to better prepare future leaders. All relate to critical thinking.

Here are the book’s proposed unmet needs:

• Gaining a global perspective: identifying, analyzing, and practicing how best to manage when faced with economic, institutional, and cultural differences across countries.
• Developing leadership skills: understanding the responsibilities of leadership; developing alternative approaches to inspiring, influencing, and guiding others; learning such skills as conducting a performance review and giving critical feedback; and recognizing the impact of one’s actions and behaviors on others.
• Honing integration skills: thinking about issues from diverse, shifting angles to frame problems holistically; learning to make decisions based on multiple, often conflicting, functional perspectives; and building judgment and intuition into messy, unstructured situations.
• Understanding the role, responsibilities, and purpose of business: balancing financial and nonfinancial objectives while simultaneously juggling the demands of diverse constituencies such as shareholders, employees, customers, regulators, and society.
• Recognizing organizational realities and the challenges of implementation: influencing others and getting things done in the context of hidden agendas, unwritten rules, political coalitions, and competing points of view.
• Thinking creatively and innovatively: finding and framing problems;collecting, synthesizing, and distilling large volumes of ambiguous data; engaging in generative and lateral thinking; and constantly experimenting and learning.
• Thinking critically and communicating clearly: developing and articulating logical, coherent, and persuasive arguments; marshalling supporting evidence; and distinguishing fact from opinion.
• Understanding the limits of models and markets: asking tough questions about risk by questioning underlying assumptions and emerging patterns and seeking to understand what might go wrong; learning about the sources of errors that lead to flawed decision making and the organizational safeguards that reduce these risks; and understanding the tension between regulatory activities aimed at preventing social harm and market-based incentives designed to encourage innovation and efficiency.

(Book excerpts taken fromhttp://www.mbauniverse.com/article/id/3380/Rethinking-MBA-Exc-Excerpts-II)

What do you think?  Do you agree that these are unmet needs in current MBA programs?

If you’re currently searching for a new job, I have tremendous sympathy for you. Unemployment is high, the job market is full of overqualified candidates, and unfortunately the candidate application process isn’t made to suit you.

If you haven’t looked for a job in the last 5 years, let me update you on the 2012 employment application process. The experience has evolved, and not in a positive way.  Over a decade ago, candidates still looked through the Help Wanted ads in the newspaper and  ”pounded the pavement” passing out resumes to every manager who would shake hands with them. Many people still snail-mailed their resumes to potential employers.  That’s right, kids, people paid for postage and fancy resume paper to look for a job during the dark ages. When Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com appeared on the scene, candidates rejoiced.  A job seeker could fire off hundreds of resumes a day with the “Apply Now” button (whether they were qualified or not) all while sitting on the couch, munching on Cheetos, and lounging in pajama pants.

Recruiters, on the other hand, did not necessarily rejoice. Suddenly they were inundated with hundreds of resumes for a single job posting. As a former recruiter myself, it was not uncommon to post a job opening for a Director of Sales and receive 2 dozen resumes from “pizza delivery specialists.” Something had to be done. Recruiters were spending tons of time wading through unqualified applicants and not meeting/interviewing true prospects.  

Around the same time, companies started heavily investing in Applicant Tracking Systems.  These programs helped weed through the unqualified candidates based on a set of criteria or keywords and give recruiters a chance to have more face time with interviewees.  Additionally, they helped recruiters track the candidates as they moved through the selection process and kept valuable records in case of a lawsuit.  Super! Applicants can still apply online, and recruiters have a computerized helper to target their efforts. Problem solved!

Not quite. Now when you click the “Apply Now” button on Monster or CareerBuilder, you’re taken to a company’s website and asked to fill in every detail of your employment history in their customized program.  Remember that resume that you worked so hard to format perfectly?  Well forget about it, because even if you’re allowed to upload your resume into the system, you’ll still have to manually type in your name, address, contact info, references, employers, job descriptions, dates of employment, education, certifications, blood type, organ donor status, favorite color, and food allergies (I’m almost kidding here).

My husband is currently searching for a new job, and over the past week I’ve timed how long it takes to complete each application.  On average, it takes 22 minutes per job and that’s if there is no selection assessment included in the process.  For one electronic retailer, there were 42 pages of questions, and several pages asked the same questions over and over again.  Imagine how it feels to do your taxes or apply for a mortgage loan.  Now multiply that by 5 or 6 times a day.  That’s how a job applicant feels.

To say the least, the candidate experience has suffered.

Now, seeing as how I’ve worked in the selection assessment industry for 8 years, I am obviously a strong advocate for using scientific assessments in the hiring process.  However, the right assessment should be used at the right place and the right time.  Some companies are trying to weed out candidates by including a selection assessment in the initial application process.  While that may cut down on the number of resumes to read and the amount of time a candidate has to spend in the recruiter’s office, there are a few problems with that approach.

First, without proctoring the assessment, you have no way of guaranteeing that the person answering the questions is the actual candidate you’re hiring.  Why assess a candidate’s skills if you aren’t sure who answered the questions?  My husband has completed at least 20 assessments during his job application process, and I could have easily taken any one of those assessments for him.  My assessment score wouldn’t help him once he’s on the job, but at that point the company has already wasted time, energy, and money bringing him on-board and training him.  Using a selection assessment without proctoring is risky at best.

Next, candidates often take the same popular assessments over and over when they apply at multiple companies. Recently, a colleague of mine mentioned that he had taken the same “sales ability” questionnaire 3 times now for 3 different companies.  He joked that it would be interesting to see if he even answered the same across the 3 administrations.  He also planned to take screen shots the next time he had to fill out that assessment so he wouldn’t have to read the questions in the future and could just fill in the same answer pattern.  There’s a problem here.

Finally, to accurately assess a candidate, you want them to be fresh, clear-minded, and free of distractions. How often is your household free of distractions?  How fresh and clear-minded do you think your candidate is if he/she has been filling out job applications/assessments all day long?  Certainly, I believe that it is the candidate’s responsibility to manage his/her time, energy level, and focus, but let’s be realistic.  Life happens.  When my husband was filling out applications, I was sitting next to him and the dogs were begging for his attention.  Some days he spent 4 to 6 hours just applying for jobs.  The last thing I want one of my candidates to do is take the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (which requires serious concentration and mental clarity) after a long day of filling out mind-numbing applications. We all want the best candidates for our open positions, and our candidates should have the best chance possible to show off their skills.

HR and Recruiter friends, we can do better!

We need to do some creative thinking and problem solving to strike a balance between automating the paperwork side of recruiting while keeping the process human for our candidates.  We can take advantage of valid, scientific assessments that measure skills and abilities without compromising the integrity of the assessment or exhausting candidates with the length of the application process.  We have to stop looking at the candidate application process as an “either/or” experience (i.e. Either the recruiter is inconvenienced by paperwork or the candidate is inconvenienced by redundant questions.)

Let’s look for the win/win.

How can we improve the process for the recruiter and the candidate?

I follow a lot of brilliant bloggers who write compelling content and stimulate fascinating discussions.  One of those people is Laurie Ruettimann who writes at http://thecynicalgirl.com.  But what happens when someone disagrees with the perspective of a blogger?  Sometimes there are valuable learning experiences for everyone involved, but often it looks like this:

This outrageous comment was left on a post about whether Homeopathic, Naturopathic, or Chiropractic care should be covered on medical insurance plans.  Laurie made the argument that those types of therapies have less scientific backing than traditional medical therapies and therefore should not be covered under insurance plans so that premiums are kept as low as possible.  While I may not agree with Laurie’s perspective of chiropractic therapy, I think she opened the door to an interesting/worthwhile debate.  However, just because you open the door doesn’t mean everyone will step through it.

Instead of responding with something thoughtful or reasonable, “JF ” (the commenter above) resorts to name calling and logical fallacies.  He essentially says “I disagree with you, so you are an idiot and everything you say about any other topic will be wrong too.”

Where do I even begin here?  I thought about listing out all of the logical fallacies committed by this individual, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort.  This kind of response to a healthy debate shows a disinterest in learning, critical thinking, and communication.

When you shut down an argument by insulting the other person and implying that everything else they believe is false, you lose.  You lose the opportunity to grow as an individual.  You lose the opportunity to influence.  You lose the opportunity to educate and/or learn.  But most importantly, you lose all respect from the critical thinkers that spend time evaluating the argument, researching information, and questioning conclusions.

Don’t be that guy!

The next time you disagree with something a blogger says, take time to formulate a quality response.  Here are a few things to consider before you post a comment:

• Can you find any points of agreement?  If so, acknowledge those before you detail the areas in which you disagree.  Building rapport leads to more respectful communication.
• Focus on the argument, not the individual.
• State your points clearly and thoroughly with evidence, not insults.
• Remember that we are all limited by our own experiences/biases and no 1 person is right all of the time.  This includes you.
• Accept the fact that there are some people who will never change their beliefs/opinions.
• Pick your battles and know when to walk away.  You will not win every argument, and not every argument is worth your time/energy.
• Saying “no offense” before you say something overtly offensive does not excuse the offensiveness.  Same thing goes for starting an insult with “with all due respect.”

What is the most outrageous comment you have received on your blog or during an argument?  How do you handle offensive or mean commenters?

With unemployment still hovering at staggering levels, this is a great time to brush up on your interviewing skills.  Recruiters today are inundated with resumés that all look alike and have a tough time picking the right candidate when so many people are applying for the same jobs.  So, how do you stand out?  You ace the interview. Simple, right?

There are tons of resources on the web that cover how to put your best foot forward in an interview, but let’s get specific and talk about some of the really tough interview questions.

Recent surveys have reported that employers believe there is a large gap between the critical thinking skills in the applicant pool and those needed to be successful on the job.  To stand out from the crowd, you must demonstrate your critical thinking skills at every opportunity including your answers to tough interview questions.

Here are a few examples:

1)  “Tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult decision.  What was it?  How did you handle it, and what would you do differently if you were faced with the same situation today?”

In this question, the interviewer is not really concerned with the decision per se, but how you approached the situation.  Did you take time to think it through or did you select the easiest option?  Did you research alternatives?  Did you seek out advice from knowledgeable sources?  How/when did you draw a conclusion?  Have you taken time to reflect on the situation since then?  

To ace this interview question, you want to show that you use a structured methodology to made decisions objectively.  For example, you might say “I happen to study the RED Model of Critical Thinking, so when I’m faced with a decision such as (and name a decision you’ve made in the past), I start by Recognizing my own Assumptions.  I evaluate where I may be cognitively biased or predisposed to believe a certain way.  In this situation, I realized that… (and reveal some of your own personal biases as part of the decision).  Then, I Evaluated the Arguments.  I weighed the pros/cons, evaluated the risks/benefits, examined the time allowed for me to ponder the situation, and gathered more information from reliable and unbiased sources.  Finally, as I came to a Conclusion, I thought about the long-term impact of my decision and how it would affect others.  Even after I made my decision, I took time to reflect on the situation and monitored the results to see where my thinking was correct and identify my blind spots.”

This answer reflects the fact that you are able to break down a tough situation into manageable steps, think objectively, reflect, and learn from your own experiences.

2)  “Tell me about a time when you made a mistake.  What went wrong and how would you handle the situation differently today?”

This question is exceedingly difficult because in an interview you are trying to impress the interviewer.  Talking about mistakes seems counter intuitive.  However, the worst possible answer to this question is “I can’t think of any mistakes that I have made.”  Everyone makes mistakes…every single day.  What matters is how you address that mistake.  Here’s a great answer I once heard from someone seeking a facilities job.

“I received a call that I was needed urgently in another part of the building to resolve a conference room double-booking issue.  While I was on my way to that building, I walked through the warehouse and noticed someone had spilled a soda on the floor but did not clean it up.  Since the original call was noted as “urgent” I kept walking and resolved the conference room situation.  When I got back to the spill site, someone had slipped and hurt themselves.  In the moment, I had mis-perceived the urgency of the conference room situation in comparison to the safety risk presented in the warehouse.  No one was in danger in the conference room mix-up, however I knew that any delay would result in frustration of high-ranking executives.  In the end, though, the safety of our employees should have been more important.  If I could do it all again, at a minimum, I would have stopped and placed a caution sign over the spillage and asked a nearby employee to mop up the soda.  Or I could have taken a few extra minutes to clean the spill myself and then explained to the frustrated executives that the safety of our employees is my first priority, and that I came as soon as I could.  From this mistake, I learned to more quickly perform a risk/benefit analysis and prioritize the requests I receive based on the core values of the company.”

This was a great answer because she acknowledged where she made the mistake, identified an alternative resolution, and showed that her reflection on the incident will help her avoid the same mistake in the future.

3)  “Tell me about yourself.”

I think that of all the loathesome interview questions in the world, this ranks highest in my book.  This open-ended, generic question often leads to an awkward answer.  People stumble because they’re not sure if they should give an executive summary of their resume, share personal characteristics, or talk about their hobbies.

My suggestion is to prepare 3 bullet points about yourself:

1)  Your greatest personal asset. Based on the current research, I would ALWAYS say that my greatest skill is critical thinking because the demand for critical thinking skills in the workplace is so strong.  However, you have to back that up with truthful information.  You could explain how you subscribe to a Critical Thinking methodology (such as the RED Model of Critical Thinking) and how you apply it in every day life situations in order to continue building your skill set.  Give examples of how your critical thinking skills have helped you make decisions, solve problems, and innovate in the past.

2)  Talk about your career aspirations. Give the interviewer an overview of where you’ve been in your career and what actions you are taking to prepare for the next step.  Share the goals you have set for yourself and how this particular job works into that overall long-term career plan.

3)  Share something more personal that the interviewer will remember. For instance, if you’ve won any awards at work this would be a great time to mention them.  You could also share something you do in your free time.  For instance, I might mention that I consider myself a cupcake connoisseur.  Before I travel to any city, I research the local bakeries and try to taste the finest cupcakes each region has to offer.  Then again, I will probably stick out in that recruiter’s mind as “That cupcake girl.”  But that would be fine with me….

The key to acing this question is to prepare.  The awkward silence and rambling that you will experience if you don’t have a few bullet points in mind will linger with you for the rest of the interview.  Be prepared and you will find that the interviewer will quickly dive into the real interview questions.

The big key to acing any interview is showing that your basic skills are transferable.  Focus on the “how/why” behind the “what.”  It’s not “what” you did in your last job, but how you did it that matters.  Are you a former Air Force pilot who is looking for a managerial position?  Then instead of focusing on your flight times, focus on how you had to be an agile problem solver and handle an immense amount of incoming information to make rapid decisions.  Those skills matter on every job.

If you focus on your basic skills, you can never go wrong.

What is the toughest interview question you’ve ever experienced?

There’s a stigma to critical thinking training (and even the phrase critical thinking) that it is boring, stuffy, and too academic to be engaging.  But it doesn’t have to be mind-numbing.

Once you teach the basics of critical thinking and the Critical Thinking model, you can reinforce and practice those techniques with fun applied exercises.  For instance, that is the approach in the book Now You’re Thinking! First, the authors tell the story of how a 2-year old Iraqi girl with a congenital heart defect was saved through the heroic efforts of a Marine battalion, and then they recount all of the steps/challenges involved in that process and how effective critical thinking was utilized at every step.

As a trainer, you can create your own applied activity and guide the conversation with critical thinking questions/lessons.  And since I’ve spent a week watching Zombie movies, it seems only appropriate to use the potential Zombie Apocalypse as a fun example of a critical thinking exercise.

If I created this activity, I would first take the “are zombies a real possibility” debate off of the table.  It’s not that I don’t think this could be a worthwhile discussion and critical thinking activity, but in corporate training you only have so much time and that debate could last for weeks.  Instead, I’d prepare a scenario stating that the Zombie Apocalypse (or Z-day) is upon us.  In addition, I would hand out a zombie fact sheet.  Here are a few examples:

• A zombie is an animated corpse that is brought back from the dead.
• Zombies have only one mission- to feed on human flesh/brains.
• A person who has been bitten by a zombie will become a zombie.
• Zombies can only be stopped by severing the brain from the rest of the body.

A quick web search will help you uncover a wealth of amusing information about Zombies.  Since the Z-day situation is hypothetical, feel free to design the situation as you wish.  You could say that Z-day happened during the middle of the work day and HR was the first group infected.  The real gold in the activity is to get people talking about strategy, risks, benefits, and problem solving.

Next, I would divide the participants into groups of 8-10 people.  Within each team I would designate one person to take notes and another to be the “RED Model Representative.”  The Red Model Representative (RMR) should be a skilled critical thinker and able to facilitate the critical thinking discussion.  They should be able to pause discussion to ask questions based on the RED Model of Critical Thinking such as “What assumptions are you making when you say the safest place to hide would be the Winchester?” or “Have we fully evaluated the benefit of a machete versus a katana?”

Then, present each group with a specific discussion topic.  Here are a few examples:

• In a Zombie apocalypse, where would be the safest place to hide in this building?
• What would be the most strategic weapon of choice for battling a hoard of zombies?
• What would you put in your Z-day emergency kit?
• Which office supplies would be most effective for fighting off zombies in your building?
• Which member of your team would be the most effective post Z-day leader?
• How many days could your team survive in this building without power or outside food/water?

While the point of using Zombies as a topic area is to make the discussion fun, this is really no different than thinking strategically about disaster preparedness or pandemic awareness.  Get creative.  Keep the discussion going. Question assumptions.  Beware of Group Think and be a dutiful Devil’s Advocate.  Caution the group against coming to a conclusion prematurely.

What questions would you ask your team during a Z-day critical thinking exercise?

Here’s my question:  do the brains of critical thinkers taste better than the ones of those with poor critical thinking skills?  ;)

Just for fun, enjoy this short, humorous video about surviving Z-day:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EbeqPynF2s

We’ve probably all been scammed at one point or another.  We buy products that seem like problem-solvers but they end up being useless.  Then again, what should we expect for $19.95 (and if you call now they’ll throw in a free set of Ginsu knives!).  The “As Seen on TV” commercials truly display what retailers think about our intelligence.  Watch this video and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=08xQLGWTSag

When you see a commercial like this, use some critical thinking.  STOP and THINK.

If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.  Just Google “The Greatest Vitamin in the World” for an example of that.

Now, I’m not saying that all “As Seen on TV” products are useless.  I have bought a few that have worked very well (the pet seat cover, Swivel Sweeper, Space Bags, Oxi Clean, and Doggy Stairs).  However, there are tons of products that are useless (i.e. if you really think a vibrating belt will help you lost tummy fat, then this blog is not the place for you).

Before you purchase the item, as yourself:

• Is the “problem” presented in the commercial truly a problem for you?
• Does the solution seem logical?  i.e. Do you think you can lose 10 lbs in a week without dieting or exercising?
• Have you done your research?  Google the product and search for reviews.
• Have you read the fine print?  Check out the return policy.  Make sure that if you have to return the item that you don’t have to pay anything out of pocket for shipping, handling, or restocking.  If the company won’t promise to cover all of your costs, then they don’t believe in their product.

Remember, you get what you pay for.  Often people are drawn to “As Seen on TV” products because they claim to make your life easier for only $19.95.  Psychologically, we think “it’s only $19.95, so if it works it would be a steal.”  Don’t let the emotion and hope created by the commercial block your critical thinking skills.  STOP and THINK.  Ask questions and do your research.

Have you ever been duped by a “miracle” product?

On this blog we reference the RED Model of Critical Thinking quite a bit as it is the foundation for the results on the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal assessment, as well as a simple way to effectively approach problem solving and decision making. In addition, the RED Model is a key feature of the book Now You’re Thinking! which shares the true story of how a Marine battalion saved the life of a 2-year old girl with a congenital heart defect.

In this short video clip, Heather Ishikawa (co-author of Now You’re Thinking!) explains how the RED Model of Critical Thinking can guide you towards better life decisions:

I’m in Berkeley, CA this week attending a critical thinking conference and listened to the conference organizers share their “critical thinking journey” this morning.  That got me thinking about my own critical thinking journey and the fact that I’ve never really introduced myself on this blog.  So, in case you were wondering, this is the story of how I became one of the authors of Critical-Thinkers.

The two most instrumental components to my critical thinking journey as an adolescent were my parents and my debate team.  My mom and dad were very active parents (and still are to this day).  They have always been both my biggest fans and best critics.  They support me and reinforce when I make the right decision, and are openly question me when I’m making a mistake in my thinking process.  As a child, I remember sitting at the dinner table talking about business, family issues, and religion.  They spoke to me like an adult and asked me to present my thoughts on adult issues.  In our conversations, the answer wasn’t nearly as important as the thought process behind the conclusion.  

Perhaps that is what set me up to join the Debate team in high school.  If I’m honest with myself, I really joined Debate to compete with my brother’s amazing success and try to beat his all-time point record.  However, I quickly realized I was passionate about debate too.  I enjoyed the competition, the research, the education, and the skill of argumentation.  As an adult, I can now look back and realize how much my 4 years on the Debate team propelled my critical thinking skills.

In debate, you must research to prepare a strong case, expect counterarguments, and prepare evidence-supported responses.  Then, one hour later, you have to take the opposite position and critique the case of another team to win the round.  On an average weekend, I typically argued for and against a particular topic about 7 times.  Competing in debate not only gave me the mental agility to switch positions and defend them quickly, but also to learn fair-mindedness.  I learned that nothing in life is black and white, and if you step into someone else’s shoes, the perspective changes completely.

After high school, I was blessed with a great undergraduate education at the University of Kansas and then a rigorous Master’s program at the University of Missouri- St. Louis.  When I entered the corporate world and worked in recruitment/selection, I realized that learning the theories of Industrial/Organizational Psychology is very different from applying them in the real world.

Eventually, I ended up working for an assessment publisher and started blogging about assessments, selection, and human resources in my spare time.  I believed that blogging about assessments and training empowered people to continue applying the concepts they learned in a 4 or 8 hour training program to their every day lives.  I believed that the power of the assessment wasn’t in the introductory overview of the results, but in the self-reflection that occurs days/weeks/months later.  In addition, I believed we should provide the opportunity for this insight for free.  I was passionate about self-development, blogging, and psychology.

And then I was offered a position with Pearson TalentLens where I could blog about all of the issues related to critical thinking, including problem solving, decision making, creative thinking, strategic planning, innovation,  logic, reason, assumptions, emotions, etc.  My goal here is to take the core concepts of critical thinking (and often the RED Model of Critical Thinking) and apply them to every day experiences ranging from visits to the veterinarian to strategic business decisions.

The beauty of blogging about critical thinking is that I never run out of content.  No one is a perfect critical thinker.  We can all improve our thinking skills.  In addition, every single life moment is an opportunity to exercise critical thinking.  Every mistake is an opportunity to reflect and learn a better way of thinking.

Helping others learn to think better is a passion of mine, and I’m thrilled to be able to share my passion through social media.  I always welcome any thoughtful debate, comment, or critique.

How about you?  What is your “critical thinking journey?”  What made you the thinker that you are today?

Editor’s Note: Breanne Harris is the Solutions Architect for Pearson TalentLens.  She works with customers to design selection and development plans that incorporate critical thinking assessments and training.  She has a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology and has experience in recruiting, training, and HR consulting.  She is the chief blogger for Critical Thinkers and occasionally posts at ThinkWatson.  Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter for more of her thoughts.

Last week I went to the store to buy a ceiling fan for my oldest daughter. Her room gets hotter than the others because it’s in the front-corner which gets the sun’s full exposure, and because our A/C unit is on the other side of the house in the attic, so her duct has the longest run. I thought it would be an easy task but boy was I wrong. Two hours later, I had a fan. Let me explain the paralyzing decision-making process I went through to give my daughter’s room a breeze (note to Dyson: Make a ceiling fan!).

It was a typical home improvement store setup: the 52-inch fans were on the left and priced from $70-$200, and the 44-inch fans were on the right and ranged from $40-$120. Each side had about 30 models to choose from; so there were 60 fan choices in total. The brands were Hampton Bay, Hunter, a Hunter sub-brand called Harbor Breeze, Monte Carlo, and allen + roth. I asked the associate and he said Hunter was the best and ran the quietest (a concern for me as some of my house fans run loud and sometimes make obnoxiously sporadic noises… I can never pinpoint the problem). I quickly became overwhelmed with my options for buying a fan just looking at pricing, colors, and brands, but these choices were only the beginning.

As time passed and I was approaching 20 minutes in the fan section, I noticed a white sticker on each box. The stickers displayed each fan’s specifications. Things like: Airflow speed, electric use, airflow efficiency, blade shape & size, mounting height, and a few other random things. I wondered why the manufacturers even showed this. Of course I want a fan with good airflow that doesn’t cause my circuit breaker to overload! Yet each fan’s specs varied quite a bit, so I had to consider them. I didn’t want to come home with a great-looking fan (my daughter told me she wanted an antique bronze finish) that didn’t adequately cool her room. I spotted a few contenders. One was a Hampton Bay for $60; another was a Hunter for $100. That’s when the process took another turn.

I noticed some Hunter fans were in green boxes and had “5-Minute Install” on them. These ceiling fans were priced $20 higher because a few parts came pre-assembled and the fan would take less time to install in theory. In reality, there’s no way to hang a ceiling fan in five minutes (not counting the time to take down your current light fixture), but it would take less time no doubt. At this point, I had to fight off strong feelings to leave the store empty-handed. But after pacing a few minutes, I decided to hang in there. My daughter’s comfort was in my hands! So I (rather desperately) picked up one of these 5-minute fans and bought it. I thought I had made a good decision.

But as I drove away, I had the sinking feeling that I overspent by $20, and as a father of five, twenty bucks is a lot of Costco hot dogs! I had fan-buyer’s remorse!

I knew it would only take a few extra minutes to assemble the parts (as fan assembly is never the hard part of an install – it’s usually mounting the fan just right, hiding the wires in the canopy, dropping screws on the floor and looking for 10 minutes, and holding the heavy fan motor while connecting the wires). For a change of pace, I decided to head over to a neighboring big-box improvement store to see what they had. I quickly found a great fan for $80 as their fans were cheaper. I returned the other and took home the new fan and installed it in about an hour (it’s the Cedar Hill model from Harbor Breeze). After an entire morning of shopping & installing (9AM – 1PM), my fan quest was over. My daughter was happy and I felt good. But the endless choices in selecting a fan nearly stopped me cold. And I still question if I should have bought an even less pricey fan – say the $60 fan I saw first (I mean, will a teenager notice that a lesser fan twirls at 3700 CFM instead of 4300?)

I’ve always felt that too many choices is a bad thing. You need ample choices, but too many and it’s easy to waste time and question what you really need. In their report “When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?,” researchers Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper present some interesting findings from studies they did around choice:

• Their 1^st study showed that although more consumers were attracted to a tasting booth when the display included 24 flavors of jam rather than 6, consumers were subsequently much more likely to purchase jam if they had encountered the display of only 6 jams.

• In their 2^nd study, students in an introductory college level course were more likely to write an essay for extra credit when they were provided a list of only 6, rather than 30, potential essay topics. In addition, students wrote higher quality essays if their essay topic had been picked from a smaller rather than a larger choice set.

• Their 3^rd study demonstrated that people reported enjoying the process of choosing a chocolate more from a display of 30 than from a display of 6. However, despite their greater initial enjoyment in the extensive-display condition, participants proved more dissatisfied and regretful of the choices they made and were subsequently considerably less likely to choose chocolates rather than money as compensation for their participation.

The researches go onto say “Perhaps it is not that people are made unhappy by the decisions they make in the face of abundant options but that they are instead unsure–that they are burdened by the responsibility of distinguishing good from bad decisions.”

I think this data has ramifications for product designers, salespeople, customer service managers, and entrepreneurs. Seeing less makes us want to buy more, in many cases. And I think stores would sell more ceiling fans.

Do you agree with me? Anyone out there have a similar buying experience?