Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between opportunities and options. Critical thinking is also known as the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. In essence, critical thinking requires a person to use your ability to reason. It is about being an active learner rather than a passive recipient of information. Critical thinkers rigorously question ideas and assumptions rather than accepting them at face value. Critical thinkers seek to determine whether conditions, ideas or findings represent the entire picture and are open to discover other opportunities. Critical thinkers identify, analyse, and solve problems systematically rather than by intuition or instinct. Critical thinking is thinking about things in certain ways as to arrive at the best possible solution in the current circumstances. In other words, it is a way of thinking about whatever is presently occupying a mind so that a person comes to the best possible conclusion.

Critical Thinking is a way of thinking about particular things at a specific time and is not the accumulation of facts and knowledge but is about the mindset discovering options in a 3D environment. A 3D environment is a mindset analysing opportunities in time (speed), space (location), and compass (direction). 

Someone with critical thinking understands links between options, determine the importance and relevance of options, and recognize, build, and analyse the different avenues available. A person with critical thinking skills identifies inconsistencies and errors in reasoning, approach problems in a consistent and systematic way, and reflect on the justification of their own assumptions, beliefs, and values.

The skills a person needs for critical thinking are varied and include observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation, inference, explanation, problem solving, and decision making. Specific skills are to be able to think about a topic or issue in an objective and critical way, identify the different options there are in relation to a particular issue, evaluate a point of view to determine how strong or valid it is, recognize any weaknesses or negative points that there are in the evidence or argument, notice what implications there might be behind a statement, and provide structured reasoning and support for options available. 

Characteristics of critical thinking are open-mindedness, respecting evidence, respecting reasoning, being able to consider different perspectives and points of view and having cognitive flexibility, not being stuck in one position, develop skepticism, and having clarity and precision.

Decision making skills are required for critical thinking, and there is a fine line between a decision-making process and a critical thinking process, and critical thinking is therefore different from decision-making. Decision making is the process of making choices by identifying a decision, gathering information, and assessing alternative resolutions. Using a step-by-step decision-making process can help a person to make more deliberate, thoughtful decisions by organizing relevant information and defining alternatives. This approach increases the chances to choose the most satisfying, or appropriate alternative possible. Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating data generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to an action.

There are seven steps to both a decision-making process and a critical thinking processes. 

STEP	DECISION-MAKING PROCESS		CRITICAL THINKING PROCESS
1	Identify the decision		Identify the problem
		Resolution reached after consideration		An obstacle to overcome
2	Gather relevant information		Research
		Accumulate information from someone else’s research or opinions		Systematic study of materials and sources and come to a self-determined conclusion from personal observations and analyses
3	Identify the alternatives		Determine data relevance
		One of two or more available options		Data has a close connection with the problem
4	Weigh the evidence		Ask questions
		Determine the impact of data analysed		Openminded to unexplored options
5	Choose among alternatives		Identify the best solution
		Select an option that is expected to generate an acceptable outcome based on a risk analysis		Identify one action to solve the problem without assessing the risk of having the problem solved
6	Take action		Present your solution
		Initiate tasks to achieve the goal		Share solution with other project managers and stakeholders
7	Review the decision and its consequences		Analyse what impact the solution had on the original problem
		Evaluate and followup whether this decision resolved the original issue identified		Study and research what other processes were affected by the solution to learn, discover, or understand more about the problem
	DIFFERENCES
	Long term		Short term
	Organization		Individual
	Team		Independent
	Consensus by team members		One solution one presenter

Without a non-punitive policy, critical thinking is incompatible with aviation safety, airline and airport operations, and the safety management system (SMS). One reason that it is incompatible is that a certificate holder is required to appoint an individual as accountable executive (AE) to be responsible for operations and accountable on behalf of the certificate holder for meeting the requirements of the regulations. Interpreting regulations does not allow for independent, or critical thinking, but requires the accountable executive to follow a pre-established compliance path. However, a functional SMS must accept resilience and independent actions, and every person within an SMS organization are authorized by the non-punitive policy to apply their critical thinking skills and action accordingly. There is a difference between regulatory compliance and conforming to regulatory requirements. Regulatory compliance, which is only available in a static environment, and there is a regulatory compliance gap at the first movement of an aircraft or airport operation. E.g., an airport receives an airport certificate prior to accepting their first scheduled flight, and an airline receives their operating certificate prior to launching their first flight. Regulatory compliance is about technical, and tasks performed compliance, while conforming to regulatory requirement is about work processes and how the work is done. 

An easy trap to fall into for an inexperienced AE is to apply regulatory requirement compliance to work practices. When applying regulatory compliance to operations, 100% of all personnel must comply with standard operating procedures 100% of the times, and to a level of 100% satisfaction. If one item is unsatisfactory, it is impossible to go back in time since there is motion in operations, and the person, pilot, or airside worker, failed. A failed person, causing regulatory non-compliance, cannot continue their operational tasks for the same reason that they are not able to go back in time and fix their mistake. They are still able to redo their task, but it is already too late since the non-regulatory compliance already has occurred. When applying the principle for processes to conform to regulatory requirements, e.g. performance-based regulations, then it becomes practical and work related to maintain a healthy operation conforming to regulatory compliance.

Critical thinking is incompatible with a regulatory requirement for airlines and airports to operate with a process for setting goals for the improvement of aviation safety and for measuring the attainment of those goals unless an SMS enterprise operate with a non-punitive policy. Determining goals that improve aviation safety are subjective goals, and goals that fit inside the box. Critical thinking becomes the outsider an unacceptable within an SMS system, which is about consensus. The non-punitive policy itself must be without biased to allow for critical thinking to flow freely.

Critical thinking is incompatible with a regulatory requirement to operate with procedures for involving employees in the implementation and ongoing development of the safety management system. At first sight this sounds like a great idea, and helpful to a healthy safety management system. Procedures are one-fit-all and established by management. Pilots or airside workers do not have the authority to establish their own preferred procedure. Procedures are ridged and all workers are required to follow establish procedures when conducting their work-related tasks. Critical thinking becomes an asset to operation when procedures allow for resilience, and independent evaluations when a task departs from the normal path. For critical thinking to be accepted, and SMS enterprise must operate with, and apply without hesitation, a non-punitive policy.  

Critical thinking is incompatible with a regulatory requirement to operate with a system to monitor the concerns of the civil aviation industry in respect of safety and their perceived effect on the holder of the certificate. This regulatory requirement requires an interpretation of what the aviation industry perceive, and open for a wide range of interpretations. An airline may interpret an airport to be dangerous, or unsafe since they operate differently than other airports without evidence of fact. Perception is an exceptional evaluation tool, but it is necessary to know that perception is biased and filled with a ton of assumptions. This regulatory requirement is incompatible with critical thinking, since an airport must adapt to a customer's need to stay in business, which might not always be a path to safety in operations. An example is when the airport operator chose to operate with an oscillating runway to satisfy one customer’s need to operate without being interrupted by airport construction.   

Critical thinking is an essential part of a healthy SMS, but the AE must accept the non-punitive policy and that actions taken, whether it is a perfectly performed checklist, complete procedure compliance, decisions by a committee after long discussions, or by critical thinking do not always produce the expected outcome. 
  

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