Analytical thinking is a very valuable asset, it is easily transferred and applied across many spectra of our lives. Developing and improving this type of thinking can help you be a better communicator and creator, as well as allow us to solve problems more efficiently. Having analytical thinking skills is a prominent feature when looking for a job. Like our social life, our business life also requires critical and problem-oriented thinking.
The analytical thinking process
The Analytical Thinking Skills (PAH) comprise the process of going to the parts of a whole (person, object, event or situation) and the relationships between them. This level presupposes the prior development of basic skills, since these provide the individual with the necessary experience to understand in a general way any situation or topic. These basic skills are often characterized by a certain imprecision and vagueness, while analytics seek order, coherence and precision among other things. Analytical thinking processes information in a logical and step-by-step way to find a solution to a problem.
Analytical thinking skills are essential for the intellectual development of any student and professional in every sector, since they make you reflect and understand both academics and what surrounds you in a better way. Putting them into practice will give you great advantages. If you manage to develop them, they will be useful to carry out research work and it will be less complicated for you to solve exams, since you will have the ability to understand if the research is correct. In addition, you will be able to create your own ideas and hypotheses, give solid arguments and, finally, create new and better approaches and solutions to work problems in daily life.
Why do employers value analytical skills?
Companies use assessments to understand a person’s natural talents in these areas of analytical thinking. Additionally, they look for employees with the ability to investigate a problem and find a solution in a timely and efficient manner.
Analytical thinking is key to boost your professional career, as it is related to other skills such as teamwork and decision-making. This allows you to have a different vision of a certain situation, as well as the development of strategies that you can apply in the work and personal environment, facilitating working with large amounts of data, synthesizing and evaluating them to make correct decisions based on the objectives of the company. organization. Together, they bring human and intellectual value to highly competitive companies.
One of the sectors that most evaluates and advocates the development of Analytical Thinking Skills is consulting, since, by its nature, this sector requires a high degree of analysis and synthesis to find solutions and issue recommendations. Companies like Bain, for example, ask for exams as part of their recruitment process, in which they will ask you to use your skills when solving unconventional problems and getting out of your comfort zone.
It is not easy to hone your analytical skills. However, there are several things you can do to improve them both passively and actively. One of these ways is through mathematical problems, as these are structured in such a way that they give you information and you must use it to solve them. The development of these skills is important to do with qualified people in order to acquire techniques that help you understand, interpret and develop them in order to provide human and intellectual value to highly competitive companies.
How can thinking skills be developed?
Doing exercises that exercise the mind. These include speed reading with the greatest understanding and retention of information and abstract reasoning. Another exercise that you can develop daily is to make a list of numbers, objects, names, etc., observe them in a limited time and try to remember as much as possible in the order given.
Beltrán (2015) considers that thinking has been considered as a synonym for solving problems that allow us to contact reality. Is known that thought is the skilful form of behavior and skills can be mimicked, teach, practice, learn and become habits.
When we are faced with a problem the first thing we have to do is interpret or define the problem , sometimes we omit it, other times we act on impulse to solve it, which usually leads us to wrong answers, the first thing that comes to mind is asking ourselves If we pose the problem in visual, mathematical terms or how we should interpret it, that is, what type of problem is it.
After interpreting it, we establish a strategy to solve it and solve the problem, which means looking for an appropriate behavior that can be emitted, since it has effective responses.
There are several techniques or strategies to solve problems, for example:
- The trial and error: we can find the answer to several attempts, we propose several times until you find the answer correct.
- Information retrieval: it requires long-term information, that is, you have to resort to memory to find the solution.
- Creative ideas, combining different responses, sometimes out of the ordinary.
So, if you want to develop and apply them in solving problems in everyday life, apply these strategies and you will be very agile taking care instead of worrying.