Military Review English Edition November-December 2015 | Page 123

Op e rat i

S e tt ings
Institutional Agility
Organizational climate that values
critical thinking and innovation
Multidimensional assessment
program (evidence-based
resourcing decisions)

Individuals and
teams with effective
critical thinking skills

Realistic Training
Realistic operational scenarios
Customized learning
Participants required to
reevaluate assumptions and
reframe
Faculty and cadre who model
critical thinking

i ngs

Talent Optimization
Person-organization fit
Person-job fit
Standards and
qualifications that
promote trust

on
S e tt

Ins t i t u

l
na

al

ti o

CRITICAL THINKING

Verbal reasoning
Argument analysis
Thinking as hypothesis
testing

Operational scenarios and challenges
Individual and team performance feedback
Feedback loops

Figure 3. An Integrated Training Model for Increasing Critical Thinking Skills
teaching assignments have effective critical thinking
skills and can model them for their students.
Building upon the talent management program,
the organization needs to develop a climate that
values critical thinking and innovation. The critical
thinking skills, coupled with a multidimensional
organizational assessment program, enable members and leaders in the organization to detect when
change is needed. The innovative mindset enables
the organization to develop and implement creative
ideas. The climate of critical thinking and innovation, together with the organizational assessment
processes, generates institutional agility.
Institutional agility is important to the organization’s ability to develop and continuously refine realistic training. Deployed soldiers and leaders are continually required to wrestle with complex situations
and make decisions in ambiguous conditions. Training
situations must require them to do the same.
Too often, especially in classroom settings, Army
training and education sessions are built upon complex scenarios but require students only to develop
and brief a plan. To prepare soldiers, civilians, and
leaders to thrive in ambiguity, the training must
MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2015

continue past planning and into execution. The
training must require the students to avoid confirmation bias and remain open to new and contradictory
information, to objectively assess the unfolding events,
and to reevaluate their assumptions, inferences, and
conclusions. Otherwise students likely will graduate
with the erroneous notion that success in complex
environments is the result of a perfect plan.

Conclusion
Although presented sequentially, the five keys to
teaching critical thinking skills are interdependent.
Together, they form an integrative model that illustrates a way to integrate the strategic objectives, lines
of effort, and key tasks of the Army’s human dimension strategy. The specific critical thinking skills
required by individuals and teams in other organizations could be, and probably will be, different from
those required by the Human Terrain System’s
sociocultural research teams. However, because this
model is not restricted to specific jobs or tasks, it is
relevant to any units. Successful implementation
would depend on integrating the talent management,
assessment, and training processes.
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