Consider critical thinking skills to articulate your work quality

“Work Quality” is one of the Clerical and Technical Performance dimensions and is defined as “demonstrating accuracy, thoroughness and attention to detail in a timely manner.” Since C&T performance reviews are just around the corner, have you thought about how you will articulate your work quality on your self-assessment?

When you reflect on elements that lead to good quality work, you generally think about how you meet deadlines or how you submit assignments and emails free from spelling or grammatical errors. But, have you thought about critical thinking as an element of quality work? Critical thinking is “the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.” Some characteristics of critical thinking are:​

• Problem Solving​
  This is the process of finding solutions to difficult or complex issues.
• Analyzing and evaluating key information clearly and precisely
  Extrapolate meaning from data and draw conclusions or inferences.
• Reflecting
  Or Critical Reflection is a process of identifying, questioning, and assessing information that supports our conclusions (or strongly held beliefs) to be sure they hold true.

Another characteristic of critical thinking is asking questions. Asking questions helps you gather information to complete a task. For example, when planning complex meetings, you might raise questions such as:

• Does this meeting occur once or is it a series of meetings?
  Knowing this will help you identify a time that all parties can attend the whole series of meetings.
• Is there a cadence to these meetings?
  This allows you to book any prep meetings your supervisor may need prior to attending the larger meeting.
• Are there “required” attendees included in the meeting?  Has everyone accepted?
  Paying attention to declines can determine if you need to reschedule a meeting.

Knowing the details and using critical thinking when planning a meeting allows you to be more efficient and thorough and demonstrates your attention to detail. When you demonstrate thoroughness and attention to detail, you are demonstrating quality work.

Consider taking the following steps to improve your work quality and critical thinking skills

• Rather than oversimplifying by answering “yes” or “no“ in an email, ask yourself
  —Why might they be asking this question?
  —What other questions might they have that I can answer as well?
  —What other information can I share that might be useful?  
• Manage interruptions to help you deliver quality work. Consider the following to help minimize interruptions and help you focus on assignments.
  —Create a list of daily interruptions then rank them in order of frequency to analyze.
  —Create a plan to address common interruptions: Deactivate the notifications feature or activate the “do not disturb”; block out “focus time” or “project time” on your calendar; move to a more private location; communicate to colleagues that you are unavailable for a block of time to focus on a task. [Be sure to let them know when you will be available again and provide a contact just in case].
• Enroll in a class:
  —“Model Office for Complex Schedules” and “Model Office for Scheduling Events” are two new classes that focus on critical thinking skills and will be offered as part of C&T Training and Development program this summer. Be sure to enroll when registrations open in June!

Coming up on your first anniversary at Yale? Find helpful links and a video to help you prepare for your first Performance Review.