What exactly is “Critical Thinking Communication”? If you Google it, you will find a lot of articles about “Critical Thinking in Communication” or “Critical Thinking and Communication”. My intention behind this site is to shine attention on the skill itself of “Critical Thinking Communication” being a specific and purposeful craft…. dare I even say a “job title” or “job role”.

My professional background has been rooted in the services/agency/consultancy space for over 25+ years. I’ve been with 11 different organizations and have mostly lived in the “P” management realm across all companies. Product Marketing Manager, Project Manager, Program Manager, and Product Manager.

• As a Product Marketing Manager, it was my job to talk up and communicate the features and benefits of products to convince users to buy and adopt.
• As a Project Manager, it was my job to see a project from kickoff to delivery within a timeline and under a certain budget.
• As a Program Manager, I laid the foundation for how n number of projects would operate and hit business KPIs within an account portfolio supported by x headcount.
• As a Product Manager, I created roadmaps and worked with scrum teams to deliver digital experiences to deliver value to businesses while also improving end-customer relationships.

Through all of those roles, there was always a feeling of being a ‘misfit’. While I could accomplish the work and the tasks set before me as part of my job description – the specific outputs that each role required didn’t feel natural to me. Even though I was in project management for many many years, I still (to this day) struggle with following processes and filling out RACI charts (what’s the difference between ‘Responsible’ and ‘Accountable’ again?)

Don’t get me wrong though — I knew (and made sure my team knew) exactly who did what/when/why and I made sure all involved stakeholders were aware of risks and mitigating activities.

Turns out my underlying problem is in the “expectations of the shoulds“.

• Product and FAB sheets should be formatted into 3 specific sections…
• RACI charts should look like this
• RAID logs should look like that
• Workback schedules should state the following items…
• Staffing plans should show capacity v. allocation v. billable v. non-billable
• Product Managers should prepare, plan, define, refine, test, learn..etc

**imagine the shrill whistling of a tea kettle boiling here**

If you have ever worked with me on a project, most the stuff I created and used to manage probably didn’t look or read like “the shoulds” that you could Google templates against. Even though I might not have followed a template, I can say that my version was just as effective in communicating the needful.

… and therein lies the difference for me.

All the “P”-management roles I listed above are well-known, well-documented, and well-taught in the digital industry. These roles come with ALL the SHOULDS. So where is Critical Thinking Communication as a role different? The focus for Critical Thinking Communication is not in the creation or management of specific outputs or deliverables, but in delivering intangibles: Context, Clarity, and Consensus.

Let me explain…

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The latest AI Overview from Google as of Jan 21, 2025 states:

Critical thinking communication is the process of using critical thinking skills to communicate information clearly and concisely. It can help people understand situations, make decisions, and navigate challenges. [1, 2, 3]

Critical thinking [2, 4, 5, 6]

• A disciplined process of analyzing, evaluating, and applying information
• Involves drawing conclusions based on limited information
• Can help people connect and organize ideas
• Can help people resolve differences in approach and mindset

Communication [1, 7]

• Involves conveying clear and concise messages
• Can help people understand situations, make decisions, and navigate challenges
• Can help people build trust and maintain relationships

Critical thinking communication [1]

• Involves using critical thinking skills to communicate information clearly and concisely

Steps for critical thinking [3]

1. Identify the problem
2. Gather information
3. Make predictions
4. Make decisions
5. Implement the decision, evaluate performance, and learn

Generative AI is experimental.

[1] https://www.crises-control.com/blogs/critical-communication-for-organisations/

[2] https://louisville.edu/ideastoaction/about/criticalthinking/what

[3] https://guides.franklin.edu/thinking/5-step

[4] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-critical-thinking-makes-us-better-collaborators-sorrel-harriet-bbghe

[5] https://runway.airforce.gov.au/resources/link-article/5-critical-thinking-skills-use-work-and-how-improve-them

[6] https://www.margotnote.com/blog/2020/06/01/critical-thinking

[7] https://shccares.com/blog/nursing-resources/a-nurses-guide-to-effective-communication-skills/

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Since there is no specific literature on this role/discipline yet, I’m going to run with the Google experimental AI definition for now since it’s the foundation of what makes me love this craft so much: Knowledge > Artifacts

You do what is needed to successfully exchange knowledge and information so that individual members of teams can be at peak productivity throughout the engagement.

This role sits at the intersection of information exchange between people. Any people. Whether it’s business and design, design and development, development and QA—none of the work we do is ever in silos—there are always other people involved somewhere along the way.

My favorite phrase I’ve heard so far is: “People are buggy” (software joke). People think, act, and talk differently on any given day, so the methods needed to ensure successful communication across disciplines, engagement phase, personalities, life, is not easy to define in a playbook or checklist.

As a Critical Thinking Communicator, these are key character qualities for individuals who typically thrive for this type of communication style:
1) Show courage– a person has the willingness ask “dumb questions” to ensure that people are actually saying the same thing
2) Possess thick skin — a person has the willingness to suggest the “just crazy/stupid enough” ideas to be a catalyst for ideas but also be able to brush off the scowls, rebuttals or dismissals that can come with it
3) Lean towards visuals over words — a person that can absorb inputs that come in various forms (written text, spoken word, images/videos) and then depict it into a visual artifact that others can understand
4) Demonstrate grit and adaptability — a person that can pivot and can work with any level of ambiguity
5) Take extreme ownership — when there is a specific task that needs to get done and there is no clear owner, this person will proactively grab it and run it all the way to the finish line

Those that possess the above attributes excel in situations where Context, Clarity, and Consensus are the priority outcomes.

Context — Why are we doing this. What purpose does it serve in the greater ecosystem of things?

Clarity — What are we doing to achieve our ‘why’? What is my role in this?

Consensus— do we agree on the what, why, and how we are going to get there?

Critical Thinking Communication is about ensuring all Cs are articulated throughout the initiative per the needs of the moment. As work progresses, the definitions of the Cs evolve too which require someone to run ahead and ensure seamless handshakes from one person to another continue to happen.

It is not about creating deliverables defined in a job description – it is about reiterating focus, connecting dots, calling out & clearing up misunderstandings, clarifying scope, removing barriers, leveraging people’s strengths and weaknesses, understanding different lanes, pushing (but also respecting) boundaries, reading minds/body language, setting expectations, aligning nomenclature, establishing loose but visible guardrails, mediating conflict, and recognizing layers and sequences in all things.

But to sum it up — it is about creating a space where all involved work as one team, to keep moving forward towards a common purpose.