Critical Thinking Tools for Auditors

Critical Thinking Tools

Successful problem-solving requires critical thinking. The abilities to reason logically, analyze, and make sound judgments are attributes auditors are expected to regularly demonstrate. Auditors also need to organize, evaluate, and prioritize ideas. The critical thinking process requires auditors to work with the ideas generated during the creative thinking process and make sense of them.

Organization of Ideas

Organizing ideas is accomplished by sorting and grouping similar ideas around chosen criteria. Suggested criteria for prioritizing ideas include:

• Timeliness
• Quality
• Practicality
• Economical / Cost
• Legality
• Ethicality
• Potential benefits
• Acceptability to the organization’s culture

Two techniques can assist in the organizing and grouping stage: the fishbone diagram and the spider-web diagram.

The Fishbone Diagram

This tool is useful when attempting to identify multiple causes of a problem. Each potential cause can be assigned a location on the fishbone skeleton to receive appropriate attention in determining its degree of impact on the problem. This technique also helps distinguish between root causes and symptoms.

The following is an example of this technique, as depicted by Robert A. Harris in Creative Problem Solving, A Step-by-Step Approach.

Problem: What is the cause of poor gas mileage?

Fishbone Diagram Approach

In exploring potential causes, you may identify several contributing factors such as tires, weight of the car, engine condition, and air resistance. Each of these contributing causes may have additional underlying causes of their own.

For example, when examining how tires affect gas mileage, you may find issues related to tire design or incorrect air pressure. Similarly, when exploring the weight of the car, contributing causes may include the vehicle’s base weight, additional items stored in the trunk, and the weight of extra passengers.

It is important to determine the real cause of the problem, sometimes there may be more than one, and identify which factors are secondary contributors. In some cases, what appears to be a cause may actually be a symptom. The fishbone diagram, as depicted below, helps organize and analyze these causes to distinguish real causes from secondary causes and symptoms.

The Spider-Web Diagram

This diagram is based on an octagon shape with the stated problem written in the center. Lines are drawn outward from the octagon, and the chosen criteria are recorded along these lines. This technique helps organize the ideas generated during brainstorming and provides the group with a visual representation of a large amount of information.

Evaluation and Ranking of Ideas

After organizing ideas into groups, the next step is to evaluate and rank those groups. The potential success of each group of ideas is considered, and the groups are prioritized accordingly.

Nominal Group Technique

The Nominal Group Technique provides teams with a structured method for narrowing down a list of ideas and reaching consensus on a more manageable number of priorities. It enables the integration of individual rankings into a team’s final prioritized set of ideas or solutions.

The step-by-step process for applying the Nominal Group Technique is as follows:

1. The team begins with a list of ideas or solutions written on a visible writing surface.
2. Team members clarify items and remove any duplicate ideas or solutions from the list.
3. The team leader records the final list and assigns a letter to each statement.
4. Team members individually rank each idea on a sheet of paper. For example, with five ideas, “1” represents the most important and “5” represents the least important.
5. The leader combines the rankings from all team members by writing each member’s number beneath each idea. These numbers are totaled to determine the combined ranking.
6. The team selects the idea or ideas with the highest ranking for further investigation.

Weighted Multivoting

In this technique, each team member rates, not ranks, the relative importance of listed ideas or solutions by distributing a set number of points across the choices. The total value can vary (commonly 10 or 100 points), and each person may distribute their points across as many or as few ideas as they wish.

For example, with 10 points to distribute, a team member may allocate all 10 to one solution or distribute 7 points to one idea and 3 to another.

The step-by-step process for applying the Weighted Multivoting Technique is as follows:

1. The team begins with a list of ideas or solutions written on a visible writing surface.
2. Team members clarify items and remove any duplicate ideas or solutions from the list.
3. The session leader records the final list and assigns a letter or number to each idea.
4. The leader (or the team) determines the number of points each team member will distribute.
5. Team members distribute their points to one or more ideas. It is often helpful for members to share the criteria they used when assigning their points.
6. The leader records the number of points each team member allotted to each idea.
7. The leader adds the points for each idea or solution to arrive at the final ranking.
8. The team selects the idea or ideas with the highest point totals for further investigation. </li