Leaders MUST ensure that critical thinking
Leaders MUST ensure that critical thinking is an intentional and reflective way of looking at circumstances in which discernment is an indispensable quality for any leader who desires to maximize effectiveness. It helps to do several important things:
- See the whole
- Know abnormal from normal
- Enhance problem-solving
- Evaluate options for maximum impact
Feld (2002) writes that: when initiatives focus on just the mechanics and techniques, the improvement is more about calculations and formulas than it is about improving members' capability. Anyone can read a book, run the analysis of numbers, calculate takt time, and establish a U-shaped layout, but doing so is not what will make a company differ from its competition. (p.5)
The first rule of holes: When you’re in one, stop digging
Critical thinking is a purposeful and organized mental process that is used to understand the whole organizational system or a specific process as a whole; meaning the full upstream, stream, downstream as well as feeder sources. Critical Thinking involves asking challenging questions beyond observing and recalling facts to come up with potential solutions and making informed decisions. Effective leaders think critically to create new ideas and turn information into a tool by applying what they have learned in previous situations to new situations. Leader behavior is to shape members focus and alignment, while building integrated cross-functional engagement on a daily basis, throughout the whole day. A typical critical thinking cycle looks as:
- Inform/describe – begin to clarify what you need to know, what you already know, and what information you have about the issue
- Discover/explore – look at the issue more closely. Start to be more directed and purposeful in seeking information
- Negotiate/cooperate – consider different perspectives. Engage in discussion with others
- Test/revise – weigh the evidence, test out different ideas and alternative
- Integrate/apply – bring together the various ideas and consider in order to consolidate and articulate the new understanding
