The critical thinking process differentiates leaders
Leaders MUST face multiple demands daily that require extensive amounts of information before making a decision. Typically, multiple departments are involved in efforts and each department is contributing its own input increasing the complexity of trying to get to an answer. The importance of stopping and thinking critically before members rush off and undertake all these comprehensive efforts is very high. The critical thinking process is what's going to differentiate leaders and the solutions developed versus rushing off without any thought at all.
When members start critical thinking, leaders should encourage them to ask the question behind the question. So many times, when we're asked to look into an issue, we start solving it without really thinking through what's causing this question in the first place. Leaders challenge processes to understand why the team is being asked to look at something. Once leaders have that understanding, they ask why again getting a deep understanding of what's causing concern on the stakeholder's part. By understanding the real question leaders can avoid solving symptoms, and instead come up with a recommendation that is going to resonate with members and be something that they're excited about. The real layered questioning technique opens up new answers, new ideas, and new opportunities. When you get a better understanding of that, you'll find the solutions you come up with are going to be bigger, better, and more exciting. Examine past efforts in defining the problem by asking:
- has this problem been considered in the past?
- What did we learn?
- What's different now versus the last time we looked at it?
- Were there challenges or issues last time this was addressed that we need to think about as we try to solve it this time around?
- What are the ongoing assumptions that are limiting our thinking?
