The Critical Business Application of Critical Thinking
The concept of critical thinking does not always get the attention it deserves, especially in active business assessment and development, and a recent article about the Secret Service magnified this thought for me.
In Stefania Palma’s Financial Times article titled “US Secret Service needs new leadership after attempt on Donald Trump’s life, review finds,” she referenced the 52-page Secret Service report on the attempted assassination, which said that a “troubling lack of critical thinking,” as well as a lack of “cohesion” with others in the law enforcement community was the cause. As you can gather from the article’s title, there is a lot riding on the ability to think critically, and not just for the Secret Service.
This immediately caught my eye and gave me pause as I think about the pivotal moments and decisions business leaders make day after day. As we problem-solve issues, we easily delve into surface considerations regarding timing or team members, but do we sincerely develop and encourage deep critical thinking for ourselves and our companies? And more importantly, do we teach the value of thinking critically to our teams? Critical thinking is about knowing the most effective questions to ask. It sounds simple enough, but developing better questions requires sitting still, digging deeper, and using our imaginations in a mature and beneficial fashion.
When we go about looking at issues to deconstruct, we tend to use our own biases and prejudices to quickly sum up situations – and to size up the people who have created these situations. We also lean heavily on instinct, which, as a rule, is sensible, but when relied upon too frequently – without giving ourselves time to objectively think through situations – instinct alone can lead to too many surface decisions. Sometimes, in the heat of battle, we must make certain decisions quickly, and in business, it is essential to take more time to thoughtfully consider exactly how we process higher-level or consistent challenges, as they oftentimes can impact culture.
The Foundation for Critical Thinking, a non-profit organization, (who knew?!) conceptualizes critical thinking as “…self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way.” The concept itself is very deep indeed, which is wonderful, and for our specific needs as business leaders, critical thinking is essential to ensure we are giving decisions their proper analysis.
There are a few general exercises to use to increase our critical thinking muscles, but one of the simplest and easiest is to just…read. Read all types of content, from many different points of interest and views. Read fiction. Read non-fiction. Read history. Read as many global newspapers as you can find. As you read, consider what you are reading, how you would solve the problem(s) facing the main characters, and why. Consider the situations found in the subjects and find parallels to your own challenges. A powerful question to ask as you are reading and considering both your challenges and the challenges in the stories is, “If they could do anything, what would they do?” Meaning, if the main character had every resource at their disposal, how would they solve the problem? Granted, some fiction is designed to take us down long roads to create drama, but you can still use this exercise to strengthen your critical thinking. Reading as a whole gives our brain great exercise, and sometimes reading something we aren’t accustomed to can be even more beneficial. Plus, reading increases our vocabulary, which is always a positive outcome.
As with all things worthy of our consideration, committing to a post-mortem provides great opportunity for constant improvement. Keeping a simple record of dilemmas we face, the decisions we made to correct them, and what the ultimate outcome was (successful or not) will give us a score to assess our critical thinking. Once scored, deconstructing the successes and failures can lead to a more insightful approach to overcoming obstacles, and grabbing the success that becomes rightly ours. It also becomes a road map to see just how brilliant your new problem-solving skills have become, and allows you to celebrate with your team their new superpowers of critical thinking.
