My premise is that there isn’t enough critical thinking. I’m here to promote more critical thinking.
There are many enemies of critical thinking. One enemy of critical thinking is political correctness. The worst place for this is on college campuses, where critical thinking should be the order of the day. Instead, political correctness results in conformed thought.
Another enemy is the velocity of our lives. Most of us are so busy and moving so fast that we don’t have time to stop and think about what we’re doing. How many small business owners take time to slow down, reflect and really think critically? I think we all know the answer is not many.
Still another enemy is constant positivism. These people hope that by staying positive good things will happen to them. “Fake it ‘til you make it!”
I’m not talking about pessimism here. This isn’t about always being negative. What I’m talking about is someone who is objective, thinks for themselves and uses reason and evidence to form their opinions. And better yet, to change their opinions. They approach a topic with skepticism, an open mind and balance.
Recently, a friend recommended a business book to me saying “It’s a great book.” Based on this, I bought a copy on Amazon and read it. The book is pleasant. It gives the reader a brief warm feeling. But it is superficial, lacking in substance and without any profound insights. Worst of all, it is not thought provoking. The book is not great.
My favorite way of describing critical thinking is “Reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do.” Would this be a valuable skill for those of us in business? Oh yeah.
Wikipedia describes the process of critical thinking using these steps:
- Raise important questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely.
- Gather and assess relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it.
- Come to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards.
- Think open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought.
- Communicate with others in figuring out solutions to problems without being unduly influenced by others’ thinking on the topic.
What if business leaders made their decisions this way? What if politicians did? What if you did?
Let’s consider some business examples of where critical thinking might (or might not) have been used.
Example 1: Stock Ticker
Starbucks has their stock price streaming across the top of everyone’s monitors in the corporate office. Why? Does it change anyone’s behavior? Is it just a distraction? Does anyone care? Someone must have cared enough to make it happen. Does anyone question it now?
Example 2: Dashboards
Do you use dashboards in your office? They seem to be all the fashion. And therein lies the danger, I think. Does a business have dashboards because they are useful or because everyone is doing them? Or because a consultant told them they needed a dashboard? (And was happy to sell them one.) What information is presented? What in that information would change your behavior or anyone else’s behavior? How much time do people spend reading the dashboards? Are they useful or a distraction? Did the inventor of the smart phone do it while watching a dashboard?
Example 3: Team Building
How many companies spend time and money doing “team building?” Things like sensitivity training, a ropes course, personality profiling and the like. This is all well-intentioned, of course. But is it effective? Is it cost effective? And does anybody ever ask?
Example 4: Continuing Education
Virtually every profession has a continuing education requirement. My CPA license requires 40 hours of continuing education each year. Does continuing education provide some benefit? Probably. Is continuing education cost effective? That is, does it provide more benefit than it costs? I would submit that it is not cost effective and that it is a huge waste of time and money. And still no one questions its requirement.
If you strive to and become a terrific critical thinker, how will you use this skill in your business and your life? How do we get better at critical thinking? Practice. Think about it.
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