Effective Application of Critical Thinking as a Leader - Essay Example

Effective Application of Critical Thinking as a Leader Effective Application of Critical Thinking as a Leader Criticalthinking is essentially the process of analyzing and evaluating thinking in order to improve it. Success in critical thinking demands that leaders make reasoned decisions and adopt holistic perspectives. It also involves solving problems, deducing and inferring judgments, and being open to new approaches. Critical thinking is also the art of actively and technically conceptualizing, implementing, analyzing, processing and/or evaluating information generated through experience, reasoning, observation or communication. In simple terms, critical thinking is something individuals and organizations want and need to do well. Without critical thinking, chances of success as a leader are minimal. In this paper COBOL Systems, a fictitious IT company which deals in software and hardware, will be used as a reference point. The paper will focus on the critical thinking problems plaguing COBOL and how they can be solved. Key words: critical thinking, leaders, management, and organizations. Introduction of the Organization and a Discussion of the Organizational Culture COBOL Systems manufactures and distributes computer software and hardware. It deals with several high-profile companies in the United States, taking care of their IT needs and offering technical support. The company was formed in 2002 by two young IT graduates with ambitious ideas on how to approach the IT segment. COBOL has since grown to become one of the largest IT firms in the United States. Revenues have grown and new branches have been opened to cater to serve their expanding clientele. It is not all good news however. The last 2 years have seen the company lose out on major deals to rivals, suffer a decline in market share, and launch underwhelming products. In January the board hired an auditing and consulting firm to help it determine what the problem was. There was a problem, that much was clear, but what was it? COBOL has a hierarchy-oriented culture. This means the company is structured, controlled, and leans heavily towards stability, efficiency and doing things right. This is not surprising considering COBOL is run by young, dynamic and highly-educated people who know what to do and how to get it done fast. However, this culture is unbalanced and lacks a quality desirable in all successful firms. Efficiency is not effectiveness, and quick execution does not mean excellent execution. The company lacks critical thinkers who can combine dynamism and efficiency with analytical sharpness to harness its potential. For instance, COBOL recently launched new risk management software that increased efficiency by 20 percent. However, the presentation and marketing of this software was so poor that it underperformed and ended up costing the company financially. The truth is that COBOL executives are technocrats, not managers. Managers possess the critical thinking skills to notice that an excellent product will still not sell itself. In retrospect, a critical thinker would have studied the market, identified strengths and weaknesses, and used them to sell the software. COBOL has poor implementation and decision-making skills, which are part of the critical thinking school. The company is often slow to react and poor to implement, while decision-making is inconsistent and gets delegated to an overwhelmed minority. Current Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Practices Critical thinking is a habit, not a natural talent that can be exploited by anybody. Current critical thinking practices focus on refining critical thinking skills so that individuals can become master thinkers. Refining critical thinking is only possible if individuals are willing to develop certain traits that form the core of critical thinking best practice. These traits are problem identification, awareness, willingness to improve, and pragmatism (Gerth, 2013). Organizations look for these traits in employees and then train them on how to become critical thinkers. The objective is to present raw trainees with challenges that demand the application of these attributes. When added to individual experience, such challenges compel employees to think critically. In school, for example, learners must be aware of the process and environment of learning, apply whatever is taught, question, study independently, and communicate. Learners with critical thinking skills possess an amalgamation of these qualities. Current problem-solving practices are quite similar to the ones found in critical thinking. For instance, employees are trained on problem recognition, analysis and understanding, management, and willingness to learn. For instance, a company that is suffering financially hires consultants to determine the problem and address it. The consultants will first explore what the problem is until they single it out. They will ask and probe until they are sure they are staring right at the problem (Ayad, 2010). They will then analyze and understand the problem to determine its genesis, its evolution, and what could have been done. This will be followed by development of permanent solutions to this problem so that it can be adequately addressed even in the future. Finally, best practice requires problem solvers to learn from their experiences. Solving problems without taking any lessons from them simply postpones the problem until a later date. For instance, a plumber who fixes a leaking pipe more multiple times in a month probably has not learned anything from the problem. Problems are dynamic and therefore employees must change with them (Kay, 2013). Learning from experience allows employees to develop new approaches to problem-solving and not sticking to the same script each time. A manager who cuts wages each time the cost of doing business goes up, products perform poorly, or market share diminishes does not realize that this may be a solution to the firs problem only. This is a manager who does not learn from experience and modify his tactics (Alvesson, Bridgman & Willmott, 2009). Analysis of a Change Management Process that includes a Critical Thinking Model The consulting firm hired by COBOL determined that the company’s managers lacked strategy in their running of the company. They were efficient but lacked critical thinking skills required to achieve long-term success amid stiff competition. The managers needed to undergo a change in strategy that would equip them with critical thinking skills. Having recognized that a change management process was necessary, the consulting firm used McKinsey’s 7S change management model to train COBOL’s managers in critical thinking. The process was aimed at producing better, all-rounded managers who were not just technicians but thinkers. The 7Ss were applied to the company together with the APA Delphi model of critical thinking. Two weeks were spent training the managers on strategy, structure, systems, shared values, style, staff, and skills. They were taught how to apply the 7Ss to their company and tailor them to fit COBOL’s profile. This was followed by a two-week practical program in which the managers were presented with potential scenarios and asked to solve them using the 7Ss. After satisfactory results were achieved, the APA Delphi critical thinking model was introduced. In two weeks, this model was used to impart the managers with objective, self-regulatory decision skills which demanded interpretation, inference, evaluation, and analysis. The decision skills also required explanation of the procedural, methodological, evidential, contextual, and conceptual factors upon which they are based. Two more weeks were spent teaching COBOL managers topics on the scope of critical thinking in relation to other dispositions and skills; classification of the cognitive skills feature of critical thinking; classification of the dispositional nature of critical thinking; and recommendations about evaluation of critical thinking. Finally, two weeks were used to assess what the managers had learned by presenting them with situations to solve and then rating them. They also took written tests that were marked and revised to refine their knowledge and practice. The results were impressive. After ten weeks, the managers had not only developed critical thinking skills but also learned to apply them to real-life situations. In fact, most of them determined that the company had been performing poorly because they lacked critical thinking skills. Managers who performed poorly in the assessments were shipped out and capable ones hired to drive the company forward. The change management process was complete. Measurement Strategies and Accountability Measures Balance scorecards, the Deming Model, and the Baldridge model were used to measure performance after the completion of the change management process. The balance scorecard offered COBOL an opportunity to explain its vision and strategies and implement them. This offered feedback on internal business activities and external successes in order to continuously enhance business results and strategic performance. The balance scorecard supported performance evaluation and analysis by concentrating on the presentation of results. Result areas were identified as staff (internal results), clients (external results), managers (feedback on improved processes), shareholders and financiers (financial figures), and feedback on learning and innovation. Results in each area were observed as a mixture of performance indicators, standards, and objectives. The managers were expected to view COBOL from four perspectives: customer, learning and growth, business process, and financial. The Deming model was used to identify and fix causes of product variation so as to improve product quality permanently. All business processes were treated as part of a result system with chains. The results were then examined to figure out challenges to critical thinking. The Baldridge model was used to identify sales revenues, financial and market results, organizational effectiveness results, client-based results, social responsibility and organizational results, and the evaluation feedback of human resources as the vital benchmarks for performance measurement. The model was used to analyze and understand results from these areas and their relation to critical thinking and the change management process. Service statistics were used to measure accountability at COBOL following the change management process. These statistics included the number of staff, numbers of customers served, and hours of service rendered. Service statistics symbolize resources that warrant as much attention as organizational funds (Rollins, 2010). The two resources closely related because many firms base their expenditure on membership and other relevant service statistics as applies to them. Service statistics were vital indices of how well COBOL was realizing its mission or how well it was satisfying a community need. Clear auditing techniques that represent the terms defined were developed, and a committee was created to occasionally check staff documentation and other service statistics. Finally, special client group and membership examinations were conducted whenever there was a managerial change. This helped to create the foundation upon which future growth would be gauged. Timeline January 1st –January 14th Training on strategy, structure, systems, shared values, style, staff, and skills. January 16th – January 29th Problem solution using the 7Ss February 2nd – February 15th Teaching of objective, self-regulatory decision skills which demanded interpretation, inference, evaluation, and analysis. February 17th – March 1st Teaching COBOL managers topics on the scope of critical thinking in relation to other dispositions and skills; classification of the cognitive skills feature of critical thinking; classification of the dispositional nature of critical thinking; and recommendations about evaluation of critical thinking March 2nd – March 15th Written and practical assessment of knowledge of theory and practice of critical thinking. Conclusion Good critical thinking skills often result in increased profitability and efficiency for organizations, but organizations do not reach there by chance (Alvesson, Bridgman & Willmott, 2009). As seen from the COBOL case, organizations with sound critical thinkers have the right staff, leverage experience, provide good training and/or learning opportunities, and the right environment where required disposition can be nurtured and promoted. Creating these dispositions and fostering the skills will help COBOL take critical thinking to the next level. While critical thinking attributes like disposition are more natural and not easily taught, a series of process steps and baselines are more skill-oriented and readily improve training (Rollins, 2010). These particular features are the building blocks for effective critical thinking, and should be constantly developed and improved. They include clarity, relevance, accuracy, precision, depth, breadth, logic, significance, and fairness. There is no substitute for experience in the domain of critical thinking. For instance, the managers at COBOL struggled to fully understand and appreciate the dynamics, subtleties and impacts of situations that they had not experienced first-hand. References Alvesson, M., Bridgman, T., & Willmott, H. (2009). The Oxford handbook of critical management studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ayad, A. (2010). Critical thinking and business process improvement. Journal of Management Development, 29(6), 556-564. Gerth, C. (2013). Business process models: change management. Berlin: Springer. Kay, J. (2013). Management - Change is in the air. Nursing Management, 20(8), 13-13. Rollins, B. V. (2010). Critical thinking. San Diego, California: Classroom Complete Press. Read More