Newsletter - February 2008
Do You Manage by Leading or Lead by Managing? A Case for Critical Thinking - Part 2
February 14, 2008 - Dr. David C. Miles
As promised in the previous article, “ Do You Manage by Leading or Lead by Managing? A Case for Critical Thinking,” the focus of this follow up article is to provide you with an overview for understanding critical thinking. In addition, with a review of the bibliography (which appears at the end), you may be able to implement critical thinking into your own leadership style and approach.
Critical thinking doesn’t come easily. By nature we tend to operate on a routine. We fall back on prior successful processes that may not be suitable for today’s issues. We tend to believe the old ways of doing things will continue to generate positive results for tomorrow’s issues. What happens now in this fast-paced world is that old solutions do not always generate the positive results we had hoped for. New leadership techniques need to generate new thinking approaches.
What is entailed in becoming a critical thinking organization? This is the central question for all of us as we and our organizations face the future. First there are a few key principles that must lead our understanding of this subject:
1) This new model pits the theory of a versatilist versus the generalist versus the specialist against leadership theory. Clearly the critical thinker is a versatilist who integrates “versatilism” into leadership.
2) Complex or new situations will probably not fit old paradigm solutions. New and creative responses and approaches are and will continue to be demanded for future business issues that include scarcer resources and significantly shorter time periods.
3) An organization needs to integrate critical thinking at all levels until it becomes part of the culture and fabric of everyday life.
Key to becoming a critical thinking organization is believing that the people who are your associates/employees are part of the future solutions and not part of the problem. As Jim Collins puts it in his book From Good to Great, you must have the right people on the bus. Human resources is a key to establishing the foundation to creating an organization that can add value to critical thinking. Next is the manager or leader who must be willing to adopt the tools, process and trust in the team to integrate their collective thinking and contributions. Not only is it trust, but it includes giving them the freedom to operate and carry forth their functions in an open environment that measures a balance between process and results. This includes a clear understanding on everyone’s part of results, goals and objectives at all levels.
In addition to these two areas of human resources and your management/leadership skills is the area of fostering shared and creative operating styles. This is the biggest challenge for many since it entails an awareness of operating assumptions that can question why we do things and how these things are accomplished. Challenging every aspect of our operating paradigms can be overwhelming and is not always the best way to go. But at times it is the only way to succeed.
For example, that famous scene from the movie “Apollo 13” is a great example. With damage to the astronauts’ life support systems, the flight director put all flight support department leaders into a room with a box of “available resources” that the astronauts had in space and left one instruction to solve the problem with a conclusion statement that “Failure is not an option!” The members of this group did not have time to learn critical thinking that day. They operated that way on a daily basis, creating an environment of collaboration and shared values. From this, using critical thinking processes, they solved the problem with duct tape. The Apollo 13 crew returned safely.
The bottom line is that critical thinking is an all-encompassing way of evolving managing and leading. It impacts how your people interact and evolves the culture of the organization. It is about understanding the goals and outcomes and working within the boundaries of resources and organizational parameters.
As the world events in our global society create events that have no “textbook” solutions, the old models of leadership increasingly do not apply. The smallest companies as well as individuals need to be well practiced in critical thinking. The art and science of critical thinking is a compelling formula for the challenges of tomorrow.
Bibliography:
Thinking. Gary R. Kirby, Jeffery R. Goodpastor, 3rd Ed., 2002, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle Run, NJ 07458
Developing Critical Thinkers. Stephen D. Brookfield, 1987, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA 94103
Effective Problem Solving. Marvin Levine, 2nd Ed., 1994 Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle Run, NJ 07458
The World is Flat – A brief history of the 21st century. Thomas L. Friedman, 2005, Farrar, Straus, ad Giroux, New York, NY 10003
Executive Intelligence. Justin Menkes, 2005, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY 10022
Editor’s Note: Please email Dr. David C. Miles at dmiles@oipartners.net with any questions or for a complete copy of the Power Point presentation made to the 2007 Virginia State SHRM annual meeting. In addition, you will get a “self-test” on critical thinking to gauge your personal competence in this area. Please check your spam filter to avoid any non-receipt as this document is approximately 50 pages long.
Dr. David Miles is managing partner of OI Partners - Miles LeHane Companies (Leesburg, VA), a career management consulting firm specializing in HR consulting, executive coaching, career transition, and training and development. Previously, David had a broad 25-year career within the Saga/Marriott corporations. David received his Ed.D. degree in education and human development from The George Washington University in 2002. He can be contacted at 703-777-3370 or dmiles@oipartners.net.
