Critical Thinking, Underpinning of an Effective Business Strategy

By now you've all befitted from the experience and generosity of my Twitter #kaizenblog chat co-host Elli St. George Godfrey. If you don't follow her, make sure you add her handle to your stream @3keyscoach -- you can thank me later.

With Elli, we've been able to tackle more conversations from differing points of view -- I think about branding and behavior from a customer experience and contextual relationship building point of view, she works deeply with the entrepreneurial aspects of leadership.

Ever since we started brainstorming topics for our weekly chats both by email and phone, I've been able to think more crisply about iterative growth and momentum, which are critical components of strategy. The coach in Elli is a perfect counterbalance for my creative spark -- as I said the other day, I can go from zero to Italian in no time.

By having different views of issues and topics, we can teach and learn at the same time -- learning to communicate through these differences has been the most rewarding part of our collaboration. Thank you, Elli.

Differences are good

You heard me say it more than once, stay soft on people while you take a hard look at the issues. Intellectual challenges force us to move from our status quo mode to a more active stance. There is a third option between aligning with your beliefs, and stand ready to articulate why, and changing your mind: it's called maturity.

It's that ability to hold two opposing views in mind and weigh them on their merits, even as we recognize that we have formed an emotional attachment to one of them. This is what I call critical thinking and it's becoming a rare and precious gift, more necessary than social proofing.

Differences are good.

Dealing with others on their terms

You probably have an inkling that I think very deeply about issues. It comes from the introverted side of me. Many who spend a lot of time online become used to being in their own company and tend to develop a sort of tunnel vision on issues -- seeing what is in front of them and how they think about it.

However, I find that to become more productive and attractive as a business person, one needs to shift their thinking to building a context of awareness. Yes, that means you need to become more self-aware, too. Learning not to carry one's own issues as shields to block the other, for example.

This is the proverbial putting yourself in their shoes.

Developing an inquisitive mind

From Wikipedia: Critical thinking involves determining the meaning and significance of what is observed or expressed, or, concerning a given inference or argument, determining whether there is adequate justification to accept the conclusion as true.

This means the:

"skilled, active, interpretation and evaluation of observations, communications, information, and argumentation,"

or if you prefer it,

"the careful, deliberate determination of whether one should accept, reject, or suspend judgment about a claim and the degree of confidence with which one accepts or rejects it."

Are you taking the time to examine problems and raise important questions in business? Are you a critical thinker?

5 characteristics of a critical thinker

A journalist taught me about critical thinking and writing/editing. It's important to vet and uncover more than one side to a story. See if you or your business associates have one or more of these characteristics (adapted from the Wikipedia entry). Do you:

1. raise important questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;
2. gather and assess relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively
3. come to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;
4. think open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, your assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and
5. communicate effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems; without being unduly influenced by others' thinking on the topic.

These abilities are critical in business strategy -- and in life. I particularly like the concept of suspending judgment. 

***

Two trends that worry me about over reliance on technology and swimming in the same pool with a very small and "converted" group of people is that the only way to create a ripple or have an effect/stand out is either by feeding the insecurity monster and forgo respect and civility, or borrowing too readily the idea of another.

Our chat tomorrow is designed to invite you to embrace critical thinking as a vital part of effective business strategy. We would be honored if you made the time to participate and bring your point of view. See who else is there.

--> Bookmark #kaizenblog chat on Twitter, every Friday at 12pm ET. See who else is there and make sure you follow Elli @3keyscoach <---

© 2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Paul Foreman]

Hi Valeria

Thanks for using the "Qualities of Leonardo da Vinci" Mind Map in your post - I'm honoured :)

Best wishes

Paul Foreman
http://www.mindmapinspiration.com/

[norma hill]

Thanks for your five characteristics of a critical thinker. I'm posting the list above my computer! Great measuring tool before hitting the "post" button on my blog.

[Elli St.George Godfrey]

Valeria,

Thank you so much for your kind words. We do make a great team!

Critical thinking is such an important tool to all aspects of life. It helps one stay fresh and not unconsciously buy into conventional thinking. For business, it feeds innovation, recognition of opportunity, how to practically apply one's values, develop tactics and strategies as well as how one's business fits in the world

[Diego]

" I can go from zero to Italian in no time." ah ah I love that Valeria!!
Great post! : )

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Paul - you're very welcome. I just cannot resist Leonardo da Vinci, he was a change agent.

@Norma - great idea! We do want diversity of thought in blogs -- it enriches us all.

@Elli - I continue to enjoy working with you. Do you find that it's hard to think critically in large and small companies for different reasons? In large companies, those who conform faster move up at that speed. In smaller companies, there's a continuous need to establish credibility and somehow that ends showing up as looking and sounding just like everyone else... looking forward to the conversation tomorrow.

@Diego - thought you'd like that ;)

[Anna Barcelos @abarcelos]

I am often challenged with 3 and 4 only because I'm passionate about what I believe in. Thanks for the 5 pointers. They are a valuable reference!

[Peter]

Late as always,

Thought I'd share something I wrote on this topic yesterday ( by spooky accident):

"It is difficult to imagine a world in which we could not hear or see all at once. A world in which notes or things could only be heard or seen one at a time. It would be impossible to navigate a place in which all things appeared in isolation of each other.

How then is it that we do not think all at once?"

For me, critical thinking is a process by which concepts and ideas are brought together through conversation into a single view in which patterns, relationships and things that don't fit can be imagined.

To go back to Aristotle (again) the "Soul never thinks without a picture".

The thing about the web ( and the google ontology) is that we no longer feel the need to think all at once, comfortable searching around for one result at a time. Our faith placed entirely in algorithms to make those connections, see those relationships and tell us what doesn't fit.

But the clues by which google arranges all the objects of knowledge are not based on the exercise of the characteristics of critical thinking, but on popularity, manipulation and greed.

Hope the chat went well ( for all our sakes).

Peter

[The Nerd]

The legendary business and management strategist Peter Drucker has said the book Good to Great by Jim Collins , does not encourage mediocrity, rather it encourages competence to become excellence. And critical thinking does not come with mediocrity, it only comes with competence.

[The Nerd]

Sorry forgot the link. The book suggested above can be bought from http://www.uread.com/book/good-great-jim-collins/9780712676090. I bought it at a huge discount, don't know if you would be as lucky or not.