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May 14, 2005
Critical Thinking for Managers: A Manifesto
I just ran across this in my files and hope that someone else will be able to benefit from it. I created this manifesto as one of my tasks in my Critical Thinking class when I was working toward my M.A. in Critical & Creative Thinking. I wanted a manifesto that would be useful for me throughout my working life.
CRITICAL THINKING FOR MANAGERS ~ A MANIFESTO
Introduction
Smart companies around the globe are dependent upon active critical thinkers in order to develop, produce and disseminate their goods and services. Managers in a position of creating change within their organizations need to learn, exhibit and teach critical thinking skills to their colleagues and employees.
Learning without thinking is labor lost; thinking without learning is dangerous. ~ Chinese Proverb
The Manifesto
1. Development of positive thinking dispositions is key.
a. Be curious and questioning
b. Think broadly and adventurously
c. Reason clearly and carefully
d. Organize one’s own thinking
e. Give time to thinking
f. Pose and explore problems
g. Critique and test theories
h. Seek multiple perspectives
i. Be judicious and reflective
2. Actively cultivate these thinking dispositions among your colleagues and employees.
3. Create a safe environment where employees feel that their opinions, ideas and the work that they generate is valued.
4. Consistently engage in metacognition—thinking about your thinking and related actions.
a. Reflect upon your actions, thoughts and plans, both task-oriented and strategic
b. Practice constant evaluation of projects and goals
c. Be ready to change based upon new input and reflection
d. Learn from your mistakes and your triumphs
e. Recognize your emotions and their effects on thought and action—both your own and on others
5. Encourage employees to reflect on their work and behavior, encourage individual accountability and expect people to make decisions at their own level. Help them to choose and explore problems of their own choice.
6. Embrace and foster an attitude of strategic spirit.
a. Build and use thinking strategies to solve problems and achieve goals
b. The ability to plan and set goals is crucial. Identify and recognize challenges, create a strategy and carry it out. Do it again.
7. Empower your employees to do the same.
8. Set standards by which to measure results. This helps bring focus, formulate plans and goals.
9. Recognize and rely upon higher order knowledge. Go beyond the facts, look for evidence, do further inquiry.
10. Always look for opportunities of transfer—the ability to take existing knowledge and strategies and apply them from one context to another. Identify connections and reusable components.
11. Become a model of critical thinking for colleagues and employees. Your examples and demonstrations of good thinking techniques will drive awareness and help foster change in attitude and behavior.
12. Look for opportunities to explain your method of thought to employees. Help them understand the bigger picture, the challenges faced and the steps in creating the plan and in execution of that plan.
13. Actively seek interaction with other departments and members of your organization in order to gain new insights, ideas and critical feedback.
14. Encourage both positive and negative feedback from colleagues and employees on your plans and actions. Seek to understand and incorporate their point of view. They have personal, practical knowledge that may prove invaluable.
15. Understanding is often acquired through practice. Sometimes lots of practice.
16. Encourage collaborative thinking and multiple sources of input for yourself and your employees. Engage in brainstorming activities, team projects and involve yourself in committees.
17. Become a model for open-minded thinking. Look at the big picture—beyond the situation at hand. Engage in synthesis. Draw connections and analyze a likely string of events. Look for multiple perspectives.
18. Provide opportunities for your employees to contribute and have influence in new projects and in other areas of the organization.
19. Emphasize facilitative questioning for yourself and your employees. Take a step back from your own agenda. Listen carefully and work to genuinely understand what the other person is experiencing. This will help you look closer at beliefs, values and assumptions that may underlie and drive behavior. Paraphrase and reflect ideas back for the best understanding.
20. Nurture key problem solving skills:
a. focus on the question or problem
b. analyze arguments, ask and answer questions of clarification and challenge
c. make observations and judge reports
d. deduce and judge whether arguments are valid
e. make and evaluate judgments
f. engage in suppositional thinking
g. define terms and judge definitions
h. attribute unstated assumptions
i. integrate other critical thinking dispositions in making and defending decisions
j. proceed in orderly manner appropriate to the situation
k. be sensitive to feelings, level of knowledge and degree of sophistication of others
l. employ appropriate rhetorical strategies
21. Understanding there are a variety of thinking styles:
cognitive, attitudinal and emotional aspects
and multiple intelligences:
visual/spatial
bodily/kinesthetic
logical/mathematical
naturalist
musical/rhythmic
verbal/liguistic
interpersonal
intrapersonal
will help with metacognition in addition to fostering better relationships with colleagues and employees.
22. Be aware that cultural differences can affect how people think critically and solve problems.
23. Instill in yourself and in others Costa’s 16 Habits of Mind :
i. Persisting
ii. Manage impulsivity
iii. Listen to others with understanding and empathy
iv. Think flexibly
v. Engage in metacognition
vi. Strive for accuracy and precision
vii. Question and pose problems
viii. Apply past knowledge to new situations
ix. Think and communicate with clarity and precision
x. Gather data through all senses
xi. Creating, imagining and innovating
xii. Respond with wonderment and awe (enjoy! Be curious!)
xiii. Take responsible risks
xiv. Find humor
xv. Think interdependently
xvi. Learning continuously
24. Cultivate a positive and determined attitude toward your life and work. Demonstrate persistence in the face of failure and confidence despite uncertainty.
25. Outlaw the idea of “I can’t.”
RESOURCES
Some of the findings and ideas behind this manifesto can be gained from the following texts:
Shari Tishman, David N. Perkins, and Eileen Jay, The Thinking Classroom: Learning and Teaching in a Culture of Thinking (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995)
Arthur L. Costa (editor), Developing Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking, 3rd edition (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2001)
Posted by crystallyn at May 14, 2005 09:09 AM