by Wayne Ramsey

Created on: October 27, 2010

Any good manager requires numerous skill sets in order to be successful.  One of the most obvious and important is critical thinking.  However, to understand the importance of critical thinking it is first best to understand what critical thinking means.  “Critical thinking is skillful and responsible thinking in which you study the problem from all angles, and then exercise your best judgment to draw conclusions.” (Sies, 2010)

Within any business operation a manager is required to resolve problems.  These problems may be true issues that arise or simply an idea that needs a plan of action.  Resolving these problems through an intense evaluation that takes great consideration into all aspects of the problem is critical thinking.  To best understand what critical thinking really means beyond simple words it is often times easiest to examine critical thinking in application rather than in theory alone.

Take a manager trying to create efficient traffic flow within an office.  The manager has to carefully evaluate the entire office in order to better understand the problem.  Through observation the manager is able to monitor how the current flow is having an impact on productivity.  A manager using critical thinking is going to take note of any situations that could be made more efficient and problems that slow down productivity.  Having a fax machine, printer, and copying machine all in a single unit may be creating considerable backups that results in lines and a loss of productivity.  Through critical thinking the manager is able to make better decisions to resolve the problem of traffic flow within the office.

Critical thinking isn’t just about resolving actual issues that currently exist.  Problems can also be a situation that is in front of a manager that needs a solution.  For example, a manager may be tasked with starting up a new service line for the company.  A manager that uses critical thinking is going to look at this service from every angle.  It isn’t just about deciding to start a service and doing it.  It is about looking at the service in a much broader way.  It is about creating solutions to problems that could occur and “anticipating and addressing counter arguments” from upper management.  (Procell, 2010)

When it comes to critical thinking it is about finding ways to dig deep enough into an issue that all possible issues

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