According to my experience, organizations tend to do very stupid things; collectivelly they are less intelligent than most of the individuals in them. Another observation is that organizations tend to reflect the virtues and defects of their leaders.

The conclussion is clear: people tend to work without thinking much, and the responsibility lies on their leaders. Are they dumb? No, or not more than the average. In fact, they usually are more intelligent than normal employees. And they are experts in their field. But they often lack some critical thinking skills that are much needed in VUCA environments. And these skills are never tought in the education system, nor in companies.

Only a few times I’ve had the chance to train managers on thinking and decision making skills. Am I the only one who realizes that there’s a need to improve the thought process of leaders? Their ego makes them think that they are already smart enough. So I was very relieved to find this very interesting article at Harvard Business Review. Here’s a summary:

What does it mean to add value? Adding value arises not just from solving a problem, but from solving the right problem, in ways that no one expected, to arrive at an even better outcome.

These kinds of solutions don’t come from our everyday ways of thinking. They come from expert thinking, critical thinking, strategic thinking, and systems thinking—skills that consistently make it on those ubiquitous lists of things leaders at every level have to be really good at to meet the challenges of the future.

If you’re a leader looking for your company to add value for clients and customers, or a manager looking for ways your team can add value, you need to be building these skills in your people. The problem for many leaders and managers, however, is that when we use terms like expert, critical, strategic, or systems thinking, too often we don’t know when to apply or even how to define them.

The authors explore these four distinct types of thinking skills in depth, including what they mean and when they should be used, along with some tips for using AI tools as a thinking partner.

• Expert thinking is rooted in deep knowledge in a particular field, developed through years of experience, training, and consistent practice. Use it when a situation requires a quick, automatic response based on a well-defined set of rules, or when prior experience and knowledge can offer a clear path forward.
• Critical thinking pushes you to pause and question assumptions. Instead of reacting quickly, you stop and analyze. Use it when experts disagree on a solution, when traditional approaches fail to solve a problem, or when the symptoms of a problem keep recurring.
• Strategic thinking is about taking a long-term, high-level perspective, looking beyond the immediate situation. Use it when making big decisions with long-term consequences, thinking about your team’s future, or trying to anticipate how market forces and customer needs might change.
• Systems thinking is the ability to see the interconnectedness of all the problems at hand. Use it when you need to understand a complex situation or want to identify patterns and relationships within your organization or industry.

It’s just as important to recognize that thinking skills are unlikely to be honed organically, because most of these ways of thinking are not natural. We have to deliberately engage in them. In other words, they’re not what our brains do on autopilot. (And let’s not kid ourselves: Our brains are on autopilot, out of necessity, most of the time. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.)

I encourage you to read the whole article here, and think about it. Also share this article with those you consider will appretiate it. And if you want to improve the thinking skills of your leaders, let’s talk.

You may also like past posts:

Las inundaciones de Valencia: el precio de las malas decisiones, liderazgo y sistemas organizativos

La crisis de los misiles de Kennedy – Toma de decisiones estratégicas en incertidumbre

50 sesgos cognitivos que pueden perjudicar la toma de decisiones (de otros, claro, no la tuya)

Los directivos «cuello de botella» y su impacto en las decisiones de empresa

Covid y ¿racionalidad? en la toma de decisiones estratégicas

Irracionalidad en la toma de decisiones, el día de la marmota y el Covid – Entrevista a Antonio Montero

Algunos hallazgos de psicología que explican por qué tomamos malas decisiones

La estupidez, cómo reconocerla y qué hacer con ella

Descifrando nuestro mayor enemigo: la estupidez

La paradoja de la estupidez

The Painful Reality Of Unteachable Lessons