Critical Thinking Archives - Enterprise Management Ltd

What is Your COVID-19 Lens? Six Points of View

By Dr. Mary Lippitt, Author Situational Mindsets: Targeting What Matters When It Matters

Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic must be more than a dualistic choice between preventing infection or “opening up” to save the economy. Simple, obvious responses lead to greater failure rather than desired results.

Addressing complex issues requires consideration of multiple factors and contingencies. During the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic, early and sustained intervention in cities such as Cleveland ultimately produced a more robust economic recovery when compared with those choosing a limited response. And “opening up” does not mean that operations will resume. During the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, Philadelphia shipyard employees refused to return to work even though ship construction was essential to the US effort in World War 1. Today, some meat packing and retail employees have elected to stay home. Opening the doors does not guarantee customers will enter.

This pandemic requires granular analysis, not an oversimplified, short-term binary choice. While it is tempting to “keep things simple,” attractive easy answers are wrong. We face a complex, interdependent and systemic challenge. Hand wringing over polarized options stifles creative insights necessary for dealing with persistent and pervasive threats. We must and can do better.

We can expand our understanding, explore options, and direct our decisions using six situational mindsets or lenses. Dangerous blind spots surface if we overlook one of these perspectives.

The inventing lens stresses creativity the need to develop new treatments, medications and vaccines. It seeks innovation synergies to leverage existing resources and practices.
The catalyzing lens focuses on demand. It targets the needs of first responders and essential workers, while rapidly responding to hot spots. It also focuses on enlisting resources to meet obligations.
The developing point of view targets infrastructure and policies. It seeks to ensure hospital capacity, procure supplies, issue guidelines, and set goals. It also clarifies goals, roles and responsibilities for effective execution.
The performing mindset examines operational factors. It analyzes patient data, deploys testing, and measures efficacy. It also adjusts staffing and resources to address gaps.
The protecting perspective focuses on people, culture, and society. It centers on safety education, providing for basic needs, ensuring compliance, training contact tracers, and recognizing success. It also fosters trust, confidence, and community support.
The challenging mindset identifies emerging needs, tests assumptions, and prepares for future episodes. It also examines the impact of demographic, economic, regulatory, and security challenges.

As Obi-Wan Kenobi told us in Return of the Jedi, “You’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” When we grapple with all of these aspects, we can pivot from a cavalier ‘either-or’ divisiveness to an informed and respectful search for wise action. Situational awareness unfogs our creative thinking and enables us to successfully explore the problems we must solve. What we see on the surface is not all that there is to see. We must learn to look beyond our basic frames to grasp complex realities, surface different perspectives, and define implementable solutions to meet this challenge.

Dr. Lippitt can be reached at mlippitt@enterprisemgt.com.

Boosting your mental agility and critical thinking

Large amounts of data and rapid change increase the need to think critically and adjust to new realities.

Will Rogers reminds us that “even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” While stagnation is dangerous, finding the path forward can be challenging. Mental agility, situational awareness and sound judgment are essential to addressing probable, pervasive and problematic change.

The rapid rate of change has led CEOs to identify critical thinking, judgment and innovation as essential to their future success. In today’s complex world, no individual has all the answers, but a person can ask the right questions and evaluate responses.

Mental agility — the ability to recognize what has happened, what is currently happening and what could happen in the future — requires an open, inquisitive mind. And that openness must be combined with a critical analysis of all relevant information to discern how to leverage opportunities in the short and long term. Mental agility and critical thinking close the ubiquitous gap between what we think we know and what we need to know. They prevent missteps and blunders.

Mental agility and critical thinking do not require an elevated IQ, advanced degree, lofty position or specific personal style. They do require a dedicated willingness to:

Test existing assumptions that may have changed based on dynamic environments
Check for potential distortions or bias, including level of effort and confirmation bias
Solicit and respect multiple points of view

Adopting an open mind means actively seeking information, considering alternatives, and selecting a viable and valuable goal. With multiple variables affecting any decision, a comprehensive framework is indispensable in collecting pertinent information. Knowing it all prevents risking it all.

Consider the purchase of a car. Decision factors include price, warranty, miles per gallon, cost of insurance, features, size, lease or purchase, color, style, type of gas required, cost of maintenance, towing capacity and dealer location. This list may appear lengthy, but compared with the factors involved in organizational success, it is quite small.

Organizations confront greater complexity and interdependencies than purchasing a car. One individual’s ability cannot juggle every aspect. Leaders need a system to gather timely, relevant information from multiple sources. Considering six situational mindsets ensures an effective grasp of reality. The following definitions and questions serve as a guide and can be tailored into a checklist for your organization:

Inventing Situational Mindset questions concern innovative products, designs and services: What new features or services can we offer? How can we apply technology in a new way?
Catalyzing Situational Mindset questions assess the level of customer service, market position and competition: What new markets can we explore? What will grow sales? How can we improve customer service?
Developing Situational Mindset questions evaluate system effectiveness, information flow and seamless execution: What will improve cross-functional collaboration? Are our systems effective? What policy alterations will support our goals?
Performing Situational Mindset questions examine quality, cycle time, workflow and return on investment: What deviations should we address? What can we improve? What limits our productivity?
Protecting Situational Mindset questions address staffing levels, retention of key talent, succession planning and engagement: What will improve collaboration? How can we retain key talent? How can our culture become more agile?
Challenging Situational Mindset questions probe trends, assumptions, strategies and opportunities: What new alliances are possible? What new niches should we pursue? What will position us for the future?

These situational mindsets surface what is present, what is within reach and what is around the corner. Their use builds the mental agility and critical thinking essential for organizations to achieve their goals in the midst of change.

Published with permission from SmartBrief.com

About Author:

Mary Lippitt, an award-winning author and speaker, founded Enterprise Management Ltd., an international firm helping leaders deliver results. A leader in the field of organizational effectiveness, she has assisted corporate and government clients in the US and abroad, including Lockheed Martin, Marriott, the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Would You Choose the Red or Blue Pill if you were in the Matrix?

In the film,The Matrix,the main character, Neo,is offered a choice. He could take a red pill representing a desire to live in the real world as a free person or take a blue pill and remain secure in an illusionary world where he could hold on to his established beliefs, practices, and expectations. His choice was change or stability. It was an either-or choice to be made immediately.

In the movie Neo takes the red pill, rejecting a fabricated world to gain increased awareness and discomfort and the risks that follow. He elected reality and change over staying in a fictitious world offering predictability and safety. With only two choices and pressure from Morpheus, encouragement from Trinity, and pursuit by agents he had little time to make this momentous decision.

Organizations today often cast major decisions as either-or options, when, in reality, there are few binary choices. For example, what if Neo asked if he could take both pills? What if he asked Morpheus for additional time? What if he asked if there was a purple pill? With only two polarizing possibilities, he elected not to stay shackled to an impersonal manipulative system and change the matrix.

Leaders today must reject dualistic thinking and apply critical thinking to assess multiple options. This does not require an advanced degree, membership in Mensa or a lofty title. The practice merely requires an open mind and a willingness to shift mindsets to address current conditions. Adopting the practice of probing six situational mindsets enables leaders to discover alternatives and weigh options. It also engages others, surfaces new information, and creates common ground. The six mindsets questions cover every organizational aspect.

The Inventing Mindset probes options for new products/services, creative designs, and new synergies.
The Catalyzing Mindsetfocuses on serving the customer and building the organization’s brand.
The Developing Mindset creates seamless infrastructure, integrated systems, and effective polices.
The Performing Mindset targets process improvement, quality, workflow efficiencies, and ROI.
The Protecting Mindset centers on developing talent, collaboration, agility, and bench strength.
The Challenging Mindsetevaluates challenges, trends, risks, and opportunities for sustained success.

These six mindsets combat our natural tendency to rely on past practice, accept only confirming information,jump quickly into action, and tolerate limited alternatives. We can do better asking questions covering all six mindsets. A simple mindset checklist will prevent hasty action.

Now some resist the idea of a checklist viewing it as a personal shortcoming. However, lawyers, doctors, and pilots use them. The world is too complex and there are too many variables to juggle and weigh complex issues. If we have to-do lists, grocery lists and digital schedules, we already recognize ourinability to balance all of the information.

If we adopt an inclusive understanding of our circumstances and choices, we will find more alternatives. May be there was a purple pill option for Neo if he had asked. What questions should you be asking right now?

About Author:

Dr. Mary Lippitt, an award-winning author, consultant, and speaker, founded Enterprise Management Ltd. to help leaders with critical analysis. Her new book, Situational Mindsets: Targeting What Matters When It Matters was published last year with a Foreword from Daivd Covey. She can be reached at mlippitt@enterprisemgt.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/marylippitt/

4 Ways to Smash the Barriers to Critical Thinking

Many leaders exhibit a tendency to jump intoaction. When a problem is identified there must be an immediate response. There appears to be an ingrained “just do it” mentality on the assumption it will produce results as well as admiration. What is overlooked is the option for a pause between learning about a situation and responding to it. The pause enables information gathering and analysis. It also acknowledges recognizes that no one, no matter how talented, can master the complex issues facing us today.

The practice of gaining input can be called brainstorming, consulting, buzz groups, task teams, or crowdsourcing. But these work only when they are employed, when everyone believes they can contribute, and when everyone feels that it is safe to offer an opinion.

The lack of critical thinking cited in many CEO surveys encouraged me to poll 100 people about the barriers they experience in practicing critical thinking. The results are:

42% Identified time pressure or the lack of time to consider options
20% Expressed fear of rejection, ridicule or retribution
20% Replied nothing will happen as a result; They were resigned to accept that status quo
9% Doubted their ability to add anything important
5% Feared that it will mean just mean more work for them
4% Stated that no one required them to think critically

Organizations are wasting valuable human resources if insights and concerns never surface. And reversing the top concerns require only minor adjustments. Consider implementing one or more the following:

Concerns over time constraints can be overcomeby setting aside 5 to 10 minutes of a staff meeting to explore an idea or ask for an issue that needs attention. It can also be encouraged by reminding staff that preventing problems saves time and effort rather than having to resolve setbacks later.And, the cost of blind spots continues to grow.
Creating a “safe” environment by encouraging and respecting different points of view. Why not start your next staff meeting by asking “what have we learned since our last meeting?” Another option would be to appoint a rotating “devil’s advocate” who will critically examine proposals and raise issues. This is particularly important whenpotential benefits crowd out a comprehensive examination. The devil advocate can spotlight the need for deeper dive. In business and physics for every action there is a reaction, and it is important to recognize ramifications before leaping into action.
Every suggestion or proposal deserves a response. Clarification on what was done or why no action was taken must be shared. It showsrespects for the person who offered the suggestion and ensures further engagement. Additionally, the contributor can learn about factors that can turn an apparent slam dunk into a pitfall.
Build critical thinking confidence through coaching, usingan established checklist, and providingtime to reflect and confer with others. Recognize that not all critical thinking happens instantaneously. It can require “soak time,” whether it is in the shower or in the car. Confidence is also boosted when critical thinking is recognized, whether it was implemented or not. Whatever the outcome, the practice deserves encouragement

Leaders and decision makers must recognize those that think out of the box as well as those that think inside it, and under it. To paraphrase,Einstein, today’s problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that was used to create them. We must expand our thinking practices.

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Six Situational Mindsets To Putting First Things First

No one would argue that as leaders, we want to immediately tackle the most important issue or opportunity. As Stephen Covey advises, “put first things first.” However, deciding what is most important, and that awareness, cannot be made based on past practice, outdated assumptions, or preconceived options. Circumstances change too quickly to rely on what was valid. We must continually reassess our situation and alternatives. Interestingly, a study of leaders found that 80% of them never consider alternatives or situational mindsets before making a decision, despite changing conditions.

When we drive our cars, we cannot rely exclusively on what we see through our windshield. We also check the side and rear view mirrors. But we also have to check our dashboard for speed and any warning lights. This expanded context ensures our safety. Likewise, leaders banking on a single viewpoint miss opportunities and invite risk. Utilizing multiple sources of current information delivers optimal choices.

Leaders inherently know this, however, many leaders will utilize default decision-making, blindly sticking to tradition; skim over or ignore data that contradicts beliefs; or readily jump on any goal bandwagon, and implement current fads. In a dynamic environment, adopting a “ready, fire” approach is dangerous. “Aiming” or situational awareness must precede the decision to launch as it is the only way to discover the best path forward. Instead of believing we have all the answers, we must commit to asking all the right questions to analyze our circumstances.

So, what is the alternative when deciding what goal to pursue? Leaders must become situationally aware by studying six situational realities.

To collect the information for aiming, questions addressing six situational factors must be investigated. These mindsets depict what has happened, what is happening, and what is likely to happen. The situational mindsets are:

Inventing or measuring how innovative your products, designs, and services compared with what is possible.
Catalyzing or assessing the level of your customer service, market position, and sales effectiveness compared to the competition.
Developing or evaluating system effectiveness, information flow, unit alignment, goal and policy alignment, decision making and autonomy
Performing or studying the quality of deliverables, cycle time, productivity, workflow, safety, and ROI
Protecting or questioning staffing levels, retention of key talent, succession planning, engagement, and cultural agility
Challenging or examining trends, business plan options, validating assumptions, identifying niches and searching for alliances

Inquiring about these situational mindsets provide leaders with the ability to see what is on the wall, around the corner, and within reach. And it is an easy practice to implement. The six mindsets become a checklist to ascertain complex, challenging, ambiguous, or precedent setting circumstances.

In addition to developing a mindset question checklist, we should also:

Allocate time for reflection, analysis, and imagination. The KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) only works when things are stable. Dynamic factors and new realities are rarely simple. H. L. Mencken captured this truth by saying, “There is always an easy solution to every human problem” neat, plausible and wrong.” We must stretch our thinking to secure our future.
Identify our biases and rationalizations. Smart choices mean we must generate new ideas to address the waves of change. As Einstein stated, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking we used when we created them.”
Recognize the power of asking open-ended questions. As Dr. E. Edwards Deming remarked, “If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing.” Expand the scope of your questions to detect trends, examine implications, and craft new opportunities.
Accept the fact that the greatest obstacle to our future is not ignorance, but the illusion that we already know all that we need to know. We must dig deeper and wider in a search for new knowledge and insights. It is important to ask: what have we learned what should we start doing, and what should we stop doing. Mark Twain observed, “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It is what we know for sure that just ain’t so.
Resist peer pressure and the temptation to follow the crowd. Enthusiasm for a new initiative regularly conceals flaws and squashes critical thinking. Ask for what could go wrong, what other options are there, and what potential issues might surface. As journalist Walter Lippman observed, “Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.” We need people to think and speak up.

Take the time to ask the mindset questions to discover what to put first. Let’s make our future truly promising.

Published first at Value Walk: https://www.valuewalk.com/2019/08/six-situational-mindsets-first-things-first/

About Author:

Breaking the Vacuum Around Leadership

Has leadership kept pace with the unfathomable challenges we face? We have excelled at helping leaders from the inside out by focusing on leadership style, characteristics, and skillsets. However, we have avoided advancing leadership mastery in terms of systems and situational awareness. We must fill the external attention vacuum.

Peter Drucker’s stated that leadership“has little to do with ‘leadership quality’ and even less to do with ‘charisma.’ Its essence is performance,”and I agree with his focus on results. Flexibility, agility, timing, and situational awareness enable leaders to leverage new opportunities and prevent blind spots.

Organizations are more integrated, customer expectations have increased, and resources have become more constrained. And to make it even more challenging, this greater complexitymeans that no one person can have all the answers. Instead of becoming the solution provider, leaders need to ask the right questions and evaluate alternatives. Luckily, this is not rocket science or a matter of IQ. It requires committing to conducting an environmental scan,which can be done using six situational mindsetsto uncover information before jumping to a decision.

Asking questions covering six different spheresproduces a comprehensive understanding of present challenges and opportunities. Questions include:

What new approaches or creative options can we investigate?
How can we improve customer service and retention?
How can we become a truly seamless and effective organization?
What can improve our quality and efficiency?
How can we foster collaboration, engagement,and learning?
What can we do now to ensure a prosperous future?

Vacuums collapse when we find a way to fill them. Leadership today needs to include systems thinking, organizational insights, and environmental scanning for organizations to thrive.

“Breaking the Vacuum Around Leadership” was originally published on 10 July 2019 at BizCatalyst360.

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Using Checklists and Statistics to Get in Sync With Reality

I was recently struck by my seeming lack of perspective on global developments while reading Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–And Why Things Are Better Than You Think. My only consolation was that I was not alone; 95 percent of the people held the same views, according to the author, statistician Hans Rosling.

One of the questions I missed was according to Rosling was: In the last 20 years has the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty:

Almost doubled
Stayed approximately the same
Almost halved

Would you be surprised to learn of Rosling’s claim that extreme poverty has been cut by almost 50 percent? I was. In fact, I barely considered option three. My preconceived ideas, my repeated exposure to tragic news stories and, to be honest, my reliance on outdated facts led me to conclude that poverty had almost doubled.

While I am in good company since almost everyone was mistaken, the fact is both comforting and disturbing. It means most of us are out of sync with our current reality. Why is this? The causes include: (1) our assumption that we already know everything we need to know, (2) a tendency to expect the worst case is the most likely outcome, (3) a proclivity to reduce issues to two simple options and (4) time pressures.

If you are not convinced of the extent of this problem, consider another question: Which statement do you agree with the most?

the world is getting better
the world is getting worse
the world is getting neither better nor worse

The correct answer is A, according to Rosling, and the data that he uses to support this contention includes: significant increase in literacy, agricultural yields have increased, more people have electricity, more groups are allowed to vote, child cancer rates have improved, access to potable water has grown, more girls are in school, and technology has spread widely to less developed nations. Many of us failed to see this program. We seem to see the world as a glass half empty, rather than half full. Moreover, this notion creates fear derailing critical thinking and analysis.

What we know “for sure” is rarely entirely accurate. Sometimes our knowledge is obsolete, and at other times it is incomplete. To understand our current circumstance, we must stop thinking we know more than we do and start asking questions to fully understand all the issues enabling us to examine the facts critically. Critical thinking is vital as we confront rapid change and complexity. It exposes misconceptions, while also producing wiser more rewarding decisions.

Knowing that we infrequently update our knowledge and overlook information that does not conform to our pre-existing assumptions , we need new tools. Deploying a checklist has proven successful in medicine, aviation, litigation, and construction not because of ineptitude or ignorance but due to inherent cognitive flaws. Instead of being a constraint, checklists free our minds to concentrate on critical aspects, prevent small mistakes and save time. Now it is time for leaders at all levels to develop, share and use checklists to stay in sync with their current reality.

The book cited here is: Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, and Anna Roennlund, (2019) FACTFULNESS: ten reasons we’re wrong about the world – and why things are better than you think. [London: Sceptre Publishing]

About Author:

Critical and Strategic Thinking Builds Agility

Leaders say they want to boost creativity, critical thinking and agility to improve performance and manage change. Research studies confirm the accuracy of those statements. Who wouldn’t want their staff to be quick on their feet, display ingenuity, offer critical insights, or make effective strategic choices? However, there is no consensus on how to boost agile thinking or increase brain capacity beyond the standard 10% utilization. Read More

Thinking Strategically, Thinking Critically

Have we lost our ability to think strategically, to analyze, to dissect facts, and make thoughtful, intelligent decisions? This article, How to Encourage Critical Thinking in the Workplace taps some important factors organizations must consider to thrive now and for decades into the future. Author of this article, Paul Crosby, points out, “Despite the demand for critical thinking, several hiring managers believe it’s lacking in the current workforce. Read More