Post by Rudy R. Racine on Feb 11, 2016 23:48:34 GMT
This week's articles contained some amazing recommendations for enhancing one's critical thinking ability; I found myself wanting to share several of them with members of my team. More specifically, the concept of "metacognition" referenced in the "Critical Thinking for Managers Manifesto" stood out to me the most. As mentioned in the article, metacognition is "thinking about your thinking and related actions". I was instantly reminded of several employee issues where I thought to myself, "what could they possibly have been thinking when they decided to do that". Thanks to this week's assignment, my thoughts didn't stop there. I next reflected on my career, and tried to recall times where one of my managers thought the same thing about one of my actions. Doing so helped me realize the important role metacognition plays in the development of critical thinking, and it helped me to realize the importance of this week's exercise.
For the exercise, we were asked to give an example of a time where we did not use our critical thinking skills. I was immediately reminded of my first job out of college when I worked for Enterprise Rent-A-Car as a Recruiter. I remember receiving an email from a Branch Manager that had my immediate supervisor, an Area Manager, and the Regional Vice President all CC'd on the message; in other words, my boss, his boss, and my boss's boss were on this email chain. The point of the Branch Manager's email was to try to get me to send him more candidates to interview for a part time Car Prep position at his branch. Though the tone of his message wasn't the greatest, looking back on the situation the request was simple, he wanted to see more candidates. My response to his email was an example of what happens when one doesn't think critically. I took his email as a personal attack on my work ethic and immediately clicked "Reply All" to remind the Branch Manager that he was working in one of the most difficult-to-staff branches in our Region; I also reminded him of the 2 previous Car Preps that resigned under his leadership. It was pretty bad. I acted purely on emotion and did not utilize critical thinking skills in that moment. Though my supervisor told me that I handled the situation poorly, I also credit metacognition for helping me to learn from my mistake. When I got home that night, I thought back to the entire incident. If I had employed critical thinking in the moment, I would have considered how the absence of a car prep impacted the branch's customer service rating, as well as the impact it was having on the staff that had to wash cars in their suits because their branch had no car prep. Critical thinking would have also helped me become aware of the impact the dirty cars might be having on the branch's profits, and the stress those issues were putting on the Branch Manager, possibly causing him to send the email. Lastly, I realized that if I focused my attention on the problem instead of on the email, I could have thought of new approaches towards finding candidates for a branch located deep into Far Rockaway, NY. Metacognition helped me reflect on how I viewed the problem, and caused me to assess the actions I took in response to it. It helped me realize where I was wrong, and resulted in a lesson learned. It also helped me consider how the situation might have played out differently if I had relied more on my critical thinking skills.
Overall, I think metacognition is an important practice for all professionals looking to enhance and develop their critical thinking skills. It helps us to assess our actions and look beyond what others are doing by also factoring in our thoughts and actions. This week's exercise did a good job at highlighting its importance.
