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| | Lt. Ed Claughton (ret.), President, PRI Management Group |
Critical thinking skills are perhaps one of the most important to have. Not having or not utilizing them means to accept everything at face value; to not question the motives, reasons, logic, causes or accuracy of something presented to you.
Critical thinkers are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked. They analyze, assess and work to improve the thinking of those around them and that of their own, and thus are very good at improving conditions and circumstances.
"Critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them." (from The Critical Thinking Community)
All too often in law enforcement, this skill set is lacking, as evidenced by the policing culture which unquestionably embraces the thin blue line brotherhood- a good thing for camaraderie- a bad thing when it comes to improving organizational culture and developing accountability. "If my brother says it's good, it must be." "Well he's one of us so it must be right".
It is also often missing in the field of records management. Why? Think about those who are drawn to the profession. Records managers tend to be detail oriented; a good thing for people who organize and manage critical information. On the other hand, think about what get's lost- big picture thinking.
Attention to detail is a good thing, but not at the sacrifice of being able to see beyond the details or, at the sacrifice of critical thinking! Consider the following common questions:
- Why are we printing out and filing every report when we have this records management system? (and wasting time, energy and money in the process)
- Does it make sense that we require 4 levels of approval for this form?
- Why is our average report turnaround time 5-7 days?
- Why do we have such a high report error rate?
- Why don't the sergeants check reports more thoroughly?
- What can we do to change the culture not just in Records, but in the agency overall when it comes to records management?
Look at the underlying reasons that lead to these questions having to be asked in the first place. What is causing these issues.
This is critical thinking at its best. And it's what PRI specializes in. Identifying the problem, developing the solution, and preventing it from happening again.
Here are some highly suggested resources for developing your leadership and critical thinking abilities.
Cheers!
Ed Claughton, President
PRI Management Group
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