Critical Thinking For Managers: Structured Decision-Making And Persuasion In Business

Description

This book discusses critical thinking as a tool for more compassionate leadership, presenting tried and tested methods for managing disagreement, for anticipating and solving problems, and for enhancing empathy. Employing a lighter tone of voice than most management books, it also shows how and when less-than-rational mechanisms such as intuition and heuristics may be efficient decision-making tools in any manager’s toolbox. Critical thinking is useful for analyzing incoming information in the context of decision-making and is crucial for structuring outgoing information in the context of persuasion. When trying to convince a client to buy a service, an executive board to fund a project, or a colleague to change a procedure, managers can use the simple step-by-step guides provided here to prepare for successful meetings and effective pitches. Managerial thinking can be steadily improved, using a structured process, especially if we learn to think about our thinking. This book guides current and would-be managers through this process of improving and metathinking, in connection with decision-making and persuasion. Using examples from business, together with research insights from Behavioral Economics and from Management and Organizational Cognition, the author illustrates common pitfalls like hidden assumptions and cognitive biases, and provides easy-to-use solutions for testing hypotheses and resolving dilemmas. Contents......Page 7 Overview......Page 8 1 Introduction......Page 9 2 Who Needs Critical Thinking?......Page 11 References......Page 15 Critical Thinking in Business Decision-Making......Page 16 3 Hidden Assumptions......Page 17 References......Page 30 4 Test Your Business Assumptions......Page 31 References......Page 44 5 Reason, Emotions, Intuition......Page 45 References......Page 51 6 Cognitive Biases......Page 52 References......Page 68 7 Decisions, Decisions, Decisions......Page 70 7.1 One-Criterion Decision-Making......Page 72 7.2 Gathering and Analyzing Data......Page 73 7.3 More Than One Option......Page 76 7.4 Decision Tools......Page 78 7.5 How to Evaluate Decisions......Page 88 7.6 Mindsets......Page 90 References......Page 92 8.1 Roles......Page 95 8.2 Delegating......Page 98 8.3 Pitfalls......Page 99 8.4 Remote Decision-Making......Page 101 References......Page 106 9 Problem Solving......Page 107 9.2 Identifying the Causes......Page 109 9.3 Articulating the Objective......Page 115 9.4 Articulating a Set of Options......Page 117 9.5 Articulating Assumptions......Page 119 9.6 Articulating Criteria and the Decision-Making Process......Page 120 9.7 Articulating the Implementation Plan......Page 121 9.8 Debriefing......Page 122 References......Page 125 Critical Thinking in Persuasion......Page 126 10.1 Verbal Persuasion......Page 127 10.2 Persuasion in Writing......Page 133 11 Debating......Page 139 References......Page 143 12 Fallacies......Page 144 References......Page 161 13 Ten Fair-Play Principles in Argumentation......Page 162 Reference......Page 164 14 The Courage to Change Our Mind......Page 165 References......Page 181 15 Wrap Up......Page 183