Developing Thinking in Teams

Leaders should develop critical thinking and creative thinking in team members.[1] These abilities and capacities for intellectual and critical thought are essential to effective problem solving.[1] The actions of team members, based on their own critical thinking skills, will often dictate the success of the team.[1] One of the best ways to develop critical thinking in an organization is through example, by being a critical thinker.[1] Thinking critically and setting conditions that encourage others to think critically are effective ways to enhance the process by team members.[1] Leaders should be willing to take risks and encourage prudent risk taking by others.[1] Thinking critically and creatively and thinking about thinking can cause people to question their own abilities.[1] Leaders can counteract the unsettled feeling by listening attentively, affirming their subordinates’ abilities, and reflecting about the processes of thinking and successful outcomes achieved from thorough thinking.[1]

How people think and feel about learning and knowing affects their critical and creative thinking and development of judgment.[1] For example, an attitude that thinking can resolve problems will lead to better results in overcoming difficulties through thinking.[1] Attitudes that conflict with sound thinking should be diminished.[1] These attitudes include feeling that changing one’s mind is a sign of weakness, that being open and deliberating among options leads to confusion, that quick decision-making is how one demonstrates expertise, and that truth comes from authority.[1]

Positive attitudes that contribute to developing critical and creative thinking include:

  • Persistence. If one line of thought or action is not working,then finding another line may work.[1]

  • Willingness to expend effort. A willingness to engage in deeper, more thorough thinking is important for critical thinking, even when the effort may not initially seem useful.[1]

  • Active fair-mindedness. Taking special effort to find out whether one’s ideas will work by imagining what is wrong with them is a good way to be fair-minded.[1] Using the same standards, regardless of the issue or who supports a position is another quality of fair-mindedness.[1]

  • Detachment of ego. Keeping reasoning separate from self-esteem helps guard against being caught up in being on the right side of an argument or rationalizing why failure was out of one’s control.[1]

  • Tolerance of uncertainty. Believing it is fine not to know something is a positive characteristic. Yet, being motivated to resolve uncertainty once it is recognized is even more important. There is an advantage to having to think through problems to figure them out, instead of using minimal, surface cues that could lead to interpreting a situation incorrectly.[1]

  • Openness. Being open to different and multiple possibilities leads to better decisions.[1]

  • Retraction of commitment. Willing to change beliefs about a preferred solution or a problem viewpoint is an attitude that has positive effects.[1]

  • Flexibility of process. Realize that standard processes will not work for novel, ill-defined, or complex problems. Adapting or discovering a new way of thinking that will help reach a solution.[1]

  • Willingness to learn. It is natural for leaders to feel an expectation to have the knowledge and experience to perform well. Being willing to engage in learning is adaptive. One characteristic of experts is that they understand what they know and what they need to learn.[1]

Thinking ahead and predicting potential ways that a situation assessment may be wrong or that a course of action could depart from the anticipated plan will make leaders better prepared to handle the unknown.[1] Having identified and thought about various contingencies better prepares the team for what could occur.[1]

1. U.S. Army Leadership Development Manual, FM 6-22

Updated on 27 Nov 2019

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