Benefits of Critical Thinking in the Workplace

Critical thinking is something that is done in our everyday life. It involves careful judgment and judicious evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment which makes employees and managers to look at a situation from different viewpoints and weigh all possible solutions before coming up with a final answer. The emerging benefits of critical thinking have compelled organisations to include it as a practice.

The responsibility of taking decisions is not vested on the managers alone. People at all levels in an organisation also get opportunities to face and resolve problems in their area of expertise. Many decisions are taken in emergency and do not get a chance to plan the sequence of actions as their problems require immediate solutions. Below mentioned are some of the advantages critical thinking in the workplace:

• Acts as a fuel for effective leadership: Leaders are required to think from different viewpoints in order to arrive at a positive decision. They should look at situations appropriately and weigh all possible solutions before coming up with a final decision. A leader’s decision is a very crucial one which should be a result of extensive research combined with knowledge.
• Stimulates team work: A diverse workforce comprises of people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. If the entire workforce starts to think creatively, critically and starts bringing new ideas to the table, the workplace can see a variety of solutions to problems. Each employee gets a chance to impact the future of the organization and make a difference by their contribution.
• Unfolds back-up plans and multiple options: Organisations benefit greatly through critical thinking. It opens multiple workable solutions to their problems. It makes an organisation a vendor of choice to multiple clients by offering a range of solutions to their problems and bringing about workplace innovation. The organisation can use multiple resources in developing solutions for itself as well as its clients and make use of multiple resources when some resources are in demand. Make or buy decisions and Just-In time manufacturing are a result of critical thinking.