Earlier this month, I was fortunate to be apart of a consortium of communicators from world-class corporate communications departments including GE, 3M, GM, IBM, J&J and P&G. Truly an amazing experience and met some really smart, interesting and fantastic people. During a Q&A someone asked the chief communicators of these companies about the needed skill set in the ever-changing corporate environment. The answer was not surprising, but it was interesting.
They all agreed that while strategic thinking should be a prerequisite in communications leadership, the emergence of the critical thinker was becoming more and more in demand. Critical thinking being the ability to connect multiple concepts and ideas to form a position or strategy. In other words, they’re looking for the mashup.
The mashup will move from the online experience to the boardroom. Being a critical thinker is an interesting concept. Can you train to become one? If so, how do you do it?
Great question! I think the answer to “how to train a critical thinker” would be similar to “how to train a designer”. Some of the mashups of critical thinkers are creative works of art. These are born from inherent mashup skills and formal/practical industry experience that likely include large helpings of case studies.