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Can Critical Thinking be used to increase employee participation in corporate goals?
Home » Leadership » Critical Thinking » Can Critical Thinking be used to increase employee participation in corporate goals?Equating the benefits of critical thinking, collaborative learning, and the proven effects of increased learning to the increased productivity of a collaborative work environment is simple.
Consider the automobile assembly line. Each worker is responsible for a particular component, and when each employee has contributed according to his or her own expertise, the result is a car. Each worker is responsible for a small, but significant part of the puzzle and without any one part of that puzzle, the final product is profoundly affected.
In the early 90’s General Motors created an offshoot company that changed the way cars are made. The difference was not so much in the actual manufacturing process, as in the way the company, Saturn, is managed. From the CEO’s office to the employees who sweep up at the end of the day, each person realizes they are an integral part of the team and that their opinions and ideas are valued. They believe this because management took the time to teach critical thinking and its place in the team approach to car manufacturing to these employees. Then they empowered the employees to use critical thinking along each step of the manufacturing process.
The Saturn team approach shaped itself into a corporate strategy giving power to each person on the assembly line. If any one of those employees sees a problem, they have the power to stop production until the problem has been resolved. Employees take this responsibility seriously and believe that each car that rolls off that line is their personal accomplishment. When a beautiful new car rolls through those doors, they all win.
Every business has the potential to incorporate critical thinking and cooperative achievement into the workplace. The time investment necessary to implement the process is validated by the increased benefits of employee participation, shared goals, and increased productivity.
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