part 4

Critical MBA thinking: how to master management

Critical n. careful, thoughtful and exact examination of the assumptions and structure of an argument

The final part of The Every Day MBA is about demonstration of mastery of choice in management practice. Tactical thinking is learned on the job, in trial and error as well as by apprenticeship. It helps managers align the parts of the organisation they are responsible for with the strategic goals set from above. Sometimes, as happened early in the story of Swedish furniture company IKEA, a tactical action (removing the legs of tables to fit them into a delivery truck) leads to a strategy, but usually tactical thinking comes later and remains uncritical of the assumptions behind strategic thinking.

Strategic thinking is endlessly analysed and studied at business school. It is how managers establish a direction and set of plans for the future, and it drives the majority of the theories and models of management. A good MBA will bring you this far. A great one will require you to go one step further.

Problems in management do not come in neat boxes marked ‘people’, ‘marketing’ or ‘finance’, etc. The segmentation of business administration into subjects, silos or departments may be convenient, but it is also arbitrary. There are good and bad ways of making this division and the way to find out which is which is by critical thinking.

But critical thinking is used in different ways. It can mean:

• systematically solving a problem: either as a way of developing analytical problem-solving skills through the use of real-world examples or as a method of teaching using the method of ‘question and answer’ to show the shortcomings of an argument. Being critical in problem solving is important, but doesn’t often make a transformative difference to you as a manager (or as a person)
• questioning and changing unjust social structures: a concern for democratic principles, social progress and justice, and often the uncovering of power relations and inequalities or imbalances in human relations
• seeing the world holistically: a systemic view of the relationship between management and our environment. The purpose of this is to release you from lineal thinking in problem solving and to reach maturity in how you manage the dilemmas and uncertainties inherent in all management contexts.

Being critical means surfacing deep-set assumptions that you and others hold. For this, we will look at three things:

1. leadership
2. corporate reputation, social responsibility and sustainability
3. reflective practice.

Each is integral to changing your thinking and developing your self-awareness, the two lasting benefits of doing an MBA mentioned in Chapter 1.