Meet Michelle Rodriguez…
Michelle is an accountant at Ace Finance. She manages a small team that provides general accounting services to a wide range of industry clients. She is currently based in one of their regional offices and works from home as well as in the office, depending on her schedule.
Her duties include:
- initiating improvements to administration and client services (including accountancy services)
- leading a small team of junior accountants and administration staff
- training of junior staff
- ensuring that all staff (depending on their role) are updated with changes to accounting and taxation legislation
- attending networking events to build client relationships
- using new digital technologies for communicating with colleagues and clients.
Michelle recognises that to perform these duties well, her critical thinking skills need to be sharp.
In this module, you will learn more about the knowledge and skills that enable Michelle to:
- establish an environment that fosters critical thinking
- lead critical thinking processes and approaches for problem-solving and decision-making
- develop a critical thinking mindset in self and others.
You will be introduced to the key characteristics of critical thinking and the value of such approaches in a work environment, and follow a seven-step process for resolving a work issue. You will learn about Bloom's Taxonomy framework that demonstrates people's thinking levels (from lower-order thinking to higher-order critical thinking), along with the Eisenhower Matrix and the SPADE framework to help with solving problems and making decisions.
Throughout the module, there will be opportunities to develop your knowledge and critical thinking skills so you are ready for your assessment, including looking at Ace Finance's Decision Making Policy and Procedure.
Let us begin by asking Michelle the following three questions.
Michelle responds:
I work with accounting systems and one of the fun parts of my role involves initiating improvements in the accounting processes we use both internally and externally. In terms of how my position at Ace Finance establishes critical thinking, I encourage participation and input from clients, colleagues and team members by being respectful, supportive and asking for honest feedback. In team meetings, we discuss work issues and brainstorm possible solutions using the Eisenhower Matrix and the SPADE decision-making model if problems are complex. In meetings, we use techniques such as:
- asking questions of each other
- listening and paraphrasing to check understanding
- considering the perspectives of other team members
- identifying the pros and cons of possible solutions.
Michelle responds:
Yes, promoting a critical thinking mindset is essential in today's global marketplace. Ace Finance encourages critical thinking and implements ideas from their staff as this encourages a more productive and happier workforce. The company has initiatives to encourage staff to be engaged and share their ideas, including:
- acknowledgements through internal channels
- bonuses for team-based initiatives
- access to professional development
- participation in conferences and networking events.
Demonstrating and promoting critical thinking as a desirable and valuable skill encourages critical thinking behaviours in others. This is a win-win scenario for all of us. It encourages staff to be more analytical when solving problems or evaluating processes and to derive a logical conclusion or solution to a problem. This results in employees becoming more effective at performing work tasks which helps to meet the goals of the team and contribute to achieving the organisation’s strategic objectives.
Michelle responds:
The benefits of applying critical thinking in the workplace include:
- promoting respect for diverse ways of thinking
- increasing the range of approaches to problem-solving
- solving complex problems
- fostering creativity through unexpected outcomes (for example, different from the original issue)
- increasing teamwork and efficiency
- reducing the likelihood of workplace conflict through effective decision making.
For example, one of our Ace Finance accountants indicated that the company's electricity bills have been consistently high for some time. They suggested looking into cost-saving initiatives and researched the cost of installing solar panels. As a result, we now have a solar system and our electricity bills have decreased.
Critical thinking is a skill that an individual can use in every area of life, for example, interpersonal relationships, coordinating a community group, fundraising for your child’s school, financial planning, personal goal setting and career decisions.
Now let's dive into the learning!
