Learning in Public Management - Thinking Critically, Thinking Caringly, Thinking Creatively

The difference between learning to copy and learning to think For senior managers, the difference between learning by rote and learning to think independently is central. In rote learning we learn how to exactly reproduce something, we copy. This is fine for some purposes: we need to know exactly where the keys on the keyboard are, otherwise we produce nonsense or type very slowly; and we must reproduce our signature consistently otherwise our cheques or credit card payments may be rejected. But for most purposes in senior management we need to make intelligent judgments about cases that consist of a unique new set of circumstances, not completely the same as anything we saw before. We have to think critically, to judge how far previous examples or various general management ideas are relevant to the new case. By ‘critically’ I mean relying on evidence, good logic and considered values, not automatic opposition. A good film critic gives both praise and criticism, according to when they seem due. Automatic opposition is uncritical; so is automatically following fashion.