Orrin Woodward: Critical Thinking
“Decision-making in today’s business environment is decentralized. Decisions are made at the local level, or at a functional or operating level. You can’t grow a business around two or three good thinkers anymore, because your success depends on quality decisions from people at every level – salespeople, marketing people, strategy people, and so on. Everyone has to be able to think smart.
If you don’t have the right amount of quality thinking in a complex growth company like ours, it is going to manifest itself in terms of marginalized discussions that rely upon wrong inputs and unskilled questions. And that’s what drags down businesses. That is why companies that don’t have good minds throughout their ranks get stuck…”
Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon
One thing that I have found with top level leaders is their appreciation for critical thinking throughout their organizations. This however does not happen by chance. The top leaders will always be the ones leading the charge reading everything they can get their hands on to stay on top of current issues and to hone their skills. This appetite for knowledge which produces critical thinking is then passed down throughout the ranks of the company and before you know it you have a learning based culture.
Orrin Woodward is an apex learner with a voracious appetite for knowledge in a variety of subjects. From history, to politics, to economics he is always recommending books for his leadership team to read. His intense drive to get better in all aspects of his business has permeated throughout our entire culture. As Peter Senge says in his book The Fifth Discipline, “In the long run the only sustainable competitive advantage is your organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition.” 
If you want to be competitive in the market place as an employee or as a leader of an organization the true test of how well you are doing is first how well you are developing yourself to stay ahead of your competition. Second, how well are you developing those around you to help your organization reach the top and stay on top?
