Best-selling business author Robert Heller has a great article on Leadership Strategy at Management-Issues.com on how leaders can get stuck in a rut. As Heller implies, and I wholeheartedly agree, when it comes to the way we operate at work, most of us would benefit by rethinking our critical thinking.

Heller talks about getting too comfortable with patterns that have brought us success in the past. How true. Triumphal achievements might not be possible if we veer away from our “proven methods.” 

But with rapid advances in technology and global networks (be they information or supply chain networks), ignoring new possibilities can cause a company to lose its foothold. And that’s reason enough to rethink our patterns of success and our critical thinking processes. 

For an example of possibility thinking, check out this video clip from CBS News about how videoconferencing is getting a makeover. Advances in screen/monitor technology have led to the practice of “telepresence,” in which telecommuting is taken to a whole new level.

Are videoconferencing or telecommuting new? No, but rethinking them and using newer, higher-quality technology is making a phenomenal impact for greater productivity.

Sadly, in more than one place on this planet I hear business owners say “That’s the way it’s worked for years, I see no reason to change.”

That sentence will go down in history as being among the “famous last words” from business people who faded from view.

In no way am I advocating throwing out everything that’s worked for us in the past. At the heart of things, quite the opposite. I’m talking about relying on one’s ability to recognize a niche or a new way of doing things. Such critical thinking creates a path for the next level of success.

In other words, being resourceful and on the lookout for new ways of solving problems is a key attribute that moves people in a direction of success.  But contentment with the status quo develops into a ball and chain.

Think about it.
Is it time to rethink the way you think?

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Filed in Technology, Work, Business, Motivation, Management, Leadership, Workplace, Meetings, Corporate Culture