The challenge we face is that critical thinking is hard. The easy path is to not question, not ask ‘why,’ and not dig for deeper meaning and root cause. The more difficult, but ultimately more rewarding path is to challenge fixed belief systems, internal biases, and recognize that when we deflect and point fingers at others, three more are pointing right back at us.

I get asked fairly often how an individual can improve this skill. So today, I’m going to provide listeners with a tool to improve critical thinking. Before we get started, a word of caution—improvements in critical thinking seldom happen overnight. Critical thinking skills are developed over years and maintaining this skill takes real effort—critical thinking can atrophy quickly if we abandon or reduce our commitment to continuous improvement and lifelong learning. It is sooo easy to get lulled into the status quo and easy to adopt a fixed, unyielding mindset.

Listening is routinely found in “top ten” lists of the most important human skills for the 21st Century. Listening takes practice and can thrive in the right environmental conditions. To assume you’re cultivating improved listening skills without making equivalent investments in education, psychological safety, empowerment, and presence is a fallacy.

To add value and deliver results, one must be appropriately educated and skilled in one’s chosen field. Continuing to add value throughout one’s career requires the adoption of a lifelong learning and continuous improvement mindset. Resting on one’s laurels and previous accomplishments is never a good idea. While it’s easy to grouse and complain that we live in a “what have you done for me lately world,” the better path is to adopt the mindset that success comes from continuous learning and improvement in outcomes and results. If failure occurs, learn and move forward.

You see, developing a robust professional network takes time, energy, and skill. Contrary to the common perceptions noted above, everyone can build an impactful professional network. Doing so requires a host of human skills (a.k.a., soft skills) such as communication, influence, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, active listening, persistence, drive, courage, intention, and many others.

In today’s Muse, I’m going to focus on the topic of meetings. Love them or hate them, meetings are a meaningful part of corporate life and represent a significant opportunity for improvement—meaning making meetings more effective—as part of any organization’s continuous improvement practice.

Unfortunately, we avoid talking about self love because it’s a deeply personal subject and carries with it a stigma. A label that self love is too fuzzy and squishy. A label that you’re somehow showing weakness if you discuss self love. In my opinion, we need to elevate discussions of self love because respecting and loving oneself is the foundation upon which all other relationships rest.

There are a few additional aspects of team chemistry that are not included in our list and those are the concepts of finesse and tact. Understanding nuance is also critically important to team chemistry. These are skills that don’t receive much attention in the myriad lists of “top skills for the future,” but I would argue that they form the foundation for all high-functioning teams that sustain their performance over the long term.

Intellectually, I am keenly aware that I should objectively evaluate what went wrong through an after-action review (AAR), engage in a learning activity, communicate why what I’ve learned will produce different results in the future, and implement a change to my standard work (i.e., the current set of best practices) to reduce the likelihood of recurrence. Reality can be quite different. It’s easy to allow feelings of inadequacy to cloud my judgement. It’s easy to wallow in the valley of despair. It’s easy to throw a pity-party and remain “stuck.” A vicious cycle can ensue in which being “stuck” leads to more misses and feelings that you just can’t do anything right.

If you’re a leader, listen to what your front-line personnel are telling you about what your customers are saying. Actively listen. Meet them on their turf. Tune in directly to customer conversations. Show you care by taking action to improve the experience of your customers. Taking action will result in improved working conditions for your front-line colleagues.

Every employee of every company in the world is involved in value creation and impacts one or more value streams either directly or indirectly. Unnecessary complexity, over-engineered processes, extraneous approvals, and myriad other blockers impede flow and therefore constrain value addition to any process.

This is why measurement and transparency are key components of any effective management operating system. If everyone has access to the same information and that information is shared consistently through time, then the gap, dare I say gulf, that can exist between the information that makes its way up to the C-suite and the reality of operations at ground level can be closed.