Judgment from the ground up - Vaughn Tan

"Critical thinking is foundational for making decisions that require subjective judgment. People learn how to do subjective decisionmaking through practice. Unfortunately, organisations increasingly reserve subjective decisionmaking for senior members, so junior members get neither practice nor support in learning how to do it; this also means that they don't get practice in the kinds of critical thinking needed for good subjective decisionmaking."

"This leads to succession crises, inefficient bottlenecking in decisionmaking, and poor decisions made by senior members who are far removed from the operational realities that junior members are exposed to. Organisations must therefore redesign themselves to provide junior members with opportunities and tools for learning how to think critically when making subjective decisions. To build capacity for subjective judgment from the ground up, organisations must create low-stakes practice opportunities where juniors can make real decisions"

Critical thinking involves analysing and evaluating assumptions, situations, information, and arguments to form reasoned judgments. It enables moving beyond accepting things at face value, creating novel approaches, changing views, and persuading others. Subjective decisionmaking requires these critical thinking skills because there are no objectively correct answers and outcomes cannot be known in advance. Organizations commonly restrict subjective decisions to senior leaders, depriving junior staff of practice and support in developing those skills. That causes bottlenecks, succession crises, and decisions disconnected from frontline realities. Organizations must redesign roles and processes to allow low-stakes, real decision opportunities that let juniors learn the same skills used in high-stakes choices.

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