The Front Line Guide to Thinking Clearly

55

Chapter 5

Thinking Clearly and Analytically

hinking clearly has been reasonably well defined, so let’s

examine what “thinking analytically” means. “Analysis”

means taking things apart to find their constituent parts (as in

a chemical analysis) and then looking at the relationships

among those parts (as in a mechanical analysis of motors and

engines). For managers, analytical thinking is about deter-

mining why things don’t work or didn’t happen as planned, or

what their bosses want when they say, “Take care of this.”

Therefore, analytical thinking means looking backward to see

why and how things got to where they are, and looking ahead ...