Role of Acceptance and Analysis in Business Situations

In the webinar on the above subject organized by Bija Training under their Mask Leadership series on 1st December 2021,  the speaker was Ms Renu Bohra, CHRO, DBShenker India Pvt Ltd. The webinar covered  aspects such as the relationship between acceptance and analysis, ways to enhance one's analytical skills, developing critical thinking skills and the significance of culture when it comes to rational and critical thinking. 

In this connection, she discussed  the air crash of the Korean air cargo flight 8509 in December 1999 which was the last such incident involving the airline resulting in a fatal accident. The aircraft crashed into the Hatfield forest shortly after take off from London Stansted airport, killing all the four crew members on board. The accident was on account of a technical snag when the plane was in the control of the senior pilot. The first officer (junior) whose Attitude Direction Indicator( ADI) was working correctly, knew that there was a mistake but was unwilling to challenge his captain's actions or make any attempt to take over the flight with his own controls.The following video in a nutshell gives the summary of the discussions.

Other things also touched upon during the discussion include the assertion of the speaker that while analytical thinking is important, we should not give a go by to holistic thinking wherein she mentioned Edward De Bono's "Six Thinking Hats" which gives sufficient place to  all forms of thinking including intuitive thinking.  It is often seen that analysis tends to be done when there is a failure. We would do well to analyse the reasons for success as well so that they can be replicated. To a question as to whether there are situations wherein analytical thinking is not valid or need not be done, the speaker pointed out that in occasions of an emergency like that of a fire, action rather than analyzing is the key requirement. It was pointed out from the audience that in matters of compliance also where the law has already been passed, you would simply have to comply and not much room would be available for analysis.  

The speaker concluded by stating that acceptance of everyone in the company, a culture of  analysis (both  it's need and embracing its results)  can be gained by involving people in the process of analysis and decision making.Making employees stakeholders and giving them sound reasons for decisions made will go a long way in building such a  culture. Overall, it was a very rewarding webinar which I am happy to share with my readers.