T: 051 401 9111 info@ufs.ac.za www.ufs.ac.za

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

THE MISSING LINK TOIMPROVE

PERFORMANCE

Dr Renalde Huysamen

ACU 2012

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE

28 January 1904

GREY University College1999

Growth Period

2009 M I

STUDENT HEAD COUNT 2009 27241PERMANENT STAFF: 2055

SERVICE LEVEL WORKERS 2012

130 supervisors

230 subordinates

2/3 CAMPUSES

UFS FOCUS

SERVICE DELIVERY

LITERATURE REVIEW

Skills in critical thinking are essential for employees as their internal and external customers need to be protected from unhelpful, unsubstantiated and harmful practices

• Customers need to be assured that service-delivery is based on the best evidence, knowledge and practices in a given work related situation. Employees are expected to be problem solvers, but managers seldom isolate critical thinking as a specific skill in the work place. Developing the ability to think critically enhance performance. Some problems experienced in industry where management and subordinates omit to apply critical thinking are:

• wrong decisions made• symptoms of problems are addresses instead of root causes being

eliminated• action plans based on the wrong decisions are implemented• mistrust emerges between managers and shop floor workers

(Huysamen 1997).

The national Council for Excellence in Critical thinking (Paul 2000) states that to develop the mind with respect to critical thinking requires extensive practice and long term cultivation. In the working situation a very effective way to practice critical thinking is through coaching on a daily basis.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THINKING AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS-COACHING.

Paul (2002) argues that communication in short is always a transaction between at least two logics

The end result is a new creation; the sender's thinking for the first time now exists within the recipient's mind.

TRANSFER OF TASK RELATED KNOW- HOW.

Clur (1998:2) argues that the brain thinks in 'patterns of thought' established through experience. When the brain recognises a thought pattern, it knows what to expect.

Clur (1999:3) argues that the transfer of task related know-how gained through job related experience can be facilitated, if the knowledge to be transferred is delineated and there is a clear understanding of the thinking steps followed in the process

SPECIFIC COACHING TECHNIQUES COULD THEN BE DEVELOPED TO:

• Establish a standard in the mind of job related tasks required • See a personal advantage in meeting requirements• foresee and identify potential problems• visualise the impact on the process if requirements or standards are

not met• take initiative to resolve problems and avoid mistakes • raise vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and

precisely• gather and assess relevant information• come to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them

against relevant criteria• communicate effectively with others to figure out solutions to complex

problems while sorting out unnecessary data;: and • ensure that parts of a situation is consciously reviewed

THE REALTIONSHIP BETWEEN PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT, COACHING AND THINKING SKILLS

The PM process should establish a shared understanding about what is to be achieved and how to achieve it through managing people in such a way that it increases the probability of achieving success (Armstrong ibid).

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKcoaching -Explaining

requirements/ formal&informal meetings/daily

routine

critical thinking-building

arguments for problem solving

performance management-planning and

work environment

PLANNING THE PROCEDURE

PILOT

UNIONS

HR

FACILITATORS

RECTORATE

one day workshop for supervisors

the writing of the training material

On- the- job coaching

formal signing of the performance plans

Training- Information Technology System

procedure

TECNIQUE: DAILY ROUTINELEARNNG OBJECTIVES: Sequence daily tasks and activities in a logical sequence, explain the causes and effects of problems, take action to prevent mistakes:THE PERSONAL ADVANTAGE:(a)Plan your day correctly and complete all tasks (b)being aware of the consequences of not identifying and correcting mistakes(c)take action to prevent problems.ESTABLISH KNOWLEDG E ABOUT THE TASK:•What is the first task you must do?•What standards must you check?•What problems can you expect if requirements are not met?•What will be the effect if you do not identify and correct the problems?•What can cause the problems?•What action can you take to prevent the problem from happening?•What action must you take if there is a problem?•(taking each task in the performance plan)

Celebration!

FINDINGS

The process and performance plan documentation were acceptable:

The requirements for performance is now clearly communicated.

The process and specifically the coaching assisted us to communicate requirements in such a way that the men accepted the requirements

When people signed their performance plans it seemed that they not only understood what they are signing and why, but that they felt that they had the opportunity to have an input in their daily tasks.

FINDINGS

The coaching sessions were informative:

The techniques helped me to explain myself better.

We went through the tasks together and they helped me jot down all the tasks as well as the activities for each task. We re- negotiated their tasks during the coaching, raise vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely .

People do not ask for help or know how to solve problems by themselves

FINDINGS

Planning performance:

We compiled the tasks with the help of the facilitators and then read it back to people to ensure understanding. Even people who have been working here for long time still make mistakes

We had the opportunity to explain how important their tasks are

The workers were very positive when they signed the performance plans

Signing the plans is easy if we do the coaching before the time and negotiate the tasks and the standards through the training before the time. People trusted the document in itself as well as the supervisors' intentions. People trust PM because of the coaching done before the time. The coaching lead to negotiations as well as a better understanding of the daily work for everybody. We did it as a group and this also worked well because they could help to remind each other on specific tasks that they do.

CONCLUSION

After analysing the implementation processes used for the implementation of a performance management systems for service level workers, the final conclusion which could be made is that the application of critical thinking skills through a process of coaching contributed to the fact that the staff accepted the new performance management system. The framework proved to be effective and that it assisted supervisors to implement PM successfully.

T: 051 401 9111 info@ufs.ac.za www.ufs.ac.za