Military Review English Edition November-December 2015 | Page 117

CRITICAL THINKING

2. An organizational climate that values, expects,
and rewards critical thinking and innovation
3. A shared understanding of the specific critical thinking skills and behaviors most important for on-the-job success
4. Faculty members who integrate critical
thinking instruction into all classes and effectively model critical thinking skills
5. A comprehensive assessment program to
facilitate organizational agility
Although the researchers identified these keys
specifically for implementing a program in the
Human Terrain System (which hired civilians for
its teams), their findings are relevant to any military educational program that measures its success
by the degree to which graduates think critically on
the job—and not merely how much learners enjoy
their classes.

An Effective Talent Management
Program to Inform Hiring,
Employment, and Retention
Practices
The first key is to establish an effective talent management program at the earliest possible opportunity,
preferably from the start. Until an organization gets
talent management right, with a high degree of person-job and person-organization fit, it will have very
limited success with its other functions.4
Designing an effective talent management program,
however, takes time. Because the Human Terrain
System was started in response to a JUONS, there was
a great sense of urgency in fielding teams. This urgency,
unfortunately, precluded the type of initial talent management analysis that was needed, with the result that
many Human Terrain System staff and team members
were hired solely based on the academic degrees they
held. Some members were not very compatible with
the organization and tasks.
To avoid hiring unsuitable applicants, a talent management program should include the following:
A job-task analysis that identifies the knowledge,
skills, attitudes, and behaviors required for each position on a team
A comprehensive applicant screening that includes cognitive, social, and physical suitability for the
job and organization

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MILITARY REVIEW  November-December 2015

• An evaluation of applicants’ critical thinking skills
• An evaluation of prospective faculty members’

critical thinking and teaching skills before hiring
Much has been written elsewhere about the program’s struggles early on. Suffice it to say that until
the Human Terrain System implemented the talent
management program, none of t he other necessary
innovations and improvements in training and education were possible.4

An Organizational Climate that
Values, Expects, and Rewards
Critical Thinking and Innovation
The second key to teaching critical thinking skills is to
ensure the organizational climate values critical and innovative thinking. Building upon, and made possible by, a talent management program, an organization demonstrates
its commitment to these values by expecting and rewarding critical thinking and innovation. An organizational
climate emerges when a majority of the members form
consensual, collective perceptions regarding such things as
organizational purpose, values, and priorities.5 An organization’s leaders, both formal and informal, must play the
main role in establishing an organizational climate.6
Indeed, some of the informal leaders in the
Human Terrain System training and education directorate were instrumental in helping generate the
collective feeling that critical thinking was an essential
requirement for the team members. Examples of this
include faculty members with recent experience on
human terrain teams emphasizing the importance of
critical thinking, and the supervisor for the contractor
faculty leading the critical thinking faculty development sessions. The establishment of the climate was
not instantaneous. Through the talent management
program—screening and selective hiring of faculty; dismissal of individuals who lacked the required
knowledge, skills, and behaviors; and the continual
efforts of the leadership—the change in organizational
climate became effective.

A Shared Understanding of the
Specific Critical Thinking Skills and
Behaviors Most Important for Onthe-Job Success
The third key is to achieve a shared understanding of
the needed skills and behaviors—to identify them and
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