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Evolved Management

They don't lack critical thinking skills, they lack context

Published 2 months ago • 1 min read

Hey Reader!

I hear it all the time from MSP owners, "My team just doesn't have critical thinking skills."

But here's what's actually happening. You've spent 15 or 20 years building expertise that now feels like second nature. You see patterns instantly. You know which shortcuts work and which ones will bite you later. You've internalized lessons from hundreds of client environments.

Your team doesn't have that. Not yet. What looks like a lack of critical thinking is actually just a lack of experience.

This is called the expert blind spot, sometimes the false consensus effect. You've forgotten what it's like not to know what you know. The connections that seem obvious to you aren't obvious to someone who hasn't logged thousands of hours troubleshooting or managing client relationships. They're not failing to think critically. They're working with a fraction of the data you have stored in your head.

The fix isn't to complain about critical thinking. It's about building systems that turn your knowledge into repeatable processes. Document your decision-making frameworks. Create checklists for common scenarios. Make your expertise accessible instead of expecting people to magically develop 15 years of wisdom overnight. Otherwise, you will remain the bottleneck for decision making.

Your team isn't lacking critical thinking. They're lacking your context. That's a problem you can actually solve.

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600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
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Evolved Management

Todd Kane : MSP Operation Nerd

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