Does it matter who said it first? Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have said, “You can fool some people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” It is possible that he was quoting someone else because PT Barnum is also supposed to have said this.

The quote intrigues me because I change it slightly to say “You can please some people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.”

When I teach about critical thinking, I want everyone to realize that it’s something they’ll be working on for the rest of their lives, that everyone can improve from who they are right now, no matter their current level, and I want everyone to appreciate and value learning. It does not happen! Some want to go back and say that they are already good at it and there is no need to learn more. Some want to tell me that there are people they know who think they know everything, and they would like to lower the bar for those others.

Critical thinking is about investigating, asking questions, wanting to know, and understanding better. It is not about proving others wrong. Now sometimes that happens. Others can be proven wrong through research. But the purpose of critical thinking is for both of you to discover deeper truths, more facts, better validity, more relevance, clearer logic, and more complete and useful information.

Someone who sincerely asks and seeks facts and truths does so with others and not against them.

In a business situation where decisions are being made every day that affect the life of the business and financial returns, getting to the facts, using logical thought processes, exploring and comparing options is a win-win proposition. You win because you are respected for your critical thinking methods. The organization wins because better decisions are made. And customers and stakeholders win for the same reasons.

Which brings me back to the quote. It would be hard for anyone to argue against the importance of critical thinking, except that people do it. They say it takes too long or bothers people who feel they are being tested. So you can’t please everyone just because you’re applying good critical thinking processes. Which brings us to another quote: “If you don’t have enough time to do it right the first time, how are you going to find the time to do it again?”