Critical Thinking - A few thoughts and 6 Tips
Critical Thinking - A few thoughts
I would argue that critical thinking is one of the most important, if not the most important Soft Skills to learn.
It acts as the foundation… the guiding path… for other skills to be built on. It's the way you think...and analyze information... and come to conclusions... and come up with ideas.
The truth is, even at the best of times, we have holes in the way we think...blind spots...errors. Thinking critically doesn't come naturally. It takes active effort to improve.
When I first started doing Critical Thinking Workshops with E & G Training, I scoured books and online resources to find some resources to use. I found that just about everything was overly academic and theoretical. It just didn’t fit what I wanted to do, which was deliver practical training with engaging activities...having those 'aha' moments.
We want our trainees to leave every session with something that can be applied right away in a way that they can connect directly to their daily life.
So, we ended up putting together a workshop series on our own that best fit what we wanted to achieve.
Here is a sneak peek at what we believe to be the most practical and effective ways to improve your critical thinking skills.
1. Ask tons of questions. Get good at asking the right questions at the right time. Challenge assumptions. Challenge your own statements and beliefs.
2. Express yourself in writing in order to fine-tune yourself and strengthen your ideas.
3. Apply First Principles Thinking.
4. Identify 6 common Biases/Fallacies (Confirmation Bias, Causal Fallacy, Hasty Generalization, Group Think, Blind Think, and Emotional Bias) and stop them in their tracks.
5. Give yourself some productive solitude every day to simply think, uninterrupted and disconnected from technology.
6. Be endlessly curious.
In our Critical Thinking workshop(s), we explore each of these points above in detail and do a series of activities and discussions to solidify the concepts and spark interest to continue learning and improving on your own.
Curious to hear more? Get in touch!