Introduction

No matter what we do we cannot escape our thinking. Whether we are working through a complex problem on the job, communicating with our spouses, trying to reason with our children, or even attempting to relax on our day off, our thinking is always functioning with us, determining how we see things, what the world looks like to us. Whether we recognize it or not thinking is the most significant determinant of the quality of our lives. It is our thinking that determines the extent to which we can reason well through complex problems. It is our thinking that determines the extent to which we think through the implications of the decisions we make. It is our thinking that determines whether we can identify the assumptions we are making, and whether we should questions those assumptions. Thinking is so much a part of the human experience that it is virtually impossible to imagine the human separate from thinking. In other words, because we continually think, we take for granted the phenomenon of our "thinking." Not only do we take the fact that we think for granted, but we also tend to assume that the individual thinking that we do basically works well for us. We do not generally question our thinking. Rather we tend to live with the notion that our thinking is fine, thank you very much. (And this is even true when the quality of our lives is poor).

But many, if not most, of the problems in human life directly arise from problems in human thinking. Because we do not think well, we are often unable to accomplish our purposes at work. Because we do not think well, we are often unable to follow out the implications of our potential decisions. Because we don't think well we often create problems for ourselves and others.

It is thinking then that holds the key to human life. Yet most of us are held hostage by our thinking. Most of us have no idea what our thinking is doing. Most of us are not capable of explicitly analyzing our thinking. Therefore most of us are unable to systematically find flaws in our thinking. We are trapped by the workings of our own minds.

Yet we need not be trapped by our thinking. We have a choice. Every day we do not take charge of our thinking, we make the choice to lead limited lives. Every day we do not take charge of our thinking we make the choice to be victimized by the inadequacies in our thinking.

Critical Thinking is the disciplined art of thinking that transforms thinking. Critical thinking ensures that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances. The general goal of thinking is to "figure something out." In every situation and context, we all have multiple things to figure out. Thinking enables us to do this. The problem is that our thinking often goes awry. Often it presents the world falsely to us. Often it causes us to make serious mistakes. Often it causes us to lose money, to waste resources, to make bad investments, to make foolish decisions, to hurt ourselves or others.

Nothing you can do, of course, guarantees that you will discover the complete truth about anything, but there is a way to get better at it. Excellence of thought, skill in thinking are real possibilities. However, to maximize the quality of your thinking, you must learn how to become an effective "critic" of your thinking. And to become an effective critic of your thinking, you have to make learning about thinking a priority.

Ask yourself these — rather unusual — questions: What have you learned about how you think? Did you ever study your thinking? What information do you have, for example, about how the intellectual processes that occur as your mind thinks? More to the point, perhaps, what do you really know about how to analyze, evaluate, or reconstruct your thinking? Where does your thinking come from? How much of it is of "good" quality? How much of it is of "poor" quality? How much of your thinking is vague, muddled, inconsistent, inaccurate, illogical, or superficial? Are you, in any real sense, in control of your thinking? Do you know how to test it? Do you have any conscious standards for determining when you are thinking well and when you are thinking poorly? Have you ever discovered a significant problem in your thinking and then changed it by a conscious act of will? If anyone asked you to teach them what you have learned, thus far in your life, about thinking, would you really have any idea what that was or how you learned it?

If you are like most, the only honest answers to these questions run along the lines of: "Well, I suppose I really don't know much about my thinking or about thinking in general. I suppose in my life I have more or less taken my thinking for granted. I don't really know how it works. I have never really studied it. I don't know how I test it, or even if I do test it. It just happens in my mind automatically."

In other words, serious study of thinking, serious thinking about thinking, is rare in human life. It is not a subject in most schools. It is not a subject taught at home. But if you focus your attention for a moment on the role that thinking is playing in your life, you may come to recognize that, in fact, everything you do or want or feel is influenced by your thinking.

If you begin to take thinking seriously, here are some things you will eventually discover: that all of us have, somewhere along the way, picked up bad habits of thinking; that all of us, for example, make generalizations when we don't have the evidence to back them up; allow stereotypes to influence our thinking; form some false beliefs; look at the world from a distorted point of view; ignore or attack points of view that conflict with our own; fabricate illusions and myths which we subconsciously confuse with what is true and real; think deceptively about many aspects of our experience.

The Objectives of Our Workshops

Our primary objective in all our workshops and training is a two-fold practical one, it is to introduce participants to:

1) the basic principles of critical thinking (so that they become clear about what it is and is not)

2) help participants discover ways and means for using critical thinking as a set of tools for thinking deeply through the question, issues, and problems they face in their work and/or life

The Mechanics of Workshops

Our professional development workshops are organized on the basis of the assumption that one learns critical thinking by doing critical thinking. Participants will therefore be engaged in a variety of activities in which they will, in effect, be thinking critically about their own thinking. They will use that analysis to disentangle the problems and issues they face in their work and personal life. We will design, in other words, a sequence of tasks that will facilitate participants’’ thinking through what critical thinking is and how to use it to better think through complex problems on the job and in everyday life.

Some Key Concepts Covered in the Workshop

For participants to learn to reason well through the complex problems and questions they will face on the job, they will need to learn to appreciate the full logic of what they are focused on. Every business, every job, every task involves:

• goals and objectives (which define what we are after)
  
  
• questions and problems (which define what we must answer or solve)
  
  
• information and data (which we need to answer our questions & solve our problems)
  
  
• modes of interpreting or judging information (which we need to come to conclusions)
  
  
• concepts and ideas (which we need to organize and make sense of the information we have)
  
  
• key assumptions (that we use as starting points in our thinking)
  
  
• point of view (which enables us to see things in a certain light or perspective).

• Identify goals and purposes
  
  
• Gather relevant information
  
  
• Formulate questions clearly and precisely
  
  
• Determine (and evaluate) the assumptions they are making
  
  
• Think through the implications of the decisions they make
  
  
• Make logical and accurate inferences and interpretations
  
  
• Clearly articulate the concepts or ideas that are guiding their thinking
  
  
• Consider alternate ways of looking at situations

These are some of the key concepts we focus on in our workshops. We introduce participants to the basic components of critical thinking, and ways to apply those foundations to the problems they face in their work. In all professional development workshops, we present critical thinking skills, insights, and values integral to sound and effective thinking. We focus, therefore, on helping employees understand the work they do as involving systems of logical relationships, organized sets of concepts, principles, and understandings they must master in order to think well on the job.

We teach them how to understand thoughts, feelings, and desires as interrelated functions of the mind operating in a dynamic relationship to one another. When participants understand these relationships, they understand that desires and emotions emerge from thoughts, just as thoughts are influenced by our desires and emotions. When they experience negative emotions, they will be able to identify and modify the thinking that is governing those emotions, and through that act, modify the emotions themselves. Critical thinking enables us to solve emotional as well as cognitive problems.

Basic Objectives of Foundational Workshops in Critical Thinking

1. Understanding the pervasive role of thinking in human life.2. Understanding the importance of developing higher order thinking to replace lower order thinking in order to reason well through complex issues on the job. 3. Understanding critical thinking as the key to high quality thinking within any domain of thought or work. 4. Understanding how to analyze thinking by focusing on its parts or elements, and how to apply understanding of the elements of reasoning to workplace decisions and problems. 5. Understanding the importance of universal intellectual standards in thinking, and how to apply these standards to workplace decisions and the process of thinking through problems.6. Understanding the fundamental barriers to critical thinking development 7. Understanding the relationship between thinking, feelings and desires 8. Seeing the development of critical thinking as unfolding in stages, and involving deep commitment on the part of the learner. 9. Understanding the role of assessment thinking. 10. Using categories of questions as a tool for learning.11. Beginning to understand how to ask high quality questions.

The above division of topics is not absolute. These objectives overlap. We take into account the pace that works for participants.

Time and Costs

Call the Foundation for more detail and costs of professional development workshops and seminars.

The Practical Task

The practical task we set has multiple dimensions, but a unifying dynamic. It involves:

• LEARNING HOW TO DISENGAGE YOUR EGOCENTRIC TENDENCIES
  
  
  • Learning how to identify your ego’’s influence on your thinking
  • Learning how to identify problems in egocentric thinking
  • Learning how to combat egocentric thinking
  • Learning how to recognize sociocentric thinking
  • Learning how to recognize inappropriate emotions in your thinking
    
    
• Learning How to Question Analytically
  
  
  • Questioning your purpose
  • Questioning the information you are using
  • Questioning the inferences and conclusions you are coming to
  • Questioning your concepts and ideas
  • Questioning your point of view
  • Questioning your assumptions
    
    
• Learning How to Question Evaluatively
  
  
  • Questioning the clarity of your thinking
  • Questioning the accuracy of your thinking
  • Questioning the precision of your thinking
  • Questioning the relevance of your thinking
  • Questioning the depth of your thinking
  • Questioning the breadth of your thinking
  • Questioning the logic of your thinking
  • Questioning the significance of your thinking
    
    
• LEARNING HOW TO UPGRADE YOUR THINKING
  
  
• Deschooling Yourself: Learning How to
  Use the Insights of Discipline-Based Thinking
  
  
  • The Contribution of Sociological Thinking
  • The Contribution of Historical Thinking
  • The Contribution of Psychological Thinking
  • The Contribution of Philosophical Thinking
    
    
• Developing Strategies For Practicing Higher Level Thinking
  
  
  • Improving Your Relations With and Colleagues
  • Improving Your Relation With Friends
  • Improving Your Relationship with Your Spouse
  • Improving Your Relationship with Your Children
  • Improving Your Relationship with Your Self
    
    
• Organizational Thinking:
  Learning How to Survive Bureaucratic Nightmares
  
  
  • Organizations Without Missions
  • Jobs Without Missions
  • How to Do Excellent Work in a Weak Company
  • Transforming Weakness into Strength

For a deeper understanding of critical thinking and it's application to business issues and decisions, see Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life.

Back to top