Do your clients engage in critical thinking? Do you?

Critical thinking is very important for reaching good decisions, whether in management and leadership of self or others; or in conflict resolution, from personal to global. Just what is critical thinking? Click to watch a short video that addresses that question.

A few of the many valuable points made in the video:

1. When we engage in critical thinking, we seek out and are guided by knowledge and evidence that fits with reality, even if it refutes our cherished beliefs
2. Critical thinkers cultivate an attitude of curiosity [the "c" in CARVE] and eagerness to widen their perspective and broaden their knowledge, and they are willing to do the work required to keep themselves properly informed about a subject
3. Critical thinkers examine reasoning, assumptions, and biases behind claims
4. What will sabotage critical thought? Lack of respect for reason, intellectual arrogance, unwillingness to listen, intellectual laziness, and lack of respect for evidence
5. If we think in false dichotomies, we will tend to draw false conclusions
6. A barrier to critical thinking: Leaping to false conclusions because you can't tolerate the ambiguity of not knowing

Comments

[Bernie Daina]

Among my client companies that want testing for candidates, the most popular instrument measures critical thinking (recognizing assumptions, evaluating arguments, drawing conclusions); followed by a psychometrically valid and reliable personality test; followed by either tests of emotional intelligence or else sales aptitude. Bernie Daina, PhD, Consulting Mgmt & Orgzl Psychologist