Critical thinking for office managers

GOLD REEF CITY

CHARLES COTTER16 AUGUST 2012

PRESENTATION OVERVIEW Introduction

Introductory activity – “Ice Breaker”

Defining Critical Thinking

Video clip: Critical Thinking

Understanding the characteristics of Critical Thinking

Value of Critical Thinking

Defining Critical Thinking Skills

Critical Thinking Process

Guidelines on how to improve your Critical Thinking Skills

INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY 1. How do you put a giraffe into your refrigerator?

2. How do you put an elephant into your refrigerator?

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend - except one. Which animal does not attend?

4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles and you do not have a boat. How do you manage it?

CORRECT ANSWERSQuestion 1: Open the refrigerator, put in the

giraffe, and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do

simple things in an overly complicated way. Question 2: Did you say, Open the refrigerator,

put in the elephant, and close the refrigerator? Wrong answer. Correct answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door.

This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.

CORRECT ANSWERSQuestion 3: The elephant. The elephant is in the

refrigerator. You just put him in there.

This tests your memory.

Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.

Question 4: You jump into the river and swim across. Have you not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the animal conference.

This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

CONSOLATION PRIZE

According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals tested got all questions wrong.

CRITICAL THINKING – LEARNT LESSONSTendency not to do simple things in an overly

complicated way (FOCUS and SIMPLICITY)

Think through the repercussions of your previous actions (ANALYSIS and REFLECTION)

Ability to remember (MEMORIZATION and RECALL)

Learn quickly from your mistakes (AVID and ACTIVE LEARNER)

DEFINING CRITICAL THINKINGCritical thinking is a type of thinking that

questions assumptions

It is a way of deciding whether a claim is always true, sometimes true, partly true, or false

Critical thinking is an important component of most professions e.g. Office Management

“Reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do“

DEFINING CRITICAL THINKING

“The intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action"

ARE YOU AN EFFECTIVE CRITICAL THINKER?

GIVE YOURSELF A RATING ON A SCALE OF 1-5 FOR EACH OF THE ABOVE CHARACTERISTICS

Irrespective of the sphere of thought, "a well-cultivated critical thinker“ exhibits the following characteristics:

Raises important questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely

Gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively

Comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards

Thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences

Communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems, without being unduly influenced by others' thinking on the topic

VALUE OF CRITICAL THINKINGCritical thinking:

Clarifies goalsExamines assumptionsDiscerns hidden valuesEvaluates evidenceAccomplishes actionsAssesses conclusions

VIDEO CLIP: CRITICAL THINKINGKey learning points

Critical thinking 2.htm

VALUE OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLSFor a Office Manager:

Problem-solvingDecision-makingEvaluating proposalsOrganizing events and processes Prioritizing CommunicationResolving conflict and disputesInformation processing

CRITICAL THINKING PROCESSCritical thinking calls for the ability to:

Recognize problems, to find workable means for meeting those problems

Understand the importance of prioritization and order of precedence in problem solving

Gather and marshal pertinent (relevant) information

Recognize unstated assumptions and valuesComprehend and use language with accuracy,

clarity, and discernmentInterpret data, to appraise evidence and

evaluate arguments

CRITICAL THINKING PROCESSCritical thinking calls for the ability to:

Recognize the existence (or non-existence) of logical relationships between propositions

Draw warranted conclusions and generalizations

Put to test the conclusions and generalizations at which one arrives

Reconstruct one's patterns of beliefs on the basis of wider experience

Render accurate judgments about specific things and qualities in everyday life

GUIDELINES ON HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

Remove all bias when thinking critically.

You must learn to play devil's advocate with yourself in order to get the truest possible solution.

Use your critical-thinking abilities for smaller problems, and then gradually move to bigger problems.

Play critical-thinking games, such as Sudoku or chess.

Try having amicable debates with friends or family. Take the position to which you would normally be opposed in order to really exercise your critical-thinking abilities.

“Curiosity killed the cat”

Buddhist mind-set

Utilize group-based problem solving techniques

“Outside of the box” thinking

Thinking creatively – whole brain thinking – integrate left and right brain hemispheres

CONCLUSIONSummary of key points

Questions

CONTACT DETAILS084 562 9446

[email protected]

Linked In http://za.linkedin.com/pub/charles-cotter/38/175/875