6.1 – Why should you train your critical thinking skills?

Imagine the following situation:

You graduated and you find yourself working for a company. Your boss and your colleagues hope that you are a useful addition to their team. They expect you to analyze problems, brainstorm solutions, and present strategic recommendations.

One day, the top management wants you to prepare an important decision that will determine the company’s future success. A critical analysis is the foundation, but equally important is justifying and selling your work to those who make the decision. You want to present your recommendation in a concise and convincing manner. Can you craft a short and persuasive argument?

Now, let’s imagine your presentation was successful and your argumentation convinced the top management. You have left an impression. Also, your colleagues now respect you more for your skills of analyzing and presenting your argument. They begin to pitch their recommendations to you first before going to their superiors. They ask you for your constructive feedback. You realize that it is a chance to become a true agent for change in the company. You don’t want to disappoint them. Can you give excellent feedback?

In the critical thinking exercises, you will learn how to craft a short, concise and structured argument. An argument that only needs six sentences to convince a critical reader. And you will learn how to give feedback and access the power of peer reviews.

The training always contains several steps:

1. analyzing a case,
2. crafting an argument in six sentences and submitting it to peer review,
3. giving constructive feedback to your peers,
4. reflecting on suggested solutions from the whole class and learning from crowd intelligence,
5. improving with the help of the feedback that you received.

Why do we want you to further develop these skills?

Being able to craft convincing arguments and write high-quality feedback will have many benefits. For example, it lets you expand your leadership skills. You can lead more effectively if you can communicate your ideas clearly, and if you can support others to get better. Much about leadership is enabling others to perform at their best. Giving constructive feedback that is accurate, honest, and supportive is a powerful way to achieve this. And to learn from feedback that you receive is equally important, because real leaders appreciate feedback to improve.