How to minimise the role of luck or good fortune [NB this is a big one, for businesses - for individuals maybe emphasise the confidence in ucertainty thing, for businesses maybe the reducing luck/ deciding more wisely amidst unknowns.; also the communicaton thing.. make these big things I build trainings around... And of course let Bryan collab inform further...]
Ideally will have testimonials from each area on each page, but for now, especially with the work-based learnig/ workshops, have it link back to home page testimonials section
Making thinking human
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REAL PEOPLE, AND HOW THEY REALLY THINK
Understanding people
We are not simply rational or irrational; we are a blend, a mixture: of thoughts and feelings; of the logical and the emotional, the intuitive and instinctive, the critical and the creative. Any attempt to change or 'improve' how people think needs to bear this fact of our nature in mind.
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THE CONTEXT THEY THINK IN
Understanding the context we think in
We don't think in a vacuum, but amongst others. We are embodied, social beings, with a shared language, and who live in a shared world - with shared, as well as individual, goals. Added to this, we now inhabit a world where technology offers to do our thinking for us!
Empowering human thinking: 4 requirements
Think critically and exercise own judgment
Combine critical and creative thinking
Share thinking effectively
- whether with humans or AI
link thinking to action
A matter of importance
Our thinking is under greater threat than ever before. And yet our ability to think well is arguably more important than ever.
Join Joe on his mission to help us fully maximise our thinking, to realise the full power of our human potential.
How we help
Expert-led critical thinking training
Real world critical thinking strategies taught by an expert in the field. Joe literally co-wrote the book A-Z of Critical Thinking, and has been teaching and assessing critical thinking skills for over 20 years.
Unique programme to help you truly maximise your thinking
Combine critical thinking with creative thinking, intuition, the skills to share your thinking with others - and to act on it!
Thinking with AI
We are embodied beings who have evolved to think in a social context. But we are also individuals with our own thoughts and needs. We now face a new challenge - technology that offers to do our thinking for us! Our AI-focused workshops help you to think independently and collaboratively - both with people and AI.
Confidence in own judgment
Combine critical and creative thinking
Share your thinking more effectively
Link thinking to action
I’m Joe. For over twenty years I’ve worked at the heart of critical thinking—teaching it, assessing it, co‑authoring books and papers, and designing tests used around the world to measure critical and analytical thinking.
I understand the full value of this, and what it means to do it well. But I've also come to see the value of what the tests fail to test - the other aspects of human intelligence that we need alongside critical and analytical thinking for our thinking to be fully empowered. The ability to share and communicate our thinking effectively. To combine critical and creative thinking so that you can generate as well as evaluate ideas.
The onward march of AI has revealed to us the full value and range of human thinking - but also its vulnerability. With KRITIKOS, I use my knowledge and expertise of what the tests assess but also my insight into what the tests fail to test.
I take you through critical thinking and beyond so as to fully empower your thinking.
individuals
Tailored training and/ or coaching/ mentoring. Help individuals to maximise their thinking, giving them greater autonomy and agency. Develop strength and confidence in their judgment, the confidence to evaluate and propose ideas
teams and organisations
Group training to improve team alignment; the sharing of ideas. Maximise the most important asset of any team or organisation: the collective intelligence of its workforce
career progression and leadership
The need to make judgments and decisions is the hardest challenge of entering leadership or management roles. The skills we develop give you strength and confidence in your own judgment: the flexibility to act on your thinking but listen and adapt where necessary
To empower human thinking means understanding its full scope. Human thinking is a complex blend of the critical, the creative, the imaginative, the instinctive, the logical and the emotional.
Our unique approach takes you through the steps of clear, critical and analytical thinking - but shows you how to connect this to the other aspects of our thinking.
Fully empowered thinking =
4 things you need to be able to do:
Think critically and analytically
Share thinking effectively with others
Combine critical and creative thinking
Link thinking to action
Course shows you how to do all these
Confidence in own judgment
Combine critical and creative thinking
Share your thinking more effectively
Link thinking to action
A high stakes game...
We're at a tipping point with regard to our thinking: use it, or lose it. Use it, and you reap the full benefits from AI; lose it, and you lose your value, your very identity as a human being.
Whether you are an individual seeking to further your career, or an organisation seeking to improve its functionality, KRITIKOS will help you to sharpen and strengthen the most important resource you possess.
APPLIED CRITICAL AND ANALYTICAL THINKING
THINK CRITICALLY, CREATIVELY AND COLLABORATIVELY
THINK ALONGSIDE AI
The most fundamental problem we all face is that of having to decide and act in a world where our knowledge is imperfect or incomplete and the consequences are uncertain.
KRITIKOS gives you the skills and confidence to meet that uncertainty - to think, decide and act with confidence.
Full Course: APPLIED CRITICAL AND ANALYTICAL THINKING: Critical thinking and beyond
- Confidence in own judgment and basis for decisions
- Share thinking more effectively
- Combine critical and creative thinking
FOCUSED WORKSHOPS
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introduction to critical and analytical thinking
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sharing thinking - with people and AI
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combining critical and creative thinking
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linking thinking to action
Maximise your thinking and its impact on the world. Whether you are an individual seeking to further your career, or an organisation seeking to improve its functionality, our stimulating and engaging courses and workshops will sharpen and strengthen the most important resource you possess.
Focused workshop
CENTRAL THEMES
WHAT IT REALLY MEANS TO THINK CRITICALLY; CHALLENGES FACED; PRACTICAL STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME
CRITICAL THINKING EMERGENCY SURGERY
The focus here is on clearing away popular misconceptions of what critical thinking involves and replacing them with some more useful, accurate, practical strategies.
This is the best short introductory workshop on critical thinking you will find!
CRITICAL THINKING THAT WORKS (Standard programme)
Goes beyond mere emergency surgery into proper reconstruction: a tour of the fundamentals of critical thinking and how to apply them to real world contexts.
CRITICAL THINKING THAT WORKS (Full course)
A deeper dive into the skills and concepts involved in high level, strategic, critical thinking. This course also includes a chance to fully test your skills acquired across the course in an extended practical challenge.
WHY CHOOSE A CRITICAL THINKING WORKSHOP
In today’s world of overwhelming information and machine-generated answers, judging what is true or important is more vital but also more difficult than ever before. Critical thinking is the engine behind making good judgments. Not only is it harder than ever to think critically, however. Popular advice about critical thinking is all too often unhelpful or lacks clear practical application.
KRITIKOS corrects this. Drawing on decades of experience designing thinking skills tests, teaching, and assessing critical thinking, we provide advice that is:
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practical
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relevant
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genuinely helpful
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in tune with the needs of real people and the real world contexts they think in.
Full course Applied Critical and Analytical thinking /Beyond Critical Thinking
CENTRAL THEMES
WHAT ELSE WE NEED TO DO FOR OUR THINKING TO BE TRULY EMPOWERD. HOW TO COMBINE THINKING CREATIVELY AND COLLABORATIVELY WITH THINKING CRITICALLY, LINK THINKING TO ACTION
CRITICAL THINKING AND BEYOND: Maximise your thinking and its impact on the world
Although essential critical thinking skills are not sufficient for our thinking to be truly empowered. For our thinking to impact the world, we need to be able to generate ideas as well as evaluate them; we also need to be able to share our thinking effectively, and also act on it. This unique programme takes you on a tour of the human mind, and provides you with the training and skills you need alongisde your knowledge for your thinking to truly impact the world.
MAXIMISE YOUR THINKING (Full course)
As above but goes more extensively into the challenges posed in thinking critically, creatively, interpersonally and expeditiously.
SHARING THINKING
Focused workshop on the challenges involved in sharing and communicating thinking. How to agree - and disagree - productively; avoid groupthink; defend and argue for own ideas without alienating others
COMBINING CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING
Focused workshop on the challenges involved in combining the two most important aspects of human thinking, but which are sometimes in tension: our ability to think critically and creatively.
WHY CHOOSE A 'BEYOND CRITICAL THINKING WORKSHOP
Critical thinking is essential, but it’s not enough on its own for our thinking to truly be empowered. Humans are not machines—we are logical and creative, rational and emotional, instinctive and imaginative. Our thinking happens in bodies, in communities, in conversation, and increasingly alongside AI.
That’s why KRITIKOS goes beyond critical thinking. We teach you not only how to evaluate ideas, but how to:
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Generate new ones through creativity.
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Share them effectively with others.
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Challenge and refine the outputs of AI.
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Link thought to action, so ideas make a real-world impact.
Bespoke training and consultancy
CENTRAL THEMES
HOW TO THINK EFFECTIVELY ALONGSIDE AI: HOW TO USE AI JUDICIOUSLY; HOW TO ENSURE THAT AI BECOMES A THINKING PARTNER, NOT A REPLACEMENT
THINKING ALONGSIDE AI
How do we continue to think effectively alongside AI? Does it threaten to erode our thinking, or can we use it to challenge and extend our thinking
SHARING THINKING: WITH PEOPLE AND MACHINES
Sharing our thinking effectively with other people already presents its challenges. How can we do this more effectively? What about when we are sharing our thinking with AI? Can we use the same skills we need to use for sharing our thinking with it as we do with people?
CRITICAL THINKING AND AI
For people who already have taken one of the critical thinking courses or whose critical thinking skills are already advanced: how can we apply them best to dealing with the output from AI?
WHY CHOSE A THINKING ALONGSIDE AI WORKSHOP
For our thinking to be fully empowered - and to benefit from the advantages technology brings, we need AI to become a thinking partner, not replacement. Now that machines offer to make our judgments for us - both in terms of what we receive, and what we put out - the temptation is all too great to give in to them. Before long we lose the confidence and ability to think for ourselves.
KRITIKOS gives you the confidence to continue to think and judge for yourselves, meaning that you:
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Use AI judiciously, maintaining a critical distance
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Have the confidence to go with your own ideas and contributions rather than always defer to those of AI
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Understand where and how AI can support your thinking or challenge it
How the problem manifests
We identify 3 main ways in which the core problem of uncertainty manifests:
PROBLEMS OF THINKING, JUDGING, DECIDING, ACTING
PROBLEMS OF COMMUNICATION
PROBLEMS OF HUMAN-AI CONFIGURATION
Each of these is a problem due to unavoidable uncertainty. Each of these we address in our trainings.