Maximising thinking
These unique trainings will take you through the skills of critical thinking and beyond, so that you are able not just to evaluate but also to generate ideas, and to share your thinking with the world
Maximise your thinking:
workshop options
Maximise your thinking: the essentials (2.5 hour workshop, in person, or virtually)
Maximise your thinking: full course covers all the principal skills in greater depth, with greater chance for application (4-6 hours, depending on size and ability of cohort, or 2-3 hours if already taken the Specialised CT training)
Mastery course: in-depth coverage of all the important skills; regular assessment of progress through tests and recapping; full chance for application. Follow-up coaching also available to cement learning and retention (12-16 hours)
Focused trainings: Bespoke trainings and support on particular skill areas e.g. Sharing and aligning thinking; How to disagree productively
What you learn
Exercise critical thinking and (good) judgment
Although we can't choose the thoughts or ideas we have or encounter, we can choose the ones we want to stand by or pursue. As for the relentless stream of information we encounter, we must decide where and when to pay attention. Both these choices require critical thinking. They also require good judgment
Share thinking effectively
It's no good having great ideas and being able to select the best if you don't share them with the world. Likewise it's no good being able to argue for your own ideas if all you do is alienate others. These require a sepatrate set of skills entirely from being able to think critically or creatively, yet they are just as important.
Think both critically and creatively
Critical thinking can help us evaluate ideas, but it can't give us the ideas in the first place. For this we need our natural human creativity. the relationship between critical and creative thinking is delicate - they can get in each other's way, but they both need each other!
Link thinking to action
It's no good being able to come up with great ideas and share them successfully if doing so takes you forever! It's not just a case of knowing how to think well, it's also a case of knowing when - and how much. Part of the answer lies in knowing how to deploy some of our faster, more intuitive ways of thinking; and how to evaluate ideas quickly and efficiently
critical thinking and judgment
The most important skills and concepts from critical thinking made relevant and accessible. You will learn how to:
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Assess the reliability and significance of information
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Evaluate claims, arguments, ideas
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Pressure-test thinking: reveal flaws/ biases/ blindspots/ assumptions etc
critical and creative thinking
The interplay between these quite different sides of our thinking. We show you how to:
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Exploit the natural human tendency to generate thoughts and ideas
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Enter 'play' mode; ways to encourage idea generation
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Switch the two sides on and off, when and how to move from more consciously effortful to more free-form instinctive thinking
sharing thinking
Quite distinct from the skills of being able to think well are the skills of being able to share your thinking effectively. You will learn how to:
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Frame ideas so they land with others
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Anticipate and respond to objections
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Challenge others' ideas in ways that are powerful yet non-confrontational
link thinking to action
For your thinking to be truly empowered, it needs to impact the world. We show you how to:
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Handle uncertainty
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Avoid over-thinking by knowing when and how much to think and having the confidence to go with your judgment
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Know when to trust in faster and more instinctive forms of thinking such as instinct or intuition or simple common sense
Why you learn these things
Focused workshops
Sharing thinking
For our thinking to be empowered, we need to be able to form and express our own judgments, thoughts and ideas - but also be able to connect our thinking with that of others. Joe draws on his experience in critical thinking alongside his work in other, more distinctly 'human' and emotionally rich or volatile areas, such as his work in conflict resolution, preventing violent extremism, and teaching literature and drama to provide specialist workshops that focus on the art of sharing thinking.
WHAT YOU LEARN:
- the emotional as well as the rational dimension to thinking and to sharing thinking; how to combine successfully so that ideas connect and resonate
- psychological and sociological issues and challenges around updating (why it's important to us to be seen to be right, why we don't like to admit when we are wrong) and how to mitigate these
- the importance of sharing thinking, the value of but also the problems with dealing with pushback
- issues and problems around agreement and disagreement: avoid groupthink and escalation into binary, "fight or flight" threat states
- how to be more sensitive to contextual factors, other perspectives, and the unknown
REAL WORLD THINKING REQUIRES MORE THAN JUST BEING ABLE TO THINK CLEARLY, CRITICALLY AND ANALYTICALLY - YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO SHARE YOUR THINKING, AND, WHERE NECESSARY, ACT ON IT!
Joe Chislett, Founder KRITIKOS
Combining critical and creative thinking
Being able to combine critical and creative thinking is the ultimate human superpower. However, it is not easy. Joe draws on his experience teaching critical and analytical thinking, the philosophy of science, alongside his experience teaching creative writing, as well as his passion for writing and performing poetry to look at the interplay between critical thought and creative output.
WHAT YOU LEARN:
This workshop takes a deeper dive into the relationship between critical and creative thinking. Why they both need each other and how to get them working in harmony.
We go deeper into the areas touched on in the Maximise Your Thinking workshops, sharing further strategies for how to:
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Exploit the natural human tendency to generate thoughts and ideas
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Enter 'play' mode; ways to encourage idea generation
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Switch the two sides on and off, when and how to move from more consciously effortful to more free-form instinctive thinking