129: Master These 11 Skills That AI Will Never Replace | Critical Thinking

Transcript

The Rising Importance of Critical Thinking – Why 93 percentof employers prioritize critical thinking over degrees and how AI makes thisskill even more vital.

0:00

2025 is here and the pace of change has

0:02

never been faster are you ready to

0:04

thrive in a world where AI accelerates

0:07

everything but can't replace the most

0:09

essential human skills that's why we've

0:11

created a special 11p part series on the

0:13

learn itall podcast to help you master

0:15

the skills needed to Future proof

0:16

yourself and your career from

0:18

self-awareness to listening and

0:19

developing trust these are the traits

0:21

that will make you irreplaceable in an

0:23

Ever evolving Workforce I'm Damon lmy

0:26

CEO of learn it and two-time bestselling

0:28

author and I'll be your throughout the

0:30

series joining me is Dr Mickey Fitz

0:33

Collins learn's top ranked facilitator

0:35

and a leadership expert dedicated to

0:37

helping you grow this series is brought

0:39

to you in partnership with our good

0:41

friends at much skills a platform that

0:43

helps organizations map and understand

0:45

their Workforce capabilities drawing

0:47

from Insight from their survey of over

0:49

28,000 professionals we'll unpack 11

0:52

skills in this weekly series that will

0:54

prepare you to thrive in an Ever

0:55

evolving world if you enjoy this episode

0:58

please take a moment to rate and review

0:59

on your favorite podcast platform your

1:01

feedback helps us share this message far

1:04

and wide let's dive into today's top

1:06

skill 93% of employers say critical

1:10

thinking is more important than a

1:12

candidate's undergraduate degree that

1:14

was an AA C report and also the average

1:18

person makes

1:20

35,000 decisions a day and critical

1:23

thinking helps them ensure their good

1:25

ones that's a Cornell University study

1:28

so Mickey welcome to this episode how

1:30

are you I'm doing great Damon thank you

1:32

I love those quotes so far yeah yeah

1:34

yeah thanks so let's just kick it off

1:36

with we're talking about critical

1:37

thinking today can you give us a brief

1:39

overview or definition of what critical

1:41

thinking is yeah yeah I mean in layman's

1:43

terms what we're talking about is how do

1:45

you objectively analyze information

1:47

that's coming at you um you know how do

1:50

you how do you look at claims that other

1:52

people are saying information the stuff

1:54

that we read online the stuff that's on

1:56

social media how do we actually evaluate

1:58

that stuff figure F out what what is

2:01

empirically true what is right what

2:03

judgments can I make how can I solve

2:05

problems from it how can I make

2:06

decisions from it and you know I I I I

2:09

love what you said before I think was

2:11

the number 35,000 decisions that we make

2:13

every single day isn't that crazy yeah

2:15

it is crazy I mean like I was thinking

2:17

like a few hundred but 35,000 I mean I

2:20

guess you know from from snooze button

2:22

to laying your head down on the pillow

2:23

at night it's a lot of decision- making

2:25

but we have to infuse critical thinking

2:27

into everything we do otherwise we're

2:29

just uh kind of ambling around doing a

2:31

lot of bias decision- making all the

2:32

time and so what happens if you're not

2:36

using critical thinking yeah I mean I

2:39

think one of the biggest problems is is

2:41

that as as human beings we have a lot of

2:43

built-in cognitive biases there's

2:45

something I was reading an article

2:47

recently it's something like

2:49

275 known cognitive biases and like

2:52

fallacies of thought right and and you

2:54

know some of these and we talk about the

2:55

slippery slope phenomenon right where

2:58

where you go from A to Z really quickly

3:00

or confirmation bias where we're just

3:02

trying to um find other people that

3:04

think the same way we do or you know

3:07

information that kind of resonates with

3:09

what we're trying to see or even you

3:10

know when you're shopping for a new car

3:12

all of a sudden the car that you've

3:14

zoned in on everybody around you seems

3:16

to to drive it right these sort of

3:18

things if we don't employ some level of

3:21

critical thinking in all of that our

3:23

world goes from being the broad scope

3:25

world that it is to this very biased

3:27

very limited way of of looking at things

3:30

and we start either believing our own

3:32

hype and kind of believing our own

3:34

narrative all the time or we start we

3:37

run the risk of making decisions that

3:39

only kind of satisfy certain agendas

3:41

that we have and not really looking at

3:42

the full picture and this is super

3:45

important especially in our work worlds

3:47

because we have opposing information and

3:49

opposing ideas and and different

3:51

concepts coming out at us all the time

3:53

and so we really need to critical

3:54

thinking to me is absolutely one of

3:56

those skills that needs to be way up at

3:58

the top of skills we're continuously

3:59

building

4:00

I couldn't agree more I think it's

4:02

incredibly valuable especially with the

4:05

what we're at with the in the AI taking

4:08

over a lot of the automated tasks being

4:10

able to think critically leverage AI ask

4:13

better questions look at things

4:14

differently so today can you share with

4:17

us I want you to get into a story but

4:19

before can you just mention the

4:21

framework that we're going to be going

4:23

through yeah yeah this one I mean Damon

4:25

you know and and our listeners know from

4:26

listening to our podcast so far we love

4:29

our acronyms and and the one that I'm

4:31

going to focus in on is the acronym care

4:33

that's the framework that I want

4:34

everybody to walk away with is how do we

4:36

kind of objectively look at pieces of

4:39

information um in a way that I care

4:42

stands for I I mean I can get into the

4:44

details of it in a moment here but

4:46

correlation does not equal causation um

4:49

alternative explanations reliable

4:51

sources and evidence and so that's kind

4:53

of the framework or the filter through

4:55

which we're going to look at critical

4:56

thinking today and we talk about this by

The CARE Framework for Critical Thinking – A structuredapproach to evaluating information and avoiding common decision-makingpitfalls.

4:58

the way Damon we spent a lot of time in

4:59

our think critically Workshop I'm going

5:01

through this as one of the many

5:03

Frameworks that that we explore in that

5:05

Workshop awesome well let's dive into a

5:07

critical thinking Story yeah yeah so

5:10

this actually you know and and many

5:11

people know um my first career in life

5:14

was in higher education Administration

5:15

and um a few years ago I was working at

5:17

a university and I was overseeing kind

5:19

of a cross uh departmental committee

5:21

that like a lot of universities was

5:23

charged with improving student retention

5:25

rates right like this is the name of the

5:27

game in university life and it was a

5:29

really high stakes project because

5:31

enrollment numbers had been steadily

5:32

declining as is happening in a lot of

5:34

universities and my Administration

5:36

colleagues were really pressuring our

5:38

group for some quick Solutions and

5:40

everybody was kind of coming at us with

5:43

the same sort of things like oh you know

5:45

if we just extend the library hours we

5:47

just need more academic ADV uh advisers

5:49

we just need to be marketing more

5:50

whatever it is and people were just

5:53

willing to accept that and like okay

5:54

let's move on but to me there it just

5:57

didn't sit right there was this big

5:59

disconnect Act of like this is the same

6:00

old same old sort of thing and I

6:02

encouraged our team to to pause and kind

6:05

of dive deeper into well we're we're all

6:07

we're talking about here is applying

6:09

Solutions we're not really talking about

6:11

how we're evaluating the information and

6:14

the underlying Trends and so how do we

6:16

actually better understand the root

6:17

causes of student attrition right like

6:20

that's what we're really trying to fix

6:21

here so we need to think more critically

6:23

about that and I had gone to a a

6:25

critical thinking workshop and so I ran

6:28

that team through an exercise

6:30

and what we did through all that was

6:32

kind of peel back the layers of the

6:33

onion and and to better understand

6:35

student retention you need to better

6:37

understand student attrition and what we

6:40

realized the pattern was that the

6:41

majority of students that were leaving

6:43

the university weren't leaving because

6:44

of academic issues and they weren't

6:46

leaving because of social issues

6:48

anything like that they were leaving

6:49

because of two reasons mental health and

6:52

financial insecurity now had we not gone

6:55

through that critical thinking exercise

6:57

we would have just applied the same old

6:58

same old sort of soltions extend those

7:00

Library hours get more academic advisers

7:02

all this sort of stuff but in light of

7:04

that it shifted our Focus entirely and

7:07

it's that type of an experience right we

7:09

were able to apply these completely

7:11

different sort of solutions that worked

7:13

and worked really well in fact that

7:14

university has its highest enrollment

7:16

numbers now that it's had in I think 20

7:18

years but had we not gone through that

7:20

critical thinking process and kind of

7:22

pressed the breaks a little bit and said

7:24

I don't know that this is right we would

7:26

have just applied that same old same old

7:28

solution and that's the importance of

7:30

critical thinking I'm I'm wondering

7:32

Damon could you share a story of

7:34

recently like when you have applied some

7:36

critical thinking to your work well this

7:38

is put me on a spot here no good thank

7:41

you this isn't a recent story but um

7:45

probably 20 years ago this is one of my

7:47

favorite stories I got a call uh at 7:30

7:51

in the morning and learn it was in the

7:53

basement of our old location that was my

7:55

father's building and he put us in the

7:57

basement of all things and a pipe broke

8:00

a pipe broke and there was the the water

8:03

was starting to fill up and we needed to

8:05

figure out the the classes were starting

8:07

at 9:00

8:08

am. and we were able to get the water to

8:11

stop but obviously everything was

8:13

destroyed in there and so we had to

8:16

think about what do we do with the

8:17

hundred students who are coming in to

8:19

take classes and I think that was a

8:21

great example of critical thinking where

8:24

I didn't like just completely freak out

8:27

I kind of just took a step back and said

8:30

let's think about what are our potential

8:32

ways that we can work through this and I

8:35

asked people to throw out some examples

8:37

and we ended up contacting one of our um

8:40

competitors who happened to be right

8:42

upstairs a company called quickart and

8:45

said hey can we can we uh rent space for

8:48

you for the week or month until this

8:50

gets taken care of and so I think that

8:52

was a good example right there of

8:53

critical thinking and problem solving

8:55

you know we kind of went through pretty

8:56

quickly you know one easy thing to do

8:59

would ad just been to cancel everything

9:01

but that you know you could always just

9:02

revert to that but instead I just kind

Real-World Application: Solving the Wrong Problem – A casestudy on how critical thinking helped uncover the true reasons behind studentattrition.

9:04

of thought critically like what is the

9:06

worst case scenario here what are some

9:09

other options and how do we think out of

9:10

the box and I just try to really take a

9:13

step back like you said Mickey and

9:14

really evaluate and think through what

9:16

we could potentially use as options well

9:19

and and two things Damon from that that

9:21

I think are are super important to

9:23

recognize which is that you know

9:26

critical thinking is really I part and

9:30

parcel to decision making and problem

9:32

solving these three things I mean they

9:34

kind of form a bit of a Triad right of

9:37

you know that to become a better Problem

9:38

Solver you have to think more critically

9:40

to make better decisions requires us to

9:43

be critical thinkers you know and and

9:45

one of like each one of these things

9:47

kind of scratches the back of the other

9:48

one and the more that we build our

9:50

skills up in all three of these areas

9:53

right the better that we're going to be

9:54

the other thing I was thinking too I see

9:56

you have those learn it uh hats and mugs

9:58

and stuff behind you I I would was

9:59

hoping you were going to tell a story

10:00

that all of a sudden you decided to get

10:02

like learn it uh branded rain boots or

10:04

something for everybody we in the future

10:06

in the basement you never know when you

10:09

might need it well the funny thing is

10:11

thank you the funny thing is we actually

10:13

had three minor floods in there and I

10:15

think the insurance company might have

10:16

put me in jail if we had another one

10:18

because the insurance cause but no it

10:20

was it was just one of those situations

10:22

where you got to kind of think it

10:23

through Mickey what are some common

10:27

challenges or mistakes people make when

10:28

it comes a critical thinking yeah yeah I

10:31

think the most common one you know I

10:33

mentioned some of those uh those

10:34

cognitive biases or those uh fallacy

10:37

kind of thought patterns um those sort

10:40

of things um Daniel Conan I don't know

10:42

if you've read the book Thinking Fast

10:43

and Slow um you know he passed away last

10:45

year but that that book is just

10:46

fantastic fabulous book yeah I feel in

10:49

my head I always think like it was just

10:51

published recently but I think it was

10:52

like 2011 or something so it's been a

10:53

few years um but he talks about this

10:56

system one thinking and system two

10:57

thinking and system one thinking is like

10:59

that super fast automatic like hand on a

11:02

hot stove sort of stuff the system two

11:04

stuff is the stuff that requires us to

11:06

be a little bit more like deliberative

11:07

and a little bit more intentional and

11:10

the the cognitive biases stuff that's

11:12

the biggest challenge I think folks have

11:14

is that if we're not aware right like if

11:17

we don't take time to really stop you

11:20

know again using that same phrase we've

11:21

both used already step back a little bit

11:24

the analogy I I always think about like

11:26

tapping the brakes on your car a little

11:27

bit or like a yield sign

11:30

am I actually thinking about this

11:32

correctly am I just pursuing this line

11:34

of thought because it feels reinforcing

11:36

to the other ways that I like to think

11:38

about things um am I um am I wrongfully

11:42

listening to One Voice or another right

11:44

I mean there's all of these different

11:46

things and and biases I mean that word

11:48

bias I think kind of is a little

11:50

alarming to some people but really it's

11:52

shortcuts right like these mental

11:54

shortcuts that that we take so I think

11:57

you know the failure um the the failure

12:00

for us to to to pause and reflect to see

12:04

if we're engaging in cognitive biases is

12:06

probably one of the big ones um I think

12:08

one of the other things too honestly is

12:10

I think you know and I I talk about this

12:11

in a number of our workshops is I think

12:13

many of our organizations are so you

12:16

know think of your every single day I'm

12:18

sure your day has been similar to mine

12:20

right problem solution problem solution

12:22

decisions that need to be made boom boom

12:24

boom boom boom right the speed with

12:26

which we do our jobs the cultures and it

12:28

doesn't matter you know we're talking

12:30

larit we're talking other organizations

12:32

every organization or most every

12:34

organization is operating at this

12:36

lightning speed and that can be a a

12:39

direct challenge to critical thinking

12:41

because critical thinking requires us to

12:42

slow down it requires us to pause

12:45

requires us to be more deliberate but

12:47

when we're under pressure to move faster

12:49

than we're already going people can

12:52

engage in some of these shortcuts so I

12:53

think that's kind of a couple of the

12:54

challenges that that we might experience

12:56

I don't what what else do you think are

12:57

kind of some of the challenges I for for

12:59

us to engaging critical thinking well I

13:02

just want to double down on what you

13:03

brought up about confirmation bias

13:05

because that's something that I've

13:06

struggled with quite a bit but I I feel

13:09

like I've gotten better at it is you

13:12

know instead of if there's decisions out

13:14

there or situations are coming up or

13:16

problems instead of looking to people

13:19

who I think would agree with me uh

13:22

instead if you surround yourself or you

13:24

could tap into others who have different

13:26

ways of looking at things or diverse

13:28

views

13:29

and you can listen to what they actually

13:32

say right and not automatically say no

13:35

no this is wrong it really helps you

13:38

think more critically on how to go about

13:40

making a decision or solving a problem

13:43

and um it just I think it makes a world

13:45

of difference and I think when you tap

13:48

into others um instead of those who just

13:52

think the same way you do I think you're

13:54

you're going to be much better off but

13:56

let's go into

13:57

Mickey the the care model yeah yeah

Cognitive Biases That Sabotage Decision-Making – Whyconfirmation bias, the bandwagon effect, and resulting lead to poor choices.

14:01

absolutely yeah um you know so so this

14:04

care model C A again kind of thinking

14:06

about caring um is really for us to to

14:09

use to evaluate claims or evaluate

14:11

information which is totally related to

14:13

what you were just talking about I was

14:14

thinking about the value of talking with

14:17

other people that have opposing views or

14:18

different views I was also thinking

14:20

about how we consume news right of you

14:23

know consuming the same news story from

14:25

two or three different uh uh Vantage

14:27

points different news outlets to kind of

14:29

hear how people tell that story a little

14:31

bit differently or kind of share that

14:32

information a little bit differently and

14:34

so this care model the first piece is

14:38

correlation does not equal causation um

14:41

and this is a super common again this is

14:43

one of those biases sort of things that

14:44

we need to be um very aware of is that

14:47

um oftentimes what we see is well here's

14:50

these two things that are happening at

14:52

the same time that are on a a similar or

14:55

same trajectory to one another and

14:57

therefore we start looking at them and

14:59

saying oh well this one is causing the

15:01

other one um the example I always like

15:03

to to bring up in our think critically

15:05

Workshop that we have um is that ice

15:08

cream sales and murder rates are highly

15:11

correlated right highly correlated now

15:14

people could look at it and be like well

15:15

wait a second here Mickey like selling

15:18

ice cream or consuming ice cream doesn't

15:20

make people get murdered no but there's

15:22

that lurking variable summer weather

15:25

right I mean I live in northern

15:26

Wisconsin and it is cold right now I'm

15:29

eating a lot of ice cream I love ice

15:30

cream but I'm not eating a lot of ice

15:31

cream right now we eat ice cream when

15:33

it's hot outside right and when do

15:36

people tend to be outside getting into

15:38

arguments people are uncomfortable right

15:39

summer months right and so it's this

15:42

idea that we might look at something and

15:44

say oh this is on a parallel trajectory

15:46

there must be a relationship here and

15:48

that's not really accurate right so

15:50

that's the the first idea is correlation

15:52

does not equal causation okay the second

15:55

part of things A is for alternative

15:57

explanations this is kind of EX what you

15:59

were talking about before about seeking

16:00

out other people that have different

16:02

ideas or opposing viewpoints um actually

16:04

a great usage for a lot of our

16:06

generative AI tools these days is to

16:08

tell to go in there and I've done this a

16:10

number of times this is the decision I'm

16:12

thinking of making here's the factors

16:14

I've considered tell me why I'm wrong

16:16

right it's a premortem essentially what

16:18

we're doing a retrograde

16:19

analysis seeking out alternative

16:22

explanations why might this be happening

16:24

okay so sales are up this month but we

16:26

didn't do anything different why might

16:28

that be happening um this other factor

16:30

is happening what are the different

16:32

things that are going on into that other

16:34

than looking at the obvious sort of

16:35

piece the r stands for reliable sources

16:39

this is a huge one right um thinking

16:42

about 2025 right here we are lots of

16:45

different news sources everybody is an

16:47

expert everybody is an influencer right

16:50

how do we actually know the reliability

16:52

of the people who are sharing

16:54

information with us who was the intended

16:56

audience when was this information

16:58

shared how was the study done which gets

17:01

into the E for evidence um I think about

17:04

all the time I see things and as you do

17:06

as well right on LinkedIn and and other

17:09

news sources people site something I

17:11

always and this comes from my academic

17:13

background but I always dig into the

17:14

citation I'm like okay what was that

17:16

study anytime I see a study that has a

17:19

big number in it right 98% of

17:22

respondents you know whatever it is I go

17:24

and look at it now if we're talking

17:25

about an N of 10 people I'm not going to

17:28

give that study a ton of credibility

17:30

right because 98% of 10 people that's

17:32

not a whole lot of people right like

17:33

that's not super you know that that's

17:35

not a really big deal um similarly when

17:38

organizations put out white paper saying

17:40

like oh here's this solution to this

17:42

problem and then here we go promoting

17:44

our product right of course you're going

17:46

to promote your product right that's not

17:47

the most reliable piece it's not the

17:49

best piece of evidence right so I think

17:51

that care you know if we keep that in

17:53

mind and and I think if we care about

17:56

our critical thinking right that's a

17:58

great way to to to remember that it's

18:00

essentially the again the analogy of the

18:02

car we want to be able to have the

18:04

brakes so that we can slow down a little

18:07

bit to be more deliberative so that we

18:08

can go fast

18:11

later so Mickey critical thinking is a

18:15

tough skill to learn so how can an

18:19

organization Foster critical thinking or

18:23

help people you know understand that

18:26

it's important and how to get better at

18:27

it yeah yeah I think a lot of it is I'm

18:31

number one speed and rate of response

18:34

right um encouraging people to slow down

18:37

um I was just facilitating our think

18:39

critically Workshop the other day and

18:41

one of the the Learners in the class

18:42

said one of the best things that I have

18:45

done over the last six months is wait to

18:48

respond to emails until the next day

18:50

right the ones that give you those kind

18:51

of emotion tingles positive or negative

18:55

um big decisions stuff like that it's

18:57

kind of the same way like you know we

18:58

put an item in our Amazon cart to maybe

19:01

we let it sit there for a few days to be

19:03

like do I really want this do I really

19:05

need it right the whole idea here is to

19:07

encourage people to slow down so I think

19:09

part of that it's Cal Newport right slow

19:12

productivity right slowing down a little

19:14

bit um I think one of the other things

19:16

too is is top- down leadership you talk

19:19

about this all the time right is top

19:21

down leadership and modeling when we can

19:23

have you know executive level leadership

19:25

senior level leadership saying okay what

19:27

are the other possible ways that we

19:29

could look at this folks here is what we

19:32

believe to be true but what else could

19:34

be going on here what are the other

19:36

lurking factors maybe we're not aware of

19:38

and making space for people to poke

19:40

holes in different arguments right and

19:43

and not taking offense to well I thought

Fostering Critical Thinking in Organizations – How leaderscan create a culture that encourages better thinking and problem-solving.

19:45

my argument was the right argument why

19:47

is everybody poking holes in it no let's

19:49

just make sure that we're having a

19:50

discussion so that we're really seeing

19:52

things from different angles I think

19:54

those are those are two things that I

19:55

think of but I you know from from your

19:57

perspective Damon you know I I for for

20:00

your role as a leader in our

20:01

organization I mean what what are some

20:03

of those things that either on a

20:04

one-on-one scale or on a a full team

20:06

scale what are those things that you do

20:08

to try to you know Infuse critical

20:10

thinking into the team you just stole

20:12

the words right from my mouth on the

20:15

last one it's asking open-ended

20:18

questions and really not allowing I just

20:22

do this with my daughter Lucy at home

20:24

and doing her homework you know she

20:25

might get frustrated and want me to give

20:27

the answer and I want to give the answer

20:30

and the same thing happens at the office

20:32

you don't you you ask open-ended

20:34

questions and you keep probing and you

20:36

help others think of different solutions

20:40

and maybe ask them say okay well what's

20:42

another alternative think think a little

20:44

bit about what else could we try you

20:46

know I think it's just getting in a

20:47

habit building that muscle of helping

20:50

others learn to get curious and a lot of

20:53

it and again you have to model the

20:55

behavior you know where hopefully leader

20:59

you know they see you in a conversation

21:01

where you're not just jumping a reaction

21:03

and just jumping in and deciding you're

21:05

actually thinking things through taking

21:07

a step back maybe like you said but also

21:09

I think it's really important that it

21:12

comes down to creating a psychologically

21:14

safe space too where you can make a

21:15

mistake right so maybe you uh you allow

21:19

somebody to make a choice and an

21:22

alternative solution it doesn't go

21:23

exactly the way you want it as a leader

21:26

you still need to be able to jump in say

21:27

hi I have your back I appreciate you

21:29

trying that because if you don't then

21:32

Mickey people are always going to just

21:34

take the safest route and it may not be

21:36

the best route it might just be the

21:37

easiest or the safest and get you

21:39

mediocre results where if you want to

21:41

get phenomenal results you need to think

21:44

critically you need to think differently

21:46

and you want to create that type of

21:48

environment that inspires people to take

21:50

risks take chances think about things

21:53

say things that may sound stupid but

21:56

they're really not they're you know get

21:58

people out there and to uh share their

22:01

ideas you know when you were describing

22:03

that it made me think of another one of

22:05

those really common cognitive biases

22:07

which is the bandwagon effect right and

22:09

the bandwagon effect right is when

22:11

everybody jumps on the bandwagon right

22:12

and we just keep rolling down the hill

22:14

together rather than saying well hang on

22:16

a second here let's let's wait let's

22:18

think about this whatever that might be

22:20

and I think you're absolutely right in

22:22

the direct connection between that and

22:23

psychological safety because you know or

22:26

the organizations that have folks that

22:27

can say well hey hang on a second here I

22:30

have a differing perspective and people

22:32

are going to listen to that voice rather

22:34

than just say no no no no no like you

22:35

just need to get on board with this I

22:37

think that that's really important right

22:39

because again we can fall fall victim to

22:42

our own shortcuts and and cognitive

22:44

biases on on a regular basis for sure

22:47

another one that I really like that uh

22:48

you were mentioning a little bit earlier

22:50

is resulting right resulting is just

22:53

because you have great results does it

22:55

mean you took the right process to get

22:57

there for example and I heard Annie Duke

22:59

talk about this in her one of her great

23:01

books is uh like driving drunk I mean

23:05

you might get home safe but that's not

23:07

the right decision to make right you

23:09

know so um sometimes just getting the

23:12

right results is just there's different

23:15

ways you can go about it and think

23:17

critically you know whether in this case

23:18

it's using Uber or calling a friend same

23:21

thing when it comes to sales right maybe

23:23

you got the deal this time but that

23:24

might not work every single time so you

23:27

want to look at your alternative

23:28

Solutions this has been a great

23:30

conversation one more question I have

23:32

for you you know in our thinking

23:34

critically class when somebody leaves

23:38

that class what is one or two things

23:40

that they tend to come back to your

23:42

Mickey and say well that was great I

23:44

really learned how to do this that that

23:46

is such a perfect question because

23:48

literally about an hour ago I I looked

23:50

at my LinkedIn I get messages all the

23:52

time from folks that that have taken

23:53

workshops one of the things I recommend

23:55

in that Workshop is the use of the five

23:57

wise concept the Toyota 5 Wi where you

Practical Takeaways from the Think Critically Workshop – Whythe Five Whys method is a game-changer for uncovering root causes.

24:00

ask why and then why and then why and

24:02

why I got a message from somebody I

24:04

taught that Workshop yesterday morning

24:06

and he said I already used this three

24:08

times in between yesterday and today I

24:10

mean it's been like 36 hours maybe not

24:12

even um in that five wise process you

24:15

know he said that's such an easy way to

24:17

really get at either the root cause of

24:20

something or really truly understanding

24:22

what's the explanation for this type of

24:24

phenomenon or or whatever that might be

24:26

and I think that is such a good go-to

24:29

tool for us for us all to have so I mean

24:31

that's one of the biggest things that

24:32

people walk away with um I think

24:35

also the self-awareness you know the

24:37

ability for all of us to kind of be that

24:40

much more willing to put the mirror up

24:42

in front of ourselves and say am I

24:44

actually truly thinking this through as

24:46

objectively as I can like we can't be

24:48

100% objective like that's just not

24:49

attainable as humans but I can be more

24:52

objective tomorrow than I probably am

24:55

today and that's kind of one of those

24:56

things that I tend to hear from that

24:57

Workshop we go through all sorts of

24:59

different um uh exercises different

25:01

cognitive bies it's a great Workshop

25:03

it's very interesting um lots of

25:05

interesting stories and stuff and so I'd

25:07

love Damon if there's folks out there

25:09

that want to uh to check that Workshop

25:11

out I'd love to get them connected so

25:12

that they can hang out with us for that

25:14

thing critically worked out for sure

25:15

well I want to put you on the spot thank

25:17

you for saying that is there any other

25:20

resources I know you already met uh

25:22

mentioned think fast and think slow but

25:24

any other great books out there or

25:26

documentaries or anything that can help

25:28

you you get better at critical thinking

25:30

yeah actually I mean the the one that

25:32

that's is big and top of mind right now

25:34

you know I talk about using AI for

25:36

critical thinking um and that comes from

25:38

from our our friend of learned Jeff

25:40

Woods the AI driven leader um a lot of

25:42

what he talks about in that book this is

25:44

really about using AI as as someone in a

25:47

leadership position but a lot of what he

25:49

frames in that particular book is how

25:51

can I use AI as a thought partner and I

25:54

think of thought partner you extend it

25:55

one step further I mentioned that that

25:57

exercise for that I've been doing which

26:00

is like here's what I'm thinking about

26:01

doing tell me why I'm wrong or tell me

26:03

the reasons why this might fail

26:05

essentially doing a premortem the ways

26:07

in which we can prompt and and I I have

26:09

to give so much credit to Jeff for this

26:11

line he says interview me one question

26:14

at a time um and it's so great because

26:16

you end up being in this conversation

26:18

with chat chat CPT or whatever whichever

26:20

tool that you're using and it allows you

26:22

by the nature of that conversation

26:24

you're now engaged in a critical thought

26:26

process you know of of evaluating

26:29

exactly what you're doing so I would

26:30

recommend his book for a lot of

26:33

different reasons but in particular that

26:35

prompt to use that um as a critical

26:37

thinking exercise for yourself yeah it's

26:39

a great book and also I highly recommend

26:42

we'll put this in show notes check out

26:44

my interview with Jeff I think it's a

Using AI as a Thought Partner for Better Decision-Making –How generative AI can challenge assumptions and help leaders think morecritically.

26:46

master class on AI absolutely I use it

26:48

all the time to challenge my assumptions

26:51

by interviewing me one question out of

26:52

time so to kind of recap what we did

26:54

today we talked about the care model we

26:56

talked about why critical think is so

26:59

important how to slow down look at

27:01

things differently be careful with

27:03

biases get better at

27:05

self-awareness and why it's so important

27:08

I mean we're making 35,000 decisions a

27:10

day and hey we need all the help we can

27:14

get when it happens so Mickey thank you

27:17

and for everybody out there um check out

27:20

the think critically class we have and

27:21

everything we have in our show notes

27:23

today and until next time stay curious

27:26

keep learning have a great day well I

27:28

think really stands out to me the most

27:30

is making sure you're solving the right

27:32

problem a lot of people think of problem

27:34

solving as just about the solution but

27:36

problem solving is the entire process

27:38

how do we identify what the challenge is

27:40

or identify what the problem the Gap

27:42

whatever it is there's creative problem

27:44

solving which is where we're trying to

27:46

really pursue this really like unique

27:49

different sort of solution than what

27:51

we've ever done before and I think

27:52

that's really where a lot of people need

27:54

to be these days

‍