If you’re a manager in charge of any team in charge of achieving key business objectives, this article discusses useful insights on how you can trigger and sustain critical thinking in the team.

Imagine you’re in a meeting. You present a plan and ask your team members to share their thoughts. Now, imagine two situations. In the first one, everyone says “that’s great, boss!” They nod and approve of everything you say. They endorse all that you say. You inquire as to whether they would add or change anything in the arrangement. They say it's ideal. In the subsequent circumstance, everybody begins thinking. They concoct various thoughts and express them since they need to contribute towards a superior result. That is called critical thinking, and it's what you need from everybody in your group.

The environments in many organizations don’t always support critical thinking. You notice that colleagues or the partners appropriate to your venture are not communicating any thoughts, you shouldn't blame them.

Here are a few tips for encouraging the critical thinking process.

In Your Comfort Zone

High ranking or high authority positions that get very comfortable with current ways of doing things, encounter team members that are less prone to making suggestions. If you can think; have i ever accepted a suggestion? If you’re so confident in your decisions, would you want to encourage critical thinking within the team or among stakeholders?

One action is to step outside your comfort zone. Doing that , you could motivate others to do the same. Ask them to come up with new ideas and suggest that you’ll make decisions together. If  a new method or a different solution to a problem is suggested, do not reject the plan outright. Consider their point of view first!

Ask Questions In The Right Way

You can’t just get others to think critically by saying so. Give them flexible guidelines and lead the discussion in a focused direction.

Appraising situations and problem solving do require critical thinking for example, ask these questions:

• What happened?
• When did we see the first signs of a problem?
• Why did this happen?
• How did we allow it to happen?
• How can we solve the problem?

With these prompts, you’ll encourage others and yourself to see the problem from different angles.

Logical Thinking Processes

Critical thinking is different from creative thinking. while you’re asking others to suggest answers, you’re no longer just seeking out ideas. You’re looking for ideas that work. Sound reasoning needs to be the inspiration of this method.

Of course, you should allow everyone to express ideas, even if you don’t see the logic in them. Maybe they see it from another perspective and it will make sense after they explain it to you. However, you should examine the sound reasoning of each idea before you accept it. Examine all factual claims and premises. Take all factors into consideration and do your best to predict the outcome.

It’s important not to intimidate others through exploring the ideas. Try not to discourage them from contributing their ideas. Show support by emphasizing the good things about each idea, too.

Lead Them

Did you know you could teach others how to think critically? Provide training on how to analyze and judge thoughts according to specific standards of logical reasoning. Teach them how to evaluate the similarities and differences between ideas, seek information and evidence, and predict the likely outcome.

Why should you even bother to encourage discussion and debate? Because that’s how you get team members to realize their true potential.

Doing these things helps you find more ways to make your organization better.!!!!