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Problem: Critical thinking helps find answers that are mostly found right
inside each of us, all we have to do is to learn how to access our own
wisdom.
Solution: Use this application to get familiar with the
following eight critical thinking tasks.
Then the next time you encounter one of these tasks use the tools, techniques and questions
to help … just as if you were being mentored by a trusted teacher, friend
or hired coach. After some use, you will automatically begin to ask the
right question and use the right thinking tools.
Screen
shot: Below is a
screen shot of the toolkit menu. Note: blue hyperlinks are not active.
Critical Thinking Self-coach Toolkit
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Task 1. Self Awareness: Know your strengths, weaknesses, attitudes, biases and beliefs.
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Positive
Mental Attitude: Our attitude
is the primary force that determines whether we succeed or fail.
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Creative & Questioning Attitude: Developing questioning skills and a creative attitude will go a
long way toward improving ongoing performance.
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Finding Core
Beliefs & Biases: Becoming
aware of our beliefs and how they impact our thinking can be a giant step
in improving personal performance.
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Personal
Performance Success Factors: An effective
way of maximizing future success is to employ the patterns of successful
thinking and behavior that already works.
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Personal
SWOT Analysis: A simple way
of putting together an outline of your current or potential problems and
opportunities.
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Task 2. Observation: Observe and acknowledge existence of problems & opportunities.
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Unclutter You Mind to Think Better: Just like
cleaning your desk to better find things, Memory and Emotion Uncluttering
techniques can improve your thinking abilities.
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Putting
Problems on the Table: The first step (and sometimes half the battle) in gaining control
of life is to clearly identify the problems or events that produce
anxiety and stress.
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Problem/Opportunity
Statement: Since the seeds of the solution are buried within the problem
statement, it is essential to have it correctly and clearly stated.
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Mindfulness
& Transformation: Mindfulness
is awareness of the here and now that helps in acknowledging and
confronting that a problem situation exists.
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Personal
Work Observation & Improvement: One of the
best ways to get ahead is to do great work on your current job.
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Task 3: Understanding: Know the facts about your current
environment or situation.
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Real Problem
Analysis: Once the
problem has been identified, this template will help determine the right
level at which the problem should be resolved.
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Basic
Background and Transient Information: Provides
basic background information to understand the nature, scope and
potential impact of the current problem.
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Journalistic
Trigger Questions: Who, What, Why, When, Where,
Why and How
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Personal
Understanding Matrix: Observe or
define the problem situation from three different personal perspectives
and three different time frames
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Impacts of
Beliefs on Thinking: Understanding
how personal biases and beliefs might influence thinking on any given
situation will produce more effective thinking.
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Task 4. Goal Setting:
Develop roadmaps to achieve
purposes and resolve problems.
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Life Dreams
& Life Goals: By knowing
precisely what you want to achieve, you will know where you have to
concentrate your efforts to get there.
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Personal
Visioning: Many of us
have a vague sense of what is important in our lives. Rarely do we spend
much time reflecting on it. Using this thinklet helps uncover personal
desires that might not be fully obvious.
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Problem Goal
Statement Development: Without a clear goal, people can easily head down the wrong
thinking pathway and develop ineffective problem solutions.
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Goal
“milestone” Roadmap: To optimize
chances to successfully reach your goals, develop a roadmap.
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Task 5: Analysis: Question
the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
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Obstacle (Gap) Analysis: Problem/opportunity
solving is can be seen as getting from the current state to the desired
state by means of a series of actions that remove obstacles.
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STOP (Brainstorm ideas to remove obstacles): Identify and generate ideas based on
removing the obstacles that may be hindering reaching your Goals.
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Why/Because Causal Chain: Not all
problems can be resolved at their true root cause. Use this to determine
the optimal point where the most effective solution can be applied.
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Task 6. Creativity
& Innovation: Develop creative
ideas and solutions.
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Personal
Brainstorming: Personal
brainstorming is outside-the-box thinking on a personal level.
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Mind
Mapping: Rather than
jotting down data/ideas in a neat sequential “outline” fashion, Mind
Mapping encourages putting ideas/data and information into geometric,
web-like or other creative visual patterns reflecting interrelationships.
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Basic
Creativity Trigger Questions: Using trigger questions can help generate a wide variety of
ideas. Truly creative solution are increased substantially when you have a
large pool of ideas to consider.
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Tap Your
Subconscious for Ideas: It is
believed that all great thinkers have had an ability to contact and
release the powers of their subconscious mind. You can do the same with
this technique.
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Using your
Meditative mind: Mediation provides your mind
with time to clear emotional clutter.
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Step 7: Decision Making: s7s7
Decide what is the best idea or solution to
implement.
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Basic
Decision Making Questions: Make and
validate your decision.
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Prioritization
Matrix: This
template is designed as a quick and simple way to prioritize alternatives
that are easy to accomplish and have high value.
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Personal
Change Balance Sheet: This
thinklet can be used to help make decisions about changes in your
personal life
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Intuitive
Coin Flip: The intuitive
coin flip is a very easy technique to start utilizing your intuition when
it comes to making decisions.
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Task 8: Planning & Action: Plan and take deliberate actions to
move forward.
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Resolve
Any Problem: No matter
how complex or difficult, solve the “easiest part first”.
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Five Hows: This
technique is used to help identify implementation tasks (steps). “How” is
asked until a sufficiently detailed list of tasks has been developed.
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Action Plan: Action plan
development represents the critical stage in planning when general
strategies and goals are made specific and aligned with resources.
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