| Elevate Your Curiosity and Critical Thinking
Diane Ramseyer is the Executive Director of DFCC and has grown the program immensely since her tenure there. Subsequently, I was talking with Diane at the Awards Breakfast about how her “depth of thought” has served her well.
One of the keys to success in business, life, and leadership is the ability to improve critical thinking skills, not only for leaders, but team members, too. So, what does one do to improve critical thinking?
How to Improve Critical Thinking
To improve your critical thinking capability, first and foremost, you must be curious about everything. And you must ask questions. LOTS of questions. The questions drive deeper thought and deliver increased knowledge, awareness, guidance, and insight about any given topic. Curiosity and questions are fundamental to expanding the world around you.
You may or may not use the intel you gather, but without it, you cannot grow. You cannot consciously change course or direction with absolute conviction and intention. You cannot achieve the highest outcomes imaginable. That’s why curiosity questions are essential to your growth as a leader, a businessperson, or an entrepreneur.
Curiosity Questions
As my conversation continued with Diane, I could tell the essence of curiosity was resonating within her. Suddenly, she summarized a foundational framework she was visualizing for three key questions that would lead you from now, to possibilities, to the future. The framework was both simple and brilliant. Look at the Venn diagram at the top of this article to see how I created an illustration of the framework she constructed in her mind…in the moment. Now that’s a great example of critical thinking at work.
To grow, one must think deeply, critically, and broadly about a variety of situations and circumstances. Diane demonstrated she was doing exactly that during our conversation. She was processing. She was creating a step-by-step methodology to improve her critical thinking for uncovering future opportunities.
Using a methodology for doing this helps to move you beyond reflection, into assessment, and then to action…IF it make sense to act. Explore an idea or topic. Does the idea have validity and value? If it has both validity and application value, then what? Take it to the next level of consideration. Determine how you might apply it, and do so!
The Power of Patterns
Observation tells me that successful people embrace patterns in the way they act, the way they think, and the way they process incoming information. Do you?
The framework provides a pattern or a flow to intention. It enables you to follow a process to sort and make sense of your curiosity. That mental organization enables you to decide what to do with the incoming intel. If all three steps have benefits, develop a plan of action, and move forward.
Want to develop stronger critical thinking capabilities? Let curiosity lead the way. Make the three-question framework a routine action in how you think. Then, act on the best aspects of your intel; and bring the best ideas to fruition!
Stay curious…and keep asking questions!
Until next month…
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