One of the critical needs of the next generation is to develop the ability to do critical thinking. Their embrace of social and digital media dumbs down the information that they absorb (or not). Without actually retaining lessons of civics, history, or any other topic, they are ill-equipped to articulate or even discuss topics that have nuances beyond a headline.
As stated in a recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) “Critical thinking is the ability to analyze and effectively break down an issue in order to make a decision or find a solution.”
The author goes on to say that at the heart of critical thinking is the ability to “formulate deep, different and effective questions.” I agree. In fact, one of the tasks of a mentor is to help the next generation develop the ability to ask good questions. It is an art, not a science and it takes some practice and patience.
I have written often about both dealing with questions and critical thinking which are traits to be learned by the next generation. They have to rise above digital media and have face to face interactions during both of these (less so with critical thinking).
The HBR article links the two of these. I came across it recently and felt it contained good advice for both the mentor and the next generation. It’s premise, summarized above, is about developing the skill of asking good questions to lead you to good decisions or a solution.
The HBR article by John Coleman is from a talk by Clayton Christianson, author of the book How Will You Measure Your Life. I plan to do a post from that book in the future. In the talk, he reminisced over how he approached being an MBA student years before. His lessons are valuable.
He realized that the MBA School was where he learned to ask good questions. In class, he would write down insightful questions asked by other students, and then study them later to understand how they were formulated.
He came away with several steps that he suggests will help all – mentors and mentee’s alike – to ask better questions. The first of these is to “hold your hypothesis loosely.”
The idea is that if you are too attached to your initial answer, you might not be able to modify your assumptions when the data leads to someplace else. “Critical questions, however, may force us to fundamentally reconsider our initial conclusions, and we have to be willing to do so freely without defensiveness.”
The second step is to “listen more than talk”. Reminds me of the saying that God gave you two ears and only one mouth and maybe he was trying to tell you something. Abraham Lincoln, borrowing from Proverbs 17 above, put it this way: “Better to remain silent and be thought of as a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
The point is that active listening is a key to good questions. Even I have to slow down in conversations and double my intensity at listening. Successful listening permits you to “fully grasp an argument” which will permit you to test its logic.
The third is one of the better steps. Always ask open ended questions. Questions that can be answered by yes or no lead nowhere. “Do you like your job?” would be replaced by something like “Tell me the thing you love about your job and what could be better?” I think you can see how the responses will differ.
The open-ended questions also can encourage group critical thinking, which is a very valuable tool. Alternatively, another step is to consider something that is counter intuitive. The latter is really an antidote to groupthink, where the group seems to be going in one direction and no one challenges that direction or their assumptions. You need to be unafraid to pose the question.
The next step is to “stew in the problem”. Be less quick to answer or question until after you have pondered the problem or issue over time. That’s been a key for me over the years. Many a time I have had some almost insoluble issue, which, after a good night’s rest, had an obvious answer come to mind.” Sleep can actually help your brain assimilate a problem and see it more clearly”.
Rather than diagnosing the answer in the moment, Christenson found it better resist urgency and instead “stew” on the issues over a period of time.
And lastly, develop an ability to ask a hard follow-up question. It might be more convenient to take the first answer and let it rest, but often the nuance of the issue may need follow-up questions. You might have observed children always asking “why?” This is the same idea only at an adult level.
MENTOR TAKEAWAY: We can all learn to ask better questions, and by working with your mentee, both of you can learn better ways of asking good questions.
FURTHER READING:
Critical Thinking is about Asking Better Questions – HBR
How Will You Measure Your Life? – Christenson
WORSHIP: King of Kings – Hillsong
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