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Critical Thinking for Decisions and Data

Learn to apply fundamental principles for rational thought, logical problem-solving, and data-driven decision making.

Our daily world is awash with data, news, opinions, and competing priorities. Uncertainty makes good decision-making difficult. In the face of complexity and rapid change, certainty is impossible and rational decision-making can seem rare.

In the absence of a critical thinking framework, people tend to backfill gaps in decision-making with intuition and bias. This isn't just ineffective - it’s dangerous. For professionals and organizations, intuition and judgment based on personal experience are notoriously unreliable. To make consistently accurate decisions, we need a solid foundation of data combined with disciplined critical thinking.

Despite this backdrop and its challenges, it isn’t hard to quickly improve your logical thinking skills and decision-making. Critical thinking fundamentals are straightforward to apply. In this fast-paced class, a senior business coach will first guide you through effective critical thinking, then help you practice applying it to practical needs.

Duration

2 days/14 hours of instruction

Education Credits

14 PDUs

Public Classroom Pricing

$1295(USD)

GSA Price: $1195

Group Rate: $1195

Private Group Pricing

Have a group of 5 or more students? Request special pricing for private group training today.

Part 1: A Critical Thinking Baseline

What we’ll cover
1. Course Overview
2. What is critical thinking?
3. How you’ll apply what we’ll learn
Basics of Socratic logic
1. Making assertions
2. Asking questions
3. Judging premises
4. Agreeing on premises
5. Refuting premises
6. Refining concepts of assertions
Common fallacies
1. Appeal to emotion
2. Appeal to authority
3. Bandwagon
4. False dilemma
5. Hasty generalization
6. Red herrings
7. Slothful induction
8. Correlation/causation
9. Anecdotal evidence
10. Texas sharpshooter
11. Middle ground
12. Burden of proof
13. Personal incredulity
14. No true Scotsman
Common sources of bias
1. Confirmation Bias
2. Self-Serving Bias
3. The Curse of Knowledge
4. Hindsight Bias
5. Optimism/Pessimism Bias
6. Dunning-Kruger Effect
7. Sunk Cost
8. Negativity Bias
9. Decline Bias
Case study: Sellmore (UCLA)

Part 2: Applying Critical Thinking and Data

The importance of data
1. Distinguishing evidence from non-evidence
2. Data vs. information
3. Criticality of data-driven culture
4. Where do we find data?
5. Case study: Best Buy (University of Illinois)
What do we consider data?
1. Distinguishing evidence from non-evidence
2. Data vs. anecdote
3. Using understanding of bias to isolate evidence
Understanding Assumptions
1. Finding assumptions
2. Evaluating assumptions
3. Assumption vs. risk
4. Applying different points of view
5. Informed action
Applying critical reasoning to data applications
1. Vetting data against critical thinking concepts
2. Framing questions
3. Defining relationships
4. Building the logical data model
Bias in Datasets
1. Sources & provenance of data
2. Evaluating data sources
3. Common biases in datasets
4. Case study: Google facial recognition
Team relationships and communication
1. Leveraging relationships
2. Building consensus
3. Understanding disagreement
4. Consensus vs. disagreement
Conclusion and Charting your Course
1. Immediate actions
2. What can you use immediately?
3. Expert Q&A

This class is immensely valuable for anyone who wants to improve their professional ability to overcome uncertainty and bias, and make better decisions with hard data. You'll immediately benefit as a:

Leader, executive, or manager
Knowledge worker
Program and project managers
Team leads
Functional roles and leads
Product managers and owners
Development professionals
Creative professionals
Analytics professionals
Data-oriented roles

Solve the types of problems you face every day
Ask questions to isolate critical premises
Frame problems in a rational way
Make decisions based on facts, not opinion or political factors
Lead teams and groups in rational discussion
Isolate what matters from what distracts
Communicate your thought process to others persuasively
Establish organizational awareness and promote a culture of critical thinking
Develop a consistent critical thinking approach, then apply it using real-world data in a practical context
Exercise an ability to justify and defend your decisions based on robust data and a strong business case