Teaching People How To Think, Not What To Think

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I totally agree with the points that Noel Posus' writes in his article which I have pasted below.  After all whatever we think about we attract into your life, whether we want to or not.

We're limited only by the way we think of ourselves in our world.  We need to think of becoming our own person, to express our individuality.

Isabella

Article Source : http://incredibleawareness.tumblr.com

There is a famous quote from the American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”

Very true.  And it doesn’t relate only to children! 

The 21^st century has already provided us greater insight into how people learn best, and one of the primary components of what I do for a living as an educator and leadership coach is to teach people how to think, not what to think. 

Sometimes, I feel like rebranding myself as a “critical thinking coach”. 

That idea has some legs to it, as many of the individuals and organisations that I work with to custom design learning/coaching programmes for them, often want the learning process to be easier and simpler. 

We have great technology to deliver brilliant e-learning applications.  We design things so that people learn more on the job than in the classroom.  More and more, learning events are fun-filled and experiential. 

And yet, I often get frustrated that we’re not including more theory, or that the theory needs to be secretly embedded somewhere so that participants don’t feel like they’re being taught to. 

At the end of the day, it’s important to get the right balance of content and approaches for participants to thrive.  I get that. 

I also feel that there is a growing trend of people just wanting to be “told what to think and do” and/or that the learning has to be so much fun, because people will simply “turn off” if they feel they have to work hard. 

All I’m talking about is putting in some effort. 

It takes BOTH intention AND effort to learn.  

And I think it’s completely appropriate to offer participants some reading to do outside of the learning environment (no more than 10 pages at a stretch) and then ask them to discuss, reflect, examine their own thinking and behaviour, make commitments to try new approaches, reflect some more, discuss some more, and actively participate in their own development in a consciously critical thinking manner. 

This seems to become harder and harder to get across the line with clients. 

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The most popular excuse/reason for wanting this easier is that “our people are really busy and stretched and we can’t ask too much of them.” 

That sounds like there are lots of other issues going on in the culture as well.  And please remember, we’re not suggesting taking your people out of the workplace for week-long residential learning events where they end up exhausted from the week and then nothing happens when they return to work because they’re too busy catching up on what they missed while they were away. 

I try to mostly design four-hour breaks from their typical day, and then ask them to dedicate up to an hour for their reflections and discussions with others, as well as any time they commit to putting certain learning content and behaviours into action in the workplace and/or their personal lives. 

Training at work doesn’t happen like it used to.  I get that. 

Asking people to commit themselves to one hour of self-driven personal/professional development doesn’t seem like a big ask. 

And with this new structure, they have to learn more about how to think, than being lectured to for hours or days on end on what to think. 

If the participants don’t dedicate the time, they’re also not committing themselves to learning how to think more critically. 

We can ask more of them. 

Occasionally, I also get “Our people aren’t going to understand this…it’s too advanced for them.” 

This is always a really fascinating perspective to explore, and one of the things I discover when I dig a bit with clients on this, is that they may have a general belief that their people aren’t “smart enough” to handle the information. 

When that perspective is thriving, there’s very little chance for people to grow because if others don’t think they’re capable, they won’t let them. 

So, this is another reason why we really have to push people to learn how to think, not what to think.  People are capable of absorbing information, reflecting on themselves, looking for connections and opportunities to use the learning content. 

We just have to get out of their way to allow them to do that. 

I can ask a simple question of a group in a training session, and then stand there listening to the crickets in the corner.  It’s not because the question was difficult.  It’s generally because people are increasingly less used to being asked such questions. 

They’re just not in the habit of critical thinking. 

They could be. 

We simply need to remember to ask more questions than make statements, and then allow people the time to think and then respond. 

Given the time and the right environment, they will have a response. 

Because when we teach by lecturing, versus educate through critical thinking, experiences, reflection and sharing, we’re really only telling people what to think.  And then the outcome we get is going to be impacted by our own limitations of thinking as the teachers.  We need to open up the possibilities by asking more questions so that others think more critically for themselves.  We then also grow as an outcome of that. 

This is why I tell people when they ask me what I do for a living, that “I coach people on how to think more critically, so that they can then make wiser choices for themselves, and then follow up on those decisions with appropriate behaviours.” 

This is also why my motto is, “Think. Choose. Act.” 

I’d love to hear your thoughts in response to my insights I’ve shared here (or you may call it a rant or rambling ideas).