There has been a wealth of wonderful experimentation and research in the last few decades about our psychology and how we make decisions. Our training extracts some of the very best insights and puts them into practical professional settings.
Our critical thinking courses will help you to understand how your brain works, avoid common thinking traps and make better decisions.
Course Information
Getting a better understanding of how our brains work helps us to challenge our assumptions and evaluate information and data more accurately. It also helps us to understand other people’s actions and decisions and develop strategies to influence them.
This online course can be delivered as three separate modules or as a one day course.
Module 1 – The impact hour
1 hour
This module explains and reviews some of the key psychological ideas that help us improve our workplace behaviours.
- The basic construct of the mind’s thinking processes (thinking ‘fast and slow’)
- Anchoring
- Prominence
- Social proof
- Reciprocity
- Control and choice
Module 2 – Ourselves, our work, our outcomes
2 hours
- Thinking traps, cognitive weaknesses and mental shortcuts
- Fact checking
- Hunting the ‘outside view’
- Changing anchors and reframing
- Criteria weighting
- Critical thinking about planning work
- Use of base rates
- Focusing on outcomes
- Purpose and outcome statements
Module 3 – Information, data and narratives
2 hours
- What I see (and what I don’t see)
The ‘argument and evidence’ technique- Pre-Mortems
- Statistics, chance, and the illusion of expertise
We have a number of important weaknesses when dealing with data and narratives.We are poor statisticians, finding it hard to assess the importance of the sample size (for example). We are poor at accepting that some things are just the products of pure chance
- Understanding narratives
We understand the world better when we understand ‘cognitive dissonance’ and how people are driven to behave by reference to their values and how those values links to their actions.
Outcomes
As a result of completing this course you will:
- Better understand the basic construct of the mind’s thinking processes
- Understand common thinking traps
- Always consider whether you need more information before making a decision
- Be aware of the risks when dealing with data and statistics
- Better understand the psychology behind influencing others
Format
Workshops with practical exercises tutor
feedback.
Delegates
All lawyers who want to make better decisions, avoid thinking traps and better understand how to influence others.
Max 15 delegates.
Critical Thinking for Lawyers Live Online Course
5 hours
All lawyers
Face-to-Face
See Live Online
Critical Thinking for Lawyers Face-to-face Course
5 hours
All lawyers
E-learning
Our Critical Thinking e-learning course is divided into five modules which explore some of the shortcuts that our brains have evolved over millenia in order to conserve energy and time. It explains where they come from, why the brain likes them, recognises their strengths, and, importantly, shows where they are vulnerable to error.
Each e-learning module provides tools and techniques to improve your critical thinking, and scenarios to practise applying the tools.
You can download PDFs with a reminder of the tools.
We offer the option of follow-on workshops to help embed the learning using case-studies which can be adapted for the audience.
Content
Confirmation Bias explores five strands of bias and provides tools to help recognise and avoid them.
The Influence of Others looks at two of the more important ways in which the behaviour of others can influence us.
Developing Expert Judgement covers how to develop your unconscious thinking in a positive way, including assessing the reliability of your own judgement and that of others.
Easy v Strategic Thinking looks at how to think more critically about the purpose and outcome of our work. Our brains seek thinking shortcuts to conserve energy. These create a particular challenge when we are asked to think strategically and identify the outcomes which will be of most value to clients.
Detecting Lies & Misinformation examines our cognitive bias towards believing people and information. We take a practical look at how to evaluate information, and the source of that information, to help sift the reliable from the unreliable.
Outcomes
As a result of completing the e-learning you will:
- Better understand the brain’s two systems of thinking
- Be more aware of common thinking traps and be able to use tools to avoid them
- Better understand how we are influenced by others, and how we can influence them
- Know how to improve your expert judgement
- Be able to critically evaluate information
Delegates
Perfect for lawyers at all levels who work in a team and directly manage or need to delegate to other members of staff.
Critical Thinking E-learning Course
3 hours
Lawyers, Trainee Solicitors, Business Services
£180 + VAT
Tutors
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