Every day, we make hundreds of assumptions based on facts, observations, and experiences. Some are useful time savers, but some are based on a weak premise or poor data and can lead to jumping to a conclusion without asking questions or listening to other people's input. When a decision is based on assumptions and prejudices, it mitigates the opportunity for innovation and creativity. Examining your assumptions requires small changes, but the payoff is significant. In this course, you’ll learn how assumptions manifest and what power they have on decision making and innovation. You’ll learn practices to redirect automatic assumption-based thinking into critical thinking as well as questioning techniques to identify assumptions so you can mitigate their impact. You’ll also learn techniques to help you investigate assumptions thoroughly and how to systematically test them, which will give you the best chance of making the best decisions.
Critical Thinking: Challenging Assumptions