Are you considering leading some critical thinking exercises with your team to help them build their teamwork? If so, you’re probably looking for some top questions you can ask.
Good questions to ask include things like “who is the best at doing the work that you’ve been assigned?” and “what parts of your recommendation are you least confident in?” You might also ask things like “how can we improve this idea?” The idea is to encourage your team to collaborate and acknowledge each other’s strengths.
In this article, we’ll check out some top critical thinking questions you can use for team-building sessions, and explore why they are effective things to ask.
Question 1: Who Is The Best At Doing The Work That You’ve Been Assigned?
This question is great for team-building, because it requires the individual to think about their team members and what their skills are. They have to analyze the task they have been given, weigh up its challenges, and think about which team member can respond well to those challenges.
This invites introspection about strengths and weaknesses, and encourages co-dependence in your team. It also invites the individual being asked the question to weigh up their own strengths, and think about why somebody else might excel at the task better than they can.
Many people find it enormously rewarding to have a teammate acknowledge their skills, so this is certainly a great question to ask.
Question 2: What Parts Of Your Recommendation Are You Least Confident In?
One of the key aspects of critical thinking is the ability to analyze an idea objectively, and this question encourages that. It invites the team member to be vulnerable and honest in front of their teammates as they assess the weaknesses of their ideas.
This sort of self-reflection is a powerful way to build confidence and trust within a team. You can then invite other members of the team to weigh in with constructive ideas to solve the problems the individual highlights. This encourages a collaborative environment where teammates feel safe raising problems and solving them together.
Question 3: How Can We Improve This Idea?
For this question, you can take a teammate’s existing suggestion, or present your team with an external idea. The external idea may work best if you want to ensure the discussion stays neutral and emotions are kept to a minimum. As your team’s critical thinking experience grows, they should be able to discuss ideas that they have come up with like this too.
With this question, you’re looking to see team members work together to analyze the idea’s flaws, but more importantly, to come up with working solutions. They should think critically about these solutions and weigh up whether they solve the problems that have been discovered, and whether there is a risk that they could cause further problems.
Question 4: How Do The Facts Support X?
You can come up with anything you like for X – and often, you’ll make it a more enjoyable team-building activity if you come up with something funny. You might say something like “how do the facts support the idea that we need better cookies for the break room?”
Your team members should then come together to try to find ways to analyze the idea they are being presented with, and look at whether the evidence supports or denies that idea. For example, they might point out that the cookies are never finished, which could indicate that nobody wants cookies, or that the cookies are bad.
Encourage them to think about what the facts are, and how those facts paint a picture of the real problem. You can make this fun; the point is to build their analysis skills.
Question 5: How Would You Convince Me Of X?
Again, you can choose something silly to fill in X for this question, but encourage your team members to give you factual answers. For example, you might ask the team to convince you that they should have Mondays off.
They could then suggest that a 4-day working week has been proven to increase productivity, or that doing so would improve morale. It may be better to not choose a controversial perk for this question, but again, make it lighthearted and fun so your team can practice finding solid arguments in favor (or against) something, while enjoying themselves.
Question 6: How Would You Approach This Challenge In A New Way?
A major part of critical thinking is about taking on different perspectives, so encourage your team members to do this. Challenge them to think about how they can change their thinking and take an alternative view on a subject.
You may find it helps them to compare answers, so they can see how other people look at things. It can be difficult to simply start taking a new perspective – sometimes you need examples of how another person would do something in order to figure out a new approach for yourself.
When they have completed this question, ask them to consider why they have chosen that approach, and how it has changed the way that they would usually approach it. The challenge can again be something fun; the point is for them to start thinking in new ways.
Question 7: How Would You Describe Your Approach To Solving A Problem?
You may wish to precede this question by giving the team members a fun problem to solve, such as how they would deal with not having enough treats to share around the office, or something similar. Once they have their solution, ask them to work backward and think about how they arrived at it.
This should encourage them to start exploring their own thought processes, and considering how it serves them.
Conclusion
There are plenty of ways to help your team build their critical thinking skills using fun hypothetical situations and unusual approaches to problems. Remember to encourage a collaborative atmosphere that is driven by solutions, and think up entertaining scenarios to keep it lighthearted. This should help to ensure everyone gets involved!
