Course overview

Show a video clip of a crowd of protestors clashing with riot police to a group of people and ask for their judgment. Those who are pro-police will tell you the protestors initiated the violence, while those who are pro-protestors will tell you it was the police who started the aggression, one Yale study showed. 

Show a video clip of a tall and slim man conducting a lecture at Harvard to a group of people and ask them for their impression of his physique. Tell half of the group he is a taekwondo expert and they’ll say he looks very fit, but tell the other half he is a cancer survivor and they’ll say he looks very frail, another study showed.

Alas, study after study has shown that we are all rather poor perceivers and thinkers. We are by and large not objective thinkers or even merely subjective thinkers, but what Lim How calls “selfjective thinkers”! That is, a large part of our thinking and reasoning (actually, almost 99% of the time) is aimed not at seeing reality for what it is or what it could be, but at confirming or validating our preconceived beliefs, opinions, and expectations. We are, in short, not objective but hopelessly biased thinkers (although no one wants to admit this!). This course explains what and how, and shows you how to outsmart others by overcoming the pervasive “confirmation bias” and “belief perseverance” in order to be more effective problem solvers, decision makers, strategic thinkers, people-managers, and more.

Learning Outcome

• Understand how effective vs. ineffective thinkers think.

• Understand what the two most common thinking mistakes most people make, and how to overcome them.

• Learn a few critical tips on how to think more objectively and hence effectively.

Course Outline

• Introduction: How people really, really think.

• Face the facts vs. fit the facts.

• Manage the facts vs. massage the facts.

• Deceive with our minds vs. deceived by our minds! 

• Stanford studies: How people evaluate evidences.

• Simple framework: How scientists vs. lawyers think.

• Consequences: When managers think objectively vs. selfjectively! 

• How do you know when you are thinking objectively?

• How biases inhibit our problem solving and decision making abilities.

• How objective thinking can enhance our thinking competencies at work and beyond.

• What does it mean to really think effectively?

• New paradigm of thought: 3 things every executive must know.

Who Should Attend

• Executives who want to know how to think more objectively and hence more effectively.

• Corporations who want to train their executives and managers to become more objective and effective thinkers.