From the course: Critical Thinking

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Use the five whys of critical thinking

Use the five whys of critical thinking

From the course: Critical Thinking

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Use the five whys of critical thinking

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- One of the most effective critical thinking tools I've ever come across is the five whys. When I was a young analyst as a consultant, I was at a client engagement, and I was responsible for doing a lot of analysis. One morning I did a bunch of analysis around some things that my client was purchasing. And when I went to lunch with my project manager, he said, "What have you been doing today?" And I said, "Well, I was doing the analysis on this one category of spend." And he said, "Okay, what'd you learn?" I said, "Well, I think this is happening." And he said, "Okay, well why?" "What do you mean, why?" "Well, why is that happening? Why do you think that's happening?" I said, "I don't know, maybe it's this." And he said, "Okay, well why?" "What do you mean why?" "Well, why would that be happening?" And I stopped and I thought, and I said, "Well, it might be this." And he said, "Well, why?" And I said, "Oh my gosh, what's with the whys?" And he said, "Mike, our job is to come to…

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