critical thinking

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OGL520M1CriticalThinkingandApplicationPromptsV2.pdf

Module One Critical Thinking & Application Prompts

(Four Prompts)

Prompt 1:

Think about some of your most successful (and unsuccessful) leadership experiences. Now

consider the central social motives described by Aronson (belonging, understanding others and

predicting accurately, control, a need to matter, and trust). Comment on the extent to which

each of these social motives were present in your most successful (and unsuccessful) team

leadership experiences. Finally, describe some leadership strategies that you believe would be

helpful in addressing these central social motives with respect to: 1) people who report directly

to you, and 2) Other stakeholders in your organization (customers, C-suite leaders, etc.)

Prompt 2:

Consider an important decision you recently made (in your personal or professional life). Ideally,

when we make important decisions in our lives, we try to collect all of the relevant information in

order to assess all the possible alternatives so that we can carefully evaluate those alternatives

and make the right decision.

Briefly describe the decision and discuss the extent to which you were evenhanded about the

ways in which you collected the relevant information. How might some of the cognitive biases

discussed in this module have influenced your decision-making process? How might some of

the cognitive biases discussed this week color your perceptions of the efficacy of your decision

now that it’s been made?

Prompt 3:

Depressed individuals are typically caught in a vicious cycle of negative thinking, which leads to

self-defeating behavior, which leads to negative experiences, which increases negative thinking.

What characteristics of “social cognition” help us explain this phenomenon? How might these

characteristics of social cognition manifest in a leader-follower relationship, and what kinds of

strategies might you employ to improve the situation?

Prompt 4:

In your experience, how ubiquitous is tribal thinking in organizations (between departments,

core initiatives, project teams, etc.)? (If you have little experience – yet – in this area, comment

on reasons why one might expect tribal thinking to take place in organizational settings.) What

are the possible negative ramifications of tribal thinking in organizations, and how might these

negative effects of tribal thinking be reduced?

other Questions(10)