To that I would add, “avoid one-stop thinking.” If you’ve arrived at a simple, airtight solution, look again. Keep trying to poke holes in it.
Let’s look at Browne and Keeley’s three basic tenets.
But before you finalize a conclusion, run it by other people—especially trusted associates who aren’t afraid of being honest and pointing out your errors, omissions, or what have you.
News organizations like to promote reporting that asks the tough questions… holding feet to the fire… putting people on the spot… holding them accountable… It’s not a great way to make friends, though.
The interpretive interview
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The third type of interview described by Scanlon and Craig is “the emotional interview.” Let’s hope it never comes to that; leave those to the unfortunate news reporters assigned to cover those (often tragic) stories. However, if somehow you find yourself in such a situation, the most important advice is to avoid causing more harm.
Ask ‘open’ questions
Critical thinking can be used to either defend or evaluate and reconsider your initial beliefs. Browne and Keeley refer to the “weak-sense critical thinking” used to defend your own ideas. Others call this “confirmation bias”; you have preconceived notions and enter the interview to prove them, or ask questions based on your own assumptions.
As you investigate an issue in your shop or office, ask questions like: • Who are the principals? For example, who operates the machine? Who runs the system? Who is having difficulties? Who is on the team? Who needs to be on the team? • What are the issues? What machinery or systems are involved? What is happening? What should be happening? • Where does the process break down? Where are the bottlenecks in the workflow? If there is more than one location, where are the problems? • When do these issues occur? When does it get better? When will it get worse? • Why do you think we have a problem? Why do you think something isn’t working? Why do you think it’s happening?
Your approach to organizing the critical questions and answers should mirror the same selfless spirit with which you conduct your interview. If you merely use what you already know or believe to form the story, it probably won’t take as long. But the picture will be incomplete, and your report is likely to generate or propagate misconceptions and mistakes.
Reaching a conclusion—and starting an argument
Pick a problem—any problem. As soon as you have one without an immediate answer, we can begin.
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منبع: https://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/management-article/if-getting-facts-means-having-ask-071223.htmlYou may think of a conclusion as the end of the line. But in the realm of critical thinking, the finished product—call it an action plan—is your argument. You’ve gathered and sorted the facts, come to a conclusion, and now can define the issues and suggest what should be done. Whether you recommend change or sticking to the status quo, you are making an argument for a course of action.
For me, that would be my wife, Georgia. She’s always happy to point out what I missed, forgot, or got wrong. As an educator, she contributed valuable, additional views on information-gathering, critical thinking, and testing results. Her key points: • Carefully define your terms. Do they mean the same to you as to others? • Dig deeper: Ask what if, what might • Pull it apart; examine and question all elements. (Reporter’s tip: This can irritate the interviewee, who may have already given you answers once.) • Shift scenarios to apply the facts. Do they still hold up? • Where people are involved in the narrative, try to put yourself in their place. What would you think? How would you feel? Empathy can be an avenue to discovery.
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Ms. Leigh ended the interview and threw him out. Don’t be that guy.
Talking to the stakeholders—workers, supervisors, executives, specialists, vendors, suppliers—you have your facts (so far), and you want to know what each person thinks, what they have to say, what they believe or suggest might be the solution, or how the system might be hindering their efforts. Ideally, this builds consensus and more clearly identifies problems.
To establish facts and reveal opinions, use the basic “five Ws” approach—who, what, where, when, and why. For journalists, the Ws form the tip of the traditional “pyramid” story construction as those facts are brought out first thing.
Published: Wednesday, July 12, 2023 – 12:03
The same five Ws can serve as a template to initiate your fact-finding. As you research and learn more, you’ll develop a better grasp of the topic—what you know about it, and, most important, what you don’t know and need to find out.
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You may not think of it as an argument until you have to present it to others. Then, as you know, others may disagree. See? Now you have an argument—and so do your clients or co-workers.
Management
If Getting the Facts Means Having to Ask
Solving problems with journalism techniques and critical thinking
Once your interview is done and transcribed (my least favorite part), it’s time to form a conclusion based on the facts you’ve gathered.
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This definition alone doesn’t get you very far down the road. But the process comprises finding and choosing the questions, skillfully asking them, and getting the story. Reporters employ critical thinking to prepare and conduct interviews. Like a reporter, you need to get to the bottom of things and—hopefully—shed some light on the solution.
So, don’t worry. But before an interview, learn as much as you can about the issues and the factors that surround it. The better your preparation, the better and more informative your interview will be. You don’t need to be the expert—but you do need to give the impression that you belong in the same room.
Early on as a reporter, I self-consciously worried about being the person who knew the least. “Welcome to my world,” an editor told me. Usually, reporters aren’t the experts; they’re writers searching for the nouns needed to build a story. If we already knew all the answers, questions would be unnecessary.
Critical thinking is essential to information-gathering and problem-solving.
Those “why” questions lead to the next type of interview.
If you’re interviewing several people on the same subject with the same questions—in effect, taking a survey—don’t hesitate to adjust, add to, or delete questions as you go. You’ll realize after a couple of interviews which questions are the best and which are less useful. Make adjustments on the fly, and if there are questions you wish you had asked, backtrack and follow up for clarification. This again speaks to the proper degree of humility. Don’t hesitate to go back to the interview subject and say, “I realize I should have asked….”
Apply critical thinking
If you are as knowledgeable as the person you interview, leave your expertise at the door. You’re not there to tell people what you know, however much that may be. Being an active listener begins with letting the other person do the talking, keeping your ears and eyes open, and reading between their lines.
If your argument is logical, well-supported by facts, and based on consensus among stakeholders, you just might have a solution.
So can you. If you’re on a fact-finding mission and expected to write up a report, that does make you a reporter. Go ahead, turn pro—here is some advice on doing interviews, asking the right questions, and finding answers.
Types of interviews
2. Asking and answering questions appropriately
How do you find the right questions? Throughout the fact-finding process, critical thinking is, well, critical. When you have to find facts and assemble a report, you can also look to journalism for advice and ideas on forming an interview and telling a story. News reporters do it every day.
Nearly as important as the questions you ask is how you ask them. “Open” questions invite the subject of your interview to do the talking—which really is the point. Although establishing the salient facts may involve obtaining simple answers, try to avoid asking questions that can be simply answered yes or no. They may confirm or contradict what you already know, but they won’t add much to your information.
You may, and often must, ask questions that might make the subject of the interview uncomfortable or even defensive. No one wants to be blamed or take on more responsibility because of an interview. But these questions may be the best you ask.
Perhaps you’re a quality professional, an auditor, a systems analyst, or just the person your boss sent to find out what the heck is going on around here. Whether you have a problem on your plant floor or in your C-suite, if you’re the one tasked with finding a solution, you’ll have to talk to people and ask questions.
1. Awareness
This type of interview differs from the first because you’re trying to advance past “just the facts” to gather the interviewee’s interpretations and opinions. After gathering the basic information, you’re furthering dialogue and searching for answers, solutions, and action plans.
If you’re familiar with the organization you’re serving, you already know the lay of the land. If not, ask around and learn who the principals are—the ones who know the most about the problems you’re tackling.
I’m reminded of an anecdote I read in journalism school: A newspaper sent a reporter out to interview actress Vivien Leigh on an anniversary of the film Gone With the Wind. It wasn’t a tough assignment; this was not hard news. But the first question the reporter asked was, “So, what part did you play in the movie?”
The information interview
This demands your skill as an interviewer. Be nice, but be direct. Blend tact and curiosity as you build a relationship based on your common need to know. You can relieve suspicion and defensiveness by convincing a person that you value their knowledge and expertise. Preface questions with phrases such as, “I’d like to know more,” or “I’m curious about,” or, quite simply, “Help me understand….”
In their textbook News Writing and Reporting (Oxford University Press, second edition, 2013), Chip Scanlon and Richard Craig define three main types of interviews: the information interview, the interpretive interview, and the emotional interview.
3. Actively use the critical questions
In their textbook Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking (Pearson, 2018), M. Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley define critical thinking as “evaluation skills activated by the following: 1. Awareness of a set of interrelated critical questions 2. Ability to ask and answer these critical questions in an appropriate manner 3. Desire to actively use the critical questions
That means asking the right questions of the right people to find your answers and solve a problem. But, to paraphrase either Socrates or Donald Rumsfeld, you don’t know what you don’t know.
No matter what you’ve been told in an interview, you must evaluate what you’ve learned. You have to be more than a sponge soaking up information and opinions. Consider what you know to be true and apply the facts as well as the knowledge you ’ve gained—don’t rely simply on what you’ve been told. You have the facts you went in with, and perhaps different or contradictory views from interviewees. Define the differences as well as the common ground. Your power of reasoning is how you reach a conclusion.
That last one is an especially effective format for your questions because it gets what you want—that person’s knowledge and opinion.
When interviewing an expert (especially a gruff one, or maybe your boss), wrap your questions in modesty. “This might seem like a dumb question,” or “What do you think of A and B?” lets the subject know you value, in fact need, their opinion. Your subject may be more inclined to be charitable.
Framing open, inviting questions requires some creativity. An easy way to get started is to begin a question with one of the five Ws (who, what, where, when, and why): “Who would…?”; “What sort of…?”; “Where was…?”; “When do you…”; “Why do you think…”