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Spring 2008 Business Seminar on Critical Thinking

The Art of Making Intelligent Decisions
Using Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools
For Business Executives, Managers, Decision-Makers, Team Leaders

Begin to Experience the Benefits of a Mind
In Command of Itself

Three-Day Seminar
February 29 - March 2, 2008

DoubleTree Hotel and Marina, Near UC Berkeley, CA

This event has concluded

Check back for our next scheduled business seminar or contact

cct@criticalthinking.org


Think Critically – to enhance your effectiveness in every part of your professional life
The world gets more complex every day. There is only one way to cope – through command of your mind. Thinking more effectively gives you greater control over your life, helps you deal better with adversity, and, believe it or not, transform more of your dreams into reality. Effective thinking is no mystery. It consists of practical skills anyone can learn, practice and improve. Critical thinking offers those skills to anyone willing to do the work to acquire them.

In this seminar you will learn how to take your thinking apart and assess it for quality.  You will discover universal standards by means of which you can assess virtually any thinking---and improve it.  You will learn how to practice applying the tools of critical thinking to every day decisions, as well as to monumental ones.

Critical thinking, when deeply understood, enables you to take control of the thinking you are doing in every part of your life. It enables you to solve problems more effectively, make better decisions, as well as recognize pathological and manipulative thinking.

In this seminar you will learn:

  • Practical skills for thinking more clearly.
  • How to use your mind to achieve your goals and enhance your life.
  • How to analyze your thinking and the thinking of others
  • How to assess your thinking and the thinking of others
  • How to overcome obstacles to effective self-reflection
  • How to become more effective in your business and personal relationships
  • Strategies for continuing to develop after you leave the seminar.
Learn to Make Better Decisions through Critical Thinking

To live is to act. To act is to decide. Everyday work and life are an endless sequence of decisions. Some of the decisions are small and inconsequential, and some are large and life-determining. When your patterns of decision-making are rational, you live a rational life. When your patterns are irrational, you live an irrational life. Rational decisions maximize the quality of your life and your chances of happiness, successful living, and fulfillment. Critical thinking improves your decision-making abilities by raising your patterns of decision-making to the level of conscious and deliberate choice.

Be Forewarned: There is No Miracle Cure

In this seminar, you will be introduced to the concepts and tools of critical thinking by one of the leading authorities in critical thinking, Dr. Gerald Nosich. Yet it is important to recognize that your mind cannot instantaneously be transformed through any three-day seminar. Critical and creative thinking are the products of intellectual work with progressive payoffs developing over extended periods of time. The extent to which you internalize the tools of critical thinking will directly depend upon your level of commitment, and the time you set aside to develop your mind (just like development in any skill area, like athletics or music).

The Foundation for Critical Thinking, in association with the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking can help you lay a foundation for the systematic improvement of your thinking. But you must do the work, and it does involve intellectual pain (no pain no gain).
Foundation for Critical Thinking Seal
For over a quarter century, the Fellows at the Foundation for Critical  Thinking have published hundreds of articles and numerous books on critical thinking. The Foundation develops critical thinking tests and assessment tools and has hosted academies, workshops, and 26 annual International Conferences (including events at Princeton and the University of Cambridge). One of its upcoming events is scheduled for Oxford University.

We promise no miracle cure, but we do promise you a healthy dose of the real thing:
  • the ultimate structural foundations of thinking (that enable you to better analyze thinking),
  • the intellectual standards used by all skilled thinkers (that enable you to assess thinking for quality), and
  • the traits that perfect the human mind: intellectual humility, intellectual empathy, intellectual perseverance, and fair-mindedness (that are the hallmarks of the fair-minded critical thinker). 

You will develop a comprehensive vision of where you need to go and how you can (intellectually) get there. You will be introduced to everyday problems that involve the interplay of thoughts, feelings, and desires. You will develop a game plan for progressively improving the quality of your thinking. Your development will begin at the workshop, but it will be up to you to access the resources you need over time---think years not days---in which you will become a more rational, more sensitive, more ethical, more effective, and more broad-minded thinker. 

The seminar will be interactive, and will be focused on two books written by fellow of the Foundation for Critical Thinking:
Critical Thinking:  Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life
 And
Twenty-Five Days to Better Thinking and Better Living

Use your critical thinking to evaluate “critical thinking” workshops and seminars. If you’re going to put your time and money into it, invest in the real thing, not a counterfeit.

Registration Fees:
(early registration)
One person - $1845
2-3 people - $1645/person
4 or more - $1445/person 		Online registration is closed

Why Do We Need Critical Thinking?

Why Critical Thinking is Essential in a World of Accelerating Change.

The world is swiftly changing and with each day the pace quickens. The pressure to respond intensifies. New global realities are rapidly working their way into the deepest structures of our lives: economic, social, cultural, political, and environmental realities — realities with profound implications for thinking and learning, business and politics, human rights and human conflicts. These realities are becoming increasingly complex; many represent significant dangers and threats. And they all turn on the powerful dynamic of accelerating change.

Can we deal with incessant and accelerating change and complexity without revolutionizing our thinking? Traditionally our thinking has been designed for routine, for habit, for automation and fixed procedure. We learned how to do our job once, and then we used what we learned over and over. But the problems we now face, and will increasingly face, require a radically different form of thinking, thinking that is more complex, more adaptable, more sensitive to divergent points of view. The world in which we now live requires that we continually relearn, that we routinely rethink our decisions, that we regularly reevaluate the way we work and live. In short, there is a new world facing us, one in which the power of the mind to command itself, to regularly engage in self-analysis, will increasingly determine the quality of our work, the quality of our lives, and perhaps even, our very survival.

Yet we are unprepared to deal with the complexities in the world we now face. The question of how to survive in the world is a question continually transforming itself. Accelerating change, increasing complexity, and intensifying danger sound the death knell for traditional methods of thinking. How can we adapt to reality when reality won’t give us time to master it before it changes itself, again and again, in ways we can but partially anticipate? Unfortunately, the crucial need for ever-new modes of thought to adapt to new problems and situations in new and humane ways is ignored by most cultures and today. Short-term thinking leading to quick-fix solutions still rule the day.


Files available for download  »
  • Business SeminarSchedule 20081.doc
    •

    Dr. Gerald Nosich

    Dr. Gerald NosichDr. Gerald Nosich is a noted authority on critical thinking. He has given more than 150 national and international workshops and lectures on all aspects of teaching for critical thinking. He has also worked with the U.S.
    Department of Education on a project for the National Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills, served as the Assistant Director of the Center for Critical Thinking, and been featured as a Noted Scholar at the University of British Columbia. He is a Professor of Philosophy at Buffalo State College in New York.

    His second book, Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum, has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic. He is currently working on a guide to Assessing Critical Thinking in a Field or Discipline.

    Dr. Nosich is a witty presenter whose down-to-earth sense of humor adds spice to his practical insights.








    New Hotel Information

     

    **Our Room Block at the DoubleTree has been filled**

     

    We now have a room block at the Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge.  Our group rate is $133.00/ night. 

    This block rate is being held until February 25, 2008. 

    They are located at 1800 Powell Street, Emeryville, California, USA 94608.

    Please visit their website for information about their facilities, or call them directly at 1-510-658-9300.  

    **To reserve a room, please follow their step-by-step instructions below:

    1.	Go to www.sanfranciscooakland.stayhgi.com.
    2.	Under "Check Availability" on the right hand side, please enter your date of arrival and departure 
            (February 28-March 2, 2008).  Then, click the "GO" icon.
    3.	Please scroll down to the bottom page.  Under "Group/Convention" code, please type in "FTC," and click "CONTINUE."
    4.	Please select your room type, and click "CONTINUE."
    5.	Then, enter your information and method of payment.  A confirmation number will be given to you, and you're all set!

    Thank you and we look forward to having you as our guest.     

    NOTE:  Please make your reservation on or before the cut-off date (February 25, 2008).



    Seminar Hotel Information

     

    DOUBLETREE HOTEL AND EXECUTIVE
    MEETING CENTER BERKELEY MARINA


    The DoubleTree Hotel in Berkeley    , California is located on the water, overlooking the San Francisco Bay. The Berkeley Marina offers a unique and serene location in the heart of a major metropolitan center.

    The Critical Thinking Business Seminar Rate is  $124.00 per night. This rate includes a full breakfast buffet every day seminar (including beverage and gratuity).

    This rate is available until February 11, 2008. 
    Ask for the "Critical Thinking Room Block."

    For Hotel Reservations  

     Call the Berkeley DoubleTree Directly at 510.548.7920

     

    About the Hotel and Its Amenities:

    • The hotel has 370 spacious guest rooms, All with balconies or patios and many with views.
    • All guest rooms offer high-speed internet access.
    • The hotel offers the waterside Bay Grille Restaurant and Lounge.
    • The hotel is pleased to offer the Discounted Group Rate of $124.00 per room, per night. This group rate is available through February 1, 2008. This rate is for a standard room and does not include tax. 
    • In room coffee, two daily newspapers delivered, hair dryer and iron with ironing board.
    • Stay in shape at the hotel’s complimentary fitness center and miles of bayside running trails.
    • Order Room Service, to round out the pampering!
    • Complimentary shuttle service to downtown Berkeley, North Berkeley BART Station, "Trendy" 4th Street Shops, and UC-Berkeley Campus
    • ( 2 ) Staffed state-of-the-art business centers with computers, high speed internet access, copier, fax, and phone.
    • Complimentary parking for all attendees and guests!

        ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

    • The hotel offers complimentary parking for all seminar guests and attendees.
    • The hotel offers complimentary use of its 2 indoor pools, and fitness center featuring a whirlpool, sauna, workout room and locker room.
    • The hotel offers complimentary local shuttle to virtually anywhere in Berkeley including the Bay Area Rapid Transit station for easy access to San Francisco.
    • For more information on interesting things to do in Berkeley visit: www.visitberkeley.com


    For Shuttle to the Hotel

    https://www.bayporter.com/ Please check website for reservation information. Reservations not necessary but recommended.
    From Oakland Airport: $23 for first passenger, $12 each additional passenger
    From SFO: $29 for first passenger, $12 each additional passenger
    If you are traveling in a group of 7, you may reserve a van @ the following rates:
    $80 Oakland Airport to Berkeley Marina / $85 SFO to Berkeley Marina

    https://supershuttle.com/  Please check website for rates and reservation information.

    You may also take Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) from both airports.
    https://www.bart.gov/index.asp .  The stop is the 'North Berkeley' BART station, approximately 1.5 miles from the hotel.  The DoubleTree has a complimentary shuttle that operates within a 3 mile radius of the hotel.  It is on a first come first served basis and a maximum of 9 per shuttle run.  Please call the hotel at 510-548-7920 to arrange to be picked up at the BART station when you arrive.