[Neurons] 2019 Neurons #57 CRITICAL THINKING WHEN COMMUNICATING

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall 

2019 Neurons #57

December 30, 2019

How to be a 

Professional Communicator #11

 

 

CRITICAL THINKING OR ITS LACK

WHEN COMMUNICATING

 

I began this series of articles by identifying a set of communication
distinctions.  You can think of each of those distinctions as presenting one
aspect of critical thinking-a distinction which if you ignore, or don't know
how to make, would doom your communications to be vague, imprecise, and
sloppy.  Consequently, you would be more likely to create mis-understanding
rather than deliver a clear message. 

 

That's why critical thinking is important- it enables you to be more precise
and with precision, therefore clear.  It also enables your communications to
be more mature rather than over-simplistic, naive, and childish.  Given the
cognitive development stages of childhood, children cannot engage in
critical thinking.  Only after puberty, with the development of formal
logical thinking, can a person's thinking mature enough to begin to learn
how to think critically.  Yet even then it does not automatically happen and
that's why many adults (perhaps most) do not know how to engage in the
advanced thinking competencies called "critical thinking."

 

One of the fascinating and disappointing things I learned when I researched
the field of Critical Thinking was that not a single writer in that field
knew or quoted the NLP Communication Model - the Meta-Model.  And yet it is
perhaps the very best critical thinking tool of all.  Having read
extensively in that field, I never came across a model that was half as good
as the Meta-Model.  That's why I put the Meta-Model in the book, Executive
Thinking (2018). 

 

It is the lack of critical thinking that makes most communication messy and
lacking important distinctions.  That lack also makes for a whole host of
ways to mis-communicate and, of course, with mis-communication comes
mis-understandings and conflicts.  All unnecessary if a person knows how to
think and communicate critically.

 

The original Meta-Model (1975) provided eleven (11) distinctions to make
when using language to communicate.  The extended Meta-Model (1997) expanded
the list to twenty-one (21) distinctions- all of which enable critical
thinking and precision in communicating.  As a result, when you learn how to
use the Meta-Model, you learn how to think about your thinking while you are
communicating.  Today we call that level of meta-cognition- mindfulness.

 

That quality of mindfulness is a function of your higher brain functions,
your pre-frontal cortex.  It is from there that you are able to think things
through with a quality of precision and specificity that comprises
understanding and clarity.  That quality of mindfulness enables you to know
what you are doing with your words, your language, where you are sending the
brains of those who are listening to you.  When you don't know that- you are
guessing.  You are crossing your fingers and hoping and guessing that your
words will make sense to others and will transmit whatever message or
meaning you have in mind.

 

The critical thinking, or perhaps more accurate, the executive thinking of
your pre-frontal cortex, enables you to be mindful about what you are doing
when you speak.  Now you can be more strategic.  Now you can treat words and
language as tools for achieving your ends.  Now you can use the
communication distinctions mentioned earlier to help you navigate the
territory of communicating as a professional.

 

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton CO. 81520 USA

www.neurosemantics.com   look for the special offer

 

Author of the stunning new history of NLP--- NLP Secrets.  

Investigative Journalism which has exposed what has been kept secrets for
decades. 

http://www.neurosemantics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/NLP-Secrets-2_sml2.
png

 

 

 

 

 

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