You’re in charge of internal communications. How can you develop critical thinking skills in your team?

1 Ask open-ended questions

One of the simplest and most effective ways to encourage critical thinking is to ask open-ended questions that invite multiple perspectives, challenge assumptions, and stimulate curiosity. For example, instead of asking "Do you agree with this plan?", you could ask "What are the pros and cons of this plan?" or "How would you improve this plan?" Open-ended questions can also help you understand the reasoning behind your team members' opinions, feedback, and suggestions.

4 Offer learning opportunities

One more way to develop critical thinking skills in your team is to offer learning opportunities that challenge them to expand their knowledge, skills, and abilities. Learning opportunities can include formal training, coaching, mentoring, webinars, podcasts, books, articles, and online courses. You can also create learning opportunities by assigning your team members new projects, tasks, or roles that require them to apply their existing skills in new ways or acquire new skills. Learning opportunities can help your team members grow professionally and personally, as well as keep them engaged and motivated.

5 Model critical thinking

Finally, as a leader in internal communications, you can develop critical thinking skills in your team by modeling critical thinking yourself. You can demonstrate critical thinking by sharing your thought process, explaining your rationale, acknowledging your biases and limitations, seeking feedback and input, and admitting your errors and learning from them. You can also show critical thinking by being open-minded, curious, and respectful of other views, as well as by being proactive, creative, and solution-oriented. By modeling critical thinking, you can inspire your team to follow your example and improve their own critical thinking skills.