FEATURE STORY / CRITICAL THINKING: In Business & Practice
greater self-awareness. Two of Dr. Barth’s
colleagues in the field of critical thinking
offer a roadmap to doing just that. Linda
Elder and Richard Paul recently published
a new book designed to provide that
roadmap. Called 30 Days to Better Thinking
and Better Living Through Critical Thinking,
the book outlines a number of tactics that
can help anyone, health care professionals
included, think more critically. Step one is
called “discovering your ignorance.” Elder
and Paul point out that we are all biased to
believe that we are right most of the time.
In fact many of our beliefs are based on
incomplete information or even prejudices.
Developing an awareness of our biases is a
great place to start.
Dr. Barth puts it another way, “the best
thing a practitioner can do is to educate
themselves about how they tend to make
decisions on a daily basis.” From that starting point, Dr. Barth believes, practitioners
can then train themselves to reflect upon
and monitor their own thinking. “Once
you know the conditions under which good
and bad thinking and decisions emerge,” he
explained, “you can then quite easily - and
quickly - check to see if your current process
is likely to lead to a positive outcome.”
T
he same rules apply in business.
Every patient is different and every
day in practice is different. A well
trained critical thinker who can incorporate
the benefits of both fast and slow thinking
is required. For instance, your patient roster
likely includes various categories of patients
with similar expectations of the service they
will receive in your clinic. By identifying
the characteristics of patients that want
more explanation of your treatment plans
and techniques, for example, you will be
able to provide a more tailored experience
to those patients. In this example your fast
thinking will help you identify patterns
within your patient base, while your slow
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FALL 2013
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Dr. Aaron Barth will be speaking at
the OCA Conference on October 5, 2013
at the InterContinental Toronto Centre.
Visit the OCA website at
www.chiropractic.on.ca to register.
The Intuitive Chiropractor:
How critical thinking can help you ‘trust your gut’ in business and in practice
Like your back and muscles, your mind needs to be exercised and stretched to stay sharp.
In this lively and interactive workshop, Aaron Barth, Ph.D. will teach you how to apply the
tools of critical thinking to your business and practice in order to improve your core decision
making abilities. In particular, this session will focus on one of your most basic and effective
thinking skills: Using your intuition.
thinking develops treatment appraochs for
those patients.
You may have already found this useful
in dealing with difficult patients. Sometimes
a patient who is emotional simply wants
you to listen to their concerns. They want
to be heard. Others will expect you to take
some definitive action to correct a wrong
they feel has been done. Identify each instance correctly and you have a pretty good
chance of diffusing a tense situation and
having your patient leave satisfied.
When it comes to the big questions it is
even more important to slow down and think
through your options rationally. Strategic
planning for your business is a great example.
Many chiropractors who operate one clinic
successfully think about opening a second
location. This is a significant challenge, as it is
likely that the strategies and tactics that made
the first clinic successful will help, but not
guarantee success in the second location.
“Unfortunately the world isn't logical,” says Dr. Barth. “Success here does not
always mean succes