THE 'FREE-DUMB' SESSIONS Lee Parkinson

Many believe that you can judge the quality of a decision by the success of the outcome…………’But can you really?’What if the person making the decision was reckless or had a high propensity for risk-taking, or was a gambler?And what if the reason there was a successful outcome was mere luck?What we need to think about is the role the decision or decisions that were made played in the outcome.What do we know about the biases that may have come into play when a particular decision is being made?...

Think of this episode as the end of the first season, and the beginning of the second season.We took a winding journey through critical thinking for the first 10 episodes, and the last episode's interview with Carl Davidson seemed a fitting place to wrap that theme up. That's why the first part of this episode provides a summary and some clear steps to use when adopting critical thinking into our lives.However, people seem to enjoy what I've been doing and want more. It's also true ...

I've always been clear that the Free-dumb Sessions' role is to provoke debate, awaken critical thinking, and help people ' break Free of Dumb’, in all its many forms, but what the hell is critical thinking anyway? How do we sort out the facts from the noise, the meaning from rumor, and the outright lies from the gossip?At long last, this episode is a conversation with my guest and friend Carl Davidson.Carl has spent most of his life trying to understand human behavior. His background is ...

Most of us pride ourselves on our honesty.Our businesses love to talk about honesty and integrityIt is important to us. But are we really that honest? Do we really tell ‘the truth’, and what does that even mean?Sadly, truth is subjective and what is true for one, may be different for another. And if that is the case, does the truth matter, and are we all liars?If you want to find out more about our lack of rationality and decision-making, read Do You Really Know Why You Do The...

This episode is a discussion with my guest and friend Nick Leach.There’s so much talk about ‘Purpose’, but what is it exactly? Is it just a new-age way of window dressing, or does it have the power to transform organisations?Nick is a passionate leader, who has been in leadership roles for the past 15 years, across, Asia and ANZ. He wrote the book, ‘Leading On Purpose - a guide to creating a purpose-driven culture’ I first got to know Nick about 10 years ago in Wellington, New Zea...

While we seem to agree that words matter, are people really getting taken in by the media? Are we really that dumb?The power of 'framing'. Can the mere substitution of a single verb make a noticeable difference in meaning?What implications does this have for police and legal cases?What has anything covered so far in the Free-dumb Sessions got to do with critical thinking?You can read more about Loftus and Palmer’s Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction (1974) study, the impact o...