Catalytic Thinking Labs

Professional Development in Thinking for Change that Matters 
Business and ethical political leaders have been calling for critical thinking and ways to work with complex issues. Catalytic Thinking Labs offer specific capacity-building experiences for teams and individuals. Each Lab is 60 to 90 minutes with more than 100 Labs grouped into four Arenas. 

How do we know if our ideas are good ideas?

How do we build better ideas together?

Thinking is a process that is a foundation under everything else we do. We can't improve our process if we are operating blind to our existing habits and unfamiliar with what is possible.
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Explore Arenas

Guide to
All Arenas

Applied
Critical Thinking

Navigating
Complex Issues

Self-Knowledge for 
Leading and Supporting

Disciplined
Social Innovation

Get to Know the Catalytic Thinking Labs

LAB FOUNDATIONS: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

Whether you choose to take a Lab, Certificate, or Arena the content in Get Started will support your learning journey.
FREE Get Started

LABS

Labs are the building blocks of this entire guided self–education experience.  
There are 112 Labs arranged into four Arenas. Each Lab is unique, yet mutually supportive and coherent. Follow our recommended sequence or study them in any order you wish. Learn about the recommended sequence on each Arena page.
Try a Lab

Dig deep, transform yourself, and transform our world.

ARENAS

The Arenas are the backbone of the Catalytic Thinking Labs.
Each of the Arenas are organized in a developmental path. 

CERTIFICATES

Certificates allow you to explore some topics more deeply.
There are 4 Arena Certificates and 12 Focused Certificates.

Examples of Skills Explored in the Labs

We need insights, skills, and methods with frameworks that serve as a common reference. The Labs help us converse with others using common language and frameworks. Here are a few examples:
  • What assumptions am I making, and how sure am I about their certainty?
  • How do I explain why I think what I think? 
  • How do I test an idea to see if it is a good idea? 
  • How do I approach complex issues, distinguishing them from chaotic or routine issues?
  • How do I leave behind problem/solution thinking and adopt a new set of strategies for complex issues?
  • What does Deep Listening ask of me? Why does it matter?
  • How do Assessment and Accountability relate to each other, and our work?
  • Why does Social Innovation need a disciplined, systems view?
  • How does Intellectual Humility help us become leaders that are not standing on charisma or flash, but on legitimate and authentic capacities to be inclusive, and to shape and guide group efforts?

No Expensive Outside Consultants
Prestigious Yet Affordable for Your Teams

Finally, your organization’s professional development path can be long-term and comprehensive. You can follow the sequence of the Labs, shaping them around your time availabilities.
To heal our societies and organizations, we need to work more openly and directly with our rich inner life resources; our thinking, our feeling, and our motivation to act and actions.

Orland Bishop

Executive Director
Shadetree Multicultural Foundation
Read his full testimonial and others, here.

For Individuals. At your own pace. On your own terms.

I’m a solo learner. Can I study the Labs too?
But, can I afford it?
Yes!
Our low-cost pricing reflects our vision, to make the Catalytic Thinking Labs accessible to anyone with the desire and perseverance anywhere in the world. 
Every CTL Lab includes a chalkboard, and the presentations can be revisited multiple times to deepen and expand understanding. 
In the 17 years that the knowledge contained in these Catalytic Thinking Labs was taught at the radical but fully accredited GreenMBA Program,* we never had a student come in with the skills and capacities that they subsequently learned with us, even though we drew students from schools such as Harvard, CalTech, and UC Berkeley. In truth, our students found themselves shocked and even slightly outraged that in all their years of schooling, no one had taught them how to think in such a useful, coherent, and comprehensive way.

Jane Lorand, Co-Founder

Investing in people everywhere who have the desire
and perseverance to strengthen their thinking.
Read about the Roots of the Thinking Practices
*1999-2006 New College of California, San Francisco, Santa Rosa
  2006-2017 Dominican University of California, San Rafael
We believe in giving as much as we can, and taking as little as we need.

View Our Pricing
We want to help people create lives of meaning, in their own way and on their own time.
Who We Are

Catalytic Thinking Labs

It's time to move beyond just talking about change.
We'll change how we act when we change how we think. Strengthening my thinking now is something tangible I can do.
For Learner help:
View our Orienteering Guide
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For partnerships, sales, and facilitator support:
support@catalyticthinkinglabs.com
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