‘Thinking Creatively, Thinking Critically’ – How Critical Thinking Can Transform our Strategy, with Achates’ Director Caroline McCormick

At Achates we know that one of the key challenges for cultural sector leaders at any level is the ability to think critically. The fact that this should prove so challenging for those of us who work in the cultural sector is of course antithetical, surely, we should be the best at thinking creatively? Yet too often limited time and resources mean that we turn back to basing our experience on the way things have been done in the past, or the experience of others and in particular large cultural sector organisations whose experience may or may not have any relevance to our own, without capacity to deeply consider what has made the model successful in the first place and how we can learn from it without simply aping it.

Central to this creativity is the ability to think critically and this is a skill which needs to be developed like any other. It means being able to analyse information in a critical manner and to question the premise on which it may have been interpreted in the past and to instead bring our own ideas as to the role of culture in society and to draw our own conclusions as a result.

Both of the first two pillars of activity in Achates Community – our Support and Learning Masterclasses and associated resources, and the Purposeful Leader programme, are predicated on the need for critical thinking and the third pillar, our Community spaces, will allow you to do just that.

With weekly critical thinking provocations we will be offering a platform to bring fresh thinking to problems old and new.  Exploring questions such as: 

“Does consulting your audiences help to make them stakeholders or just act as another demand on them?” 

And

 “Can the Executive team build a culture of fundraising or is this ultimately always something that has to be driven by the Board?”

Our critical thinking provocations will help you build your critical thinking muscles with a community of sector leaders at all levels.

Join the Achates Community waitlist now.

Have you been awarded an Achates Community Bursary? We will be announcing the winners on 9th September!

Achates Community – Join for the resources, stay for the community.