The Conceptual Thinker

Long Huynh

Initial 25 Jun 2018. Revised 29 Jul 2018 

Introduction 

Conceptual thinking is arguably the most critical technique used in problem solving and creativity. Is this an innate or acquired capacity? Why is this important? This short story discusses what conceptual thinking is and how this can be developed. The story is based on dialogues between Luc and his two friends and colleagues, Ella and John. Luc becomes aware through the dialogues that conceptual thinking can be developed, just like he has done, but he never thought to label this skill as such. Luc is the Conceptual Thinker in the story. Ella is the Romanticist with her sweet personality and driven curiosity. John is the Optimist because of his humility and carefree outlook on life. The story also discusses some practical principles of leadership and provides answers to some of the existential questions of life from perspectives of the characters.

 

The Walk

Luc, Ella and John had finished a team dinner at a restaurant in the Pike Place of Seattle WA on the last day of a week long meeting. This was a popular location for tourists. The seating of the restaurant on the waterfront, that overlooked the Puget Sound which was an inlet of the Pacific Ocean and part of the Salish Sea, was great. The view was nice. The food and service were a let-down, unfortunately. 

The team broke up after dinner with usual hugs and handshakes. Each headed back to their home. Luc, Ella and John decided to walk back to their apartment rental they used for the trip. The map showed a distance of 3.5 miles of walking. Ella was in high heels so Luc and John wanted to hear that she could do the walk.

Luc tuned to Ella and asked with doubts: “Ella, are you sure you want to walk back? I walk with you if you do.”

John added: “The walk back will be up hills all the way. Just to make sure you know!”

Ella said with a smile: “OK, let us walk. If my feet hurt me, I will trade shoes with you, Luc!”

Luc provided a nonsensical reply such as: “No worries. I can carry your backpack and John can carry mine! Do you need help with your backpack now?”

Ella responded as if she was serious: “No. Maybe later. I am good for now.”

Three of them started walking. The time was around 6:30 PM. The weather was nice.  Heat of the sunny afternoon had cooled down. The streets were crowded and filled with people. 

Luc looked around like a tourist and said: “This is nice. I like this.”

John walked few steps behind and said: “Yes. I like walking. When I have time, I usually walk the streets of San Francisco and now New York City, of course. I put on my headset, turn on the music and just wander the streets.”

John just moved to New York City from San Francisco. Walking was like meditation for John. Luc, Ella and John carried on walking back to the rental place in Capital Hill of Seattle. Luc thought of John as the Optimist of the group. John typically did not talk about himself unless he felt comfortable and trusted the people he were with. John grew up without any guidance of his parents. Mom passed away when John was very young. Dad was from South Americas and lived his life like a rolling stone with many wives and children. John guided himself through life. Everything he knew, he learned from books or the hard trials-and-errors of his life experiences. If anything, parental guidance would have aided in the defining and shaping the moral character of a young child up to teenager. None of this seemed to impact John in any negative ways. 

John carried a carefree attitude with him. Never was he careless, for sure. John was full of energy. Luc enjoyed listening to John and his personal stories. The dumb, stupid things that John did when he was younger just like any other teenagers and more.  

John managed to live his life with few emotional attachments. John did well for himself but he never attached much values to money. John often argued that he could live well with the minimum necessities of life. John would be content with just a decent place to sleep, call his home and having simple meals on the table daily. His perspective on life and lack of emotional attachments to the materialistic things around him were reasons for his optimistic view of life. John handled work pressure well. John survived the hardships in his life with the same attitude. Luc could see that. Humility was an integral part of his character and made John a fun guy to be around. Like Luc and Ella, John had experienced moments of extreme darkness in his life and yet he lived through them well. 

They passed by many restaurants and bars along the way back and up hills. About 25 mins into the walk and 1.8 miles later, they stood in front of a local restaurant on the ascending street back to the apartment.

Ella stopped and said: “Hey guys, let us take a break here. We can have drinks, rest and then continue walking back.”

Luc checked around, made sure that the restaurant was a decent seating and responded: “What is this place? Looks fun to me. I am fine if you both want to stop here. Better yet, that sounds like a great idea. I can use a break, also!”

John replied in his easy-going-manner: “OK. Let us go inside.”

Ella led the way. A waitress greeted them. 

Ella said: “Hello. We just want few drinks. We already had dinner.”

The waitress said ‘OK’ and walked them to the bar away from the front door and windows. The section at the bar was dark.

Luc looked at Ella: “This area is kind of dark. Can we sit closer to the windows?”

Ella turned around and talked to waitress. 

Waitress said: “Of course, you can sit anywhere you want.”

The three walked back to the seating near the windows. They sat down. They then saw the stairs leading to the roof.

Ella questioned: “Should we go to the roof and check out?”

Luc and John agreed. They walked up stairs. They were greeted at the door by another waitress. She wore black jeans, black T-shirt and had tattoos alongside her arms. Her face expression was friendly. She asked for their IDs and then gave each a stamp with a skull in black ink on top of their hand palms. They sat down on the wooden benches at the second long wooden table from the door. The other end of the table was occupied by a young couple. Luc sat down facing the entry door and opposite of John. Ella sat down to the left of John.

The Dialogues

Ella took a breath and offered: “I will order. What do you want?”

Luc: “Order whatever you want for me. I am good with anything”

John: “Same for me. I need to go to the restroom and will be back.”

Ella went and ordered the drinks at the standing bar. Luc, John and Ella met a through work. They had worked together for two years or so. Luc and John were closer as they hang out with each other more during trips. Luc rarely talked about himself or his past. He kept most things to himself. He was a private person. So was John. John rarely opened up to anyone. At best, John shared snippets about himself when he was in happy moods. The evening was fun. Luc often said that a good dinner consisted of three key elements: the company, the ambience or character and atmosphere of the restaurant, and finally the food, in that priority order. The first two elements were right that evening.

Ella had a curious mind. She often asked discovery and personal questions to others. Luc never felt like answering any of the questions Ella asked in prior get together. However, that evening was different. Luc saw that Ella seemed to be genuinely interested in the answers of her questions from Luc and John. Sure, Ella was not so much interested in neither Luc nor John. She was much more interested in hearing the answers such that she could reflect on her own answers to the same questions. The dialogues and questions continued after they all sat down.

Luc asked: “Ella, have you watched the movie ‘The Killing Fields’? Did you experience any of that when you were younger?” 

The Killing Fields referenced the sites in Cambodia where millions of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979.

Ella replied: “No. That was Cambodia and I am not from Cambodia, Luc. I grew up in Central Americas. I did grew up in war time, however. I was in a war zone before. I witnessed the shootings and tragedies of the battle fields. I and my family were at times caught up in scenes where shootings took place and saw dead bodies lying around in our paths. We were lucky to survive the many events taking place over time.”

Ella continued in a calm, controlled voice just like she had told this story before: “I vividly remember that we were in a grocery center at one time. We were buying grocery and the shooting started suddenly. I, my mother and my brother lied down on the floor and I could hear the bullets over our heads. I saw explosions and people killed on the other sides of the streets. We luckily crawled out of that place alive. This was one of the closest moments to dying that I was caught up in.”

Ella added: “My girlfriend who now also lives in Europe was not so lucky. Her mother was shot during their escape out of a war zone. A bazooka rocket went through her mother body and left a hole in her stomach. Her mother bled to dead in her arms. No one were willing to help the dying woman because everyone was scared. She was only eleven at the time.”

Luc: “Did your past experiences have a lasting impact you in some ways?”

Ella: “No. Not as much, fortunately. I do not think so. My mind and heart are resilient. The tragic events in my past shaped the way I am today. I don’t take this life for granted, for sure. Every present moment matters to me.”

Luc: “Good. You already know that hardship builds characters. The greatest symphonies were not written at times of great joys. The greatest painting were not painted during happiest moments of life. They all were often created during time of great despairs in the lives of the creators. Look at Beethoven, Mozart or Van Gogh.”

Ella responded: “True.”

Luc: “Your past partially explains your adventurous nature. I can see that. You like to travel backpacking and into regions far from civilizations as you told me before. However, I see you as being risk averse at work. I do not see you taking risks in your current role. This is an interesting contradiction.”

Ella jokingly asked: “How so? Don’t you think that we have enough risks in what we do at work?”

Luc: “Not sure if you joke but in any case, you may feel that way, particularly when you don’t have control of the factors that impact the outcomes of your work. For example, changing expectations of what is required of you and your team or other factors such as having access to the right tools and processes to do the work.”

Ella: “Agreed. That said, I want to come back to my original question: tell us something about you we don’t know.”

Luc paused for a moment. He looked at Ella. Thinking if he should share or not. That look in her eyes was persistent. Luc knew that if he would not say anything now, Ella would keep asking again and maybe next time until she got her answers. Yet, she already shared something of herself so it was only fair for Luc to speak his turn. 

Luc: “My childhood was fraught with disappointments and frustrations. My temper was short because of the things I saw when I was a child.”

Ella: “Why? I do not understand.”

Luc: “Mom was the types who cared more about herself than her own family. She loved herself but no one else. She liked to be famous and in the spot light. My dad was no dad according to my mom and people around me. He was relatively successful in what he did as architect. He designed most of the important palaces in the city he lived in. He worked and paid himself through school while all his siblings dropped out of schools at very early age because of hardship and poverty. He had many girlfriends and affairs even after he was married to my mom. The two fought constantly and in front of me. The porcelain dishes and glasses flew around the house like normal. Yet, rumors were that he painted a portrait of a woman who looked like my mom before he met her.”

Ella: “But why were you short tempered?”

Luc: “People around me, young and old, bullied me. The older people came to me and asked me nosy questions which I was either embarrassed to answer or did not know the answers. People made rude and silly jokes about me and my family. Adults called me by funny names. The children were doing the same after their parents. I suppressed my feelings from the comments and bullies. That built up the frustrations. However, I occasionally let go of my feelings and got into fights and beat up the other children when they crossed certain lines. I still have few scars from the childhood fights.”

Ella: “OK. I do not see you in that angry way at all.”

Luc: “Yes. I have changed in significant ways.”

Ella: “Now your turn, John.”

John was busy texting his new girlfriend. He had been quite distracted recently with his new, great love. Luc remembered that he called John to discuss some business matters just weeks before the trip. John announced that he finally had a ‘girlfriend’. Although many came before. That emotional slip was a bit awkward but Luc understood. John was happy and wanted to share his joys.

John: “Oh, OK. Sorry. My girlfriend is a little mad at me because she can’t FaceTime me now. I met her recently. She is cute and smart. She designs book covers and she even has some articles written about her.”

John went on and on about his girlfriend. Showed pictures and articles about his girlfriend. The sad past appeared to be crowded out by the joys of the present. 

Ella looked at a picture John showed on his mobile phone and said: “She is pretty. I can see that you are happy. So ask her to marry you now, if I were you, before she changes her mind!”

John said with a big smile on his face: “Well, we will see.”

John started to tell Ella his stories. Luc already knew most of the stories. This was more for Ella.

John continued: “My mom passed when I was very young. Dad had…, let me see…, five wives and twenty something children over his lifetime. I do not know much about my siblings other than my immediate siblings with the same mom and dad.”

Ella: “Is your dad still alive? What was the last time you met your dad?”

John: “Yes. He is alive. I don’t see him much. I remember that one day my dad just dropped me off at my aunt house after mom died and disappeared from my life. I was six years old at the time. I met him again ten years later. We did not say much. He just dropped by, brought a small present for my aunt and left again. I have not seen him since.”

Luc empathized with John. No one told John that he must be in school and be responsible for himself one day. Luc was in similar situations so he knew the feelings well.

Luc said with a smile: “I know that must have been very difficult on you, John. That said, you can find some solace with the thought hardship builds characters as people say.”

Luc saw a strong personality in John. That carefree attitude toward life must have been a result of the lack of any guidance from his parents. He had a house over his head and food to eat in his aunt house. However, he did what he wanted to do. His recklessness toward life at early age was because no one taught him about a future he may potentially lose if he was not careful. Luc was the same way. So he understood John and had much empathy for John.  

Ella responded to Luc’s comment: “I agree. Now back to your girlfriend, John. Marry her. Before she changes her mind! Do you hear me?”

Ella was persistent. She kept circling back to her points. This was how Ella was. This was part of her tenacious character.

Luc jokingly said: “Ella, slow down! True love never dies. If she changes her mind later, then this was never meant to be!”

Ella smiled and said: “I don’t know. If I was John, I marry her now. Right now.”

Luc could not really understand Ella’s perspective and her rush. Was she kidding or serious? Must be the former so Luc thought. 

Luc continued: “Ella, I recently watched a movie about Hemingway. Not sure if this was true in real life but in the movie they said that Hemingway took his own life in the end because he never found another true love after he left his first wife. She was like his one and only true love.”

Ella replied: “Yes. He called and talked to his first wife before he killed himself.”

Luc thought to himself that Ella must have read everything about Hemingway. He did not remember anything about calling his first wife in the movie. Luc finally understood that Ella was a Romanticist. At least, that was how Luc would want to describe her. She liked drama movies. She liked reading Hemingway. She asked many existential questions of life.

Luc: “Go on, Ella. Your turn to tell us more about you.”

John went back to texting and chatting with his girlfriend. Luc and Ella looked at each other and just smiled.

Ella: “I went to see a Therapist after I moved to Los Angeles and started working. I told her that I was not happy. I looked at myself and my circumstances at the time. I had all the right checkboxes: good job, friends, money and I could do what I wanted to do. I had all the things I wanted in life at that time and yet I was not happy. The Therapist then told me that I only took and received. I did not give. I must learn to give love to feel love.”

Luc: “Love must be mutual. Loving someone who does not love you back is obsession. Same is true when someone claims to love you but you do not return the love. That is obsession at worse and illusion of love at best.”

Ella: “I took her advice. I learned to give and started giving. I started feeling better.”

Luc started to see Ella in a different way. Inability to give often stemmed from the fear of being deserted and hurt? This explained the vulnerability Luc always saw in Ella but was never able to pinpoint what this was. The curious questions Ella asked were more for her to validate her own answers and learn from perspectives of others. Luc was more open to Ella at this point forward in the talk. Luc had many of his own questions – not unlike Ella. 

A fundamental question that occupied Luc for long time was whether or not the world was predeterministic in which outcomes were completely defined by the prior occurrences. If true, this would mean that outcomes of a personal life was defined before the life was lived. Luc searched for answers in his readings of Freud, Yung, Kant, Nietzsche, Einstein and among others. Luc came across the uncertainly principle of Heisenberg which caught his imagination. This principle stated that two quantities, such as a location and momentum of a particle, could not be known with complete accuracy at the same time in the world of quantum physics. 

The philosophical implication of the uncertainty principle had a profound impact on Luc’s thinking and attitude towards the world around him: a probabilistic reality in which ‘the observer influences the reality he/ she observes’. This meant that everything was connected. Buddhism stated: ‘all is one and one is all’. The understanding that everything was connected was critical in his development of conceptual thinking – albeit subconsciously. 

Luc finally settled with most of the acceptable answers in order to move on with life in certainty and no longer with a wandering mind. Luc sometimes wondered of his existential questions of life would have been answered differently did he had the guidance of someone like a parent. None of that mattered now.    

Luc was well aware of his creative thinking and problem solving abilities. Luc was a conceptual thinker. His aptitudes mathematics and physics explained his problem solving abilities – so he thought until recently. Luc knew that a core step in problem solving was conceptual thinking. Luc always assumed that conceptual thinking was a talent and not so much a skill that could be developed. His dialogues with Ella and John during that evening changed this very perception. 

About Leading

Ella changed topic and asked: “What is your vision for your team?”

Luc smiled, looked at Ella again and was not sure if her question was serious. Luc then saw the genuine curiosity in her face expression.  

Luc replied: “Well, I am developing them into a team that innovates and drives process simplifications and efficiencies through intelligent use and application of data. Step 2 is to move the team into advanced, predictive analytics where we look ahead and push our business to more proactive in decision making. Finally, ideal is transforming and moving the company to a data-driven culture, data-driven organization where decisions are made based on quantified data and facts. My team has proven that we can and know how to innovate. Innovation is about coming up with ideas and solutions that people need but did not know they needed them until they can see the designs and prototypes.”

Luc continued: “Look at what we have done in the product and pricing operations at work. We have defined the entire workflow and business process operations by starting out with developing the logical data models. We asked ourselves what were the core attributes required to enable how we price, sell/ quote, deliver and support our products and services for our Customers and Partners. Result was that our logical data models included the complete, standardized product, pricing and quoting/ configuration rule objects. Additionally, we added the objects and attributes that were required in controlling the operational workflows and user role security for performing the actual set-up and maintenance of the company product and pricing catalogues. This was an example of data-driven application design and development. Extremely innovative and effective approach. 

You know that every business process step is triggered by data or results in creation or update of data/ data records. Similarly, every click is triggered by data or results in recording or updating of data. Now is the digital age. Everything we do is digitized in data. Looking at data and understanding the data, you will understand everything. How do we manage complexity? By quantifications of underlying data in the business processes and operations. For example, look at how companies are evaluated and measured. A few key financial metrics such as EPS: Earning per Share, E/P: Earning and Price ratio, E/Cash Flow: Earning and Cash Flow ratio, and so on can objectively summarize the state and direction of a company. Having said all that, I know this is not easy but this is a conscious shift in thinking that can be arguably adopted and learned.”

Luc paused. John jumped in the discussion and added: “Continuing on the theme of innovations, just look at what we are doing now for you and your team in the business domain of customer insights. My guys work days and nights. They are highly motivated and work hard even when I tell them to slow down. Their drive is based on the core understanding of a clear vision of what we want to achieve and how that benefits our business. Once my team understands that vision and the steps to implement the vision, they motivate and drive themselves.”

John was full of energy. He was now back into the discussion once he stopped texting back and forth with his girlfriend. John was part of Luc’s team. John was a smart guy. Excellent ethics, good heart, fast mind. Luc knew of John’s potentials. Luc quietly pushed John to fully develop his abilities and skills through their working relationships. 

Luc continued: “You know, I have three core principles I find quite useful in leading teams: respect, trust and camaraderie. Respect must be earned based on demonstrated competency of a leader. Trust is gained by a leader taking ownership and accountability of his team and team issues in front of the other teams and leaders. A good leader must know how to safeguard the best interests and future of his team. Camaraderie is developed by a leader showing humility and venerability when called for.”

Ella added: “Good points. However, respect can be earned by more than just competency. For example, other qualities of a leader such integrity.”

Luc replied: “Agreed, Ella. Now let us come back to the earlier comments of John. Understanding the vision, knowing where we are now and what it takes to achieve that vision, that creates a mental gap and that gap is called ‘creative tension’. Now, this is not from me but a term I borrow from Peter Senge and his book ‘The Fifth Discipline’.”

Luc continued: “Listen, Ella. I don’t mean any disrespect here. We did not need to consult with you much to understand how we could help you. We looked at the required data objects and structures, we designed the entire solution and operational workflows and processes to enable you and your team optimize your operations and achieve better outcomes in the customer insights domain. We want you to work smarter and more strategic versus jumping in and working issues and escalations days in and days out. I can’t see that as productive.”

Ella said: “No offense taken. Nothing disrespectful in what you said. I agree with you. I also want my team to work smarter and more strategic. We are just so bogged down by issues and escalations.”

John added: “Yes. I have a very good team. They called me sometimes late at nights and in weekends when they wanted to bounce off some ideas with me. They are incredible innovative in providing business and technical solutions. This is like a dream team. What else can I wish for?!”

Luc continued: “I see two types of stress at work. Let us say type A and B. Type A stress is a situation when you know exactly what you and your team have to do with clear strategies and plans for executions. You simply have too much work to do. This case is like you running a marathon. You have mastered the techniques, you have prepared and done your trainings. You need to execute/ run and you know that is hard. Yet, you can focus and run. Type B stress is like you do not know what to do, you and your team have no clear strategies and plans for executions. On top of that, you have a lot of work to do. This type B can be unhealthy and demotivating.”

Ella replied: “We have type A. We have some of the type B stress, also.”

Luc said: “I am going to be honest with you. I will tell you how I think, Ella. Promise not to be upset and take offense.”

John reached over and gave Ella a friendly embrace across her shoulder and said: “We love you and we want to you to be successful.”

Luc started a story: “Ella. Let me tell you a funny story. One of my team members – who is a brilliant, young guy, fresh to the team and with limited experience – has confided to John that he found it difficult working with you, Ella. He said Ella has many good ideas but he did not know how they were connected in his own mind. Too many ideas at times. I then talked to him and told him a story as analogue which went like this: 

‘Let us say that you just move to a new town. All you know well is your way from home to school and school back to home. Then you run into this fascinating girl at your school. She is smart, has lot of energy and full of great ideas. She is fun to be around, too. On day, she asks you to go to a party with her that would take you off your path to home. You could not resist to say ‘no’ so you decide to join her. You both get lost because she does not know where you live and you do not know where you are. 

Now, next time you meet her, you do not have to say ‘no’ but to ask kindly how her detour help get you home in time and safely. What you do is, you bring her back to your ‘baseline’ route. When you are finally familiar with the area after a while, you can start joining her and follow her on any detours and yet you exactly know how to get home safely.’ 

That team member said my analogue made sense and he understood better now.”

John acted funny, waved his arms in the air and said: “Ella, too many ideas and yet they are not structured in a coherent picture. Nothing exists in a vacuum or by itself. Everything is related and you need to figure that out in your own mind first. You can share your ideas within a proper context once you have structured your ideas into a coherent framework. Else, the ideas would come across as stand-alone and one-off and hard for anyone to do anything with. ”

Ella admitted: “Guys, slides and presentations are not my strengths.”

Luc jumped in and added: “I used to be quite shy. Neither one of you would believe me, I know. Seriously, I could not communicate with anyone because I spent most of my growing up in confined rooms, libraries and books. I could not carry conversations without making some kind of awkward remarks. I never failed to embarrass myself. In my first job right out of graduate school, I often sat down and thought through what I did well, said well and not in the day. Years of self-analysis like this helped me improved my communications and Emotional Intelligence if you would. Same thing with PowerPoint and presentations. They are skills not developed in a day but over time. I used to spend hours wordsmithing and perfecting a single slide in addition to the hours of positioning the ideas I wanted to communicate on the slide. I get better after years of practice and slide wares have become simple and natural for me.”

Ella curiously asked: “Well, how do I start?”

 

About Conceptual Thinking

John replied: “Ella, you are smart. You have great experiences. No one would disagree.”

Luc explained: “Agreed with John. Ella, you just need to sit down and write down your ideas on a piece of paper. Cut out the small pieces of paper with the different ideas on them. Then, try to move around and organize in such a way that they form a coherent picture. You may have to consolidate two or more related ideas into a single idea in order to get to the right level of abstraction.”

John said with a big smile: “Ella, nothing exists in a vacuum! Everything is related somehow and that is what you need to figure out or answer for yourself first.”

Luc: “Listen, the human mind can process a lot of data. We all know that. However, the more organized the data is, the more the mind can store and retrieve that data. For example, let us say that you have hundreds if not thousand pieces of clothing. They include your socks, undergarments, skirts, T-shirts, shirts, jeans and so on. If you have 50 different drawers, you would want to store your clothing by type, maybe frequency of usage or other criteria. More frequently used pieces of clothing would be stored at arm reach while standing. The less frequently used pieces can be stored at the bottom drawers or higher on top. Alternately, you could store them in sets such as right skirt with the right shirt and so on. Either way, when organized in particular pattern or structure, I am sure you can retrieve every piece of clothing from memory and know exactly where each piece of clothing is. If not organized, you will have a hard time remembering where what piece is at any given point in time. 

Think of this organizational pattern or structure as your physical frame of reference that you use to add new pieces of clothing to your collections. I would argue that the minds work in similar ways. Each of us has a mental frame of reference that we use to absorb and process new data, information and ideas. Better yet, each of us has many mental frames of reference. Data becomes information when that data is processed and understood intellectually. And, information can generate (new) ideas when that information is used and acted on in the right context.”

Ella responded: “You can also generate new ideas from data.”

Luc: “Yes, when that data is internalized. That said, I want to deliberately differentiate between data, raw data and processed data which is information.”

Ella: “Aha. I see your point. Good!”

Luc continued: “I read a marketing book ‘The Battle for your Mind’ by Al Ries and Jack Trout once in the past. The core idea that I took away was that effective communication depends on our ability to proper position an idea – a generalized concept for Product in Marketing – in the mental frames of reference of the target audience. You probably read that tests have shown that people often only see or hear what they want to see and hear in the world around them. The rest is based on their interpretation of the perceived reality through the lenses of their senses. This interpretation is heavily influenced by their acquired mental frame(s) of reference. They often pick up and remember words, ideas and concepts that fit easily into their existing mental frame(s) of reference.”

John: “That makes sense. However, that is nothing new.”

Ella continued sipping on her drink and listened. Luc realized at this point in the discussion that his conceptual thinking was not an aptitude but a skill he had developed over time. Aptitudes in mathematics and specifically geometry and its spatial concepts had some advantages but were not requirements in development of conceptual thinking: an ability to relate and organize both simple or highly complex ideas and concepts into coherent frameworks. Not only was this critical in problem solving and creativity, this was important for Luc to absorb and understand the world around him growing up. Luc constantly asked himself how the things he heard and the objects he saw were related to each other and would fit into logical, coherent frameworks. By constantly searching and understanding the relatedness of the objects around him was exactly how he had developed this skill. Luc did not develop this conceptual thinking overnight but by continuous effort even though he would not label his skill as such. Just like playing a violin. Aptitudes could provide a good start but excellence required conscious improvement from dedicated focus and practice.

Luc continued: “We can argue whether people can think in pictures or in languages. I prefer to think in pictures. Don’t people say that a picture says a thousand words?! Language is important for us to communicate and explain our thoughts and ideas to others. But, the ideas must already exist in our mind before we could even look for the words to describe them. If we were not conscious of our thought process and would reverse this order of thinking, we would then be constraint by our own languages which tend to be much more restrictive than the pictures of our own imagination and creativity.  Think about a poem as example. Word choice is important in poetry we all know that. However, the best word choices don’t matter much if the poem is not based on some important, creative ideas.”

Ella: “True.”

Luc: “I have worked with many application developers over the years. Some were good, some were brilliant. A common pattern I saw was that as I discussed an application design as an example, they started translating the design into codes in their mind even before they could understand the entire design. This is a good example of thinking in codes. Code is a machine language. English is a human language. In order for us to solve complex problems, we should not use language that constraint us in our ability to think out of the box and to create or innovate. In order to break the habit of thinking and solving problems in codes, I often tell the application developers on my team to step back, design out the application logics first before they start coding. A brilliant developer is also a good designer. I force everyone on my team to think differently. The brilliant people embrace this concept and excel. Nine out of ten in my team know how to make the shift. The other 10% who struggle have such ingrained mental frames of reference such that their thinking is completely boxed-in, unfortunately. They can work and solve issues they are familiar with. They struggle to grasp understanding of anything outside of their knowledge and familiarity. This typically happens to people who have been in the same roles for very long times. Their problem solving ability is completely constraint or boxed-in by their rigid mental frames of reference conditioned by doing the same tasks days-in-days-out. They can’t think out-of-the-box.”

Luc continued: “John is an application designer. Designers tend of have good conceptual thinking skills. I knew this of John when I first met him. He uses white-boarding to express his ideas in pictures and diagrams. A picture consists of objects and the relationships of the objects – as John said earlier, everything is related. An object can be something tangible or intangible such as an idea or concept. Like John, I find white-boarding a great tool for discussing and solving complex problems definitely such as designing applications. I can draw on the white-board the mental picture I have of the application and its functions I want to design. 

Furthermore, when explaining complex ideas, we often use other concepts and underlying ideas. Using the concepts and ideas that people are used to, will allow them to absorb and remember the content of the message faster and more accurately. Let us say that you would talk to an engineer in one conversation and then a poet in the next conversation the following day, don’t you think that the words, concepts and ideas you use in one conversation would be quite different from the next in order to achieve the same effectiveness?

Conceptual thinking is foundational to good problem solving and creativity. Analytical thinking on the other hand is about breaking up complex ideas into simpler concepts and ideas. For me, analytical thinking does not create. Conceptual thinking does create. Before we talk about why, let us talk about developing such conceptual thinking skill.” 

John added with excitement: “Yeah, that’s the trick!”

Luc knew John was quite good in his role. John had many talents and skills. However, to excel, John must make take conscious effort to improve. Same goes for Ella.

Luc continued: “To me, conceptual thinking is an ability to see and define objects and their relationships of into a coherent picture or framework: this is our mental frame of reference.”

John reinforced: “Nothing exists by itself and in itself. Everything is somehow related and part of the success is to find and understanding that connectedness of the objects in the world around us. Same goes for the issues and problems we deal with daily at work.”

Luc then continued with the same high pace and energy: “Absolutely. For example, let us talk about things Ella does at work. Ella is responsible for managing customer insights. The 2 questions we can ask ourselves first are: 1. What are the objects Ella would care about? And 2. How are they related?

We must focus on the abstract objects. We work with data. Data is in abundance and most people can’t see the relatedness of different data and hence they find working with data very complicated. We must create abstract objects from the data we use and manage. Abstraction helps us process complex data a lot faster. We can then go into the details to describe and define each of the abstract objects. Starting out with the details, we will be slowed down and may not get to define the proper mental frame of reference that underlies our problem solving ability and creativity.”

John asked: “Ella, what do you care about?”

Ella replied: “OK. Let me think. I care about people, processes, technologies, data and my deliverables.”

Luc added: “That makes sense to me. Your deliverables are the customer insights you and your team create and deliver.”

In summary, Ella should care about – when defined in the simplest terms or highest abstraction level: 

• People: representing her Team.
• Processes: the processes the Team executes to generate insights.
• Technologies: applications and tools used in the processes to generate insights.
• Data: input data for generating insights.
• Insights: the historical and predictive metrics her team delivers.

.”

Luc drew a diagram on a napkin to depict his mental framework. 

See Diagram 1.

Luc showed and explained the diagram: “You get the idea. Now, the abstraction level is high. This is a good first step and now we must break down the objects into more details in order to define the scopes and strategies for execution. 

Let us zoom into the object Data: 

We require different data sets. At the most basic level, we must have Master and Reference Data such as Customer, Partner Product, Geography. After that is the Transactional data such as Opportunity, Order, Invoice. Then we can focus on Interaction data such as feedbacks and surveys. Finally, we want Industry data such as Competitive Business Strategies and so on. 

You both following me?”

John was only half way in at this time. His mind drifted again between his mobile phone and the girlfriend. Ella was listening.

Ella sipped on her glass and said: “Yes. Continue.”

Luc continued: “Now we can look at the object Insights:

We can generate different Insights. In the broadest categories, we can generate Insights based on the Transactional data. For example, Customer Loyalty, Customer Profitability, Segmentation and Prospect Scoring. We can add Interaction data and perform Customer Sentiment Analysis.  

Am I making sense? Let me stop here and show you this framework that I created when I was in a similar role that you have now.”

Luc pulled up his mobile phone and searched through his past documents and showed the diagram to Ella ad John. 

See Diagram 2.

John: “Yep. I saw that before.”

Ella: “OK. I see. Very nice!”

Luc: “I hope the examples we discussed so far illustrate the points of conceptual thinking. This diagram is the type of mental frame of reference we can use in designing and implementing applications that store, transform and generate insights from data. Of course, each abstract object has many different characteristics that define its contents. Yet the power of problem solving is in abstraction at first. If we would have started defining the characteristics of each of the objects without a proper mental frame of reference, we would get us and others confused quite easily. I can’t stress enough on the importance of defining that initial mental frame of reference in solving complex problems. That initial frame is used to guide us through the detailed analysis and definition of scope and implementation strategies.”

Ella: “Makes sense when you explain that way but know this is not natural or easy for me.”

Luc: “For sure, Ella. Many people feel the same way as you do. I see that enough at work and outside of work. The questions I constantly asked myself when I am listening to someone or working on a problem: Why do I do this? How does this fit into my existing mental frames of reference? If I do not have an existing mental frame of reference that I can use to store this new information, I would ask the necessary questions so I can create a new mental frame of reference. I am then ready and able to take in new information rapidly and contribute to the problem solving. Now, keep in mind that my new mental frame of reference may not be entirely correct at first. That is absolutely fine as long as I can adjust and adapt by asking the right, relevant questions that help me fully define my mental frame of reference.”

John smiled: “All make sense to me.”

Luc teasingly replied to John: “I know you know but I want to see you put this more into practice, John!”

John finished the last drops of his drink and said: “I hear you.”

Ella asked: “What can I do to develop this skill?”

John jumped back into the discussion: “Ella, start writing down all your brilliant ideas and try to organize them into your mental frames of reference.”

Ella replied: “OK. I will do this as homework and I will review with guys after the weekend.”

Luc and John looked at each other and thought to themselves, sure: ‘only if you had the time, Ella.’

John finally said the words: “Shall we take off?” 

The Depart

The three of them picked up their bags and headed back, walking the final stretch. The road back continued to climb up hills. Luc watched Ella walking in her high heels with her big backpack on her back with much admiration. He did not want to ask how she felt because he was worried about her jokingly wanting to trade shoes again. 

Luc saw Ella as a Romanticist who probably leaned more on her feelings guiding her through life. Nothing wrong with that. Just quite a contrast to himself and maybe John who were more of a left-brained thinker than not. Luc once thought that anything that could not be explained by logics, was not real and did not really exist. His perception of the world changed as he learned to adjust through the ups and downs of life. Luc kept wondering why Ella was so persistent with her questions. John never asked much. He listened when shared but he would not ask. Ella was the complete opposite of John. Luc wondered why. John must read a lot. He must somehow have found many acceptable answers to his own questions of life. Ella may not have yet found all the answers she wanted or she was just being curious: her endless curiosity of life. 

Luc teased Ella: “Why are you asking so many questions?”

Ella laughed out loud and answered in her typical, stubborn demeanor: “Because I want to.”

Luc said: “Ella, on a serious note, I wonder if knowing more would make you experience life more intensely and hence more truthfully?”

John jokingly said: “How would sweet taste if we never knew sour?”

Luc replied: “So true. I can see that. Living is all about experiencing and the more you know, understand the deeper and more intense that experience would be. Let us say that that you are about to eat a dish from a cuisine you are not familiar with. Would you appreciate the dish more if someone has explained to you the effort and the complexity involved in creating that dish before you eat that dish? I would say yes.”

Ella and John: “Agreed.”

Luc realized at that moment that happiness was about the ability to experience the intensity of living in the moment and fully embrace and in peace with the world around him. Meaning of life was about contributing to the intensity of the world around us. The questions of happiness and the meaning of life changed through the years with the highs and lows of life. This was something that Ella and maybe John were better at. They seemed to be at peace even with the ups and downs. 

The last turn to the apartment and where they eventually parted was the steepest hill of the entire walk. 

Luc took courage and asked Ella: “Can you walk up hill or do you want us to carry you up hill?”

Ella admitted: “My feet are killing me. I don’t have shoes like you.”

John rhetorically asked: “Why do wear them, then?”

Typically Ella: “Because I want to feel good about myself.”

Luc laughed: “Ella, you do not do that for yourself but for others. If you hang out more with us, you will know that we respect you regardless how you dress and then you will stop dressing up and wearing high heels. I bet you.”

Ella said with a smile: “No. I do not dress up for you guys but for me only. For me to feel good about myself. Remember that you as observer influence the reality you observe. So you interpret the reality the way you want to. Haha. I dress up so I define my reality where I can feel good about myself. Haha.”

She laughed out loud. 

John added: “Ella, our existence can only be acknowledged in the eyes of others. You don’t dress for yourself but for others.”

Ella did not agree still. She changed topics: “John, listen to me! Marry your girlfriend now before she changes her mind.”

Luc shook his head: “No! No! John, if I were you, I would take easy and enjoy life. True love never dies.”

Ella countered: “How do you know what love is true?”

Luc jokingly said without really answering the question: “True love is the love that never dies. Just like how Hemingway felt about his first wife. As people say, hardship of life builds characters, so is true for true love. True love grows stronger through the ups and downs of life.”

Luc laughed. Their physical bodies got tired after walking 3.5 miles and up hills. People said that the bodies carried the minds, so the minds wanted some rest, also. The three walked on and stopped talking for a moment. Then the Mathematician came out the front door and greeted them.

Ed asked: “How was your walk?”

Ella responded: “Good.”

Luc could not resist so he asked Ed the question: “Ed, Ella dresses up as you can see. Does she address up for her or for us?”

Ed put on a big smile: “I have been in this kind of discussions before and I always lost. That said, I believe that you dress up for others and not for yourself, Ella. The confirmation of our own existence or beauty is reflected in the eyes of other people. We don’t live alone. We need that acknowledgement.”

Ella finally said: “OK. I agree with what Ed says. The way he says makes more sense to me. More sense than Luc and John.”

Luc and John called out loud simultaneously: “Now you agree, finally!”

They wrapped up the walk and evening. The time was close to 10:30 PM. Ella called her Uber and parted after giving each other their last friendly hugs.