'If I can just find some time in my day to do some thinking, I'll be ok - right?' Well, up to a point. But it's also important to do the right kind of thinking.
Working in the civil service presents particular challenges to thoughtful folk. If you're aware of these, you can get more value from the precious thinking time you've managed to protect.
There's the time pressure of course. Deadlines are everywhere. Every part of the system and every person around you is pushing you to move forward, to get on with it, to get it out the door, to report progress instantly. That's true of many organisations, not only the civil service. But whereas a company might hit the headlines once in a blue moon, the Government is there every single day. Which means the pressure on you as a supporting civil servant to think in haste and deliver solutions there and then is immense. Not enough thinking is a real problem.
But even if we can find time, there are traps about how we think which mean that time isn't as helpful as it could be. I've listed five below, as well as some suggestions for avoiding or escaping them.
- 'Analysis paralysis': It's entirely possible to overthink things. Some of us are experts in this! And it's not surprising when the topics you're dealing with are challenging, the systems you're working in are complex and ever-changing, professions, departments and stakeholders don't agree and the risks of getting it wrong are large. Approaches you might try include: setting a time limit (perhaps even a timer) for thinking about a topic and noting down where you've got to for another day; accepting that 'least bad' is sometimes as good as it gets and that's ok; or recognising that very few decisions are actually one-way doors - there are often ways to change things again further along the road.
- Thinking at the wrong time: there are often going to be times when you're trying to solve a problem downstream because the upstream thinking didn't happen for whatever reason. If you're constantly in downstream or fire-fighting mode, try setting aside even a small proportion of that time to consider what may have led to the position and what you could do now to improve things for the future. Even stopping a problem getting worse can be helpful.
- Not varying the mode of thinking: there are lots of different flavours of this. But one I see frequently is not being clear when you need divergent or convergent thinking. Divergent thinking is expansive, exploratory and great for understanding the problem or coming up with possible solutions. Convergent thinking draws together the divergent threads, crystallises problems, and develops recommendations. If all your meetings or thinking sessions across a whole policy or project look and feel the same, you're probably not getting enough variation in the styles of thinking. You'll end up with a narrow problem diagnosis, stale options, and lots of chat and challenge around the edges as people try to fit their ideas into a cookie-cutter approach. The same can be true of your own thinking: does what you're considering right now need you to broaden or narrow your line of thought?
- Insufficient diversity of thought: when time is tight and the stakes are high, it's very tempting to close down debate, restrict who can contribute and simply plough on. But actually, that's often the worst thing to do - it leads to groupthink and poor solutions. In group situations, find ways, even at speed, to get different thinking into the room. It can be as simple as asking 'what are we not seeing here?', or using rapid faciliation techniques such as Liberating Structures to swiftly get more people's thinking into the pot. For yourself, take a moment to feed your thinking with some different ideas: what do the controversial stakeholders say about your topic? what might the issue look like from a range of different perspectives, especially users or client-facing staff? It doesn't have to change your mind, but it might help you reach a more rounded conclusion.
- Waiting for the 'right time' to think: often related to not having enough time, it's tempting to defer thinking until some other point when we think we might have more time, or more information, or more energy. But thinking in little pockets of time is a useful skill to develop. Things that can help include keeping a 'to think about' list so you've always got something to hand when a gap opens up, or leaving 'breadcrumbs' so you can pick up and put down a topic. I often pop useful links or keywords into a diary marker for thinking time so they're ready when the time arrives, and I highlight bits of text I've partly thought through so I know immediately where to pick up again next time. I've also noticed that using a brief window of time simply to crystallise a question can be very productive - it primes your subconscious to keep working away behind the scenes and provide you with responses later on.
What do you notice about your thinking? What are the traps you've spotted and how do you avoid or escape them? Could you set things up even slightly differently for yourself, your team or your initiative which would make better use of everyone's brain power?
Please share your strategies below, and if you'd like to explore how coaching could develop your thinking further, you can DM me.
