Flip Your Thinking: Turning Problems into Opportunities

With "Pancake Day" imminent, it seemed a good a moment to seize upon the metaphorical opportunity of this annual event for a LinkedIn Article on the merits of Flip Thinking!

What does it mean to flip your thinking?

To be intentionally open minded? To challenge our ‘norms’? To unlearn negative assumptions? To uncouple ourselves from negativity bias? To be clearer about what we stand for? To adopt a different perceptual position? To turn the negative into a positive?....yes to all of those....

Flip Thinking is A Thing in professional coaching and neuroscience circles, sometimes called in CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) vernacular "a Reframe". And in more friendly-speak "retrain your brain". Author, Berthold Gunster, has written an international best-seller on the subject of "Omdenken" - based on the Dutch philosophy of Flip Thinking; designed to Change your mindset from problem-focused (“yes, but”) to opportunistic (“yes, and”).

Flipping your thinking is a skill – which like every learnt skill, needs practice and a technique in order to become proficient at it. In my article, I intend only to pique your interest in this area by sharing a few tips on Flip Thinking, and hopefully inspire you to do your own research into this fascinating and rewarding area of self-development.

Who is Shouting from the Cheap Seats?

In the rapidly changing world we live in, with sombre news wherever we look - even when we are not intentionally doomscrolling - it is not difficult to see why even those of the most sunniest disposition can start to feel overwhelmed with negative thoughts.

One of the most valuable lessons I was taught during my three years as a mature Masters student in homeopathic medicine was about the value of conscious and focussed time and space to reflect, explore and become aware of our thought processes, limiting beliefs, inner voices and the narratives we often hold true...even when they are not.

By bringing intentional awareness to at least a few of the 60,000 thoughts per day we have, we can consciously ask ourselves questions such as "Is this true?" "What does the evidence tell me?" The mose enlightened amongst us practice this type of meditative practice every day, and as the science backed evidence shows us, it carries a plethora of wide-ranging physical and mental health benefits

Brene Brown says in her book "Rising Strong": "A lot of cheap seats in the arena are filled with people who never venture onto the floor. They just hurl mean-spirited criticisms and put-downs from a safe distance." And by people, she doesn't always mean another actual human - it could be your own voice shouting mean-spirited criticisms and put-downs at you from the cheap seats.

To help illustrate the point, I'll share a personal example of my own mean-girl voice holding me back from making a life-changing decision.

Lies, Damned Lies and Ego

In Spring 2022, after six years of running my own businesses, including one which I sold for a profit, I made the decision to return to full-time employment...except it wasn't that cut and dried...the truth is, I took six months longer to make the decision to close my last business than I should have, and the reason was simple: I cared about what people would think about me.

My ego, more specifically, cared about what people would think of me.

And do you know, when I eventually did close and went public about coming back into corporate, my ego was right to predict the responses; with most people assuming it was because "things didn't work out" - i.e. the business failed.

The truth is, things did work out and it didn't fail. But I feared that people would think me a failure, that I couldn't hack it as a solo entrepreneur.

Fundamentally, when I scratched the itch of owning my own business and I achieved what I wanted to achieve (expanding my mental and cultural horizons, experiencing business outside of the corporate world, developing myself as a person, improving my health, getting professionally qualified in other areas of business, and pursuing my interests in medicine, psychology, neuroscience, and coaching for example), I felt ready to return to corporate employment, and specifically to an employer with whom I felt purpose and value aligned.

I wrote a best-selling collaborative book, have been featured in two books and have been interviewed, quoted and published in international media such as; Forbes, The Independent, Health & Wellbeing Magazine and Authority. All of which have contributed to me showing back up in a corporate setting as a more rounded, impactful, knowledgeable person with more humility and vulnerability-awareness than I had before I left.

So, given the facts, why did I assume the worst? In a nutshell, I wasn't being selective about the feedback I let into my life. I valued everyone's feedback, even those in the cheap seats.

Once I got to grips with this, and only paid attention to the views of those people who were also "in the arena getting their ass kicked", I posted on LinkedIn to say I was looking for a role, and the rest is, as they say, history.

So now my own Omdenken moment is to think of my return to employment as a come-back, not a go-back.

But...this is how we've always done it

It’s important that we don’t assume, we don’t stay fixed, we don’t box ourselves in or say limiting phrases such as; “but this is how we’ve always done it.” In a rapidly evolving world, the only logical response is to evolve too.

At risk of stating the obvious, the human race has succeeded because as a species we have committed to continual evolution and learning! So it is a curious quirk of human behaviour to challenge change, to resist a growth mindset.?

A great book that discusses this concept in detail is; ‘Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know’, by Wharton's top-rated professor and #1 bestselling author, Adam Grant.

Adam helps the reader to discover the critical art of rethinking and explores how questioning your opinions can position you for excellence at work and wisdom in life. He says;

“Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, the most crucial skill may be the ability to rethink and unlearn. Recent global and political changes have forced many of us to re-evaluate our opinions and decisions. Yet we often still favour the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt, and prefer opinions that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. Intelligence is no cure, and can even be a curse. The brighter we are, the blinder we can become to our own limitations.”

Brené Brown (yes her again) said of the book; “Yes, learning requires focus. But, unlearning and relearning requires much more -- it requires choosing courage over comfort. In THINK AGAIN, Adam Grant weaves together research and storytelling to help us build the intellectual and emotional muscle we need to stay curious enough about the world to actually change it. I've never felt so hopeful about what I don't know.”

Explore the Art of the Possible

Not one industry leader got to where they are today by doing the same thing, the same way, for their entire career.

Most of us will need or want to work for a long time; for this reason, I believe it is important to make as much of your working life as possible - use it to learn, grow, develop and explore the art of the possible pushing the boundaries of your normal frames of reference.

You don't forget or lose what you knew or experienced before you changed direction, or changed your mind, or developed new thinking or ways of working - all that went on before acts as a baseline to which you add more intellectual and experience capital, and as we know the greater the capital, the greater the opportunity to succeed.

Kate Morris-Bates

I am a passionate advocate for positive change in business; I believe that diverse thinking and experience in the workforce can only lead to better outcomes and am a courageous voice in the communities I serve. All views are my own.