Shifting Thinking

“If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn’t thinking.” -George Patton

2023 was a year of shifting my thinking. I like to think that I am open-minded and well-intended, and I learned that in certain projects, and with certain people, I needed to just think differently. Really differently. In some of my projects, I found that what was working for most of the groups was still a huge struggle for other groups. With people, I found that investing a great deal of time in getting to know them and allowing them to get to know me did not end up in anything positive when a stressful situation arose. In figuring out how I needed to move forward and adjust my own thinking, I came across a few different tools that I found to be immensely helpful.

Edward deBono shared the concept of 6 thinking hats. Each color of hat represented a different way to view and approach a situation or problem. Combined, these 6 thinking hats lead to inclusive and diverse thinking and help to point out what kind of thinking is missing from your current configuration.

The 6 Thinking Hats

• The white hat plays the role of logic, and it focuses on the facts. It asks questions like what do I know? What do I need to find out?
• The black hat plays the role of devil's advocate, and it focuses on dangers and challenges. It asks questions like what are the risks? What are the difficulties?
• The yellow hat plays the role of optimism, and it focuses on the benefits and values. It asks questions like why is this idea useful? What are the strongest points being made?
• The green hat plays the role of creativity, and it focuses on new ideas and possibilities. It asks questions like what would be a logical solution? If that doesn't work, what else could work?
• The red hat plays the role of emotion, and it focuses on feelings and intuition. It asks questions like what are my feelings right now? And how have my feelings changed?
• The blue hat plays the role of manager, and it focuses on thinking and process. It asks what thinking is needed? How can we organize the thinking? How do we plan for action?

As I was considering how to use the 6 thinking hats, I identified which hat I tend to use the most often, which hats I use in specific situations, and which hats I really struggle to use.

Another tool that I found to be additive was the nine intellectual standards, also known as the nine critical thinking standards. These were curated by Richard Pasul and Linda Elder to support reasoning and critical thinking that leads to action.

The 9 Critical Thinking Standards

• Clarity: This is considered the “gateway” standard of intellect. Some say that if you can simplify something so a third grader could understand, then you truly understand your content. When you can make your point or deliverable clear, meaning free from ambiguity and obscurity, then it can be grasped. When people can grasp something, they can move forward on it. Clarity shows the next steps and allows people to gain traction.
• Accuracy: This standard is based on facts and reality. When you have a direction that you are going, it’s based on something accurate – data, statistics, and other objective information.
• Precision: We need to have the right level of detail, without having too many unnecessary details that cloud the topic or issue.
• Relevance: Similar to precision, the information collected needs to be relevant to the topic and to the audience that you are trying to reach.
• Depth: This is our ability to think and consider a topic and its complexities deeply.
• Breadth: While depth goes deep, breadth looks at the same topic but from multiple perspectives. This also demonstrates the ability to hear and incorporate the point of view of others.
• Logic: We can think that things are logical, but one of the marks of logic is that it also makes sense to others. Logical thinking is integrated and consistent.
• Fairness: Fairness points to a lack of favoritism to any points or perspectives. We cannot help but have our own biases, so stepping back and thinking about the most equitable way to present information is key.
• Significance: How you think needs to be important to the central topic or to the audience you are looking to serve. Without significance, it is unlikely to get buy-in.

What I appreciate about the nine critical thinking standards is that they help me build a strong business case for a project or a new idea. Sometimes, we get so excited by a new idea that there are some pieces that we end up not covering because we have figured out the end deliverable already. I have had the experience where I have an idea and when I was discussing it with someone else, they didn’t get the core of what I was sharing. With that feedback, I realized that I needed to go back and use these nine standards to fill in some of the gaps. When I did, the story I was trying to tell made a lot more sense.

There are a lot of different tools that we use to think in a new and different way. The biggest key is to be open to changing your mind and shift your mindset.

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New Equipping Leaders podcast episodes on my YouTube channel!

·?????? 6 Thinking Hats

·?????? Feb 5 release: Feedback, Part 1 - Preparing to Give Feedback

·?????? Feb 19 release: Feedback, Part 2 - Let's Give Feedback!