Thinking about the Future? Think about “Thinking.”

We truly are at a pivotal point of human civilization!

The geopolitical situation is worryingly divided, the environment is unpredictable, energy production and consumption are out of balance, and market fragmentation appears inevitable. Simply believing that the world` will be a better place tomorrow is a profound optimism, but we must answer how??

The transitions of authoritarianism to democracies, closed economies to open, homogeneous societies to pluralism – all these transitions have been the result of ‘thought leadership’. On the contrary our human development system in schools, colleges and corporates is heavily focused on developing content-based knowledge and skills. As a result, societies produce ‘doers’ to sustain and incrementally advance the world. Thought leadership is more than just knowing, learning, and communicating ideas and opinions. It is a profound habit developed by learning ‘how to think’.

Solving puzzle provides answers to ‘the questions 'how many’ and ‘where’, whereas solving mysteries provides answers to the questions ‘why’ and ‘how’.?Developing the next generation of energy technology is a puzzle but addressing climate change is a mystery. Mysteries necessitate deep and broad thinking and are frequently a fertile ground for developing thought leadership.

Deep and broad thinking skills include theorizing, predicting, evaluating, and organizing thoughts.?The question is how do we assist our people in developing these skills? Lead people through series of open ended intellectually stimulating questions. Open ended questions stimulate observations and exploration. Encourage people to solve mysteries when you are done with the routine of solving puzzles. These are vital vitamins for cognitive function.

Educational institutions and workplace managers may need to adopt a policy of concerted cultivation. Cultivation of a skill called ‘how to think’ by letting people think by using a white paper and leveraging open mind about societal and business mysteries. Cultivation that provides people with a ‘discipline of a stream’ rather than a subject, a holistic job than a bunch of activities and a need for cognition over mere results.

In my limited foresight, I do see the world becoming more cognitively polarized. Thinkers wanting their space to think and disrupt and doers on the move to get things done!?We must prioritize "exploration" to make "exploitation" more effective later. ‘Doers’ maintain the world for the present, while ‘thinkers’ disrupt it for a better tomorrow. And, for a better tomorrow, let us start thinking about thinking!

These are my personal views as people practitioner!