The Three Thinking Sisters

One topic in consulting business which has always intrigued me is the concepts, tools and techniques of various types of ‘thinking’.?While there is no doubt that knowledge is the most critical resource for consultants, it is also true that ‘thinking’ is the most basic skill for consulting and problem solving. Everyone in the consulting profession knows various phases involved in consulting, the most critical being understand the problem, design solution options, collaborate with client to select the most desirable solution and finally implement the solution. However, very often we ignore the key role played by the kind of ‘thinking’ which must go into diligently performing various tasks in these phases. In my experience of being a consultant myself and then teaching Business and IT consulting for several years, I have found that not one, not two, but at least three types of ‘thinking’ are considered very important by the practitioners of consulting. These three are ‘systems thinking’, ‘design thinking’ and ‘critical thinking’. All these are very much related to each other, so much so that one can call them as the ‘three thinking sisters’.

Systems Thinking

During my career, the very first exposure which I had out of these three types of thinking was towards systems thinking, while at TCS. The practice of systems thinking had been institutionalized at TCS in the form of what was called, “Systems Engineering and Cybernetics Centre” (SECC), headed by Prof. P. N. Murthy. The nomenclature, SECC, sounds complex and requires a detailed explanation. However, for the purpose of this article, I will limit myself to the essence of systems thinking. (Mind you, it is systems and not system thinking). Every client organization is a system. Every problem being addressed by the consultants is a system too. In fact, the term system is a universal term, which applies to natural systems, such as the human body or the planetary system as well as man-made systems such as organizations, communities and societies. The word ‘system’ also applies to mechanical, electrical or electronic physical systems such as a watch, a mobile phone, a laptop or a sophisticated health care equipment, designed by professionals. By definition, a system consists of components which interact with each other through relationships so as to achieve a specific objective or a set of objectives.

In consulting, we use the paradigm of systems thinking to reflect that any typical problem being addressed is a complex set of inter-related components or sub-systems. As a practitioner, we have to visualize the problem situation in a holistic manner, such that we know in depth what is “behind the problem and beyond the problem” (a phrase coined by Prof P N Murthy), which appears or which has been stated by the client organization. Similarly, when we as consultants design a solution, we have to strive towards a solution, which is holistic and which takes into account all the situational factors, which have a bearing on the success of the solution proposed. Another way of looking at system thinking is that it emphasizes the need for ‘synthesis’ over and above ‘analysis’. While analytical approaches require a deep dive into individual components of a problem situation (so necessary to understand the problem in depth), the synthesis approaches do the exact opposite; they aim at combining or synthesizing the emerging solution threads to obtain a holistic view of what needs to be optimally done and by whom, in the client organization to make the solution successfully understood, adopted and implemented.

Design Thinking

In comparison with systems thinking, design thinking is of a fairly recent origin. It has been popularized by various academic institutions like Stanford as well as consulting firms like Infosys. My attraction towards design thinking began when Mr. Vishal Sikka who had just joined Infosys Technology Ltd. as CEO way back in 2014, started aggressively promoting design thinking.?It was in his tenure at Infosys that design thinking was considered as one of the most important skills which an Infosys consultant must have. Design thinking was claimed as an integral part of the consulting methodologies and toolkit which the consulting teams from Infosys should deploy when addressing the problems of the client organization.?

Interestingly, writings about design thinking prescribe (or suggest) several approaches forming part of a typical design thinking toolkit. (The word ‘toolkit’ didn’t have a political connotation as it now has, at least in India). One of these is what is called, “Customer Journey Map”, which aims at tracing the entire flow of steps which a customer takes to procure a service or a product and the pain points on this journey. The need to address the customer pain points in the existing situation through innovative solution being proposed by a consultant is obviously paramount. However, more than the tools, the philosophy of design thinking is important as it aims at creating human-centered design collaboratively. Design thinking?stresses a combination of divergent and convergent thinking to understand the problem situation as well as to design solution options. The design thinking approach also requires what is called iterative prototyping, which involves building a prototype of the solution, testing it with the client organization and building the next iteration of the solution option based on client feedback.??????

It is understood that apart from Infosys, many consulting firms such as Accenture and McKinsey have been adopting design thinking. It is also well known that SAP has generously funded the d.school, forming part of the Stanford University. Many other academic institutes around the world have now started offering courses related to design thinking.

Critical Thinking

“Critical thinking’ is the third thinking sister in my article. It is not so well known as design thinking, but nevertheless, it provides lot of food for thought to the practicing consultant. One key tenet of critical thinking, for example, is the need to separate facts from opinions, while analyzing a problem or designing solution options. It stresses examining an issue from all angles and making rational decisions or conclusions based on facts and not based on emotion or bias. Essentially, it talks of approaching any issue without pre-conceived assumptions. Another tenant of critical thinking is to be not tied down by already well-established procedures but to creatively and imaginatively look at all possible solutions.?

Some protagonists of critical thinking caution against excessive reliance on data generation and its analysis using sophisticated analytical methods. Consultants at a junior level are often obsessed with the analytical tools available and tend to offer a large range of data-based analysis for the client organization to look at and make choices out of a maze of possibilities. Obviously, the client organization is ill-prepared for this and doesn’t even expect this as a deliverable from the consulting firm. The client organizations seek answers in the form of final two or three solutions to choose from and to be able to decide the next course of action rather than getting immersed in a deluge of data-driven analysis, without offering a clear vision of what to do next.

Critical thinking also has its own set of tools. It draws heavily upon the well-known concepts of ‘issue tree’, ‘hypotheses-driven tree’ and MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive), which have been popularized by the famous book, McKinsey Way. It also draws upon the concept of ‘Pyramid Principle’, authored by Barbara Minto, that advocates a structured approach to thinking, writing and communicating one’s ideas. The pyramid principle is based on the premise that a reader of your writing or an audience of your consulting presentations can more effectively grasp the same if the ideas being communicated are organized as a pyramid under a single point.

There are not many well-known protagonists of critical thinking as a discipline, as it is more of a conglomerate of varied concepts and techniques mentioned above. But interestingly, the World Economic Forum has placed critical thinking as one of the top ten thinking skills required in the emerging global order.

Conclusion

I have not yet researched upon how many more sisters or cousins these three thinking sisters have. Edward De Bono in his well-known book “Six Thinking Hats” published as early as 1985 has already referred to six colour-coded modes of thinking, which may have many a similarity with the triad of systems thinking, design thinking and critical thinking.?But surely, any type of consulting practice, whether Business Consulting or IT Consulting or HR consulting, will find these three sisters as an integral part of their way of doing business.???