According to de Bono in his book Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas
1) Defined Need or Purpose
This is when there is a specific purpose or task that needs completion. The task may have been selected by an individual or group, or assigned to them. Given such a task/purpose, how then do you use the skill of focus? Here is my suggested use of focus in such situations:
a) You firstly define exactly what the task is. For example:
- We need to do a find a new way of helping our students learn their subject matter.
b) You can next pick out various sub-focuses, and define them, with a view to thinking about them separately:
- We need to clarify what subject material they need to learn
- We need some new ways of making the subject material interesting
- We need some ideas in the area of memorising.
c) Once the sub-focuses have been defined, you can then go ahead and apply some creative thinking (or analysis) to these sub-focuses.
The advantage of clarifying the various focuses up front is that your thinking can remain clear and disciplined. I think that as a general rule, it's better to define your thinking focuses up front, and to make them broad and general to begin with, before "drilling down" into more narrow focuses. So in the above example, when thinking about "making subject material interesting", you could break that down into different subjects: e.g. "how to make mathematics interesting".
2) Routine review
In a routine review there is no specific task or problem that needs "fixing". Rather, there is a need to review certain procedures, processes, goals, etc. As with the above occasion, you can divide up the procedure into convenient attention areas and attention focuses. The focus thinking can be both purpose focus, and general area focus.
I must stress, however, that when thinking about procedures and processes, always ensure that you are clear about what the purpose of the procedure is. If that purpose is no longer necessary, then the easiest thing is to ditch the procedure, rather than trying to rehash it in some way. Good, clear thinking is required in such situations!
3) Idea-sensitive point (i.s.p)
An "idea-sensitive point" (i.s.p) is a point at which a new idea or concept would have a very significant effect. Just like that proverbial straw that breaks the camels back, an idea at this point would significantly change things.
So you as a thinker set out to find those points which would respond to a change in idea or concept. Now this search is an operation in itself - it requires good, solid, clear thinking.
When you have found what seems to be an idea sensitive point, then you try to develop new ideas at that point.
It differs from a review in that when you review something, you don't automatically assume that a new idea will make a huge difference.
So, taking a fairly obvious (engineering) example, an idea sensitive point might be the way that calculations are carried out for an engineering report. If they have always been carried out by hand, you might feel that some new idea at that point might bring about rapid improvement in both efficiency and accuracy. Thus "engineering calculations" might be an idea sensitive point.
4) Whim
There is where you just pause and focus on something just because you want to - not because there's any particular reason to do so. This is a very important skill to have, because if you are able to focus on things when there is no reason to, then you'll be able to pick up on matters that other people might have missed.
I think its probably better, though, to set aside time to think on a whim, so that it does become regular and deliberate, rather than accidental and infrequent.
To do:
Next time you have to do a review of something, take 2 mins to write down all the elements that you could focus on. Once you have these intial focuses, break them down into more narrow and specific subfocuses.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
4 Occasions for Using Focus Thinking
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Lateral Thinking Tool #2 - The Creative Focus (Part 3 of 3)
This post will detail the final type of creative focus, namely the "Purpose Focus". This is the type of focus that most people are familiar with. In a purpose focus, you ask the following types of questions:
- "What is the purpose of our thinking?"
- "What are we trying to achieve?"
- "What is the goal?"
- "What is the target?"
- "With what do we want to end up?"
4 Types of Purpose Focus
There are 4 basic types of purpose focus, although there may be many variations and combinations of these. These are best thought of as different "goals" for the purpose focus: different "outcomes" that you want to achieve.
1) Improvement
This is where you define the creative focus as an attempt to get improvement in a defined direction. For example:
- We want ideas to speed up travel to and from work
- We want ideas to reduce the number of sick days that our people take
- We want ideas for simlifying the controls on a stereo
- We want ideas to reduce world hunger
If the direction of improvement is not defined, then the focus becomes very similar to a general area focus. Eg:
- We want ways of improving customer service.
Whilst the above example is not as open ended as a general area focus, it nevertheless opens up broad possibilites for solutions. Another thing to keep in mind when thinking about such a broad focus is to break it down into subtasks. For each subtask there might be a defined direction for improvement.
2) Problem Solving
This is where you have to solve a problem or overcome some difficulty. We know that we want to end up without the problem or difficulty, and so we define the purpose focus in this way. For example:
- How can we reduce the greenhouse gas emmissions of vehicles?
- We need ideas to prevent getting sick during winter.
- How can we deal with pick-pocketing?
- We need ideas to reduce traffic noise.
Some of these focii sound like improvements, because of words like "reduce". So there is some overlap between problem solving and improvement .
The main difference between the two is that in problem solving a difficulty/problem is clearly defined, whereas in improvement a change in a general direction (cost, time, etc) is desired.
3) Task
When thinking about a task, you're not just wanting to remove a problem, but to reach a desired point.
- I want to design an e-commerce website for my sports store
- I want to have 5000 people on my email subscription list
- I want to pass all of my exams
- We want some new ideas to help us get elected
- We need a chocolate that does not melt in the desert
Again, there is some overlap here with problems. To be honest, the philosophical distinction between the two is not that watertight, nor important. Often it just depends on how you word the focus.
4) Opportunity
When thinking about an opportunity, you have a sense of potential, of new things that might happen. Opportunities can be tackled as a general area focus, such as when you ask: "We need some ideas in this opportunity area of selling photographs". Further examples of opportunities might be:
- How can we use these new walkie talkies?
- Most people cannot afford to buy houses anymore - can we see an opportunity there?
- Broadband internet is getting cheaper - can we see an opportunity there?
- Wheat is incredibly expensive at the moment - how can we use this as an opportunity?
I think that when you deliberately focus on things as opportunities, then your mind automatically starts seeing the situation in a different light, allowing you to focus on coming up with ideas that make the most of the situation. The above example of wheat being incredibly expensive is causing major problems to over 1 billion of the worlds poorest people, and is an intolerable problem. But at the same time, it does raise opportunities - if wheat is so expensive, then it is in high demand. Is there some way of allowing/helping the worlds poor to grow wheat for themselves, so they don't have to pay for it, and at the same time sell it for a good price? I'm sure there is much thinking that can be done (and needs to be done) in this area.
Well, we've come to the end of our three part series on The Creative Focus. You now have the tool to choose things to think about in a disciplined and deliberate manner. This is the first step along the road of becoming a better thinker (and in particular, a lateral thinker). In future posts, I'll be examining more advanced thinking tools, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, here is an exercise for you:
1) Choose a general area focus - "I want some ideas in the area of...."
2) Come up with (3) ideas in that area.
3) Turn those (3) ideas into a purpose focus, and write them down.
4) Do this once a day for the next week.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Lateral Thinking Tool #2 - The Creative Focus (Part 2 of 3)
The General-Area-Type Focus.
We're now going to look at a the first of two specific "types" of focus: namely the "General-Area-Type Focus.
de Bono makes an interesting observation about this type of focus. He writes:
"This is an extremely important type of focus, but surprisingly, is not well known. This is because most people have been trained to think only in terms of a defined purpose or objective. In fact, thinking is most often treated as synonymous with "problem solving". This means that creative thinking is very limited in its scope. That is why there is a need for "general-area focus" and a need to emphasise the usefulness of this type of focus."
In other words, the general-area type of focus is not driven by a purpose, such as a problem to solve, or an opportunity to take hold of. All it is trying to do is simply turn up new ideas in a defined focus area, whether or not there is a problem to solve. The beauty of this is that you can still come up with some pretty good ideas in areas that you otherwise wouldn't pay attention to - because most people only pay attention to things that need paying attention. Again, as the old saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". But if you only try to "fix" what's "broken", you miss out on creating some great ideas for areas that aren't "broken".
How to do a General-Area-Type Focus
This type of focus thinking is very simple.
With a General-Area Type focus, we simply define the general area in which we want new ideas. For example:
- I want some new ideas in the area of restaurants
- I want some new ideas in the area of laptops
- I want some new ideas in the area of employee morale.
Once we have defined the general-area in which we want to focus on, we then go about trying to generate some ideas in these areas. To do this, we can either just go off the top of our head, or use some specific lateral thinking tools.
Either way, there are 3 ways to get useful ideas out of a general-area type focus:
1) We think of ideas that are in the general-area focus that are useful in their own right. Such ideas offer some sort of value or benefit, even though we did not set out to get that value.
2) We examine the ideas that have turned up to see which ideas offer value in the directions that are of interest to us. We then ignore those ideas that don't offer value in these directions.
3) We see if an idea that has been generated by our thinking can be "shaped" or "molded" to be of use for a certain purpose.
Important Note on defining the focus area
When doing a general-area type of focus, make sure you don't put some kind of purpose on the thinking. The only purpose is to think of ideas within a defined area.
Or to put it another way, as soon as a purpose is included, it ceases to be a general area type of focus.
While there's nothing wrong with having a purpose focus (we'll look at this in the next post), if we have nothing but purpose focuses then we'll miss out on turning up completely new ideas/ways of thinking in a general area. So to illustrate, lets say you put forward the following focus:
- We need some ideas in the general area of absenteeism
This is actually a purpose focus, as the word "absenteeism" defines a problem. This already biases your view of the matter, and sets the direction of your thinking, limiting the type of ideas that your thinking will bring up.
However, it is possilbe to treat "absenteeism" as a general-area type focus, as long as long as it is made clear that the purpose of the thinking is not to reduce absenteeism or overcome the problems caused by absenteeism. de Bono puts forward some ideas that you could develop in this instance: eg. the idea of "undertime" which might mean a shorter working week, or lower pay when demand was slack.
Now the general area might be very broad or very narrow. For example:
- I want some ideas in the are of running a hotel (broad focus).
- I want some ideas for food to put in the bar fridges of the hotel rooms (narrow focus)
Both are perfectly acceptable.
2 Reasons why we need a general-area-type focus
1) It effectively doubles the scope of our creative thinking. Instead of only thinking about problems, this type of focus allows us to thinking creatively about anything at all.
2) It ensures that we do not biase our thinking when thinking about an area. As discussed above, if we set a purpose for our thinking, it sets the direction for the thinking, as well as the way we look at the focus area. By setting a general-area focus, we are more likely to come up with "left field" ideas that would not have been thought of if the purpose was already set.
To do:
1) Find a general-area type focus.
2) Say/write down: "I want some ideas in the area of (the general area focus)
3) Come up with 3 ideas/directions of thinking within this focus.
Do this exercise at least 1/day, to sharpen your general area focus thinking skills!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Lateral Thinking Tool #2 - The Creative Focus (Part 1 of 3)
The next lateral thinking tool that de Bono mentions in his book Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas
de Bono gives the example of the guy that invented the Black & Decker "Workmate" workbench. Whilst Black & Decker was focusing on its power tools, this person focused on a different area: the place for using the tools. As a result, he invented something new that no-one had thought of before. And made millions from this simple and practical invention.
The importance of Focus
The skill of "Focus" sounds very simple. But again, don't let its simplicity fool you into undervaluing it, as it is foundational to all types of thinking, especially lateral thinking.
The skill of deliberately focusing on something makes good thinking possible. Or to put it another way, you can't really become a good thinker without being able to focus with laser precision. As de Bono writes:
"Skilled focus with little creative skill is...better than poor focus with great creative skill."
The 3 Types of Focus Thinking
There are 3 main types of Focus Thinking. These are as follows:
1) The Simple Focus
This is focus at its simplest. You just focus on something. There is no problem to be overcome, no difficulty to be solved, no obvious value to be achieved. You just focus on the matter.
Do the Simple Focus as follows:
a) You choose to pause in your thinking using the creative pause. You choose to notice something.
b) You then choose to focus on the "thing" you've noticed.
c) Once you have chosen a focus, you have a number of options:
Firstly, take note of the focus point, and file it away for future thinking.Perhaps you can spend a few minutes each day picking out focus points, and filing them away on your computer for later thinking sessions;
Secondly, try to generate some alternatives. This is kind of a "pre-test", to see whether further thinking is worth pursuing. de Bono recommends only spending a few minutes on this - 3-5 minutes max.
Or thirdly, serious thinking effort to generate new ideas in the defined focus area. This serious attempt will use the formal techniques of lateral thinking (which will be covered in a later blog post).
Please note:
- Pausing and focusing are both thinking steps that you choose to do. They don't happen automatically. You have to deliberately choose to make it happen.
- Once you have defined a focus, you can then treat this just as seriously as a real problem or opportunity. This will allow you to make improvements to tasks (for example) that are sailing along smoothly. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" should NOT be your motto.
- What sort of "things" can you focus on? Anything! That can be mundane everyday things, or very profound, important things. Here are some examples:
i) While eating at the table, you choose to focus on the relationship between the cutlery and the plate;
ii) You can choose to focus on the interface or relationship between things, like a person getting in or out of a car;
iii) You can modify something to meet needs better. An inventor developed the variable speed windshield wiper, and eventually made millions from it.
iv) You can break down an operation into smaller steps, and focus on those. Think of getting your car serviced - what steps does that consist of? Can anything be done to make the steps quicker and easier?
v) You notice how you react when people ignore you. Why do you react that way? Is there a better way of responding to the situation?
Focusing on a specific thing is extremely powerful, especially if you focus on things that people don't usually focus on. This could lead you to develop and improve something that people overlook, because people just take it for granted.
de Bono actually recommends developing focus as a thinking skill outright before you move onto the more complex lateral thinking skills:
"In fact, to begin with, it is probably better to develop this habit of picking focus points as an end in itself - without trying to generate ideas. The attempt to generate ideas may lead to disappointment and may slow down the habit."
2) The General Area FocusThe General Area Focus simply defines the area in which we want new ideas.
For example, you simply make the statement:
"I want some new ideas in the area of telephones".
Again, as with simple focus, there's no specific purpose or problem in mind, you just want to generate some ideas - but more of this in the next post.
3) The Purpose FocusThis is the type of focus that most people are familiar with. It asks the question: What is the purpose of our thinking? What are we trying to achieve?
I'll discuss this type of focus in a later post. For now, just be aware of it.
Suggested Focus Thinking Exercise:
1) As you go about your day to day, pause in your thinking and take notice of something.
(This morning on the train I took notice of a few men on a scissor lift).
2) Focus on that specific thing.
(I focused on the action of the scissor lift, of raising people up to reach certain height).
3) Take 1-2 mins to generate some alternatives.
(Are there other ways of elevating people? Perhaps using balloons; Using electromagnetism to raise them by magnetic repulsion; Using rocket backpacks; or alternatively, bringing the thing they're trying to reach down to them).
Remember the Nike motto: just do it!
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Lateral Thinking Tool #1 - The Creative Pause
In his book Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas
It is important to note, however, that simple does NOT mean ineffective. In fact, I think it is an extremely powerful and important thinking tool. Let's take a look at what the tool is.
The Creative Pause
You can use this thinking tool at any time, but its intent is that you use it when there is no apparent problem or issue that requires thinking. Things are going along smoothly.
And so the Creative Pause is this:
Simply take a pause in your thinking for about 20 seconds as you consider something.
"There should be a new idea here."
"There could be a new idea here."
"I want to pause to think about this."
"This needs thinking about."
The pause is not in reaction to anything.The pause is simply the result of your intention to pause. You decide to pause simply because you want to...not because anything has necessarily caught your attention.
The genius of this simple thinking technique is that it forces you to pay attention to something that you would otherwise miss. As de Bono writes in Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas
"If you do not pay attention to something then you are unlikely to think about it. The creative pause is an interruption in the smooth flow of routine in order to pay deliberate attention at some point." (p87)
The Creative Pause is an antidote to the old saying: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".
But why think about something that "ain't broke"?
If things are going along smoothly, if there isn't any apparent problem, then why take the time and effort to pause and think about an issue that doesn't seem to require it? For example, if your marriage is going well, why take the time to stop and think about it?
The reason is that just because something "ain't broke" doesn't mean there's no room for improvement. You can almost always do something better, if you only take the time to think about it.
And in an ever changing world (e.g. the business world), there simply needs to be what the Japanese call "continuous improvement", else your competitors will get better, while you stay the same. You might not feel the result of that immediately, but sooner or later, as they improve incrementally, it will add up.
When I was a team leader of an engineering repair section in the Air Force, I remember that we had many procedures that had to be followed. Many processes that we needed to do as part of our job. Now most of these processes or procedures worked well. We could have just let the be, and not taken the time to review them, or think about them.
But its when we stopped to think about a process or procedure, we would often notice that we could do it better. More efficiently. With less paperwork. In a simpler way.
Now improving one such "working" procedure on its own might not have made much of a difference, but when we improved a number of such key procedures, we were able to make our work substantially quicker, simpler, and more effective. Which is not a bad thing when you're job is to keep aircraft flying safely.
de Bono writes,
"...some of the best results come when people stop to think about things that no one else has stopped to think about."
Why Creative Pauses take Discipline
Whilst a Creative Pause is simple, it is not necessarily easy.
As we've seen in an earlier post, our brains are trained to automatically respond in a pre-determined way when they receive information. There are patterns of thinking that we just "do", that we just fall into, unless we deliberately choose to pay attention to something.
Unless you pay attention to what colour cars you pass on the road, you're unlikely to notice.
Unless you ask the question as to "why" you do a certain procedure, you're likely to just continue doing it.
And so discipline is called for. You need to make it happen.
Make it happen!
So today, as you are sitting at your desk, carrying out a procedure in a certain way, stop for a moment and say to yourself:
"This is interesting. I noticed that I need this information to write this report.
Hmmm....let me notice what information is required.
I wonder why this is required....let me ponder this..."
If you do this thinking on a regular basis, you are bound to notice things that can be improved.
Monday, May 5, 2008
The importance of Lateral Thinking
You may have heard of the term "Lateral Thinking". Its often used to describe creative thinking, where you look at a problem differently, and so come up with new ideas, new approaches, and new concepts. In this post we'll take a brief look at what Lateral thinking is, and how we can use it.
Lateral Thinking: Cutting across patterns of thinking.
In my previous post, I described how our brains are very good at organising all the information they receive, by forming "patterns" of thinking. These "patterns" are the ways in which we look at the world, and respond to the world (by "world" I mean any situation that we might come across in life). Whilst very important to daily life, they do mean that we look at the world in certain ways, which might not always correspond to reality. This is especially true of a rapidly changing world, where many of our patterns, our ways of understanding and responding to the world, quickly become obselete. An obvious example of an obselete way of looking at the world is pollution: people used to think that we could keep on polluting the world without serious consequence. This "pattern" of thinking is now outmoded and obselete, as we've waken up to the danger of global warming. And so a new "pattern" of thinking is required: one that balances the needs of industry with the needs of the enviornment.
"Lateral thinking" is a way of cutting across these patterns, to find new and/or different patterns, of finding different ways of looking at the world, and different approaches to problems/opportunities. The term "lateral thinking" was coined by Edward DeBono, and he describes this in some detail in his book, Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas
"You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper".
Lateral thinking looks for alternate places to "dig a hole". Analytical thinking, on the other hand, (see my previous posts), is more like "digging a deeper hole": things are logically related to each other, as one idea/concept builds on another idea/concept. This is fine so long as you're happy with where you're digging the hole! But if you're looking for another place to dig the hole, lateral thinking is what you need.
How do we think Laterally?
When thinking laterally, we're trying to cut across patterns of thinking, rather than follow them. In practical terms, this means that we're seeking to put forward different views. We're not trying to judge the views, or see whether they are practical or not (this analysis comes later). We're simply trying to get as many different views of a sitution as possible.
Its kinda like taking photos of a building from all different angles, getting as many "viewpoints" as possible before any judgement is made about those viewpoints.
2 Ways of Using Lateral Thinking
1) Specifically
This involves using specific techniques to change our concepts and perceptions, and generate new concepts and perceptions. De Bono has developed many tools for doing this, which we'll look at later on;
2) Generally
This is simply a higher level approach to the specific use of lateral thinking. It involves exploring multiple possibilities and approaches instead of pursuing a single approach.
You don't have to be artistic to think laterally
Its funny, you know. Coming from an engineering background means that I'm quite comfortable with analytical thinking. But looking at a problem, analysing it, and understanding it is one thing. Coming up with new and novel approaches to solve that problem is another. But according to De Bono, lateral thinking is a skill that anyone can develop, with specific mental "tools" that you use to change your perception and look at the problem differently. Thinking laterally, or in other words, creatively, is not just for those with natural flair and talent. Its for anyone who wants to do it.
Ok, up to this point in my Blog posts,we've seen how our brain functions; we've seen what lateral thinking is; now we're going to look at a few specific tools that can be used to deliberately change our patterns, and think laterally about a situation.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Why our Brains are predisposed against Possibility Thinking (aka Creative Thinking)
If Possibility Thinking is so important in an ever-changing world, then why don't people do more of it? Why has it been neglected over the last 2500 years? (Please note: I'm not saying it doesn't happen - you only have to look at the rapid advance in technology to see that Possibility Thinking does happen to a degree - I'm just saying that it doesn't happen as much as it should).
The answer has to do partly with the way our brains are wired.
The Brain as a "Self Organising" System
According to the work done by Edward DeBono, (as described in many of his books, eg Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas
Why our Brains make Day to Day living easy.
Once these "patterns" are set up in our brains, they become extremely useful (and important). They allow us to "recognise" things (whether it be objects, situations, etc). So if you experience something that you've experienced before (or similar), the brain recognises it by triggering the pattern, and you then you act according to that pattern. Driving a car is a great example. While you do need to be alert when driving, much of the driving of a car (especially once you've done it for a while) is done without you actively having to think about it. Your brain automatically tells your body when to change gears, when to stop, when to go, and so on - based on the situation.
Now without these established pattern in your brain, life would be impossible. Could you imagine coming to new (but similar to a previous) situation, and having relearn everything about it? If you bought some new clothes, could you imagine having to relearn having to put those clothes on? Or if you bought some food, could you imagine having to relearn how to eat? Life would be impossible!
But our brain makes living possible, by pulling out existing applicable patterns of behaviour, and applying it to those situations. So you don't have to consciously think about how to eat, or how to put on clothes, even though the clothes you put on are brand new, or the food you're eating is different to what you normally eat.
Why Possibility Thinking does not come Naturally
So we've seen the great advantage of having the brain organise itself (we don't consciously have to think and relearn every new task we do). The brain just takes its pre-existing patterns of behaviour, its existing ways of understanding the world, and applys them for us automatically to most situations we come up against. That is why routine is so important if you want to be efficient - you don't constantly have to think to get things done - you just do them automatically.
But what about if you do come up against a genuinely new situation? One you've never had to deal with before? What does the brain do then?
Well, whenever we look at the world we're only too ready to see the world in terms of our existing patterns. So we try to box, or squeeze, that new situation into a pattern that we're familiar with. Obviously, this can be a big mistake. And depending on what you're doing, it can lead to failure.
An obvious example of this is raising children. If you treat all your children in the same way, expecting them to behave and respond to you in the same way, then you're obviously in for some heartache. What works for the first child might not work for the second, and so on. (Same for employees - if you treat all employees like they're the same person, then you're going to be much less effective with them).
And this is the shortfall of Analysis Thinking. Analysis Thinking is great for working out which pre-existing pattern a situation falls into. Once you figure out the pattern that is most applicable to the situation, you just go ahead and apply it (eg. diagnosing a disease - once you figure out which disease it is, you then apply the right medicine). But Analysis thinking will not by itself bring about new ideas. At best, it might show that the situation is different to pre-existing situations, but it will be at a loss to apply a new pattern to it - because the brain automatically applies existing patterns to situations.
The importance of Perception
This is where the skill of Perception comes into play. If you need a new pattern, a new way of looking at the world (and a new way of doing things), then you need to use your Perception. Perception (according to De Bono) is the process of setting up and using these patterns. Perception allows you to see what the new situation is really like - and will help you to see what needs to be done about it. It will help you to form new patterns, to deal with the new situation.
But this involves active thinking on our part. Rarely will perception happen when we just passively let our brains go along in autopilot. Which is why Possibility thinking takes deliberate effort on our part.
"Nothing fails like success" is something that Steven Covey likes to quote. If we have one approach that has worked in the past, and then use it against a new situation, then more than likely it fails. Old medicine doesn't always work against new diseases. And that is why Perception is such a vital part of thinking. It allows you to see and understand this new situation, so that you can set up patterns that are effective in dealing with it.
Otherwise, you're doomed to using the old "business as usual" approach, which often leads to failure.
This Blog will help you to utilise your Perception to develop new patterns and new ideas, so that you thrive in an ever-changing world.
The Two Main Types of Thinking: Analytical Thinking vs. Possibility Thinking
As we begin thinking, I think its helpful to understand that there are two main types of thinking that we do. Firstly, Analytical Thinking; and secondly, Possibility Thinking.
1. Analytical Thinking
Most of the thinking that is done in the western world is of the analytical type. It involves things such as:
- describing a situation/problem/position etc;
- classifying the situation;
- judging the merits of the situation;
- criticising the situation;
- arguing between two (or more) parties to try to get the best answer (eg. in politics!!).
Much of this type of thinking was formalised by the ancient Greeks, by philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and has been adopted in western society as the default way in which people do their thinking.
A classic example of this type of thinking is seen during political elections: the two opposing candidates try to prove their own position right, by analysing, and then arguing against, their opponents. This "thinking" pretty much assumes that if they can argue and destroy the other persons' point of view, then by default their own must be better.
While this type of thinking has its place in the world (we do need to analyse, to understand, and to evaluate many things - eg. whether to upgrade to a new car, which health insurace to buy, etc). it is not the only type of thinking that we need to use. As Edward DeBono says in his book Teach Yourself How To Think
"While analysis does solve a great many problems, there are other problems where the cause cannot be found and if found cannot be removed...Most of the major poblems in the world will not be solved by yet more analysis. There is a need for creative design." (p11).
In other words, its one thing to understand what a problem is, and what the cause of it is. Its another thing to design a workable way forward.
This brings us to the second type of thinking, namely Possibility Thinking.
2. Possibility Thinking
While analytical thinking is excellent as far as it goes, Possibility Thinking gives us the tools we need to survive, and thrive, in the changing environment that is our world. You see, analytical thinking might give us the "boxes", or "maps", that help us to make sense of our world as it is today...but when our world changes so rapidly, these "boxes" or "maps" become obselete. New "boxes" need to be thought out, new "maps" of reality need to be drawn up.
Just think of how quickly France fell to the German Army in WW II...the French still had the old mindset or mental "map" that war involved trench warefare...whilst the Germans had the new mental "map" of Blitzkrieg. Not keeping up with a changing world had tragic consequences for France (and for the rest of the world, for that matter).
So Possibility Thinking is all about designing a way forward, of coming up with new approaches to tackle new problems, or take advantage of new opportunities. It involves imagination, of looking at the way things could be, rather than simply accepting things the way things are. It involves challenging and changing our perceptions, and of generating new ideas.
I'm reminded of a scene from the movie "traffic" (a great movie about the many sides of the Mexican drug trade). The newly appointed US head of Counter-Drug Operations, played by Micheal Douglas, is sitting on his VIP aircraft, along with representatives of various law enforcement agencies, and military personnel. He's just come to understand the magnitude of the drug problem, and is looking for ways to fix them. So he asks his people to "think outside the square", to come up with new ideas to tackle the growing problem. But all he receives is deafening silence. No one says a word. They're gobsmacked. They just can't think of anything.
In other words, they were poor Possibility Thinkers. They couldn't design a new way forward. Even though they knew that the old "business as usual" approach clearly wasn't working.
And its not surprising that people aren't good at Possibility Thinking.
The skills, the mindset, the tools that are required for Possibility Thinking is not taught at school. Or university. But without such thinking, we're more likely going to counter tomorrow's problems with yesterdays solutions.
And that's not a good way to be.
Friday, May 2, 2008
What is "thinking"?
But what is "thinking" ? Is it something you're just born with, like your I.Q., your genetics?
Or is thinking a skill that you can learn, and become proficient at, like sailing, cooking, and Kung Fu ?
The Definition of Thinking
the following comparison between intelligence (your natural I.Q.), and thinking: 
