Thinking U Thoughts
September 8, 2015
Thinking beyond your IQ
We all know lots of smart people. Smart people do well at school, find good jobs, and get promoted. Smart people rely on their IQ and their life experience to navigate the world. But even smart people are finding that the problems we face today require a different approach than a decade ago. The issues we face are more complicated, matrix organizations make working together more challenging, and the business world is continually being disrupted by change.
When smart is not enough-
As the world faces many complex problems we can’t rely on the thinking of the past to solve the problems of the future. We must find a new way to prepare ourselves for these changes.
Edward de Bono, a leading authority on creativity, says;
thinking is the ultimate human resource.
Yet we can never be satisfied
with our most important skill.
No matter how good we become
we should always want to be better.
However there is a learning and training gap in both post secondary education and the workplace today. A degree provides general theory but little insight into how to apply the theory in the real world. On-the-job training is situational- you learn what you need to learn for that task- and the quality can be dependent on the supervisor. Both do not train people how to think. As professionals advance they can find they are not prepared to deal with more challenging problems and complex, uncertain futures.
Thinkers will thrive in this new world-
Leaders will make the future, states Bob Johansen of the Institute for the Future.
He identifies four “Keys to clarity in leadership” outlined in the chart below. The problem is – how can one accomplish these keys without learning the skills needed to address the challenge?
| Four keys to leadership clarity Source: Bob Johansen, Institute for the Future |
Thinking Skills required Source: Creative Leadership- Dr Gerard Puccio |
| See through the messes and contradictions | Diagnostic thinking |
| See a future that others cannot yet see | Strategic thinking Evaluative thinking |
| Find a viable direction to proceed | Ideational thinking Contextual thinking Tactical thinking |
| See hope on the other side of trouble | Visionary thinking |
In the textbook Creative Leadership, Dr Gerard Puccio outlines an innovative thinking process and the thinking skills needed to drive change. These skills, listed in the chart above, are not taught in schools but can be learned. It is the artful combination of these thinking approaches that will result in better thinkers who can solve the world’s problems with better ideas.
At thinkingU we spend our time exploring these subjects and creating courses to help people be more effective, productive, and successful in their work. Improved thinking will make more impact in the world and we hope to help more people put a dent in the universe with a new level of IQ- their TQ-the thinking Q.
