Stop Thinking Alone
The greatest of leaders don't just share decisions - they build others' thinking prowess. They lean into the messiness of idea generation and avoid the practice of "lead by telling." They learn to dive into thinking as deeply as needed to accomplish a goal. Too much time, too many tangential ideas, is just as bad as a few narrow ideas. Whether you lead a team of five, a nonprofit of 100, or a large corporation of thousands, it's up to you to stop thinking alone.
Stop Thinking Alone
I embrace moments when my thinking shifts. This year's work has followed a trend towards helping leaders and their communities build collective thinking capacity. By "communities," I mean teams, departments, clients, and functional communities (such as cohorts of professionals). I recently had an opportunity to talk with a client of a client about their struggles. They had recently attended a session held by our (MYNDDSET) client where we provided Systems Thinking training. As our conversation unfolded, a new perspective emerged. Helping them learn to think isn't enough. As they shared the struggles they face, it became clear that they were thinking alone. While they saw the benefits of building their thinking skills, they had yet to envision how to apply these thinking abilities within the groups they work with to solve long-standing problems.
Thinking alone seems efficient. I've heard from leaders that thinking with a group is too time-consuming, bothersome, and out of the norm for a group (board meetings or a team update session). I've even heard leaders say that when they ask a group to think "too much," they stop showing up. Leadership is a team sport, so when your team stops attending your meetings, that's a problem. Therefore, the temptation for leaders is to keep thinking to a minimum to avoid turning off participation. And that leads the leader to fall back on thinking alone.
Today's challenge is to Stop Thinking Alone! How?
Learn how to think more accurately.
Practice thinking.
Learn to communicate your thinking.
Practice communicating your thinking.
Learn to model accurate thinking.
Practice modeling accurate thinking.
Learn to develop your community's thinking skills.
Practice thinking WITH your community.
When you're ready to stop thinking alone, contact me.
Cheers!