Improve Your Decision Making By Updating Your Thinking Style

We each have a unique decision style that is founded in our attitudes, filtered by our assumptions and biases, and formulated from our thoughts. The organizational thinking style is a collective of it's core decision makers, and with so many different thinking profiles, it is no wonder that gaining a consesus on a decision can be difficult.

The style of ‘thinking’ adopted by an organization ultimately leads to its behavior, and its outcomes. It is therefore important to understand the different types of thinking so we can address each within our decision making processes. This may sound all a bit theoretical, but in fact, just a little understanding will open your eyes as to how best to collaborate with other decision makers by aligning with their thought process. It's basic communication skills that can cut across barriers and motivate decision makers to make faster decisions that are more widely accepted.

Thinking Styles

There are three main ‘thinking’ styles:

1. Vertical Thinking – an outmoded linear deductive style of thinking that presumes that what is not proven right, is wrong, and to be right, everything else must be proven wrong.
2. Parallel Thinking – a term introduced by Edward de Bono, is a more collaborative style of thinking, where multiple streams of investigation are carried out in the same direction, seeking the most acceptable outcome. Agreement between multiple parties is not required, thus it is less adversarial than vertical thinking. The outcome is designed, rather than deduced
3. Lateral Thinking – also introduced by de Bono, is a more deliberate process, closely related to insight, creativity and humor. It aims to change concepts and perceptions. Thus, multiple streams of exploration do not need to be in the same direction. Indeed, it implies that continuing a path in the same direction as an old idea will fail to deliver a solution.

Traditionally we have been vertical thinkers – we build on old ideas in a sequential process of progress. Each step must be justified in terms of those preceding it. This is largely the result of our Socratic style of formal education.

The Struggle of New Ideas

When new ideas are generated, or even when old ideas are updated, a conflict forms between the new information and the old idea. The problem with the sequential reasoning process of vertical thinking is that each new idea must conform sufficiently to fit into the old pattern – thereby extending it. Thus, for a new idea to be accepted, the old idea must be abandoned. This can be problematic for many people, who zealously guard their ideas as a personal power base.

For new ideas to be accepted and old ideas let go we must be capable of objective evaluation. Unfortunately, humans are rarely objective – we all have our biases, past experiences, personal intuition and personal agendas. It is very difficult for most people to avoid evaluating a new idea outside the context of the old idea.

This adds power to old ideas, making them more difficult to supplant. The most effective way to overcome this problem is through insightful analysis of all information pertaining to the new idea. Insight is the only effective way of changing ideas when information cannot be evaluated objectively.

Why Different People Have Different Points of View

The brain acts as a self-organizing information system. As we are exposed to new knowledge our brains create patterns , preparing the knowledge for recall in the future. It anchors this pattern in the context in which it was revealed. Whilst this context assists our recall, it also creates a bias to the information, making it harder for us to separate each logical element from both the pattern and the old context.

Intuition is also related to the patterns formed in the brain. It applies an attitudinal layer to our recall based on the emotions we experienced at the time of the event. This is largely a subconscious, rather than conscious process.

Thus, whilst two people will see the same event and record the event as it occurred, this attitudinal layer will act as an interpreter and transfer the same emotions to similar patterns we encounter in the future. Thus our perspectives, or intuition will be different.
This subjective interpretation is the basis of many poorly formed decisions of today.

Impact of Increasing Pace of Environmental Change

In the past, the business environment changed at such a pace that the context in which decisions were made was very similar from year to year. This also meant that intuition was more likely to still be valid to apply to current situation. This afforded ‘intuition’ reasonable status as an acceptable basis upon which to make decisions. However, today the pace of business change and the complexity of the business environment means that in almost every situation, the context in which the previous pattern was evaluated is NOT appropriate today. Thus, intuition is not a reliable basis upon which to base a decision today.

Many senior managers and executives who have successfully employed intuitive decision making in the past are resistant to the suggestion that in most situations today, intuition no longer applies.

The brain is not adept at restructuring the original patterns within a new context. This capability varies from person to person. Those with a more rigid or controlling personality have more difficulty replacing old patterns with new ones. Creativity also requires letting go of old patterns, thus making room for fresh, new approaches to problems and opportunities.

The generation of new ideas requires lateral, rather than vertical thinking. So, start paying more attention to the process you use to make decisions, and try to identify whether your perspectives are stuck in the past, holding onto old patterns and old attitudes that are preventing you from being flexible in your approach. This applies in every part of life – relationships, personal growth, business, science and politics. Once you learn to let go of the constraints of old ideas, you will be less likely to make assumptions based on previous experiences with outdated patterns and jump to illogical conclusions.

You will find that you start using information more fluidly, accepting that it may be correct in some contexts and incorrect in others. Releasing yourself from the bounds sequential reasoning, lateral thinking will provide you with a more appropriate basis for harnessing the power of todays business environment, new cultures and new technologies.

Blending Thinking Styles For Best Results

Vertical and lateral thinking are complementary – lateral thinking is best used for generating ideas and vertical thinking for selecting from within these ideas to reach a valid conclusion. This is the basis of the process of brainstorming.

Business intelligence is designed to detect patterns from vast volumes of information that relate to business today. These patterns are purely objective and free from human bias and interpretation, making them a more reliable basis of decision making.

Using analytical and modeling tools we can build scenarios by extending the patterns into various contexts to gain insight into the outcome of various business interventions. Such tools apply the knowledge of the past to the logic of the present and future. They filter data for relevance at a speed far beyond that of the human brain. This speed is not so much in terms of processing capability – but in terms of handling the complexity of multiple dimensions [considerations] which must be applied to the information. Humans no longer have a workable capability to identify all relevant information and to analyze it to identify key patterns. What we do retain, is the selective ability to determine action to be taken based on the outcomes of the BI tools.

Knowledge is about collecting information

Wisdom is about applying that information

©Gail La Grouw. To learn more about how business intelligence tools can improve your decision making, get a copy of The Logical Organization.

Back To Top