Thinking about thinking, that’s what The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin invites you to do. Martin works from the premise that how we think leads us into solutions or into behaviours and attitudes that either make the problem worse or just fail to move us through it. Successful leaders in a variety of organizations were interviewed by Roger Martin in order to discover their process of thinking. Some of the business leaders were very much aware of their thinking style or problem solving style, while others were not as conscious. However what emerged for Martin is a snapshot of the opposable mind. The metaphor here is built of the idea that much like our opposable thumb, the mind has capacities to hold multiple sets of information and projections in order to create solutions. The problem identified by Martin is that many of us fall into the trap of linear or sequential thinking that only deals or connects one thing to another without seeing either the complexity of a situation or the various explanations of a situation available to us. Integrative thinking moves away from either-or categories into the realm of both-and. Integrative thinkers are more nimble if you will in their ability to deal with rapidly changing environments and the creation of new and better ways of solving problems and bringing value to people.
One of the most helpful perspectives for my own thinking is the section on stance, tools, and experience. Stance describes your stance toward life or problems. Are you open or closed to new information and variables? Is your stance informed by a view that always treats others as friends or as foes? Is your stance informed by the aggression of a learner or a know-it-all? Is it important to act like you have it all together or is it OK to demonstrate that you have more to learn?
Tools are the actual skills or sets of knowledge that you have about the subject or problem you are having to face. You can always put more tools into your toolbox as part of preparation. In a crisis there is little time for putting more tools in. You have to use what you have. But if you are able to extend time you can add more tools.
It is essential that you actually use what you’ve got. This is experience. It is the breadth, short or long, of what you have by way of experience. Experience is essential because it increases sensitivity about the necessary stance and the actual use of the tools you have. The good news is that as your experience broadens and deepens, your capacity to effectively use the tools you have to integrate divergent information for problem solving in your field of interest or work also increases. Stance, tools, and experience then begin to feed on each other.
I appreciate this view of growing people. Growing people are gatheres of wisdom. They seek with an insatiable appetite to increase their capacity for seeking solutions and engaging others in that process in the organizations they lead. Growing people love truth. As a growing exercise try the following:
1. Identify a problem, current or on the horizon.
2. Explore your stance toward this problem and move your stance toward more openness and active learning.
3. Explore the tools you have and seek if there are more sets of knowledge or skills (in people, books, etc) that could help you.
4. Take on the risk and movement toward acting on a plan or course of action for the identified problem.
5. Evaluate and adjust by examining stance, tools, and experience again.
