“I find for myself that my first thought is never my best thought. My first thought is always someone else’s; it’s always what I’ve already heard about the subject, always the conventional wisdom. It’s only by concentrating, sticking to the question, being patient, letting all the parts of my mind come into play, that I arrive at an original idea. By giving my brain a chance to make associations, draw connections, take me by surprise.”
- William Deresiewicz
Effective leaders speak in an original voice.
There is a difference between a person who is repeating what they have heard versus one who speaks from their own matured thinking. Even as you read that, people come into your mind. You know those who rely on the quotes and insights of others, and you know those who give you gold from their own mine.
The effective Chief Information Officer (CIO) now leads beyond the realm of technology. Your knowledge of business and influence of culture invites your voice. You lead beyond borders. Your reach is wide.
As a result, more people are relying on what you think. And what you think depends on how you think.
Four skills promote best and original thinking:
Assessment
The first skill in order to think better is to assess clearly. Assessment comprises two critical factors. One is to recognize and avoid bias. The second is to gain an accurate perception of reality on that which is past, present and future.
Bias is a systematic error. It is in me.
- I have a negativity bias. All things equal, I will remember a negative more than a positive. I don’t assess clearly until I recognize negative perceptions that may already be in place about a subject.
- I have a moral bias.
- I have a hindsight bias that causes me to regard past events as more predictable than they were.
- I have a dogmatic bias that doesn’t seek out all the information possible.
The list could go on: survivor bias, exaggeration bias, memory bias, perfection bias.
Regardless of the bias, I jump to conclusions and fall short of an accurate assessment.
Assessment also takes into account factors past, present and future. For past and present considerations on any given issue, thinking well answers four questions:
- What worked (and is working)?
- What didn’t?
- What seemed to be missing?
- What questions are still left unanswered?
As regards the future, the questions are framed a bit differently. Given what I know or anticipate, what would be great if it did work? What will likely not work? What could I still be overlooking? What questions have I left unaddressed?
Assessments lead to themes, and themes often become the platform on which to build critical thinking and productive inquiry.
Inquiry
Inquiry is the ability to ask questions that have greater implications, and the ability to challenge the status quo or the expected.
Inquiry is investigative. It dives in and analyzes. A CIO who thinks better to lead wider has to both step back and dig in. One is to gain perspective, and the other is to inform perception. Optics is one thing; cognition is another. Inquiry seeks to understand what it sees.
When I want to challenge my perception, I ask several questions. What if X is true? What if X is false? What if X were its opposite? What if X was impossible?
In essence, inquiry seeks to tell a different story until a possible better story emerges.
Focus
Do not multitask.
Studies continue to reveal that multitasking impairs our ability to think. Interruption is far more consequential than most people admit. We think far too highly of our ability to rebound when our flow is stopped.
Once interrupted, you have no idea how your train of thought was derailed. You cannot get an interrupted moment back when it comes to where one thought was leading you to another.
How you focus is an individual preference; that you focus is a universal essential. Block the time you need, and better, arrange with your team times in which they too are meeting and interruption free.
Engage Emotionally
This is actually the first action in the list. I don’t think better unless I care deeply.
Have you ever been asked to give thought to something, and you saved it for the drive to the meeting in which you were to discuss it?
If I don’t engage emotionally, I will just give my opinion. Engaged, and I will end up sharing passionate imagination.
When you are engaged, you can feel the energy change within you.
What do you do if you are to give thought to something you do not inherently care about? Because, we can’t care deeply about everything. We don’t have the capacity to do so.
I may not care about an issue, but I can care about those affected by the issue.
More than that, I often use those opportunities to help other people think better. I get them to share why they are emotionally engaged, and help them bring assessment, inquiry and focus to the table.
I want to help CIOs become the person people want to listen to. May you have days in which you can engage and assess and inquire and focus; you may have but a moment. But once you have trained your brain how to think, what you think in that moment will be true of you. And that’s really what people are looking for in a leader.
