The purpose of this book “Thinkingaire” is not to study the brain from a neurologist’s perspective, but to summarize the different thought processes from the digital management viewpoint, to help digital leaders and professionals cross-industry, cross-generation and cross-culture shape the 100 sets of game-changing digital minds to compete for the future.
Chapter 1 “Out of Box” Thinking Minds: We live now in the “Big Data” digital era: What happens when our brain faces dealing with the overwhelming explosive data? Raw data is the lowest grade of ore. It requires massive filtering, sorting, condensing and refining before it can be put to usage. By peeling back layer after layer, individuals and organizations can discover why they think, feel and operate the way they do. Once they find where a particular belief originated, it’s easier to realize that beliefs can change. By changing their thinking, they change the beliefs and change the emotions leading to different decisions, different outcomes, and become more self-aware and self-improving persons, with the digital mind. Everyone has the ability to change their mindsets. Because every person has degrees of both open and closed mindsets in different contexts. Tied into this is the degree of resistance to change. Knowledge is the key to changing mindsets, biases, prejudices. We are all works in progress; learning, growing and changing.
Chapter 2 Systems Minds: Systems Thinking (ST) provides the more holistic way to view problems. Systems Thinking provides better and more accurate understanding of the overall situation, better defining the problems and how you should go about solving them and in what sequence. Systems Thinking provides a structured process and consideration of the range of options. The application of Systems Thinking in a structured and systematic process allow a more complete and holistic approach to being taken. The main emphasis is in doing "better pre-work" –such as defining the situation and the "success criteria." Taking consideration of a range of options — rather than the more traditional "jump to a solution" problem-solving method. Systems Thinking seeks to observe the organization from outside-in. It encourages the observer to see himself/herself as part of the system. To put it simply, Systems Thinking is to understand the relationship between the parts and the whole: it is an outside-in perspective of interconnectivity and interdependence in a system.
Chapter 3 Hybrid Minds: The Digital Era is the hybrid era: the physical world is blurring with virtual world; the work life is blurring with personal life, and the hard disciplines such as science and engineering are blurring with soft disciplines such as art and philosophy, etc. And to dig into the mind level, the Hybrid Thinking can combine different thinking patterns in order to analyze and synthesize for effective problem-solving. Hybrid Thinking is a set of interdisciplinary and integrative thinking processes we will need to solve many of today’s complex problems, which require strategic consideration, systems intelligence, innovative approaches, cross-cultural and cross-generational perspectives, and multi-dimensional cognition. In this chapter, we will introduce a variety of types of Hybrid Thinking that can be used in solving complex problems and making tough decisions.
Chapter 4 Agile Minds: Agile is the state of mind. "agility" is a philosophy of managing complexity and unpredictability through empiricism. Agility is the ability to adapt to the changes. Agile minds see the world through the lens of three “I”s Interaction, Improvement, and Innovation. Agile is a new, radical style of leadership. Instead of command-and-control, agile focuses on team collaboration, independence, and autonomy. It's an entirely different mindset for many organizations: trying to 'do agile' instead of 'be agile' will lead to failure. It is crucial for successful adoption of a better way of working that the people in the organization begin to first embrace the values and principles relating to the agile mindset, and then they look at the set of practices which will work for them at the level they are at.
Chapter 5 Intellectual Minds: Intelligence has been defined in several ways. First intelligence is a cognitive process involving rational and abstract thinking. Second, it is goal-directed and purposeful, which means that all intelligent activities are planned to reach a self-determined goal. Finally, it involves social competence, to help individuals adjust to their environmental surroundings. Intelligence is the word we use to describe the potential ability. Intelligence is the capacity to understand and apply wisdom to the knowledge you are exposed to. There are as many different ways to characterize intelligence as there are different types and forms of information impinging on our senses. Our intelligence concerning any given type of information is a function of our capacity to recognize and interpret patterns, and our consequent ability to use the perceived information.
Chapter 6 High- EQ Minds: Emotional Intelligence in its simplest form is being aware of our emotions and managing them to get best out of the situation. It’s also about trying to understand other emotions and be empathetic. EQ becomes more critical for leading in today’s digital dynamic with its characteristics of complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity. But how can we dig deeper into a high EQ mindset? Is Emotional Intelligence fundamentally inherent, hardwired? Can it be trained to some extent? Or is it circumstantial? A high EQ mind drives digital thinking to keep you motivated: Emotional Intelligence has tremendous relevance in today's world. High EQ drives a positive mindset and keeps you motivated about life. It allows you to maintain your composure whatever be the situation, whether you are being glorified or vilified. Not reacting too emotionally when he or she receives strong praise, nor gets extremely dejected about anything. It is a hallmark of a leader with supreme EQ.
Chapter 7 Paradoxical Minds: The paradox is a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities. The paradox is the result of two opposing truths existing side by side, which can be both right. The paradox is also like the two sides of the coin, they are not just opposite, but also complementary, to make it a whole. At a silo, perhaps you only see or understand one side, believe it is right, and then assume the other side must be wrong. But if you stand at the right angle to see the both sides, you know even they are different, but both hold part of truth in it. Digital now just like the new window, provides a multidimensional view to see things and the world differently. Therefore, digital is the age of empathy. Acceptance is the key - acceptance of others as they are, without prejudice or destructive criticism, acceptance of self as an indefatigable spirit, acceptance that paradoxes are two sides of the same coin and those complexities are the spice of life.
Chapter 8 Progressive Minds: Most often, progress is not a universal truth, but a relative truth. What happens is that we think that progress is being made, but then we don’t see progress, because your type of progress may not be a progress at all to someone else. Every endeavor has benefited some but not all mankind, which makes the progress that is accomplished relative and not absolute. From the business perspective, the progress made through a silo mind can only benefit the individual function. However, progress at an organizational level ensures the business as a whole is superior to the sum of its pieces. Real societal progress is made through the work of progressive minds, which can sustain a balance of diversified viewpoints, creativity, and discipline; opportunity and risk; individualism and teamwork; democracy and unification; science and art; spirit and reality; intuition and analytics. Through such an ongoing, dynamic balance of viewpoint and disciplines, human progress can be sustained and the world can move forward with solid speed.
Chapter 9 Metaphorical Minds: As Einstein wisely put, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Through communicating problems with words clearly to other minds, and reframing the question with new levels of thinking, the fresh mind with a cognitive difference can perhaps solve the problem seamlessly. Psychologically, creative, metaphorical and poetic impulses and language congeal over time into systems of thought that take on a quality of being permanently true, through being institutionalized, systematized, and professionalized.
Chapter 10 Professional Minds: Generally speaking, a profession is any type of work that needs special training or particular skill, often one that is respected because it involves a high level of education. To dig even deeper, there is a set of professional mindsets which get trained and sharpened can uplift digital progress and improve both business and societal maturity. On the other side, the unprofessional mindset has less to do with the profession itself, but more about the lack of wisdom and make a negative influence in the workplace. And it has some common symptoms and out-of-date thought processes.
Chapter 11 Anti-Digital Mindsets: Digital Transformation requires mind shift. In addition to the set point changing, transformation requires first shifting mindsets, and then building new capabilities & skills, reinforcing and embedding new practices and reflexes. From the perspective of the industrial age, the problem lies with the Taylorism mindset of scientific management, where everything can be controlled. Thus, to bring order into the world of complexity means pushing harder on the process. The problems with those thought processes are “status quo’ type of thinking, authoritarian behavior, and bureaucratic decision-making.
Chapter 12 Mind vs. Mind: People are different, not because we look different, but more crucially, we think differently. The variety of thought makes the world diversified, innovative, and sophisticated. When we use our different perspectives to complement each other’s thinking we can overcome common challenges facing humankind, but when we misunderstand each other, it causes chaos, conflict, and even man-made disaster. The brain is only an organic computer that creates energy or an operating system called the mind. The mind then creates programs we call our thoughts. We can change our thoughts just as we can change applications on a computer. It’s hard to say when we can make an ‘apple to apple’ comparison of mind vs. mind. The truth is that each of us is a complex blend of contrasts - positive and negative; intuitive and logical with imperfect judgment. We all want to believe that our judgment is perfect, yet none of us can claim to be a perfect character. But we can always learn about complementary thinking from other minds.
We live now in the “Big Data” digital era: What happens when our brain faces dealing with the overwhelming explosive data? Raw data is the lowest grade of ore. It requires massive filtering, sorting, condensing and refining before it can be put to usage. By peeling back layer after layer, individuals and organizations can discover why they think, feel and operate the way they do. Once they find where a particular belief originated, it’s easier to realize that beliefs can change. By changing their thinking, they change the beliefs and change the emotions leading to different decisions, different outcomes, and become more self-aware and self-improving persons, with the digital mind. Everyone has the ability to change their mindsets. Because every person has degrees of both open and closed mindsets in different contexts. Tied into this is the degree of resistance to change. Knowledge is the key to changing mindsets, biases, prejudices. We are all works in progress; learning, growing and changing.