Switch your Thinking!
Is anyone a fan of UFC? (Ultimate Fighting Championship)
I agree it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
But there is one aspect of the evolution of UFC fighting that we can all learn from.
It’s this.
In the early years there were fighters who were predominately boxers, wrestlers or kickers.
It was not only a battle between fighters but between styles.
But not any more.
Today’s successful UFC fighters are equally skilled in boxing, wresting and kicking.
Now let’s make a leap to the skills we all need in the working environment.
We all need to be proficient creative, productive and collaborative thinkers.
It’s not good enough anymore to be a specialist in say creative thinking for example.
And what’s more we need to be able to switch your thinking at a moment’s notice.
In my workshops I have started to push people to become expert at all 3 types of thinking.
For example:
You might start with defining a problem (productive thinking).
Then I say – ok let’s switch your thinking.
Or for short-hand – Switch.
Now use creative thinking to generate some new solutions.
Switch
Now use some productive thinking to evaluate, prioritize and work out how to test your ideas.
Switch
Now use some collaborative thinking to view the suggested course of action from different perspectives.
What might be some of the barriers?
How can we overcome these?
Switch
Use creative thinking to overcome these etc etc.
Switch your thinking
This is the new way of thinking.
Every meeting for example can become a type of brainstorming meeting.
In fact, there is no need for a specialist meeting.
Specialist thinking is so … yesterday.
We all need to become a total, 3 dimensional thinkers who can switch their style of thinking – on demand.