Switch Thinking is a new concept I have been developing over the past few months.
As the name implies it is the ability to move between different ways of thinking depending on the need, situation or problem at hand.
It can be used by leaders, groups & teams.
The idea is that there are many different ways of thinking beyond critical thinking e.g. Lateral, Creative and Systems etc.
But these have been treated as almost mutually exclusive. Yet in the workplace of today and tomorrow leaders need to be able to shift between these – on demand.
This requires the use of what I have called Switch Triggers. For example using the word focus, encourages people to switch from looking at the parts of a problem (critical thinking) to the whole problem and the connections and relationships (systems thinking).
Switch Thinking is (I believe) the most important meta-skill that leaders, groups and teams can develop in order to be successful in the new workplace of tomorrow with its greater emphasis on flexibility, creativity and productivity.