by
Rick Forbus, PhD
Great leadership requires creative thinking. For those who think they lack creativity, this can be a tough concept. Dimensional thinking is as close as your childhood memories or last reminiscence of a beautiful view on vacation. As a coach, one tool that I find useful, is helping my clients visualize their ideas, their projections, their work flow, their organizational designs and their enterprise connections.
One definition I found of three-dimensional thinking is: the ability to think outside of the box. The ability to answer any question and track any scenario from its past to its future. On the website, www.amediumcorporation.com this concept is expressed like this:
Two-dimensional thinking implies concepts that are flat or only partially representative of the whole. Three-dimensional thinking implies the first part of 2-D thinking conjoined with intersecting dimensions rendering a deeper field of meaning.
My contribution to this idea of thinking includes (for my coaching clients) our thinking styles on two planes of thought:
1. Linear and Concrete thinking patterns – Left to right; “A” must follow “B”, etc.
2. Global and Conceptual thinking patterns – up and down and all around; intuitions, circumstances and observations, feelings, etc.
This is what I mean when helping a client think dimensionally: “Let’s think through this issue/challenge/scenario from its linear path (start to finish) and from its situational characteristics (intuitions, circumstance and global place in the company/present situation).”
When you ask creative people how they did something they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. Steve Jobs
Why should a leader learn to use images and other visuals to help stakeholders understand concepts, ideas and brainstorming? Look at what other experts say about 3-D thinking.
On the website www.imagethink.net these image experts say:
Because we think in pictures, not just words!
Consider these astounding facts:
o An estimated two thirds of all people are visual learners.
o A full one fourth of our brain is devoted to processing visual information
o Combining images with text or speech increases retention by 40%
Mind Mapping
This article is not intended to fully explore the world of mind mapping, that has been around since the 1970s. The term was introduced by popular psychology expert Tony Buzan. There is a great deal written about him and his mind mapping techniques, and, you may want to explore. The main take-away for growing this leadership strength for you, is to practice getting “thinking” on a flipchart page, white board or writable wall somewhere. Work with your ideas and your team’s ideas. Centuries prior to the use of the term mind mapping, our ancestors used drawings as language and images to teach concepts.
Mind mapping is not the only way to reveal thought. It does provide a good beginning point by taking a nugget of an idea, drawing it in a circle on the middle of a page, marker board or wall and then begin to build out thinking tributaries. Buzan suggests guidelines for mind mapping clearly stated on Wikipedia with ten components. Here are the stated guidelines when using this technique:
1. Start in the center with an image of the topic, using at least 3 colors.
2. Use images, symbols, codes, and dimensions throughout your mind map.
3. Select key words and print using upper or lower-case letters.
4. Each word/image is best alone and sitting on its own line.
5. The lines should be connected, starting from the central image. The lines become thinner as they radiate out from the center.
6. Make the lines the same length as the word/image they support.
7. Use multiple colors throughout the mind map, for visual stimulation and also for encoding or grouping.
8. Develop your own personal style of mind mapping.
9. Use emphasis and show associations in your mind map.
10. Keep the mind map clear by using radial hierarchy or outlines to embrace your branches.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map)
As mentioned, mind mapping is not the only technique to surface your creative thinking and leading your team members to get their best ideas out where others can “see” them. For all the academics and self-determined elite thinkers that may be reading this article; you will enjoy this next example.
Pictionary
It wasn’t too many times of playing the game, Pictionary, that I realized its usefulness in making a person’s thinking visual. Why is the game so fun, so challenging, and, so outrageous at times? There are so many examples where this family game has proven what our ancestors proved with cave writings and symbols. When visual imaging is done well, amazingly words, concepts and ideas jump forth.
Try this. What images would you need to draw to convey these words:
o Energy
o Joy
o Compassion
o Valor
These above ideas are harder to conceptualize or dimensionally depict than:
o House
o Car
o Communication to stakeholders and flow of information
o Organizational structure
What I’ve learned as an executive coach is that getting individuals to get “out of their heads” to a writing surface somewhere, begins to bring clarity and measurement, whether depth or width, to one’s thoughts.
Taking Your Best Ideas to a Greater Level
Several years ago, I came to the realization that many of us face the scary actuality that our best ideas may be outdated, worn and weary from overuse. In coaching sessions and in informal conversations, many have shared that they are frightened that they have lost their ability to think beyond the “box.” Sensibility tells us that this can be true.
My observations fall into two categories, when analyzing these conversations. (1) One group of clients is blinded by their own egos. I am talking about if ego was a home theatre system they are blowing out the neighbors’ windows! Sadly, they continuously push hackneyed and old ideas. The “volume” of their egocentric thinking is blowing out any possibility of divergent or elite creativity. (2) The other group of clients is eager, like children in the backyard making up games with sticks and leaves. These clients have a natural hunger and humility. Their willingness to draw out their ideas or to explore others’ imaginations takes them to a higher level of dimensional thinking. This appears to be an emotional entryway to creativity. In other words, the ego maniac will find it difficult emotionally to break free of their own self-created domains, whereas, the less self-centered and open thinker will allow for mistakes, exploration, others’ insights and blurry concepts to bloom and clarify.
Creativity isn’t about wild talent as much as it’s about productivity. To find new ideas that work, you need to try a lot that don’t. It’s a pure numbers game. Robert Sutton
Michael Michalko writes about this idea of “fracturing” old paradigms. In two of his books, Thinkertoys and Cracking Creativity, he asserts that using visual tools helps to not only convey ideas but to also formulate better ideas. He has a fantastic website www.creativethinking.net that displays many of his thinking techniques and includes articles on breaking through thought barriers. The site says this about Michael:
Michael Michalko unveils the secrets of creative genius and brings life-changing creative techniques within everyone’s reach. His arsenal of powerful creative thinking tools can be used to tackle virtually any type of technical problem and to create new ideas. Without a doubt, his tools are the closest thing there is to a tactical instruction manual for thinking like a genius. His tools will help you approach problems with new vision, and you will discover a world of innovative solutions to everyday, and some not-so-everyday, challenges.
I use some of his techniques with my corporate clients to help them challenge their own “best” ideas. Again, bringing depth to your ideas, may include the emotional experience of becoming “disloyal” to your long-term brainchildren. Try walking away from some of your finest concepts in your imagination. Before they can be retooled, practically, there will be the need to view them from a longer and wider perspective. Think about a view of your favorite vacation spot. Imagine you are very close to that place. Let’s say you are standing in your sailboat as it is moored to the dock. Now, imagine you are looking at your sailboat from a small bluff about 1,000 feet away. Now, you see not only other boats but a water cut-through to the right of the lagoon where your boat is moored. This new perspective adds options to your sailboat routes.
Even though this is a quick and efficient way to illustrate what I’m referring to, as it pertains to bringing dimension to a long-standing view; it clearly illustrates the concept. When working with clients, sometimes a challenge may begin with some images or even a series of questions to broaden the established opinion. In a similar way that an artist will change perspectives to illustrate depth, an executive can discover other perspectives with some technique and discipline.
Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression. Isaac Bashevis Singer
3-D thinking must include dynamic questioning skills. Although these skills should be well developed, 3-D thinking is obtainable with work and repetition. Of course, coaches spend a great deal of time working on questions. It is what we do.
The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a creative mind to spot wrong questions. Antony Jay
Logic Models
Anyone, who has been my client over these many years, knows that a logic model or two will come into the coaching plan. Logic models can be very simple or complex. My use of these with client-thinking scenarios is because they are NOT emotional, like our thinking can become. If you experienced something (or someone) that is related to an important decision, then, your emotions, your pessimism or optimism, will come into play and “cloud” or dull your decision. Logic models provide a way to bring dimension to your thinking and stay away from the emotion of the decision. (Email me for some ideas on all of these thoughts regarding 3-D thinking at rforbus@troveinc.com.)
Logic models can lead to “illogical” things, including, creativity and imagination. On the website www.differencebetween.com, Nedha posted this about the difference in creativity and imagination:
Creativity and imagination are two words that are often confused on account of the appeared similarity in their meanings, though here are differences between them. The word “creativity” refers to “the power of the mind to make something appealing.” For an example, a child paints a beautiful image of a countryside. It is the creativity of the child that allows him to be original. On the other hand, the word “imagination” refers to “something that is forcefully thought.” For an example, imagine the case of science fiction that has been compiled by an individual. It is the imagination that allows her to go beyond the restrictions of reality and compile an ambiance that is within the mind of the writer. This is imagination. The two definitions of creativity and imagination highlight that these do not refer to the same thing but are different from one another.
What does this have to do with executive coaching and the attempt to get a leader-manager to rethink their well-worn practices and opinions? It is obvious. Great leaders examine their practices and attempt to think and do things better. They learn to be dimensional thinkers, and, help their teams to become the same. The coaching tools I use make this easier for the leader to deploy. Great thinkers are entrepreneurial and on the cutting edge of progress and business theory.
I challenge you to consider adding this to your leader-manager tool belt. Ask me how. rforbus@troveinc.com
Rick Forbus, PhD
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