Three ways to rethink – LA NACION

Among the most mentioned skills to adapt to the famous present VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) is that of critical thinking. It is not easy to think outside the box that we arm ourselves that responds to “our truth”, we consume news that reaffirm our convictions, we surround ourselves with four or five clappers and voila: the result is a true reflection of the intolerance we complain about. daily and many times we feed, willing or not.

I am finishing Think again, the power of knowing what you don’t know (2021, Viking) which is the name of the new book by psychologist Adam Grant, writer of the best seller Originals, why non conformists moves the world (2016) and one of the most consulted psychologists by global leaders, specialized in behavior and psychology in organizations. His new book that invites us to rethink how and from where we live our convictions and how much value there is in rethinking what we know and what we know, what happens when we think with others and not take ourselves so seriously. Grant explores why entrepreneurs and executives, and really all of us, get caught in the closed-minded trap, unwilling to change our assumptions and beliefs even when the evidence screams before our eyes. In a turbulent world, he says, “the ability to rethink and unlearn matters much more than intelligence.” So how can we question ourselves in the smartest way possible? “Not rethinking sets in motion a cycle of overconfidence, preventing us from doubting what we know and being curious about what we don’t know. We get caught in a bubble of faulty assumptions for beginners, where we ignore our own ignorance,” he says.

The book provides strategies, ideas and examples on how humility in the face of ideas, openness to other ways of conceiving the world and co-creation are powerfully innovative tools. I choose to tell you today three main ideas from the book.

First: always think of at least one reason why we could be wrong. Says Grant, “One of the easiest ways to try to curb overconfidence is to think of a single viable reason why you could be wrong. When forming an opinion or passing judgment, ask yourself what would have to happen to prove which is false. ” I really liked this point, it is a bath of humility that shows you how perfectible, incomplete and rustic many of our ideas are.

The psychologist tells the example of BlackBerry, the company that in 2009 represented almost half of the smartphone market. The BlackBerry, its creator Mike Lazaridis firmly believed, was a device for sending and receiving emails; people would never want to carry the equivalent of a computer in their pocket. Many of its engineers believed otherwise. By 2014, BlackBerry’s market share had fallen to less than 1%. What if you had questioned your assumptions and put them to the test?

The second idea is not new, but I think many of us can develop this with greater seriousness and care. The author of Think again proposes to develop a trusted network of people who constantly challenge you. It is highly unlikely that we can see all of our blind spots, no matter how self-conscious we are.. To make sure we “know what we don’t know,” we need a team and colleagues who are willing to remind us. Grant calls them something like “Disagreeable givers.” “They give you harsh feedback and criticize you because they care and want to improve your thinking,” he says. Grant’s favorite way to identify these types of people in a job interview is to ask some version of this question at the end of the interview: If you were to reinvent our hiring process, what would you do differently? People who are willing to disagree will often give you the most honest feedback without fear of repercussions. That last part is key: For “nasty givers” to be most effective, they must operate in a psychologically safe culture that treats mistakes as learning opportunities.

The third exercise is to find the enjoyment in being wrong. This is perhaps the most difficult tip. Grant invites us to experience the pifies as a scientist does. When Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist, discovers an aspect of his thinking that is wrong, Grant says, his reaction is more like joy: it means he is less wrong now than before. Who dares to think more like a scientist and less like a truth preacher?

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