Sunday, September 6, 2015

The Dynamic Thinking Mind

A dynamic mind takes more time to self-reflect, not less.

Everything is composed of energy, even our thoughts, and feelings. We can't see oxygen, but it is essential to life. We can't see our thoughts and feelings, but only the effect thoughts and feelings have an impact on our life on a daily basis. The result of all these activities is the mind: without the brain, there can be no individual mind, yet it is conceivable that the brain produces something that is greater than itself, and this is the 'mind.’ Metaphorically, the mind to the brain is like the music to the instrument. Nowadays, we live in the era with information explosion and knowledge abundance, the static mind which only stores the limited, or single domain knowledge and applying the linear thinking to reasoning, is no longer effective enough to adapt to the velocity, complexity, and ambiguity of digital paradigm, so what is dynamic thinking and how to leverage it in problem-solving and decision making?


Dynamic thinking is a good combination of “Thinking Fast” - intuition, and “Thinking Slow” - analytics & synthesis. It runs multi-threading thinking processes such as creative thinking (to connect the dots), critical thinking (to think the other side of the coin), and strategic thinking (to keep the end in mind), also synthesizing multidisciplinary knowledge to create the new context with in-depth contextual understanding. A dynamic thinker is a person who continuously invests in adopting and adapting new habits of mind that allow them to think and respond to challenges critically and creatively. In doing so they are able to think profoundly about themselves, their team, their relationships with others, the organizations to which they belong, their work, and the environments in which they live and work. They are truth-seeking, willing to see the other side of the coin, change their point of views if needed and are accountable for their actions. Furthermore, they are robust and judicious in pushing down barriers to achieve the best possible effects.


The dynamic thinker is at a continuously curious mode, to make intellectual inquiries all the time. Change is the business new normal now. The static “we always do things like this” mentality is no longer effective to solve the complex problems and overcome the thorny challenges in the journey of digital transformation. We need to develop the "ASK mode" which is: First, the attitude means that you will create a new mindset of being curious, then just wait for what things to happen; because by then, often it’s too late to respond to the circumstances. Digital professionals have to proactively accumulate the updated knowledge, be able to determine the skills that are required for them to deliver their outputs and finally develop the right set of capabilities to enforce the agility to adapt to the changes.


A dynamic mind takes more time to self-reflect, not less. Dynamic thinking doesn’t mean you make your brain saturated or keep your hands always busy, on the opposite, you need to take time for being quiet, doing self-awareness and self-reflection. The paradox of technology is that, on one side, technology has enabled humanity to become aware of its thinking, now knowledge is only a click away; we are becoming hyper-connected through the power of the internet. As our connectedness increases, society is awakening, and we are becoming one again. On the other side, technology has been so effective to place in a complacent mode that no longer are we keen in being CURIOUS on what is happening and what might happen to affect an awareness that will lead to critical minds and therefore, emerge with constructive and creative thinking. Our lives have become so busy that we do no longer have time to sit still, reflect and contemplate our place in the universe. But a dynamic mind flows with calmness and run fast and slow accordingly.


If we can learn to think more dynamically, then we’ll be better equipped to adapt and thrive in the ever-changing, increasingly unpredictable and uncertain world in which we live. Our beliefs not only affect our own physiology but also affect the people and the environment around us. Our thoughts/beliefs, even though we can't see them, influences change and lead digital transformations. Therefore, think positively and think dynamically.

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