Canadian HR Reporter - Sample Issue

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014 CANADIAN HR REPORTER & STRATEGIC CAPABILITY NETWORK inking about thinking Using effective intelligence to make workplace decisions, solve problems, innovate BY MARCEL VANDER WIER Understanding your personal thought processes is the first step to- wards increased workplace collaboration, according to Julian Chap- man, president of Forrest, an organizational transformation firm in Toronto. And that's because thinking drives action at work, he said at a recent SCNetwork event in Toronto. "When we talk about thinking, it really is about 'How do we con- vey ourselves?'" said Chapman. "We're talking about a common language for how you engage with other people." ere is a line of cause and ef- fect from the hidden workings of a person's mind to her eventual actions, and improving the way a person thinks about tasks is the best way to impact end results, he said. rough completion of a think- ing-intentions profile, workers can grasp the core reasons as to how tasks are completed in the workplace, as well as engage their whole selves in the work. It's all about teaching people to think better, said Chapman. "We're trying to challenge their thinking to open up new possibilities." By completing a thinking-in- tentions profile, workers can define their thought process and how they use data to reach conclu- sions, he said. "Those conclusions become the actions or behaviours and the results." "If you don't know where your thinking is, and where your think- ing needs to be, it's very difficult to do that," said Chapman. "e point about the thinking-inten- tions profile is to provide you with insight as to where your thinking is." Without knowledge of how thought processes come to be, workers may view colleagues as Martians, he said. "Everyone sees our actions and results, but they don't know what's going on under the sur- face. In fact, they judge our ac- tions and results — not based on our thinking — but actually based on their thinking. is is how we get a disconnect with people in the workplace, when they don't really understand what is the thinking that's go- ing on," said Chapman. "e intent behind the t h i n k i n g - i n t e n t i o n s profile is to get you thinking about your thinking." e framework was developed by Philips, a t e c h n o l o g y company based in Eindhoven, Netherlands. "e intent behind this was to create a usable tool that would en- able people to think better in the workplace — to make decisions, to solve problems, to innovate," he said. Tension between "doing" and "thinking" is an ongoing chal- lenge in the workplace, as many employees don't receive enough opportunity to think — and be- come stuck in the "tyranny of do," said Chapman. "If we spend too much time in 'do,' we may not be getting the best results. If we spend too much time on the other side — in thinking — the opportunities may have gone past us," he said. "There's this tension around thinking and doing that we live with every day." e model is most important during times of stress, and Phil- ips' original intention was "to create an opportunity for their employees to actually think through the tougher stuff — the things that slow down the busi- ness," he said. ree ways of thinking All thought can be broken down into three patterns, according to Chapman: judging what is right (blue), describing what is true (red) and realizing what is new (green). "We use all three of these, but we tend to have a focus on one over the other. is becomes our think- ing intention — where we drive our intentionality." Judging is focused on getting to conclusions; describing is in- tent on getting to the truth of the matter; realizing is focused on the possibilities, he said. inking is non-linear, and ev- eryone typically focuses on one colour more than others. For example, blue thinkers fo- cus on the interpretation of facts in order to form an opinion and come to a conclusion. Red thinkers spend more time on gathering facts, while green thinkers are all about possibilities. e colours conflict with one another, said Chapman. "We need to understand the dynamics of the three elements because they drive our orienta- tion and where we tend to go." "In blue thinking, we tend to focus on our self, because that's how we make the interpretation — based on our past experience, our DNA, whatever the case may be," he said. "In red thinking, we tend to fo- cus on others because that helps us to gather facts. And in green think- ing, it's just about ideas." Green thought is typically viewed as "obscure," said Chap- man, noting the framework at- tempts to put it on the same level as facts and logic. "It's critical in this day and age of disruption, and the need for us to be able to think outside the box… to be able to access green thinking," he said. e three colours of thought can be further broken down into six mind-frames, as each can be divided into hard (external, im- personal) and soft (internal, per- sonal) thinking, said Chapman. "Everyone sees our actions and results, but they don't know what's going on under the surface... is is how we get a disconnect with people in the workplace." Credit: one line man (Shutterstock) TRUST > pg. 15

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