Knowing Your Thinking Preferences

So thinking. Einstein is quoted as saying that we can't solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them. I don't know about you, but I've discovered in my life, the vast majority of my problems I created for myself. Now, in a variety of ways. Maybe I should have returned that phone call. And I didn't and I procrastinated and as a result, it costs me more or whatever. You know, I often think about when that those credit card statements arrive after the

holiday season. And people say, Oh, I don't want to know how much I spent. So I'm not going to open the envelope. Opening the envelope or not opening the envelope won't change how much you spent, and won't change how much interest you're having to pay. Well, the same goes for relationships. So think about the human brain. It's about 1.4 kilograms, or 3 pounds of chemistry. There are 100 billion neurons. And each neuron can connect with 10,000

adjoining neurons. So you have all this stuff happening in your brain in these connections. So if you do the math, the total combinations of thoughts. So neurons connecting with other neurons, is about one + ten and a half million zeros after it. That's a pretty big number, there's probably not a name for it. So why is knowing how we think important to our role in projects. The reality is that projects are about people. And we're messy. But we share a lot

in common. So there are a couple of things that if we understand that about how we think, and we apply that to those with whom we work, we can actually end up getting better connections, better relationships, just because we understand a little bit about what's going on. I don't know about you, but often I've found myself judging somebody, assuming that they responded in a certain way or said a certain thing, because they were irritated or whatever.

But when I step back and actually look at how do they process thought, how do they see the world around them and relate it to themselves. I discovered that often it was just how they think; they weren't trying to get back at me or they weren't upset with me or they weren't frustrating deliberately. They thought differently from how I thought. So reflect for a moment on the last time you disagreed with someone who was close to you. could be a spouse, a friend, a boss, a sibling, it

doesn't matter, right? When we had that disagreement. In many cases, that disagreement was simply the result of us not being on the same thinking level. Coming back to Einstein's I'm basing this podcast on a model known as the human brain quote. dominance instrument HBDI. You can have a look in the show notes and it'll give you some insights into it. I'm not going to spend a lot of time helping you to understand it. There are day long seminars, there are more than a dozen PhD theses on

that model. We're not going to cover that in 10 minutes, what I want to do is give you a quick understanding of the four key quadrants in the model. And just help you to think a little bit about how they impact your day to day work and projects. Beyond that, I would encourage you to check out the show notes, and maybe learn a little bit more, and we'd be happy to have a conversation if that's what you actually thought was necessary. But for the moment, let's understand four key ways we think.

Now, I want to be really clear here. Because we think that way doesn't mean that we are that way. Our brains, the cool things about our brains, is that we can actually kind of step outside of our brain and look at critically how we're thinking and kind of step back into it. You know, that kind of conversation, where we say, woah timeout, and you back away from it. And you say, okay, what's happening here, it's okay, let's get back into

it. That's because we're able, we have the gift of being able to actually analyze what's happening in our brain while it's happening. The other thing to keep in mind is that the descriptions I'm going to give are pretty general. And you may be a combination of all four of them. Or you may find that one of the four quadrants, I'm using as a as an expression within the model, really resonates with you. And you find yourself

saying that's me? Oh, yes. But I want to point out that this model is helpful to describe how we think it doesn't define who we are. And it doesn't put us in little boxes from which we can never exit or get out of them. So let's talk about analytical thinking. It's that logical, mathematical kind of critical type of thinking. That happens, just to give you a bit of a sense, it actually happens in the front of our brains, the left hemisphere, the left side

of your, of your brain. And it's where we do our problem solving when we look at things, technically. So if you analytical and you are in sitting in a meeting, you want to have data, don't give me fuzzy stories, don't give me anecdotes, you want to understand what are the facts here. So that's one and I'll delve into each one a little bit more. But to give you a quick overview. You might be a practical

thinker. That's where you want procedures, processes, where you're very controlled, you want a level of detail, but you're also very decisive. High planners, so people who are really good at making a plan and sticking to a plan. Very administrative, very organized. Now, again, that thinking you may have components of that you may be very detailed, but actually not like administration, there's lots of different ways that we process, our thoughts. I mean, I can tell

you that I love planning. But I'm not very good at sticking to the plan. And one of the reasons I'm not good at sticking to the plan is because I also love change, where does that fit, we'll talk about that in a moment. Or maybe your thinking preferences revolve around the relational thinking, or that emotional thinking. That's that interpersonal, the social, emotional, that includes where we're musical and where we're

spiritual. I had a conversation with a client the other day, where we talked about the difference between spiritual and religious. And I helped them to understand that there's a part of our brain that deals with a spiritual, but then religion is very structured and organized. And that's actually in part of that practical thinking brain, where we have a process where we have a format, where we have a time that we always do things.

So our brains are complex, but also delightfully simple when we look at some of these bigger understandings, Or maybe to look at that fourth level, that experimental thinking, where you love trying out new things, synthesizing maybe very artistic, holistic, be able to step back and look at the big picture. very conceptual. Interestingly, we find that those experimental thinkers are also higher risk takers, kind of have to be.

So let's go back to an example where we were talking about that person you may have had a disagreement: with what were you thinking? And what were they thinking? Can you stop for a moment and ask yourself? Hmm, perhaps the challenge was that that individual was very analytical, but I was giving them anecdotes instead of data. Or maybe they were very practical, and they wanted to get down to a solution. And I was still talking about people's

feelings. Or conversely, maybe they were feeling oriented and I didn't give a damn about the feelings and I was just focused on this is the data. This is what it says, Let's get it done. Those are the types of things. maybe I was drilling down into the weeds or you were drilling down into the weeds, when really they needed to understand the big picture. The more I Understand this model, the more I realize how there are many things in my life that happened because I'm a big picture thinker. I'm a

visionary. I'm one of these guys who, you know, I have to start with understanding the whole, before I can drill down to the detail. There are other people who say, give me the detail, I don't need to see the big picture. So that's when we're talking about analytical or practical or relational, or experimental, they are different parts of the same brain. Now, the cool thing is, we're all born, for the most part with a

full brain. And the ideal is that we use all the components of our brain, what the Hermann Institute calls whole brain thinking, to come to better solutions. So there's no right or wrong. If we're analytical, and practical, and relational and experimental, we can actually end up with consistently better solutions. Of course, that's a perfect world. I don't know about you, but I don't live in a perfect world.

If we think for a moment of how we actually react, we can almost look at every reaction, we have a say, Okay, what thought precipitated that. I'm going to give you an example. Many, many years ago, when I was much younger, I had a sales role with a business products company. Andwe took yhis seminar sort of thing on how to sell better. And one of the things they told us was, when you go in and you meet with a client, look around their office, and there were lots of

cues there, or clues. Well, the same goes for today, when you project lead, and you go into the client's office, or one of your teammates offices, and you look around, you're going to see certain clues. What they didn't tell us was, it's quite possible that the person who manages the office isn't the person who

lives in the office. So in my case, I went into this office one day with a perfectly clean desk and, you know, everything was in its place, and nice pictures on the wall, etc. And I judged from there, what this client was going to want in the way of a proposal, what I didn't realize was that this client had a very efficient, effective executive assistant, who kept his office pristine for him. But this guy was actually he loved detail, it was kind of messy, but I couldn't see any of that.

So that's that judging a book by its cover that we need to be careful of as well. So as I'm explaining these, and when you go to our website to check out the show notes, keep in mind that sometimes what we project may not actually be who we are. So we I just might caution is with any model, be careful not to rely on it so much that you ignore the other information going on around you.

So I want to just delve quickly into each of the four, those four quadrants, if you wish, just to give us a bit of a sense. And as I said, there's a table for this in the show notes. So you can have a look at that. Skill wise, if you are that analytical thinker, or you have people on your team so and to think about the people around

you, as you listen to this. Your skills are in analysis and evaluation in qualification, very technical, often financial things like feasibility studies, pre feasibility studies, all of the things that we do to lead up to the construction or the execution of the project. Your

so on. Alright, from a skill perspective, typically, we're talking about organization, you love implementing things, very accurate. These are from a skill perspective, time management is something that you probably excel at overall planning and having a plan and maybe waking up in the morning with a plan, having lists those types of things. What's your style? Well, you're typically very careful, very methodical. Procedural.

This is a thinking style. That brings us that reliability, predictability, we often very disciplined. This is the do, this is the get stuff done. This is the call to action part of our brain now we all have it. Some of us use it more than others. But again, we all have analytical. We all have this procedural within us. It's how much we use it. ****** Or perhaps if we go to that relational, emotional part of our brain, if you're interested.

From a neurology perspective, it's the middle back, right hand side of our brain, you know, kind of physically, what are the skills? Well, we think you see things like customer relationships, interpersonal relationships, often the ability to teach or train communication, being able to anticipate needs before they arise. Your style, you typically tend to be caring, friendly, sociable, empathetic, humanistic, and possibly emotional can be positive or a detractor. But how do you come

across? Well, you might come across as a little overly sensitive, sometimes needy, sometimes it willl be unbusinesslike, I remember when we first started using emojis, it was little Smiley's and texts, and then I got an email with one and I thought, whoa, an emoji in an email. Well, today, we see that and it doesn't seem to be an issue. You might have come across as talking too much. Oh, wait, that would be me right

now. Okay. Let's have a look at that last quadrant, that's that experimental quadrant that we we're really experiencing life. Things like, these are some of the skills that might come across to you brainstorming, being that visionary, that big picture thinker, very lateral. synthesizing, holistic, strategic planning may be one of your gifts, change agent. Typically, these are people who we love change, we want to do things differently. Let's try it

out. I always remember, early on in my career, I taught, you know, before computers were really what they are today, we started out with what we would call word processors. And you know, there were certain functions that you just had to be careful not to use otherwise, you could end up deleting all of your data, you know, and the analytical, I would say, don't touch f1. And they would go f1.

Okay, what does it do? Fine, okay, or the practical person, you know, I might say, Okay, this is used only in these, these conditions. That was fine. But when it came to this last quadrant, that experimental they would always want to know well what happens if I do it? And you know, just just humor me, don't press it. But what happens if I do? Right? So that's different

reactions. What's your style if you that that big picture thinker, you probably like exploring, imaginative, very adventurous, that can be in the project as well? Well, what happens if we have an interaction? What happens if we introduce this concept, etc. On the other hand, you can also come across as unfocused impulsive, rash, maybe even oblivious to deadlines, I find that people who are strong in that big vision, also struggle to get down to get meeting the

deadline. So you may even find that your imagination runs away with you at times. So that's a quick overview of four quadrants. The reason that this is so important for us in projects is that because we think differently, we behave differently. And because we behave differently, that can create friction within the team. So even though all of these thinking preferences, if you wish, are important, we each have preferences we like more than others, or we rely on more

than others. And when we do that, without explaining to others, why we're responding or thinking the way we do, we can find ourselves at odds with each other. In the next episode, we're going to look at crucial conversations and how we have those tough conversations. And our thinking preferences have a bearing on sometimes how we come across in

those tough conversations. So what I'd like us to do to wrap up with this is just to understand that there's no perfect way to think what's important is that we grow and expand how we think, so that if you're not analytical, you can practice being a little more analytical. If you don't like planning, you can practice a little bit more to do that. If you're one who struggles with interpersonal, you can learn about how to be more engaging.

Or if you don't look at the big picture, you can learn about how to step back a little bit sometimes. And look at the bigger perspective. That's the ideal. We're not perfect, we are messy. But the cool thing is that we have opportunities to learn and grow. Join us next week. When we look at those tough conversations, where we have to get information across but maybe the other person doesn't appear to be listening or doesn't want to hear it. In the meantime, be

safe. Stay healthy. Enjoy thinking differently