Analytical Thinking

Question:

How can I see through multiple lenses of perception to better understand situations and solve problems?

Definition:

Effective analytical thinking consists of using a wide variety of perceptual "lenses" to perceive and thoroughly analyze a problem, outcome or situation. These lenses of perception include many different kinds: a biological lens, leading to ideas about growth and development; a systems lens, leading to ideas about feedback loops and interactional causes and effects; a literary lens, leading to understanding a situation as a story with a beginning, a middle and an end;, and so many more. Combining such multiple lenses give a leader the capability of seeing more of what is there, processing more information for finding solutions.

What to do:

You can't help but use analytical thinking. The important thing for better leadership is to understand your thinking lenses, their limits and how to expand beyond those limits to see, understand more and to develop a wider variety of solutions to problems. Using a variety of perceptual lenses, especially those that you are less familiar with will expand your thinking and deepen your understanding. Expanding your analytical thinking is especially effective when combined with objectivity, which is a mental position that allows you to see yourself and a situation from an external, objective viewpoint.

• Consider a problem with a customer who quits buying and goes to a competitor.
  - Seeing behavior in categories of right and wrong is one lens.
  - Seeing the values that motivate behavior is another.
  - Seeing the economic consequences of customer buying behaviors is another
  - Seeing the historical causes is another.
  - Seeing the complex system interactions and assumptions that influence behavior is still another.
  -And there are many more.

Combining these multiple lenses gives you the ability to see more of what is there, using more information for finding solutions.

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