1. The need for different thinking

• We are creatures of our habits: analytical, convergent, critical, left-brain thinking.

• We express our thinking in different forms: memos, e-mails, equations, accountants, pictures, models, oratory and stories.

• Convergent thinking (We are trained at school and university to summarize, scrutinize and evaluate the works of authors and scientists) and divergent thinking (we can generate all sorts of ideas that are not obviously connected with the original challenge or concept. We stretch the boundaries and let our imagination generate many different possibilities)

• Problem: We have a set of beliefs and assumptions and we look for evidence that bolsters this mindset.

• Solution: let’s recognize that there are many different views of the world and that each is incomplete. We need both convergent thinking and divergent thinking.

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2. Consider the opposite

• five reasons why people are remarkably resistant to changing their beliefs:

← They avoid exposing themselves to evidence hat might disprove their beliefs.

← On receiving such evidence they often refuse to believe it.

← The existence of the belief distorts their interpretation of new evidence so as to make it consistent with the belief.

← People selectively remember items that are in line with their beliefs.

← People want to protect their self-esteem.

• We have to suspend our belief set and ask the question ‘What if?’ What if every assumption we are making is wrong? The brilliant thinker is uncomfortable with certainty. He is comfortable with ambiguity, with multiple possible explanations and with uncertainty.

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3. Confront assumptions

• How to do?

← Start by recognizing that you have ingrained assumptions about every situation.

← Ask plenty of basic questions in order to discover and challenge those