A Model for Using Your Whole Mind to Problem-Solve and Negotiate Change

In an earlier video post I explained a few of my reasons why I think that traditional goal-setting is broken. One of the central reasons is that it’s such a linear, left-brain-directed process, and while this may have suited a more stable, predictable world, in these high-change times, I think we need a more agile approach.

I still have a lot of questions and gaps in my model, but I’ve been experimenting in my own life and with my clients and I’ve started to develop a new paradigm that’s serving us well, and I’m going to share it with you over the next while. I’d love you to banter with me, tell me where you think I’ve got it wrong, and add your own questions and ideas, and let’s see where it takes us…

This is quite a long post, and not really one to skim… I’ve pulled together some of my thoughts on the goal-setting process and why some freedom and lack of structure seems really useful sometimes while lots of structure in your thinking can seem really useful at other times. And I think it might also explain the diversity in the perspectives on goal-setting that coaches and personal development bloggers shared in a recent post.

The big picture

Before we get into some of the details and nuts and bolts of problem-solving in future posts, I wanted to touch on the big picture of the problem-solving and change process and the thinking resources required at each stage of the process.

When it comes to changing direction and making progress, it’s the quality of your thinking more than anything else, that determines the quality of your results. And recently I’ve been particularly inspired and influenced by Dan Pink’s wonderful book, A Whole New Mind, (which I bottom-lined and discussed with Charlie Gilkey for the Bottom-line Bookclub in November) along with some of Martha Beck’s work on problem-solving and unleashing genius.

We’ve been brought up in a very left-brain-directed world where left-brain-directed thinking has been valued much more than right-brain-directed thinking, and traditional problem-solving and goal-setting exercises have always focused on using quite linear processes to set your goals and create a detailed plan to get them. And these days, in our information-abundant world, we’re also seeing more and more stuff about how to use your right-brain-directed thinking to decide what you want and move your life forward. And for some time now we’ve seen that the true geniuses who’ve solved major problems and changed the world are people who are skilled at both right- and left-brain-directed thinking styles.

Dan Pink’s main point in A Whole New Mind is that, because of technological advancement, globalization and our abundant, high-option and high-information lifestyles, the world has become a place where left-brain-directed thinking is no longer enough, and you need to be able to use your whole mind if you want to thrive in the world of work today. But with different camps rooting for right- or left-brain-directed methods as “the only way,” how do you know when and how to switch between right- and left-brain-directed thinking as you go about trying to solve problems and make changes in your life? This is what I want to address.

The four stages in the change process

Broadly, there are four stages in the change process:

1. Specifying the problem.
2. Deciding what you want and determining a solution to your problem.
3. Figuring out how you’ll get what you want and implement your solution.
4. Taking action on your change strategy, implementing your solution, experiencing reality, seeing what works and adapting to improve your results by going back to step 1, where the spiral starts again.

As you can see, the change process is a spiral, in that after step 4, you cycle back to step 1, having made progress and moved forward.

Each of the 4 stages presents different challenges and requires a different kind of thinking in order to get optimum results. When it comes to getting your changes, deciding what you want is arguably half the work done, and it’s crucial that you decide on specific changes that are actually going to improve the quality of your life – otherwise, even if you do the “how to get there” bit well, it won’t take you where you really want to go, and you’ll just be climbing the wrong ladder efficiently. So when you’re deciding what you want, it’s best if you’re unconstrained, focusing on the big picture, tapping into your Essential Self’s true desires and allowing yourself to invent possibilities that don’t yet exist.

Finding the most effective ways of thinking at each stage of the problem-solving and change process

Left-brain-directed thinking likes to label and categorize stuff, find and follow rules, develop linear procedures, break stuff into it’s parts and focus on the details, So left-brain-directed thinking is great for analyzing and specifying a problem and managing the nuts-and-bolts planning part of the change process once you’ve already decided on the solution or the result you want. But left-brain-directed thinking is actually a hindrance when it comes to deciding what you want and figuring out solutions to new, complex or unusual problems. Because left-brain-directed thinking handles social rules, it’s the Social Self part of our minds that worries all about what other people expect of us and trying to please other people, so it’ll pull you into setting goals that are aligned with other people’s expectations rather than choosing goals that are an expression of your true self. And that’s often the reason why people lose motivation after starting to make their changes – they’ve set goals that are an expression of their Social Self rather than their Essential Self.

When it comes to figuring out an innovative solution and deciding on what results you want, you’ll do better to access your right-brain-directed thinking. Right-brain-directed thinking is capable of seeing the big picture, spotting themes, making connections between things that aren’t obviously connected, and creating new possibilities that don’t yet exist. And there are strong correlations between the way we access our right-brain-directed thinking and the way we access our Essential Self – that part of us that knows our true, innocent desires and isn’t obscured by worrying about what everyone else thinks and trying to come up with “the right” goals that will impress other people, so using your right-brain-directed thinking will help you to access your Essential Self’s authentic desires.

Right-brain-directed thinking doesn’t conceptualize time as a linear series of events – it’s just concerned with what’s happening right now, so your right-brain directed thinking allows you to be more fully present. And because right-brain-directed thinking isn’t consumed with verbally labeling your experiences, right-brain-directed thinking allows you to be more fully associated in the now, to have greater multi-sensory awareness, to be more in your body and aware of physical sensations, and to take in much more information as you experience reality. So right-brain-directed thinking is the more useful thinking style when it comes to taking action in the real world and implementing your solution.

You’ll be most successful if you can straddle both left- and right-brain-directed thinking and use the thinking style best-suited to the part of the change process that you’re in. When you’re analyzing and specifying a problem, use your left-brain-directed thinking. Then, as you’re deciding what you want and looking for an innovative solution, tap into your right-brain-directed thinking. When you’re figuring out how you’ll implement your solution, shift back over to left-brain-directed thinking, then as you implement your solution, shift back to right-brain-directed thinking, and finally the change process moves into the next level of the spiral by returning to left-brain-directed thinking as you evaluate your results and check for further specific problems to solve.

Isn’t it fascinating that the pattern of shifting your thinking so that you can move your life forward is much like the pattern of marching forward… left, right, left, right, left…?

How creative genius, Walt Disney, did it

Walt Disney is well-known as a creative genius and his problem-solving method has become quite popular. Disney used 3 different thinking styles, perceptual positions or roles when he was conceptualizing a vision and change strategy and encouraged his team to have the flexibility to use all 3 thinking styles in their problem-solving process.

First he stepped into the perspective of the Dreamer, where he encouraged people to think idealistically, to dream big and wild, to ignore constraints and to tap into what most thrills them. This correlates with a right-brain-directed thinking style and the phase of deciding what you want. Next he stepped into the perspective of the Realist, thinking in practical terms of “how will we make this happen?” This is a left-brain-directed thinking style and correlates with the next phase of the change process where you determine how you’ll implement your solution. And finally, Disney would encourage the team to step into the perspective of the Critic and to actively look for problems within the plan, so that those problems could be ironed out. The analytical thinking of the Critic is also a left-brain-directed way of thinking and because change and progress are a spiral cycle, the Critic’s way of thinking is bringing us back to phase 1 of the change process; the part where you specify the problems.

These 3 roles are all involved in conceptualizing the vision and the plan to make the vision a reality, but the vision only becomes a reality when action is taken to implement the plan in the real world, so in the diagram below you’ll see that I’ve added another perspective or role, to complete the 4 stages of the problem-solving and change process – the perspective of the Implementer. The implementer’s job is to take action and focus on doing and being and on experiencing reality in the now, rather than analyzing the past or planning for the future. This is a right-brain-directed thinking style.

In the picture below you can see how the stages of problem-solving and managing change fit together with thinking styles. I’ve placed steps 2 and 3 together in a funnel shape to represent the narrowing of focus that takes place as you transition from step 2 to 3.

Using this model to solve problems and negotiate change more smoothly: where are you in your problem-solving and change process? And what are your strengths?

So take a moment to think of a change you’re trying to make in some area of your life. As a coach, one of my first ports of call is to determine where my client is in the problem-solving and change process, and what’s getting them stuck there.

What stage of the problem-solving and change process are you in and where are you getting stuck? Are you still trying to pin-point the problem? Are you busy with trying to decide what you want and figuring out a solution to your problem? Or are you busy figuring out the nuts-and-bolts of your plan for implementing your solution? When you know what part of the change process you’re in, you’ll have a better idea of the next steps required to move yourself into the next phase and you’ll be able to decide what kind of thinking would be best to tap into, to get the best results.

Another way you can use this model is to figure out which parts of the change process you find easy and which parts you find less easy. We typically have a part of the change process that we prefer and are really good at, and a way of thinking that we prefer to use. Are you more of a right-brainer who loves to see the big picture and invent new possibilities but gets stuck either with specifying your problem or with creating your plan to implement your solution? Or are you more of a left-brainer who can always identify the specific problem and analyze it and explain all the causes of the problem and you do well at creating strategies and plans if someone gives you a solution to implement, but you find it difficult to think outside the box and dream up new possibilities and tend to get stuck on discovering what you want and figuring out innovative solutions. Knowing your preferred stage of the problem-solving and change cycle and your preferred thinking styles will give you a hint as to the part of the change cycle you’re likely to get stuck in and the kind of thinking styles you’d do well to develop if you want to get better at problem-solving and managing change.

Finally, from a teamwork and organizational perspective, you’ll do best if you assemble a team of people where each of the 4 roles or perspectives is represented (the Critic, the Dreamer, the Realist and the Implementer), rather than trying to find people who think the same. That way, each of he team members will naturally be able to see perspectives that other team members aren’t seeing and each stage of the problem-solving and change process will be covered and can be lead by the team member with the strengths and thinking style that best fits that phase of the process.

Coming up: More perspectives from other coaches and personal development bloggers, and exercises, tools and techniques for facilitating your best thinking at each stage of the problem-solving and change process

In the upcoming posts I’ll be sharing more views and practices from other professionals and walking you through each stage in the problem-solving and change process and giving you step-by-step instructions for exercises, tools and techniques you can use to facilitate your best thinking in both the right- and left-brain-directed domains, so sign up for the blog RSS if you’d like to make sure you don’t miss any of the posts in the series.

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