Ambidextrous Thinking

“Like an optometrist exam, getting your clearest vision often involves trying on a series of different lenses.  Discarding some, keeping and making slight adjustments to others to bring matters into focus”.

False dichotomies are named as such because in truth, there is always a continuum in which individual preferences, tendencies and work styles fall. Though we are all capable of both, the roles we play within our organizations, team dynamics or a specific project/task all dictate the degree to which we find ourselves thinking in broader, strategic ways or tactical, operational ways.

I happen to be right-handed and while my right is my dominant hand, I can still perform 90% of the needed tasks without much appreciable difference between my dominant and non-dominant hands (handwriting being the most notable exception). So if you have a clear dominant way of thinking, how do you begin the process of training your mind to leverage both operational and strategic thinking?

This is part two of a three part series covering Three Entrepreneurial Practices Every Organizational Leaders Should Adopt.  Click here for Part 1:“Strategic Relationship Building” to bring you up to speed.

Part 2: Ambidextrous Thinking

While those of us working in traditional organizations (public or private sector), may be used to having a dominant way of thinking based on the needs of our role, entrepreneurs, out of necessity,  play varied roles which require both strategic and operational thinking.

Multiple Professionality Disorder

Entrepreneurs see their business through many lenses. We are all placed in positions where we need to bring a fresh perspective to persistent and even routine problems our organizations face.  One method leaders should consider is to use the lenses of different professions to inform your thinking about an issue.  Like an optometrist exam, getting your clearest vision often involves trying a series of different lenses.  Discarding some, keeping and making slight adjustments to others to bring matters into focus.

Here are some example questions:

• How might a psychologist handle this conversation with a customer?
  • How might I focus on listening and giving strong consideration to their perspective?
  • What would be important to someone from their profession when addressing this situation?
• How might an engineer handle this conversation with a customer?
  • How might a more systematic approach eliminating a series of variables help you best serve their needs?
  • What would be important to someone from their profession when addressing this situation?

In this mental exercise it is OK to employ your professional stereotypes, because the purpose is to provide an alternative perspective and give your mind more practice in looking at issues through different lenses.  Of course if you have friends or colleagues in different professions, they can be a great resource for this kind of insight.

Scope Out. (Like A Boss)

Entrepreneurs scope out to see the big picture and scope in to see the operational details.  Some fairly standard, but nonetheless, very good career coaching advice is for jobseekers to cultivate the mind set of your potential supervisor’s supervisor.  Not only is this good advice for preparing for an interview and determining what is important to an organization, it is a great tool to stretch your thinking. Here are a couple of suggestions you can apply to your current role:

• Take a close look at e-mail and public communication sent by your organization’s senior leadership.
  • Is there an economy of words in the communication that exemplifies saying more with less?
  • As you read between the lines, how does the senior leader address issues that may contain a degree of controversy?
• Reflect on or discuss (in a constructive manner) with a trusted supervisor or colleague decisions made within your organization.
  • What are the various constituencies that senior leadership need to consider when making this decision?
  • How does senior leadership balance the needs of the customers, the staff and those leaders or board members to whom they are accountable?

Remember the focus of this reflection/analysis should be on helping you better understand the though process and motivations of the decisions through the eyes of the senior leadership, not focused on if the decisions are right or wrong in your eyes.

To what degree is the strategic/operational dichotomy oversimplified?  How effective might the above two suggestions be in shifting your way of thinking? Let me know in the comments below.

Visit thyrone.com where you can read past blog posts and we can connect on LinkedIn and other media.  Follow me on Twitter @thyrone and if you are in the Columbus, OH area @careercolumbus and I will let you know when part three of this series is posted.