Thinking on Autopilot

Whether we are talking about decisions in the boardroom or conversation at the dinner table, the way in which we think about challenges and problems is surprisingly similar regardless of the test that we face. We witness this every day although we may not fully register what is happening. It is perhaps easiest to picture what is going on as a raindrop winding its way down a windowpane. The raindrop represents the movement and direction of our thinking once a problem or conversation is explored. In every sense, the raindrop could take almost any route down the window were it not for two important factors. The first is gravity, which puts pressure on the raindrop to take the most direct route, and the second is the path already taken by previous raindrops, which act as channels encouraging subsequent raindrops to follow the same route. Our thinking is the same. We have a limited range of thinking styles that we are pulled towards with almost gravitational force, and we find ourselves stuck in the channels of thinking already created, either by others in the course of conversation or through our own habits. One consequence is that we have a limited repertoire of thinking styles that possess great problem-solving power, but on their own are entirely inadequate. Another is that if we wish to shift the way people think and to lead change we need to work at the roots of the thinking process — the unseen channels that shape our interactions.