In business, changing your mind can be seen as a weakness and that you have a lack of clarity or direction. People who change their minds can be considered unreliable or indifferent.
Changing your mind in business, known as pivoting, is crucial for survival and growth. It’s necessary when market demands, technology, competition, or internal issues change. Being able to adapt and shift direction is vital for success.
George Bernard Shaw once said: “Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
Creative thinking is key when changing your business strategy because it helps you make decisions, stand out, engage with others and stay flexible. It turns change into a chance for growth, not just a reaction to external pressures.
Creative thinking when decision-making
Dr Edward de Bono said that when decision-making is linked to ego, it makes changing your mind even harder. When ego drives behaviour (which modern business culture often encourages) winning an argument can become more important than making the right decision.
He suggests a thinking method called Six Thinking Hats®, which allows and encourages changing your mind. It’s a parallel thinking methodology. It involves everyone in a group focusing on the same aspect of a topic simultaneously, one “Hat” at a time. This prevents arguments, ensures a thorough examination of the topic, removes ego and creates a safe space for changing perspectives.
The Red Hat, which is the Hat for noting gut instinct, can be used throughout meetings and thinking sessions to gain an understanding of what the feeling of the group is. Red Hat questions might be:
- ‘On a scale of 1 to 10, how successful do you think this approach would be?’
- ‘Do you think it’s better to change direction or keep going with the same strategy for now?’
- ‘What’s your view on the possibility of working from home?’
It’s likely that, as the thinking develops, individuals’ answers to these questions will change, as a natural part of the process.
Learn Dr Edward de Bono’s methods
Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats® – critically analyse any given situation, understand the real problem, investigate improvement and build a collaborative opportunity – unlocking the creative thinking power of your team. It’s also a great meeting management tool:
- Save time when thinking, problem-solving and evaluating ideas.
Improve behaviour, without attacking it – reducing conflict, encouraging cooperation and empowering both individuals and teams to open up new possibilities and opportunities. - Supercharge collaboration and group working – by looking at differing and often opposing thinking styles, without judging if any suggestion or solution is ‘right or wrong’.
- It’s practical, simple to learn, quick to implement and accelerates productivity.
Find out more about the workshop, view the full public workshop calendar or enquire about in-house training for a group or team.
Also from Dr Edward de Bono – Edward de Bono’s Lateral Thinking – a 4-stage process to supercharge idea generation:
- Develop a robust focus for your thinking.
- Seek out alternatives to current issues, problems or concerns.
- Employ four incredibly different creative techniques to generate ideas.
- Confidently implement techniques to assess each idea, to make them fit for purpose.
Find out more about the workshop, view the full public workshop calendar or enquire about in-house training for a group or team.
About Stephanie Butland
Stephanie Butland specialises in creativity, thinking skills, team development and communication.
Having worked with Indigo since 2004, Stephanie is a Master Trainer in Dr de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats®, Lateral Thinking and Focus On Facilitation™ techniques. She also delivers workshops in Think on Your Feet®, Writing Dynamics™ and The Skilled Presenter™ and is a Belbin accredited and CIPD qualified trainer.
