Metathinking: The Art and Practice of Transformational Thinking PDF
Preview Metathinking: The Art and Practice of Transformational Thinking
Management for Professionals Nick Shannon Bruno Frischherz Metathinking The Art and Practice of Transformational Thinking Management for Professionals The Springer series Management for Professionals comprises high-level business and management books for executives. The authors are experienced business professionals and renowned professors who combine scientific background, best practice, and entrepreneurial vision to provide powerful insights into how to achieve business excellence. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10101 Nick Shannon (cid:129) Bruno Frischherz Metathinking The Art and Practice of Transformational Thinking 123 NickShannon BrunoFrischherz ManagementPsychology Ltd. Didanet GmbH London,England Luzern,Switzerland ISSN 2192-8096 ISSN 2192-810X (electronic) Managementfor Professionals ISBN978-3-030-41063-6 ISBN978-3-030-41064-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41064-3 ©TheAuthor(s)2020 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfrom therelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. 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ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland Foreword I greet with great appreciation, inspiration and optimism this powerful work that youareabouttoread.Itseemstomethatthecorecommitmentoftheauthorsisto “StudyingThinkinginAction”.Bybringingthiscommitmenttogetherwithahuge amount of hard work, Shannon and Frischherz have made a great leap forward in the integration of the theory and practice of dialectical thinking in a world that, as they make clear in their introduction, desperately needs it. First, they provide an accessible summary of the complementarity of what they differentiateaslogicalversusdialecticalthinking.Whilstaccessible,itreflectswell their immersion in the complex history of efforts to conceptualise dialectical thinking as both a philosophical and a psychological phenomenon. Then, they put front and centre the tension that the book addresses: on the one hand, the vast majority of the world’s educational traditions have put much greater emphasis on thelogical,whichfocusesonorganisinganassumed-to-be-fixedreality,thanonthe dialectical,whichfocusesontheprocessesbywhichtransformationsoccur,andthe potential roles of the human thought and action in such transformations. At the sametime,theincreasedpaceoftransformationinnatural,technologicalandsocial structures and processes make increasingly intense the need for humans to think dialectically to understand and deal with such transformation. Whilst adult development as an area of psychology has continued to grow rapidlysinceIpublishedDialecticalThinkingandAdultDevelopmentin1984,the developmentofthinkinginadulthood,tomymind,remainsofvitalimportancebut under-researched. So I am pleased that the conception of dialectical thinking as (1) a level and form of organisation of thought and (2) identifiable by patterned moves-in-thought, that I advanced and explored in my own research and publica- tionshasbeenbuiltuponandtakenforwardsomethirtyyearslatertoformthebasis of a book that aims to stimulate thinking about thinking. Dialectical thought has been present in Western philosophy since pre-Socratic times and in Eastern phi- losophyforevenlongerandisalsoclearlyrepresentedintheintellectualhistoriesof almosteveryacademicdiscipline.ShannonandFrischherzshowushowdialectical thinkingcanbeusedasatooltohelpadultscometotermswith,andfindsolutions to, problems in which increasing numbers of people are experiencing increasing complexity. Although I first came to recognise dialectical thinking as a set of “family resemblances” that were noticeable among world outlooks across v vi Foreword philosophy and specific disciplines, Shannon and Frischherz take a huge step for- ward in differentiating and integrating “a set of thinking modes” that people can apply alongside the tools of logical thinking. This conception is central to their fillinganimportantgapbetweentheabstractnatureandthepracticalapplicationof models of dialectic. Central to this work is the concept of Metathinking. The concept itself suggests thepossibilityofpeople being able tochoose among thinking approaches. Wecan first ask what modes of thinking are most useful for framing the problem at hand, and then explore to what extent those modes facilitate solutions to the problem. In introducingMetathinking, theauthorslayoutinasystematic, andagain accessible way, a menu of various modes of thinking we can choose among and ultimately integrate in framing and addressing problems. This menu is not only useful as a reminder of our options, but the menu is equally valuable from an educational/ developmental/consulting perspective indetecting“what is missing?”If a mode of framingaproblemisabsentfromtherepertoireofanindividual,anorganisation,or apolicy-makerorpolicy-makingbody,thiswillinevitablyposealimitationonthe problem-solving process. One primary audience for this book is those who see themselves as facilitators of more practically effective problem-solving, and the authors have provided a technique for such would-be facilitators to discover the growing edges to which they must pay attention to succeed in their aspirations. The practical intent of this book is didactic—to provide the reader with the means to become a more complete thinker. The authors’ efforts to immerse themselvesinahistoryofabstractwritingsandtopresentwhattheyhavestudiedin asystematic waythat makes itsusefulnessinpractice clearconstitutes anessential firststep.Butcentraltotheirgreatleapforwardistheiruseofcasestudies.Looking at four very different levels of human socio-cognitive process, they draw on the same framework and the same methods of analysis for facilitators and participants aliketodiscoverpathwaystoprogress.Theyfurtherputatourdisposalasetofwhat they call “mind-opening questions”. Having demonstrated several practical exam- ples of the application of modes of dialectical thinking, the final part of this book providesabroadsetofexercisesdesignedtostimulateakindofthinkinginreaders that might enable them to integrate different perspectives and to see reality in a manner that transcends some of the limitations of more formalistic logic. The authorshavelaiditalloutthereandnowitisuptous—researchersandfacilitators, to build on their work by studying, teaching, facilitating and practising dialectical thinking with different groups of people addressing the most salient problems in their lives and work. I envision a wide range of audiences who will find this work as exciting and clarifyingasIdid.Ihopewewillallmakedirectuse,invariousareasofourlives, ofthetoolsShannonandFrischherzprovide.Butifyouarenotsureifyou’reready to embark on this effort, you might want to start by looking over Chap. 13. It provides the authors’ summary of their rich case studies and the lessons that they believe can be learned from this case analysis method and process. I applaud my Foreword vii colleaguestakingonthischallengeandsuccessfullylinkingthetheoryandpractice of dialectical thinking, as well as providing us such a broad suite of tools for carrying forward this work. Enjoy!!! Boston, MA, USA Prof. Michael Basseches Preface WeareveryhappytopresentourbookaboutMetathinkingtothereaders.Wehave been working on this book for three years. The collaboration between a psychol- ogist from England and a linguist and philosopher from Switzerland was a dialectical process in which we both learned a lot about each other’s way of thinking, language and culture. We hope that the synthesis has been successful. We would like to take this opportunity to thank various people: (cid:129) MichaelBassechesandOttoLaskefortheirfundamentalideasaboutdialectical thinking passed on to us in books and workshops; (cid:129) Iva Vurdelja, Brendan Cartmel, Thomas Jordan and Oliver Robinson for their valuable comments on previous versions of the text; (cid:129) Nitza Jones-Sepulveda for the positive cooperation with Springer; (cid:129) our wives Lorna and Barbara, who have always supported us in this three-year writing process with encouragement and help. And now we wish you, our readers, an inspiring and enjoyable read. London, England Nick Shannon Luzern, Switzerland Bruno Frischherz ix Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Part I What is Metathinking? 2 Types of Thinking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 A Discussion Between Two People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Logical Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Dialectical Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Dialectics and Dialogue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Definition of Metathinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 3 Structural Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Structural Thought Patterns (S) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 4 Process Thinking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Process Thought Patterns (P). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 5 Relational Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Relational Thought Patterns (R). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 6 Transformational Thinking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Transformational Thought Patterns (T). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 xi
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