“We are yet to come to the world
The world is yet to be
The things are yet to be made
The reason of being is yet to be found.”
Antonin Artaud
The methodology of transformative thinking is the progressive, integrated and harmonious mobilization of critical thinking, creative process and strategic thinking.
The decision-maker triggers this mobilization at the very mapping of the challenge, which is “that moment when the passive contemplation of the situation becomes the first signal of the will to intervene in reality.”
Once having processed the scenario and afterwards the strategical challenge, the decision-maker (a person or a group) takes on the proper measures of divergence with extreme rigor. There is no talking, no mentioning examples or invocating theories, no influence of the current or usual opinions and points of view. This procedure can be easily qualified as innocent and radical. Intelligence works with this innocent eye looking at things, and not with memory.
The very core of transformative thought is “exercising thinking processes by alternating divergence and convergence”.
The benefits of this “mental gymnastics” are limitless. This practice has, for example, generated long-lasting competences, that is, abilities that flood out of the frames and predesigned formats.
Let’s elaborate on that. A high executive (or a researcher) attends courses which are formatted for certain specific or complex situations. If any change (or an unusual scenario) crosses the way of this executive, exposing him or her to something different from whatever was formatted within the course, it will feel like what has been learned has become partially or totally useless. Quite opposite to that, the methodology of transformative thinking empowers learners with a collection of abilities that can guide them out of the “thought that expects answers” (or out of perplexity, for that matter) and have them move towards facing “unusual situations and challenges”.
In the courses of the program of Transformative Thinking, participants are increasingly encouraged to let go of their convictions through the practice of self-prospecting and discovery. Mentioning one of the prophets of autonomous thinking, “Convictions are worse enemies than lies” (Friedrich Nietzsche).
It’s impossible to expand thought when a mind is heavily anchored on deeply rooted opinions.
This is why the renowned strategists – the military ones, mind you – would spend hours taking notes in silence, walking around the scenery. This very simple learning strategy, or its current methodological equivalent, has offered our students a giant qualitative leap.
— "What if people aren’t serene enough?"
They are, they normally are. It’s simply a matter of exchanging what seems to be self-sufficiency for the glory of finding all the non-prospected knowledge hidden in you.
How does this kind of thinking work in face of a crisis?
Firstly, it grants the person the necessary strategical flexibility to deal with crises and other “insoluble” scenarios. At the very root of it lies the aptitude we call the “new way to look at things”.
Secondly, having the decision-maker alert to “normalities” and “golden ages” – or even making him the prober in divergence mode - enables him or her to prevent those deviations in the route we call crises.
In other words, when excelling in the methodology of transformative thinking, the manager becomes more alert to prevent crises, especially the ones in silent conception, and better prepared to manage crises that are already in progress, thanks to that expansion of the thinking procedures.
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