Exploring the IDGs: Thinking & Cognitive Skills

This is my 2nd deeper look into the capabilities, qualities, and skills emphasized in the Inner Development Goals framework. For more background on the IDGs, visit my introductory blog post.

I’m diving into each dimension and sharing some questions and ideas to help you identify skills that can bring focus to your developmental goals and commitments.

The next category is Thinking. Something we are doing constantly! But how do we expand our thinking skills to serve the bigger picture and purpose?

This category pertains to developing our cognitive skills by taking different perspectives, evaluating information, and making sense of the world as an interconnected whole. These are important skills needed to cultivate wisdom and are essential for wise decision-making. Decision-making and problem-solving apply to all industries, sectors, and vocations. It’s a core capability required to be successful in contemporary leadership. And serves us in life as well.

Assessing our thinking includes our skills in complexity awareness, expanded perspective-taking, sense-making, long-term vision and orientation, and critical thinking. With any self-evaluation or looking deeply within, I always invite self-compassion. We set any internal criticisms or judgments aside and can start by asking ourselves a few questions. 

1. Can I thoughtfully review others’ views, and consider their evidence and ideas without assumptions, interpretations, or bias?

2. Can I approach a plan and work systematically through actions while bringing awareness to what is emerging as I move forward?

3. Can I adapt my view based on evidence and differing perspectives, listening to others' views and sources?

4. How familiar am I with systems thinking and how easily can I see patterns and make sense of complex information?

5. Do I have a long-term vision and can I sustain commitment to those visions relating to the larger context over time?

In my last post, I took you through Relationship to Self and shared a values exercise there, which is equally relevant in developing your sense-making, long-term vision and orientation, and critical thinking. Self-compassion also aids the development of these skills, and I will write more about cultivating this important capacity in an upcoming blog.

In my leadership development program, I include Polarity Management models and the Immunity to Change framework, which can help develop many of these skills.

I also offer a short workshop on learning to thrive in complexity. Our world is complex by nature, yet our nature as a human being is also complex. The good news is we are perfectly suited to live and thrive in this complexity. And yet, many of us have lost sight of this. We have forgotten our innate resourcefulness. We’ve become disconnected from ourselves. In this fast-paced, interconnected, and uncertain world, we often unwittingly fall into traps that result in us feeling stuck, or worse, taking action that might be in the opposite direction from what the situation calls for. This workshop dives into many of the critical IDG thinking skills needed for the future.

Getting to Know Our Mind Traps to Thrive in Complexity.

• Openness and Learning Mindset

• Self Awareness

• Complexity Awareness

• Perspective Skills

• Sense Making

• Humility

• Empathy and Compassion

• Communication Skills

• Co-Creation Skills

• An Inclusive Mindset

• Trust

• Mobilization Skills

• Courage

• Creativity

  
  I’d love to hear from you if a learning workshop or coaching could help support this developmental discovery for yourself. Unlike some assessment approaches, I don’t take a gap analysis or start from a place of deficiency. We start where you are and explore the threads together.

  Reach out if you’d like to chat.