Think Again! ...by Adam Grant

“The purpose of learning isn’t to affirm our beliefs; it’s to evolve our beliefs.”

How often we hold onto a feeling of being right, instead of thinking like scientists on how little we know. “Think again” by Adam Grant a great read in today’s time that talks about staying open to the world of possibility and a lifelong journey of evolving our beliefs as new experiences, data, and modalities of thinking shape our minds. What kept me hooked was the engaging stories and deep analysis, where he shows us the value of thinking like a scientist and re-examining what we know as a pathway to leading a more fulfilling life.

My key take-away’s

The Four mindsets - When we think, talk, and interact with others, we often fall into one of four mindsets.

1.      Preacher: When our values or beliefs are at stake. We give sermons to defend and promote our ideas.

2.      Prosecutor: When seeing flaws in other people’s thinking. We use arguments to prove them wrong & win.

3.      Politician: When we want to win people over. We focus on winning approval at the expense of all else.

4.      Scientist: When we accept how little we know. We form hypotheses, run experiments, and consistently rethink our understanding of the world and others based on new knowledge.

Two types of attachment - Being attached to ideas or beliefs prevents us from rethinking them. We can change this by learning how to detach in two ways:

1.      Detaching your present from your past: This involves a willingness to let go of beliefs that you’ve held previously, including beliefs about who you and what that means for your present life. In letting go, you can begin to reshape your identity, without losing the narrative that ties your life together.

2.      Detaching your opinions from your identity: This involves letting go of the tendency to define yourself by your beliefs, ideas, and ideologies. If these things are linked too closely with your identity, you’ll be less open to new information and evidence that may challenge your deeply held beliefs.

Creating a culture of learning - An organization with a culture of learning requires at least two things – Psychological safety and Accountability.

·        Psychological safety - creating an environment of trust, respect, and openness where people can raise concerns and ideas without the fear of being reprimanded.

·        Accountability or process accountability – ensuring that in the process of designing experiments or creating something, people have gone through a process that allows for a good chance of making the best decision. This cannot be based solely on outcomes or results because outcomes are difficult to determine and sometimes the result of luck.

By the way, did you ever realize “Passions are often developed, not discovered.” You don’t think your way into your passions. Passions are often born in trying things, in action. The more you do, the more you learn about what fills your bucket. And this can lead you to new passions you may have never discovered otherwise if you close your mind and stop exploring.

It’s important to remember that there are multiple ways to get to some outcome, and there are also multiple starting places from which you can get to an outcome. Don’t close your mind to “one path.”

Keeping these in mind, what can I do differently:

1. Develop the habit of thinking again by defining your identity in terms of values, not opinions & seeking information that goes against your views
2. Calibrate your confidence. Harness the benefit of doubt to reframe it for a growth opportunity.
3. Encourage your cheer leaders as well as critics ( have a support and challenge network)
4. Interpersonal rethinking by questioning the how than the why
5. Make time to relearn and unthink as you rethink your 10 years plan and build a sense of purpose!

If you have read the book, I would be keen to know your impressions/perspectives as well!

Lets think again!!