The book "Think Again - The Power to Doubt" is a book that was written in 2021 by Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist, well-known lecturer, and consultant in leading global companies.
The book, as its name suggests, deals with the need and tools for questioning and re-thinking at the individual level, the interpersonal level (persuading), and the group level. The ability to rethink, according to Grant, is just as important as the wisdom we value so much. It is not a simple ability, and once we have established an opinion, we tend to stick to our positions, either as individuals or as a group.
This is an excellent, educational, and innovative book, and no wonder it reached first place on the New York Times bestseller list.
The book includes many examples and stories and illustrates one by one the idea and the applied tools for developing the art of rethinking.
Highly recommended!
Individual innovative thinking
The starting point - it is easy for us to doubt the opinion of others and even the opinion of experts, but it is difficult for us to doubt our own opinion.
Tools and recommendations for personal conduct:
Teach yourself to think like a scientist. Realize that the ability to rethink is a correct mindset that scientists adopt - an open active mind and a lack of fear of making mistakes:
In an approach that encourages experimentation
Looking for supporting evidence/facts
Looking for limitations in the results achieved, even if good
In the lack of excitement from the failure of an experiment, which leads to analysis and learning, and is an opening for the next experiment.
Recognize our cognitive biases as humans.
Develop cognitive flexibility. Develop the mental ability to move from side to side, when the circumstances require it.
Find an optimal point of confidence. Balance between self-confidence in your abilities and doubt, while recognizing that you have blind spots in knowledge and opinions that we are not aware of and that prevent us from rethinking. Those with knowledge usually start with low levels of self-confidence, but the growth rate of self-confidence is higher than the development of skills and knowledge, which causes them to overestimate their self-esteem and make mistakes. Developing trusting humility - faith in our abilities, together with the understanding that we may not have the right solution, is the basis for developing the desired balance point.
Listen to your fears. Let them motivate you:
to work hard.
to work smart.
to learn from others.
Recognize that you can be wrong.
Treat your opinions as possibilities rather than truths. Possibilities are something that should be considered, but to the extent that it should be examined.
Look for correct answers in the long run.
Acknowledge the existence of new data.
Rethinking on a collective level
Collective thinking makes it possible to reach results that rely on the wisdom of the collective, which is almost always broader and deeper than our own wisdom (ML).
Recommendations:
Build trust to reduce interpersonal conflicts.
Allow for task-focused conflicts.
Look for complexity and shades of gray.
Experience a clever combination of emotions.
Ask contributing questions.
Learn together actively.
Work with drafts.
Allow people to admit mistakes.
As a manager - set an example.
Persuasion of the other
Convincing the other and changing his or her ways of thinking is important for any negotiation, among other circumstances.
Recommendations:
Preliminary mapping.
Level of self-confidence.
Create agreements.
Use a minority of arguments.
Listen.
Curiosity.
Questions.
Weaken stereotypes.
Take a step aside.
Summary
In conclusion, some advice for life:
Don't stay on a study/career track because you feel you are already committed to it.
Set a time for yourself, once in a while, to test yourself, whether in the entire route, whether in the way of time management, and everything in between.
Don't necessarily look for happiness. The search sometimes keeps him away. Look for meaning - the ability to learn and contribute. Happiness will follow.
Humility allows us to rethink past commitments. Doubt allows these commitments to be seriously examined. And curiosity- it allows us to imagine the future.
Rethinking is a tool that can lead us to a meaningful life. and happiness.
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