"Whole Thought: The Rise of Human Intelligence" is a book by Alex Bennet and Robert Turner in 2024. The book, which focuses on developing holistic thinking, complements and continues a series of books, some of which we have already reviewed in this summary repository (such as "Inside Innovation" and "Innovative Creativity"). The book allows individuals and organizations to understand better holistic thinking, how to develop it, and how it relates to complementary theories. However, this is not just a theoretical book; it includes practical tools for developing holistic thinking – it’s four components and forty knowledge capabilities that we need to build to refine holistic thinking.
Main topics:
Infrastructures:
5 types of intelligence
7 states of experiential learning
Holistic thinking concept:
1 perception
4 components
40 enabling knowledge capabilities
The following diagram shows how everything connects:
The book's chapters detail how each of these - every knowledge capacity, every intelligence type, every principle, and every learning state - affects all other components within the same group and in additional groups.
This is a book you'll want to revisit again and again at different points in your life to continue developing yourself. Consider yourself warned (wink 😉).
Infrastructures:
5 Types of Intelligence
Over the years and gradually, we have come to understand that five types of intelligence integrate into holistic intelligence:
1. Analytic Intelligence
The ability to analyze, compare, and contrast information items. It combines critical thinking, problem-solving, pattern recognition, and the ability to work with intangible concepts.
Analytic intelligence is critical in all logical aspects of holistic thinking.
2. Emotional Intelligence
The ability to understand and manage emotions effectively. Includes skills of empathy, self-control, motivation, self-awareness, and the ability to read and navigate through others' feelings.
Emotional intelligence is the foundation for holistic thinking as it promotes self-awareness, empathy, and the dynamics of self-management and interpersonal management.
3. Social Intelligence
The ability to understand and manage social interactions and environments. Includes the ability to adapt to different situations, understand dynamics, and skillfully navigate social networks. This intelligence is critical for collaboration, teamwork, and community building.
Social intelligence enriches and strengthens holistic thinking in various aspects derived from social and cultural understandings and contributes to our ability to function in and contribute to the environment.
4. Creative Intelligence
The ability to innovate, express artistic expression, and create new ideas. It includes seeing things in new and innovative ways, a willingness to take risks, and the skill to produce original and valuable outputs.
Creative intelligence is essential to holistic thinking as it is the key to imagination and inventive thinking, thus ensuring that it does not remain static.
5. Practical Intelligence
Practical intelligence combines knowledge and skills applied in everyday life and in response to challenges in the world and reality. This includes managing personal affairs, navigating daily life, and using our knowledge to advance practical needs.
Practical intelligence is what translates holistic thinking from theory to practice.
7 States of Experiential Learning
Based on the experiential learning concepts of Dewey, Lewin, and Piaget, through Kollb's learning styles (see book summary), later ICALS additions, and David Bennet's theories (the author's partner), we can refer to seven states through which we learn from our experiences, each separately and all combined:
1. Concrete Experience
Practical physical experience as a basis for new learning.
Incorporating concrete experience within the conceptual framework of holistic thinking ensures that learning is not theoretical and isolated but rich, multi-sensory, and grounded in life.
2. Reflective Observation
Examining reality from the side with a reflective look allows for an additional perspective and learning from it.
Reflection strengthens holistic thinking by allowing space for an additional perspective. It provides an opportunity to process events more deeply and create new connections between theory and reality.
3. Abstract Conceptualization
The process of creating theories or generalizations based on our experience.
Abstract conceptualization contributes to holistic thinking by ensuring theoretical and practical foundations.
4. Active Experimentation
Applying concepts and theories as tools for understanding them.
Active experimentation is critical in implementing holistic thinking, validating and challenging synthesized knowledge and developed perspectives.
5. Social Engagement
An additional learning state (the ICALS concept, expanding on Kolb's learning styles). Emphasizes the importance of interacting with others and the environment in general as a tool for experiential learning and promoting personal learning and growth.
By incorporating social engagement, holistic thinking becomes a shared journey that helps us better understand the world around us.
6. Self
The ICAL model's core is that self-awareness is essential for learning, meaning understanding personal learning patterns, personal preferences, and personal strengths and weaknesses.
Holistic thinking is based on combinations that consider the self (emotional, intellectual, and social) and support its continued development.
7. Associative Patterning
An ongoing learning process occurs whenever new information meets our existing thought patterns, causing us to refine existing patterns and create new thought patterns.
These patterns are a foundational process underlying holistic thinking. They drive the creation of richer and deeper understanding, which is the heart of holistic thinking.
Holistic Thinking Concept:
1 Perception
Whole Thought is a concept, a worldview. On a practical level, it indeed allows for better problem-solving or knowledge creation. But it is much more than that - it is a profound way to connect with the world in a manner that recognizes its complexity and the subtle connections between the paradigms that explain it and the systems included within it.
Holistic thinking has advantages that allow improvement in various dimensions for both individuals and organizations:
The Individual: flexibility and adaptability; ease of transferring insights (best practices); adaptation to new trends; meaningful life; survival; strategic vision; holistic personal development; emotional intelligence; integration of learning and experience; interpersonal communication; morality and ethics; problem-solving and decision-making; creativity; and intuitive development.
The Organization: cross-functional innovation; systematic risk management; adaptive leadership; customer-oriented product design; survival and social and environmental responsibility; human capital development; strategic communication; change management; operational excellence; and governance.
There are 12 principles underlying the concept that work in combination:
Multidimensionality in human experience (intellectual, physical, emotional, and spiritual) contributes to a richer understanding and connection with the world.
The harmony in combining multicultural wisdom promotes collaborative cognition, fosters inclusion, and enables global insights.
An information-based examination of the past allows for understanding the present and responsible planning.
A holistic, integrated view of patterns of different systems and experiences guides correct conduct and behavior, considering the world's complexity.
Mixing and combining intuitive knowledge with structured knowledge, information, and data produces deep and meaningful insights and drives innovation.
Synthesis of different forms of knowledge, connecting different perceptions, cultures, and fields of knowledge, produces a richer whole.
A collaborative approach produces better solutions than those of any individual.
Relying on stable values and changing strategies is a compass to navigate the complexity of changes.
To progress, concepts and understandings must be translated into practical actions.
Commitment to continuous learning.
Ethical considerations should be considered and prioritized in every activity.
Innovation and learning based on transparency and accountability catalyze progress that respects humanity and its needs.
4 Components
Holistic thinking sanctifies the combination of opposites (Creative Friction).
These opposites are synthesized together in and between these dimensions - thus creating holistic thinking.
The synthesis is a cyclical process of data collection, pattern identification, concept creation, practical application, reflection and feedback, and refinement. And the cycle repeats.
The following four dimensions each represent an additional type of contrast:
Mental Thinking: High and Low (Praximorphic Cognition)
Conceptual ideas represent high mental thinking; they answer the question - why?
Logic-based examples represent low practical thinking; they answer the question - what?
The first component of holistic thinking is combining these contrasts of conceptual ideas and practical examples and simultaneous integrated thinking of both types. We use this combination in everyday life as a tool for creative problem-solving, decision-making, or initiating new courses of action.
This contrast combines well-known theories of systems thinking and pattern recognition.
It can start with high mental thinking and then move to examples, or it can be the opposite. See learning states, particularly the explanation of Kolb's learning styles, which teach that the combination varies from person to person and from situation to situation.
Time: Past, Present, Future (Temporal Integration)
Cross-time thinking encourages holistic understanding. Learning from the past allows for drawing lessons that affect conduct in the present. Understanding history allows for avoiding repeated mistakes and improving decision-making processes in the present.
Awareness of the present and the existing ensure the activity is grounded in reality.
All of these enable future prediction, an essential tool in strategic planning. They allow companies to optimally prepare for risks and new opportunities.
Cross-time thinking serves as a compass and guide for advancing holistic thinking in all its aspects, as it is not only rooted in the present and past but is future-oriented.
Such thinking can be implemented in an organization in various ways, including analytical analysis of data and information, lessons learned, learning interventions, future workshops, and more.
Human Experience: Intellectual, Physical, Emotional and Spiritual
40 Enabling Knowledge Capabilities
The building blocks on which the above components are built are knowledge capabilities. In my view, this is a magical chapter from which anyone can choose the capabilities they want to promote, certainly for comprehensive thinking, but also for much more modest purposes (M.L.).
These capabilities include:
Adaptive Learning - Openness to adapting learning strategies and content to evolving personal and professional needs.
Adaptive Resilience - The ability to not only be resilient when bad things happen, but also to learn, grow, and thrive when faced with challenges.
Aesthetic Discernment - The ability to perceive, appreciate, examine, and enjoy beauty and aesthetics in various forms, natural or man-made.
Biophysical Awareness - Orientation and awareness of the body, its signs, and understanding of physiological responses to emotions and environment.
Cognitive Empathy - The ability to understand the thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of others.
Collective Intelligence - Leveraging the wisdom and performance capabilities of a group in a way that exceeds the capabilities of any individual.
Comprehending Diversity - Attention and investment in examining different perspectives and information from various representative sources to create diversity and an inclusive vision.
Conceptual Flexibility - The ability to switch cognitive perceptions and reframe ideas to examine problems or solution directions from different angles.
Creative Convergence - The intellectual and innovative ability to combine different ideas, concepts, and information into an integrated and coherent expression or unified solution.
Critical Self-Reflection - The systematic and deliberate ability to conduct thought processes regarding personal thoughts, feelings, actions, and motivations as a tool for self-improvement.
Cross-Cultural Acumen - The ability to understand cultural cues and signals and represent understanding in a multicultural environment.
Cultivating Humility - The ability for realistic self-assessment, both regarding strengths and weaknesses, and the ability to prioritize group benefit over personal benefit.
Curiosity Activation - To act and pursue knowledge while seeking deeper understandings and new experiences.
Emotional Pivoting - The ability to navigate and change states of negative or unproductive emotional responses to constructive emotions.
Emotional Resonance - The ability to sense and understand group dynamics and emotions to promote inclusive leadership and culture.
Empathic Engagement - A calculated combination of emotion and cognition to foster meaningful connections.
Everyday Mindfulness - Deepening the connection between the physical and emotional in the fabric of experiences. Experiencing the now, while being aware of the environment.
Gratitude Cultivation - Cultivating the practice of identification and appreciation of various aspects of life, paying attention to positive events, and expressing gratitude for them.
Holistic Perspective - The ability to understand and contain the shared and separate elements in a complex system.
Incremental Risk-Taking - The deliberate ability to take increasingly greater risks gradually, pushing comfort zones to promote learning and growth.
Integrative Coherence - The ability to match cognitive and emotional intelligence through heartfelt respiratory activity.
Integrative Synthesis - The ability to convene ideas from different fields into a unified body.
Intercultural Navigation - The ability to understand and communicate with people in different cultures.
Interdisciplinary Integration - The ability to break down barriers between different fields, on their boundaries, to integrate knowledge, methods, and insights, and thereby solve problems, promote innovation, or develop new knowledge.
Intuitive Synthesis - The refined ability to access, trust, and extract our insights, and wisely integrate them with rationality.
Learning How to Learn - A fundamental knowledge ability. Cracking the personal ability to successfully cope in a changing environment to acquire, process, and apply new information and skills by identifying and implementing learning strategies suitable for oneself.
Metacognitive Mastery - The ability to understand and control personal cognitive processes to reflect, direct, and refine thinking strategies.
Metasystemic Thinking - The cognitive ability to think and act against systems at varying levels and sizes.
Narrative Intelligence - The ability to plan and tell stories as a communication tool.
Orchestrating Drive - Understanding and leveraging self-motivational engines to generate momentum that promotes addressing personal and professional needs.
Outcome Refocusing - The ability to repeatedly look at changing viewpoints to focus on outputs rather than outcomes.
Practicing Patience - The ability to maintain a complex and forward-thinking perception that deals with challenges and uncertainties.
Reflective Practicing - Echoing a culture where individuals regularly reflect on various experiences and activities.
Reversal - Challenging existing viewpoints and thinking about possible problems (counter-intuitively) to deal with the future.
Self-Efficacy Empowerment - Deliberate development of self-beliefs regarding capability and ability to control personal motivation.
Sensory Acuity Expansion - Training and developing the ability to pay attention to additional sensory emphases, nuances, and cues in the immediate environment.
Shifting Frames of Reference - The mobility of thought to examine a matter from changing viewpoints, and consequently, a deeper understanding.
Strategic Foresight - The ability to think progressively to predict possible future scenarios.
Sustainable Mindset - The ability to think and act in a stabilized and enduring manner over time. Including understanding the dependencies between environment, economy, and social systems and making decisions that balance between them.
Symbolic Representation - The ability to contain and integrate countless pieces of information into symbolic representations, metaphors, and concepts that serve understanding and learning.
Note: As I write these lines, Alex Bennet (the book's author and leader) corresponds with me and tells me that she has a newly expanded list with 20 more enabling knowledge capabilities. And how amazing it is how AI integrates. I'm not excited. Even at 60, it's clear this isn't the end of the story. The list will expand and contract once it's refined and will never be complete like a language. In any case, readers are invited to look at the joint project that offers an updated list with explanations and specific tools for implementing each knowledge capability on the ROM Global company website at the address: https://www.kmrom.com/knowledge-capacities.
Summary
That's it. It's worth reading more than once. Not just the summary—it's just an appetizer. We recommend reading the entire book. That's where the depth is, and that's where the tools for implementation are found.
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