Human Skills: Effective Thinking

 “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”  

 Albert Einstein 

 “Watch your thoughts, for they become words.  

 Watch your words, for they become actions.  

 Watch your actions, for they become habits.  

 Watch your habits, for they become character.  

 Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” 

 Thinking refers to the process of creating a structured series of connective transactions between items of perceived information. Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thought into action is the most difficult thing in the world.  A thinking style is how you process information most efficiently (and naturally).

• A person may not think all the time.
• There are times when he is not conscious of what he is thinking and there are times when he is thinking over an idea.  
• Voluntary thinking may result in voluntary action.
• Involuntary thinking may or may not lead to action.
• Dreaming is involuntary thinking and may not result in action.  
• Our cultural, biological, and environmental experiences mould our thinking.
• Thinking helps us in adapting to our physical and social environment.  
• Thinking needs to be organized which needs systemically training one’s mind to get required results.
• Systemic thinking helps in separating the important from the unimportant.
• Systemic thinking acts as a filter.  
• A style is a way of thinking. It is not ability, but rather a preferred way of using the abilities one has.
• A thinking style is a preferred way of thinking. Much of what we know about thinking styles is due to the work done by American Psychologist Robert Sternberg.  
• Sternberg believed that people acquire their thinking styles through socialization.  

Thinking Styles:

1.Monarchic Style: Single-minded, concentrate only on one issue and assess a situation only from their view point. 

2.Hierarchic Style: Hierarchic people like to divide up their resources between various goals. They also tend to be systematic and organized when formulating their solutions to problems and in their decision-making.  

3.Oligarchic Style: likes to do many things at once but have trouble setting priorities. Sometimes, they might have problems with allocating resources.

4.Anarchic Style: Like to take a random approach to problems; dislike systems, guidelines, and practically all constraints. They show a tendency to be motivated by a wide assortment of needs and goals that are often so difficult for others as well as for themselves to sort out. 

 Thinking styles may be internal or external in their styles.  

 1. People with an internal thinking style are likely to be introverted, task-oriented, sometimes aloof, and socially less sensitive than other people. At times, they lack interpersonal awareness, favouring individual work.  

 2. People with an external thinking style tend to be more extroverted, people-oriented, outgoing, socially more sensitive, and interpersonally more aware. In general, they prefer working in groups.