{"id":1009,"date":"2011-09-10T14:35:48","date_gmt":"2011-09-10T14:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2011-09-10T14:35:48","modified_gmt":"2011-09-10T14:35:48","slug":"doing-our-way-to-a-new-way-of-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=1009","title":{"rendered":"Doing Our Way to New Thinking."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Most of our thinking happens out of awareness – it is unconscious.\u00a0Most of the\u00a0data that\u00a0pours in\u00a0through our senses never reaches awareness either – but that does not mean it does not have an\u00a0impact on\u00a0what we remember, how we feel and what we decide and do in the future. It does.<\/p>\n

Improvement Science is\u00a0the knowledge\u00a0of how to achieve sustained change for the better; and doing that requires an ability to unlearn unconscious knowledge that blocks our path to improvement –\u00a0and to unlearn selectively.<\/p>\n

So how can we do that if it is unconscious? Well, there are\u00a0 at least\u00a0two ways:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Bring the unconscious knowledge to the surface so it can be examined, sorted, kept or discarded. This is\u00a0done through the social process of debate and discussion. It does work though\u00a0it can be\u00a0a slow and difficult process.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Do the unlearning at the unconscious level – and we\u00a0can do that by using reality rather than rhetoric. The easiest\u00a0way to connect ourselves to reality is to go out there and try doing things.<\/p>\n

When we deliberately do things\u00a0 we are learning unconsciously because most of\u00a0our sensory data never reaches awareness.\u00a0 When we are just thinking\u00a0the\u00a0unconscious is relatively\u00a0unaffected:\u00a0talking\u00a0and thinking are the same conscious process.\u00a0Discussion and dialog operate at\u00a0the conscious level but differ in style – discussion is more competitive;\u00a0dialog is more collaborative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The door to the\u00a0unconscious is controlled\u00a0by emotions\u00a0–\u00a0and it\u00a0appears that learning happens more effectively and more\u00a0efficiently in certain emotional states. Some\u00a0emotional states can impair\u00a0learning; such as\u00a0depression, frustration and\u00a0anxiety.\u00a0Strong emotional states associated with dramatic experiences can result in profound but unselective learning – the emotionally vivid memories that are often associated with\u00a0unpleasant events.\u00a0 Sometimes the conscious memory is so emotionally charged and unpleasant that it is suppressed – but the unconscious memory is not so easily erased – so it continues to influence but\u00a0out of awareness. The same is true for pleasant emotional experiences – they can create profound learning experiences\u00a0– and the conscious memory may\u00a0be called an inspirational or “eureka” moment – a sudden emotional shift for the better. And it too is unselective and difficult to erase.<\/p>\n

An emotionally\u00a0safe\u00a0environment\u00a0for doing new things\u00a0and having fun\u00a0at the same time comes close to the ideal context for learning. In such\u00a0an enviroment we learn\u00a0without effort. It does not feel like work – yet we know we have done work because we feel tired afterwards.\u00a0 And if we were to\u00a0record the way that\u00a0we behave and talk before the doing; and again afterwards then we\u00a0will measure a change even though we may\u00a0not\u00a0notice the change ourselves. Other people may notice before we do –\u00a0particularly if the change is significant\u00a0– or if they only interact with us occasionally.<\/p>\n

It is for this reason that keeping a personal journal is an\u00a0effective way to capture\u00a0the change in ourselves over time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Jungian model of personality types states that\u00a0there are three dimensions to personality\u00a0(Isabel Briggs Myers added\u00a0a fourth later to create the MBTI\u00ae).<\/p>\n

One dimension describes where we prefer to go for input data –\u00a0sensors (S) use external reality as their reference – intuitors (N) use their\u00a0internal rhetoric.<\/p>\n

Another dimension\u00a0is how we make decisions –\u00a0\u00a0thinkers (T) prefer a\u00a0conscious, logical, rational, sequential decision process while feelers\u00a0(F) favour an unconscious,\u00a0emotional, “irrational”, parallel approach.<\/p>\n

The third dimension is where we direct the output of our decisions –\u00a0extraverts (E) direct it outwards into the public outside world while intraverts (I) direct it inwards to their private inner world.<\/p>\n

Irrespective of our\u00a0individual preferences, experience suggests that an\u00a0effective\u00a0learning\u00a0sequence starts with our experience of reality (S)\u00a0and depending how emotionally loaded it is (F) we may then internalise the message as a general intuitive concept (N) or a\u00a0specific\u00a0logical construct (T).<\/p>\n

The implication of this is that to learn effectively and efficiently\u00a0we need to be able to access all four modes of thinking and\u00a0to do that we might\u00a0design our teaching methods to resonate with this natural learning sequence, focussing on creating surprisingly positive reality based emotional experiences first. And we must be mindful that\u00a0if\u00a0we skip steps or create too many emotionally negative experiences we\u00a0we\u00a0may\u00a0unintentionally impair the effectiveness of the\u00a0learning process.<\/p>\n

A carefully\u00a0designed practical exercise that takes just\u00a0a few minutes to complete can be a\u00a0much more effective and efficient\u00a0way to teach\u00a0a profound principle than to read libraries of books\u00a0or to listen to hours of rhetoric.\u00a0 Indeed some of the most\u00a0dramatic shifts in our understanding of the Universe have been\u00a0facilitated by easily repeatable experiments.<\/p>\n

Intuition and emotions\u00a0can\u00a0trick us – so\u00a0Doing Our Way to New Thinking\u00a0<\/em>may be a better\u00a0improvement\u00a0strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of our thinking happens out of awareness – it is unconscious.\u00a0Most of the\u00a0data that\u00a0pours in\u00a0through our senses never reaches awareness either – but that does not mean it does not have an\u00a0impact on\u00a0what we remember, how we feel and what we decide and do in the future. It does. Improvement Science is\u00a0the knowledge\u00a0of how … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Doing Our Way to New Thinking.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,35,42,43,46],"tags":[59,105,138,156,203,219],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-questions","category-reflections","category-how","category-why","category-teach","tag-behaviour","tag-emotion","tag-improvement","tag-learning","tag-personality","tag-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}