How to think for yourself

The world is crazy. From economic meltdowns to potential for global war, it can feel like things are increasingly spinning out of control. At a more local level, even one's day to day work and world can shift in a moment's notice - COVID being a great example.

This is the essence of VUCA, a fancy acronym that stands for volitility, uncertainty, and ambiguity, and all signs seem to point to more and more VUCA to come. The natural tendency when this happens is to look for answers, and the unfortunate trap that many people fall into is to seek (or even expect) answers from others - whether that be their senior leadership, elders, or etc.

Why is that a trap? Because firstly, chances are high that the people they're expecting answers from also themselves don't have the answer. Secondly, your ability to move forward is entirely dependent on someone else.

In a VUCA environment, those who thrive are folks who can create clarity admist the chaos and not get swept away by the shifting ground beneath them. This is particularly true for anyone looking to become more senior in their position - the ability to chart a course even when the water is choppy is part of what sets you and others up for success.

🧠 The Mindset: What would you do if the person you rely on isn't here?

This is the first piece - taking on the mindset that you are relying on yourself. In the workplace, this looks like imagining what you should be doing or figuring out if your manager wasn't there. What would be the most important things to sort out? What plans might be necessary to provide clarity for your team over some X time horizon?

Do the work before someone even needs to tell you to do it, and then use the person you rely on to provide feedback. Arrive at your answer first, show your work, and use the person who has the wisdom and experience to illustrate how they might have thought about something differently or shine a light to your blindspots. This is how you start thinking for yourself and taking on the tools to do so.

💡 The Mental Tool: What, So What, Now What

While it's easy to adopt the mindset, the act of actually doing it might be harder if you don't have something to work with.

For me, the simplest place to start is the frame of What, So What, and Now What. These three questions can tackle nearly anything.

What - this is the domain of observation. What are you noticing? What are your direct observations? For example when it comes to establishing a roadmap of some sort, this is where you lay on the table the Current State of something.

So What - this is taking observation and deriving insight. Many people end up stuck at the What or end up just talking about What and not taking it a step further to determine what is important about the set of observations you have. If you have a picture of Current State, the So What might be trying to determine what of the Current State is good, what is not good, what is important, why does this matter.

Now What - this is where you take insight and turn it into action. Once you know what matters, why it matters, the last piece is to sort out what you do with that. This is the conclusion or answer you might reach around something - the "I think we should do X, Y, and Z" that is derived from your observations and reasoning as to what is important and what should change.