Table Of ContentManagement for Professionals
Nick Shannon
Bruno Frischherz
Metathinking
The Art and Practice of
Transformational Thinking
Management for Professionals
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Nick Shannon (cid:129) Bruno Frischherz
Metathinking
The Art and Practice
of Transformational Thinking
123
NickShannon BrunoFrischherz
ManagementPsychology Ltd. Didanet GmbH
London,England Luzern,Switzerland
ISSN 2192-8096 ISSN 2192-810X (electronic)
Managementfor Professionals
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Foreword
I greet with great appreciation, inspiration and optimism this powerful work that
youareabouttoread.Itseemstomethatthecorecommitmentoftheauthorsisto
“StudyingThinkinginAction”.Bybringingthiscommitmenttogetherwithahuge
amount of hard work, Shannon and Frischherz have made a great leap forward in
the integration of the theory and practice of dialectical thinking in a world that, as
they make clear in their introduction, desperately needs it.
First, they provide an accessible summary of the complementarity of what they
differentiateaslogicalversusdialecticalthinking.Whilstaccessible,itreflectswell
their immersion in the complex history of efforts to conceptualise dialectical
thinking as both a philosophical and a psychological phenomenon. Then, they put
front and centre the tension that the book addresses: on the one hand, the vast
majority of the world’s educational traditions have put much greater emphasis on
thelogical,whichfocusesonorganisinganassumed-to-be-fixedreality,thanonthe
dialectical,whichfocusesontheprocessesbywhichtransformationsoccur,andthe
potential roles of the human thought and action in such transformations. At the
sametime,theincreasedpaceoftransformationinnatural,technologicalandsocial
structures and processes make increasingly intense the need for humans to think
dialectically to understand and deal with such transformation.
Whilst adult development as an area of psychology has continued to grow
rapidlysinceIpublishedDialecticalThinkingandAdultDevelopmentin1984,the
developmentofthinkinginadulthood,tomymind,remainsofvitalimportancebut
under-researched. So I am pleased that the conception of dialectical thinking as
(1) a level and form of organisation of thought and (2) identifiable by patterned
moves-in-thought, that I advanced and explored in my own research and publica-
tionshasbeenbuiltuponandtakenforwardsomethirtyyearslatertoformthebasis
of a book that aims to stimulate thinking about thinking. Dialectical thought has
been present in Western philosophy since pre-Socratic times and in Eastern phi-
losophyforevenlongerandisalsoclearlyrepresentedintheintellectualhistoriesof
almosteveryacademicdiscipline.ShannonandFrischherzshowushowdialectical
thinkingcanbeusedasatooltohelpadultscometotermswith,andfindsolutions
to, problems in which increasing numbers of people are experiencing increasing
complexity. Although I first came to recognise dialectical thinking as a set of
“family resemblances” that were noticeable among world outlooks across
v
vi Foreword
philosophy and specific disciplines, Shannon and Frischherz take a huge step for-
ward in differentiating and integrating “a set of thinking modes” that people can
apply alongside the tools of logical thinking. This conception is central to their
fillinganimportantgapbetweentheabstractnatureandthepracticalapplicationof
models of dialectic.
Central to this work is the concept of Metathinking. The concept itself suggests
thepossibilityofpeople being able tochoose among thinking approaches. Wecan
first ask what modes of thinking are most useful for framing the problem at hand,
and then explore to what extent those modes facilitate solutions to the problem. In
introducingMetathinking, theauthorslayoutinasystematic, andagain accessible
way, a menu of various modes of thinking we can choose among and ultimately
integrate in framing and addressing problems. This menu is not only useful as a
reminder of our options, but the menu is equally valuable from an educational/
developmental/consulting perspective indetecting“what is missing?”If a mode of
framingaproblemisabsentfromtherepertoireofanindividual,anorganisation,or
apolicy-makerorpolicy-makingbody,thiswillinevitablyposealimitationonthe
problem-solving process. One primary audience for this book is those who see
themselves as facilitators of more practically effective problem-solving, and the
authors have provided a technique for such would-be facilitators to discover the
growing edges to which they must pay attention to succeed in their aspirations.
The practical intent of this book is didactic—to provide the reader with the
means to become a more complete thinker. The authors’ efforts to immerse
themselvesinahistoryofabstractwritingsandtopresentwhattheyhavestudiedin
asystematic waythat makes itsusefulnessinpractice clearconstitutes anessential
firststep.Butcentraltotheirgreatleapforwardistheiruseofcasestudies.Looking
at four very different levels of human socio-cognitive process, they draw on the
same framework and the same methods of analysis for facilitators and participants
aliketodiscoverpathwaystoprogress.Theyfurtherputatourdisposalasetofwhat
they call “mind-opening questions”. Having demonstrated several practical exam-
ples of the application of modes of dialectical thinking, the final part of this book
providesabroadsetofexercisesdesignedtostimulateakindofthinkinginreaders
that might enable them to integrate different perspectives and to see reality in a
manner that transcends some of the limitations of more formalistic logic. The
authorshavelaiditalloutthereandnowitisuptous—researchersandfacilitators,
to build on their work by studying, teaching, facilitating and practising dialectical
thinking with different groups of people addressing the most salient problems in
their lives and work.
I envision a wide range of audiences who will find this work as exciting and
clarifyingasIdid.Ihopewewillallmakedirectuse,invariousareasofourlives,
ofthetoolsShannonandFrischherzprovide.Butifyouarenotsureifyou’reready
to embark on this effort, you might want to start by looking over Chap. 13. It
provides the authors’ summary of their rich case studies and the lessons that they
believe can be learned from this case analysis method and process. I applaud my
Foreword vii
colleaguestakingonthischallengeandsuccessfullylinkingthetheoryandpractice
of dialectical thinking, as well as providing us such a broad suite of tools for
carrying forward this work. Enjoy!!!
Boston, MA, USA Prof. Michael Basseches
Preface
WeareveryhappytopresentourbookaboutMetathinkingtothereaders.Wehave
been working on this book for three years. The collaboration between a psychol-
ogist from England and a linguist and philosopher from Switzerland was a
dialectical process in which we both learned a lot about each other’s way of
thinking, language and culture. We hope that the synthesis has been successful.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank various people:
(cid:129) MichaelBassechesandOttoLaskefortheirfundamentalideasaboutdialectical
thinking passed on to us in books and workshops;
(cid:129) Iva Vurdelja, Brendan Cartmel, Thomas Jordan and Oliver Robinson for their
valuable comments on previous versions of the text;
(cid:129) Nitza Jones-Sepulveda for the positive cooperation with Springer;
(cid:129) our wives Lorna and Barbara, who have always supported us in this three-year
writing process with encouragement and help.
And now we wish you, our readers, an inspiring and enjoyable read.
London, England Nick Shannon
Luzern, Switzerland Bruno Frischherz
ix
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Part I What is Metathinking?
2 Types of Thinking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
A Discussion Between Two People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Logical Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Dialectical Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Dialectics and Dialogue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Definition of Metathinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3 Structural Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Structural Thought Patterns (S) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4 Process Thinking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Process Thought Patterns (P). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5 Relational Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Relational Thought Patterns (R). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6 Transformational Thinking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Transformational Thought Patterns (T). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
xi
