Hi readers,

THINKING WRONG?! Well, I always think I am right so how is that even possible?! Just kidding. I see thinking wrong as a way of thinking the unorthodox way, which is not “wrong”. Exploring this topic has opened my eyes to many of my heuristic biases. This week in 702, I was asked to work in teams. My partner and I decided to try and be more cognizant of our heuristic biases and abandon them throughout our collaborations, as a way of practicing “thinking wrong”.

Typically, I am a very organized, time conscience, control-freak, type of worker. So I took a different approach. I took my time this week. Although, not the wisest decision as it relates to time management, I was able to develop my ideas a bit more, without the usual forgetting and missing things effect I get from rushing. Also, instead of focusing my energy so much on neatly organizing my ideas, I took the opposite approach with my time in this area. I took a large sheet of craft paper and a hand full of markers and high-lighters and quickly drew out a concept map and made connections between the ideas. This messy approach was helpful, in that my focus was solely on getting the ideas out and not on the structure. Of course, being the neat freak that I am, I later compiled my ideas into a more structured and organized concept map, but the main ideas had been explored during the messy process….so I had not quite aborted my mission.

The object of these practices was to  step outside of my normal means of operation, and explore new ways of doing things. Although they were not very large steps, I think the experiment was quite successful. So, for the remainder of this course (and maybe a couple areas of my personal life), I have committed to eliminating one heuristic bias per unit. Baby steps people! I will let you know how it goes. So far, so good. It is amazing to see how stepping outside of yourself for a little while with little things can have a huge and mostly positive impact on your ways of thinking. You should try it sometimes. As always, Thanks for reading!

Reshonda,