We think all the time, but rarely consider is as a job. Like the famous Nike tag line, “We just do it.” But how do we know if we have thought properly? If we approach thinking as a job to be done, then we can put on the right job hat. And more importantly, not put on an inappropriate one. The first chapter title of Adam Grant’s book Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know outlines four jobs we might take as thinkers. These include Preacher, Prosecutor, Politician, and Scientist. Julia Galef’s book, The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t, provides two more thinking jobs: the Scout and the Soldier. So many job titles to consider! And certainly, chances for conflict. Buster Benson outlines ideas for addressing conflict in his book, Why Are We Yelling?: The Art of Productive Disagreement. To minimize the need to yell, Kate Murphy’s book, You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters.

Turns out, for solving problems, we need to act most like Grant’s scientist or Galef’s scout. The mindset and skill set of these ‘jobs’ will help. The Scientist doubts what they know, has curiosity for learning what they don’t know, and updates their understanding based on new data. The Scout who looks to create the best map so they can succeed by asking, “Is this true?”. A scout will change their thinking to create a better assessment. Notice that both jobs include updating and changing based on receiving new information.

Benson and Murphy provide additional frameworks and techniques to help us perform our thinking job effectively. Benson says, “It’s true: in-the-moment arguments perform a crucial—and underappreciated—job for us by waving a red flag that something important to us is being endangered, whether it’s a personal preference, a hunch about the best strategy for meeting a shared goal, or a core value of ours.” Disagreements create chances for learning new perspectives. But only if we listen. Murphy provides an excellent reason to listen with this thought: “Evolution gave us eyelids so that we can close our eyes but no corresponding structure to close off our ears. It suggests that listening is essential to our survival. The attached whitepaper provides more details from all four books.