Squiggly Skill Sprint Day 8: Critical Thinking

I’ve obviously been using the sprint as a way to do some writing & reflecting, as a daily writing prompt. After a few days of topics, such as communication & confidence, that flowed very naturally, this topic proved difficult. The first proper piece of writer’s block to get through.

Helen and Sarah talk about the sprint being about building momentum around learning and community, so I thought it important to plough on. I have therefore thrown a lot of words in the proverbial garbage today…

The one thing that sticks out to me as an ah-ha moment in decision making was something that actually came very naturally to me, and I never considered in a professional environment. I’m an old roleplayer and wargamer, as well as having an academic background in statistics. I think naturally in terms of dice rolls and card draws. I have several sets of dice on my desk that act as fidget toys for me.

It wasn’t until I came across Thinking In Bets by Annie Duke that I realised this is something that could be applied professionally. When I was asked questions about outcomes, I started to reframe answers to percentages. When asking people about their predictions, I’d ask which was more likely, Option A or Option B. What would it take to make Option B more likely? There was a whole metaphor around rolling twenty sided dice in Dungeons and Dragons that worked really well, with certain audiences.

If nothing else, I like that I have a questioning framework that feels very natural and authentic to me. You can have as many models and forms as you want, but if they don’t feel like you, you aren’t going to be energised using them, and ultimately won’t use them.