Overheard at... Starbucks

"I do my best thinking in the shower."

Hear! Hear! I totally agree with this. There is something about the white noise of the water, the warmth of the steam, and perhaps the being totally naked, that allows my mind to relax and dream. I have had many aha moments while supposedly focused on washing myself. And in this I am not alone. Many people have told me this same thing happens to them.

Yet I watch my daughter, frown on her face, brows scrunched up in concentration, and wonder why this type of thinking looks like such hard work. Which is true? Do we think best when we are relaxed or when we put all our strength behind it? It appears to be a contradiction.

Forbes has a great article about what it takes to become a Strategic Leader: How to Develop 5 Critical Thinking Types. In it the author, Holly Green, suggests that to be strategic we must be able to draw from these five types of thinking:

1. Critical thinking is the mental process of objectively analyzing a situation by gathering information from all possible sources, and then evaluating both the tangible and intangible aspects, as well as the implications of any course of action.
2. Implementation thinking is the ability to organize ideas and plans in a way that they will be effectively     carried out.
3. Conceptual thinking consists of the ability to find connections or patterns between abstract ideas and then piece them together to form a complete picture.
4. Innovative thinking involves generating new ideas or new ways of approaching things to create possibilities     and opportunities.
5. Intuitive thinking is the ability to take what you may sense or perceive to be true and, without knowledge or evidence, appropriately factor it in to the final decision.

As I look over this list I can only see one that seems too difficult to do in the shower, critical thinking. Aside from ruining my computer, I’m not sure I would want to ruin a perfectly nice shower sorting through data.

I guess some types of thinking are more challenging. So I have come up with the perfect answer; begin to take my
shower mid-day, after the hard work of researching and analyzing the information is complete and when all my brain needs to do is dream and plan.