Cognitive Readiness

We at the Centre for Executive Education (CEE) through our ongoing longitudinal research with various strategic partners globally, believes that for leaders to succeed in Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0), which is termed by World Economic Forum (WEF) founder, Dr Klaus Schwab; they would need to demonstrate effectively the cluster of cognitive readiness competencies which would enable leaders to recognize patterns in chaotic situations, adapt or change problem solutions based on the patterns identified, and then effectively take action to implement the new solutions.

In today’s highly disruptive and digital-driven world, organizations continue to be impacted by a multitude of changes, influencing the way they operate. With increasing volatility in the markets, ever-changing customer needs, and continuous technology-led disruptions to business models, it is an organization’s agility and resilience that can help it weather the storm of changes that hit it every day.

On the other hand, the complexity and disruptions in the business environment today continuously decrease the visibility of businesses beyond a quarter, impeding organizations’ ability to build long-term plans and requiring them to reinvent continually.

The four elements of VUCA (see Figure 1) describe the “fog of war”—the chaotic conditions that are encountered on a modern battlefield. Its relevance to leaders in business is clear because these conditions are highly descriptive of the environment in which business is conducted every day (Bawany 2020).

CEE’s global strategic partner, the Executive Development Associates (EDA) has identified the following 7 key cognitive readiness skills collectively known as Paragon7 (see Figure 2), which develop, enhance or sustain a leader’s ability to navigate successfully in this ‘new normal’: (Bawany, 2017)

1. Mental Cognition: Recognise and regulate your thoughts and emotions
2. Attentional Control: Manage and focus your attention
3. Sensemaking: Connect the dots and see the bigger picture
4. Intuition: Check your gut, but don’t let it rule your mind
5. Problem Solving: Use analytical and creative methods to resolve a challenge
6. Adaptability: Be willing and able to change, with shifting conditions
7. Communication: Inspire others to action; Create fluid communication pathways

Making this shift is only the beginning. You must then shift the culture to be empowered and mentally prepared. Using a simple definition, if culture is “the way we do things around here,” then the idea of “thinking employees”—where each person from the CEO to the janitor is expected to exhibit superior decision-making skills—becomes a part of the culture. The importance of culture cannot be emphasized enough.

According to the National Association of Corporate Directors, “the oversight of culture must be a key board responsibility, as it is inextricably linked with strategy, CEO selection, and risk oversight.” (Hagemann & Schatz 2019)

Given that, what does a mentally prepared culture look like? Google is a great example of a company with a mentally prepared culture, and the results speak for themselves. In Fast Company‘s 2014 list of the Most Innovative Companies, Google earned the top spot. Since then, it was number 4 in 2015 and number 2 in 2017.

Google’s culture fosters cognitive readiness in that it insists on every employee taking time to think and act on ideas. The company gives employees a voice—encourages them to share it with others, try it on, collaborate, and potentially bring new things to the marketplace. Does it work? Some of the company’s game-changing innovations include Google Fiber, the driverless automobile, wearable computers, autocomplete, Google translate, and universal search.

Liberal: A leader needs to exhibit liberal thinking (disruptive mental agility) with a breakthrough mindset that requires openness to developing new behaviours, skills, or opinions and the willingness to adapt or discard existing values if necessary to survive in the new normal. Leading in a disruptive environment means getting used to incredible levels of uncertainty. A leader will never know how something will work until they try it. Modifying their assumptions and adapting or revising their plans in accordance with the desired results is the standard practice of the most highly effective disruptive leaders.

Exuberant: Leaders that thrive in a disruptive environment are energized and demonstrate a sense of passion and optimism while being grounded in reality and in engaging the team and other stakeholders. They are optimistic and consistently look for the good in all successes, failures, and challenges. Passion is a sense of energy for something. A leader’s passion and purpose are their internal energy source, the fire or determination they have to reach their destination.

Agility: Leaders need to be change agents by demonstrating resilience with mental and learning agility. Learning agility is the ability and willingness to learn from every situation a leader goes through in life—including the ones where they have no idea what to do—and to find solutions by leveraging on cognitive readiness and critical thinking skills. The inability to adapt proficiently has often been cited as the reason for leadership derailers.

Partnership: Building and sustaining a trust-based partnership with employees, team members, and external stakeholders, including customers and suppliers, is crucial, especially during disruptive times. When people trust a leader, they have confidence in that leader’s decisions. Even in times of uncertainty, they will be influenced and supportive of the leaders. That is because they expect their leaders to do what the leaders say they will do.

The Paragon7 Program has never before been available to the corporate sector, but now business leaders can hone their decision-making skills, learn to take more rapid action, anticipate, adapt and be ready to expertly address whatever novel challenges they may face in the future. This training goes beyond traditional critical thinking training—it exponentially multiplies elite leaders’ mental potential so they can successfully confront ill-defined, high-intensity challenges in the complex, dynamic, and often-ambiguous modern business world.

Acuity follows readiness. Once leaders are ready for any challenge or situation, then they are open to new insights that will propel them forward by leveraging innovation, intuition, and creativity to shape reality.

Impact occurs when leaders cascade learning throughout their organizations. Paragon7 teaches leaders how to foster their teams’ cognitive capital, as well as implement processes for long-term sustainment.

The Critical Thinking Boot Camp (CTBC) is an intensive, 3-phase development process focused on learning practical skills that will have an IMMEDIATE impact on your bottom line. While there won’t be any push-ups or sprints, each attendee will be immersed in masters level, vigorous training on critical thinking. They will be assessed, will work on their real work-related issues and be kept accountable by a coach as well as your management team. Seventy-four per cent of participants say they applied new skills on the job!

The Think RED Program introduces participants to critical thinking skills development through the presentation and application of the Pearson TalentLens RED Model: recognize assumptions, evaluate arguments, and draw conclusions based on an objective, clear-eyed appraisal of the available evidence. Multiple real-world examples and activities will be interwoven with content, enabling participants to immediately apply RED Model thinking skills to actual business challenges in problem-solving and decision making. This one day program is designed to serve as a stand-alone critical thinking tool, or as the foundation for further skills development through follow-up participation in our advanced critical thinking workshops.

The Critical Thinking for Business Growth (CTBG) is an interactive, results-focused program that teaches how to think logically and comprehensively about a situation and identify an appropriate course of action while preventing additional problems. Over fifty per cent of this workshop involves participants in experiential activities and on-the-job applications. The course utilizes a dynamic blend of instructor presentation and individual skill practice in each of the concepts presented, using personal work concerns brought by participants.

Time is a valuable asset in today’s business world. The Applied Critical Thinking (ACT) workshop delivers powerful short-cut thinking tools in less time. The conceptual framework of this one-day workshop is built around critical thinking skills which provide more effective solutions to important business concerns.

The ACT processes give participants increased confidence to create and/or seize opportunities for improvement. Whether they are solving problems, creating new opportunities, making decisions with limited time and information or implementing plans, this action orientation will result in more profitable business results as participants confidently demonstrate a bias for action.

Problem Solving & Decision Making (PSDM) is an interactive, outcome-focused workshop that blends team development with rational and creative critical thinking processes to create a comprehensive approach to problem-solving, decision making, and planning. Over sixty per cent of this program involves participants in learner-driven activities and on-the-job applications. The course offers a dynamic blend of instructor presentation, on-the-job application, and skill practice in each of the PSDM processes using work-related concerns brought by participants. Principles of teamwork and effective meeting management are practised by participants throughout the workshop.

For more information about these programs, please contact us today.