Thinking About Thinking

By Special Collections, Lehigh University Libraries;
Chrétien Frédéric Guillaume Roth [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

When everything is connected to everything else, for better or worse, everything matters. - Bruce Mou

Some of you can remember the days when the gadget you wore on your wrist ONLY told you the time of day. You even had to know how to tell time by the position of the hands on the face of the dial. Nowadays, we have the likes of a supercomputer (back in the day) on our wrist or by our side. These advancements in technology necessitate we think about thinking.

Technological advancements have changed the way we obtain information as well as how we process that information. If you are waiting to be trained on "how" to think, you are "behind the curve." Decision making in today's information-loaded world requires that we find ways to filter information into knowledge quickly and accurately. It requires we recognize that others are involved in making decisions—that we share the burden with others in our networks.

How do we begin the process of changing the way we think and make decisions using networks? Here are some tips that seem to work for me (are from my blog "Turning Information into Knowledge.")

• Be open to the views and perspectives of others. 
• Develop collective curation teams to filter what can seem like information overload. 
• Assess your filtering systems to ensure that a broken filter does not exist. 
• Beware of fast, prepackaged and overly processed information.
• Don't be afraid to unlearn and relearn quickly.
• Ask questions that invoke critical thinking.
• Acknowledge your biases. Suspend judgment long enough to reduce conflict.

Wildland Fire Leadership Challenge - Digging a Little Deeper

• Watch Manuel Lima's TedTalks "A Visual History of Human Knowledge." How can networking help you think differently and make better decisions?

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About the Author: Pam McDonald is a writer/editor for BLM Wildland Fire Training and Workforce Development and member of the NWCG Leadership Subcommittee. The expressions are those of the author.