Critical Thinking and Systems: Why Your Way May Not Work for Me

What do we gain by naming and practicing something we’ve always done unconsciously?

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"Do you know what you want?"

It's a tough question that never goes away. From others and from yourself, this question seeks a truth or satisfaction you may struggle to achieve. It comes at the start of every decision, project, and relationship.

Because this question comes at you, over and over, in many forms which shape the path and meaning of your whole life, you need systems and critical thinking to get what you want—really want, in life and work.

No matter who is asking, the answer may be temporary or more serious. A temporary answer sounds like this and comes easily: "Yes. I'll have the chef salad with dressing on the side."

A more serious answer sounds like this, and you need critical thinking to make it happen: "I want to get rich. I want to stay strong and healthy. I want to enjoy what I do. I want meaning. I want to control how long I work so I can give attention to other areas of my life. "

An even more serious version of the question sounds like this: "Do you know you want to marry me?" and "Do you know what you want for your business?"

The good news is, there are shortcuts to what you want. The bad news is you will get the "What do you want?" question, constantly, your whole life, and from hundreds of people and places you trust, such as your own brain. Sometimes it seems your own brain is not working with you because it is also the hiding place for fear, uncertainty, doubt, procrastination, and laziness.

More bad news—you must learn how to take shortcuts and that demands intentions, focus, and repetition. That's right—better habits, do it the right way, rinse and repeat.

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Critical Thinking is Not Just Thinking Harder

What turns ordinary thinking into critical thinking? As a community of professionals, communicators, and gifted adults, we are champions at overthinking everything. We will drive ourselves and everyone around us nuts with our complexity, assumptions, creativity, and boldness to move fast with experiments, flops, experiments, fizzles, experiments, and success.

For the past 50 years I've surrounded myself with books, brilliant people, curious communicators, and professionals who have developed an impressive array of methods for describing their work and the world they serve. They diagram, notate, and model. They tell stories that form fantasy or mirror reality. They produce writing and art that move ideas to experiential texts, pictures, and podcasts.

In all of that thinking and doing, the two elements that make something happen are intentions and strategies.

Thinking is the default setting for our brain. It starts at birth and ends at death. Critical thinking is intentional. A gifted child learns to question assumptions in math class—then later in business meetings. Then later that person goes from working jobs, to growing in a career, and finally, the final act of doing their own thing in a calling. That shift from solving to questioning defines critical thinking.

Critical thinking isn’t just deeper thinking—it’s thinking about how we think.

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You Have Systems, But Are They Working?

Most of us follow systems—routines, strategies, habits—without realizing we’re doing it. The question is: Are they working?”

Systems, models, habits, and thinking styles interact constantly. Understanding how can elevate not just what we do, but how well we do it.

To understand why someone else's system doesn't work for you is to start with a deep, intimate, often-challenging talk with yourself about what you are probably going to do, no matter what.

This is where intentions matter. You can go from poor to rich and from miserable to happy, if you understand intentions and how to work your intentions, all of the time. Without delays. Without detours.

Strategies matter when it comes to habits. Because systems begin with habits, learn how your habits shape and result from the systems you live in.

Habits are the micro-units of systems. We write about habits all the time and here are two quick reminders—examples from this community:

Dr. Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA writes The Habit Healers Mindset, which removes all doubt or mystery around your habits and how they shape your life, death, and all of the days and shifts in your body and mind in between. You can apply much of Dr. Marbas wisdom around habits that form all the other systems in work and relationships.

Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Ph.D., Founder of Ness Labs just published her first book, Tiny Experiments: How To Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World. You can tell from the title, this is about the micro-units of systems, the habits, and the shortcuts from challenges to self-discovery and from doubt to opportunity.

Systems without habit consideration fail. Habits without a system context drift.

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Have You Confused Models with Systems?

Are systems just applied models, or are models simplified versions of systems?

A model is what you sketch on a whiteboard. A system is what survives the week.

This is easier to see when you step way back and look at the patterns and behaviors of more than 600 boards of directors and strategic planning teams across 30 years, as I have. The client and their leaders wanted to draw pictures, diagrams, and play with PowerPoint decks, which is a good start, but not a system. Best practices, mission statements, and productivity models help you think, but systems make it happen. Details and tweaks are where systems live and change every damn day.

Models help you think. Systems help you function. Knowing the difference matters. If you prefer to start with models, ask yourself, how do you ensure the models you rely on reflect reality enough to improve the systems you create?

How does systems thinking intersect with design thinking?

Systems thinking maps patterns; design thinking solves human problems.

This is why someone else's marvelous system doesn't work for you. You must design your own, based on all that is uniquely and humanly you. Oh sure, you can borrow and steal all the systems information you think might help with your design, but you still have to know your intentions, your gift, your capability, and your patterns of behavior. Systems thinking shows you the gaps in your design and design thinking reshapes how you engage—actually do the intention. Design thinking improves your experience and that's where growth, results, and learning lessons dwell.

Why don’t systems transfer easily between people?

Systems are born from context. Yours may not fit me. Learn more about context if you are not clear why it's the most important part of your communication and actions.

Two professionals read the same time-management book. One thrives; one fails. The difference? Personality, energy patterns, and context.

If you want better outcomes, should you change the system, the habits, or both?

Admire someone’s system—but build your own. That’s “the work” and there’s no other person and certainly not AI that can design systems that connect your brain, desires, lived experiences, talents, heart, and intuition.

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Have We Been Doing Systems Thinking All Along?

Is systems thinking just conscious awareness of something we already do?

Most people intuitively adjust behavior based on feedback. Naming that makes us better at it. As a writer, you notice which stories catch and go viral and which go silent without feedback. So you adapt and that's systems thinking without ever calling it that.

Systems thinking isn’t new—it’s just newly visible.

What System Will Work For You?

Critical thinking and systems aren’t lofty theories—they’re the quiet mechanics of how we shape our days. Once you see that, you can start shaping them better.

You don’t need more models. We need better awareness of how we already think, act, and adjust.

My favorite story of how this works is the conversation overheard in the fitness center when the new member asked the instructor, "What exercise routine is best for me?" The instructor rolled her eyes, took a deep breath, and said, "It's the routine you will actually do. And keep doing."

There is a lot more we could detail and describe for this article, but I'm going to leave it here. I'm confident that I have given the professionals, communicators, and gifted adults enough to work with.

Do you feel like you're on the edge of something amazing, and you just can't figure out what it is? That's where I come in. My name is Georgia Patrick. I work with curious, intense, understanding professionals—still in practice and retired—to tap into their full potential and get extremely clear on their gift (their value) to individuals actively seeking such wisdom. It starts with an email. Maybe a short call to make sure I hear you, see you, and understand you.

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