BUILDING THINKING SKILLS:
PRACTICAL EXERCISES
Before Army leaders can be ready to step into positions that require them to manage complex problems, they need to hone the advanced thinking skills that managing complexity requires.
Professional basketball players don’t just play a lot of basketball. They practice component skills: ball-handling, shooting baskets, rebounding, footwork, speed, and endurance. Anyone who plays basketball at advanced levels has been running drills and honing these individual skills for many years. Developing one’s complex problem solving abilities is no different. It requires time, practice, and attention to foundational skills.
The skills that are covered in these skill-building exercises help individuals gain practice in the skills needed for complex problem solving.
Research has identified a set of core skills and characteristics important for adaptive and strategic thinking and complex problem-solving. They include:
- asking good questions
- collecting information from a variety of sources
- recognizing how people, events, and actions are connected and influence each other
- thinking ahead and anticipating potential problems or alternative future circumstances
- communicating your understanding of problems to others
- reflecting on events to learn from them
The exercises are intended for use by unit commanders, instructors, and others who wish to provide their staff or students with instruction and practice in the skills needed for strategic thinking and complex problem-solving. The exercises have been developed to be appropriate for Soldiers at a range of echelons, from young lieutenants to experienced NCOs, mid-rank officers, and above.
The exercises are designed to be flexible for use within a range of participants and in a variety of contexts. They can be practiced individually, as stand-alone exercises, or in combination for a more comprehensive developmental program. They can be part of field instruction or embedded in a course. Three of the exercises require a facilitator; one of them (Reflecting on Experience) can be implemented with or without a facilitator as a self-development exercise. All are conducive to repetition, by providing varied material and topics to achieve additional learning benefits. If you intend to perform all the exercises, the suggested order is Reflecting on Experience, Asking Powerful Questions, Telling a Story, and Envisioning Potential Futures. But conducting in that order is not essential.
Each exercise comes with a facilitator guide, supporting slides, a participant guide, and relevant exercise materials (e.g., images or videos). A link to each of these materials is provided on each exercise page.
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The purpose of this exercise is to practice:
QuestioningQuestioning – an active learning strategy used to understand problems, relevant factors, interdependencies, assumptions, and differing perspectives more deeply.
Information GatheringInformation Gathering – identifying and seeking information from disparate sources to answer questions that promote learning.
Additional Skills:
Systems ThinkingSystems Thinking – recognizing and describing relationships and interdependencies among multiple factors that might otherwise appear unrelated.
SynthesisSynthesis – integrating seemingly unrelated pieces of information into a coherent whole.
Self AwarenessSelf-Awareness – an individual’s mindfulness of the perspective, assumptions, and biases he/she brings to a situation.
Supporting Slides
Participant Guide
Exercise Materials: Images
Supplemental Videos
Asking Powerful Questions: Expand the scope of questions you ask
- Asking insightful questions to understand complex problems
- Determining how to answer the questions
Skills Addressed
Primary skills:QuestioningQuestioning – an active learning strategy used to understand problems, relevant factors, interdependencies, assumptions, and differing perspectives more deeply.
Information GatheringInformation Gathering – identifying and seeking information from disparate sources to answer questions that promote learning.
Additional Skills:
Systems ThinkingSystems Thinking – recognizing and describing relationships and interdependencies among multiple factors that might otherwise appear unrelated.
SynthesisSynthesis – integrating seemingly unrelated pieces of information into a coherent whole.
Self AwarenessSelf-Awareness – an individual’s mindfulness of the perspective, assumptions, and biases he/she brings to a situation.
Downloadable/Printable exercise materials
Facilitator GuideSupporting Slides
Participant Guide
Exercise Materials: Images
Supplemental Videos
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The purpose of this exercise is to practice:
Systems ThinkingSystems Thinking – recognizing and describing relationships and interdependencies among multiple factors that might otherwise appear unrelated.
SynthesisSynthesis – integrating seemingly unrelated pieces of information into a coherent whole.
Additional Skills:
Cognitive FlexibilityCognitive Flexibility – adapting one’s thought process and/or interpretations.
Hypothesis GenerationHypothesis Generation – creating potential explanations given a set of information.
SensegivingSensegiving – communicating one’s understanding of complex or abstract concepts to others.
Supporting Slides
Participant Guide
Exercise Materials: Images
Supplemental Videos
Telling a Story: Practice your skills in Connecting the Dots
- Identifying how factors that seem unrelated might be connected to one another
- Describing how the factors are related via a story
Skills Addressed
Primary skills:Systems ThinkingSystems Thinking – recognizing and describing relationships and interdependencies among multiple factors that might otherwise appear unrelated.
SynthesisSynthesis – integrating seemingly unrelated pieces of information into a coherent whole.
Additional Skills:
Cognitive FlexibilityCognitive Flexibility – adapting one’s thought process and/or interpretations.
Hypothesis GenerationHypothesis Generation – creating potential explanations given a set of information.
SensegivingSensegiving – communicating one’s understanding of complex or abstract concepts to others.
Downloadable/Printable exercise materials
Facilitator GuideSupporting Slides
Participant Guide
Exercise Materials: Images
Supplemental Videos
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The purpose of this exercise is to practice:
Reflection – and answering progressively deeper and more critical types of questions – helps individuals and units learn from a particular situation about the assumptions held, the interpersonal and environmental factors at play, and how inter-relationships among those factors contributed to the outcome.
This exercise can help participants recognize how to use reflection in daily operations to enhance continuous learning.
Reflective ThinkingReflective Thinking – The process of “stepping back” from a situation to think critically and deeply about the experience. Thinking critically before, during, and after an event provides an opportunity to develop greater understanding of both the self and the situation and inform future encounters.
Additional Skills:
Systems ThinkingSystems Thinking – recognizing and describing relationships and interdependencies among multiple factors that might otherwise appear unrelated.
Self AwarenessSelf-Awareness – an individual’s mindfulness of the perspective, assumptions, and biases he/she brings to a situation.
Supporting Slides
Participant Guide
Supplemental Videos
Reflecting on Experience: Practice your reflection and learning skills
The purpose of this exercise is to practice:
- Reflecting on an experience for purposes of learning
- Identifying factors that contributed to an outcome
Reflection – and answering progressively deeper and more critical types of questions – helps individuals and units learn from a particular situation about the assumptions held, the interpersonal and environmental factors at play, and how inter-relationships among those factors contributed to the outcome.
This exercise can help participants recognize how to use reflection in daily operations to enhance continuous learning.
Skills Addressed
Primary skills:Reflective ThinkingReflective Thinking – The process of “stepping back” from a situation to think critically and deeply about the experience. Thinking critically before, during, and after an event provides an opportunity to develop greater understanding of both the self and the situation and inform future encounters.
Additional Skills:
Systems ThinkingSystems Thinking – recognizing and describing relationships and interdependencies among multiple factors that might otherwise appear unrelated.
Self AwarenessSelf-Awareness – an individual’s mindfulness of the perspective, assumptions, and biases he/she brings to a situation.
Downloadable/Printable exercise materials
Facilitator GuideSupporting Slides
Participant Guide
Supplemental Videos
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The purpose of this exercise is to practice:
This exercise provides practice in considering possible alternatives for shaping the future.
Thinking in TimeThinking in Time – alternating between thinking about the past, present, and future.
Strategic ForesightStrategic Foresight – generating concepts of possible future alternatives based on attention to a diverse range of factors and their interactions.
Additional Skills:
QuestioningQuestioning – an active learning strategy used to understand problems, relevant factors, interdependencies, assumptions, and differing perspectives more deeply.
Systems ThinkingSystems Thinking – recognizing and describing relationships and interdependencies among multiple factors that might otherwise appear unrelated.
VisualizingVisualizing – creating and thinking in mental images.
SensegivingSensegiving – communicating one’s understanding of complex or abstract concepts to others.
Supporting Slides
Participant Guide
Exercise Materials: Scenarios
Supplemental Videos
Envisioning Potential Futures: Practice your skills in thinking ahead
- Anticipating problems and how situations may evolve into the future
- Determining how our decisions and actions might shape the future
This exercise provides practice in considering possible alternatives for shaping the future.
Skills Addressed
Primary skills:Thinking in TimeThinking in Time – alternating between thinking about the past, present, and future.
Strategic ForesightStrategic Foresight – generating concepts of possible future alternatives based on attention to a diverse range of factors and their interactions.
Additional Skills:
QuestioningQuestioning – an active learning strategy used to understand problems, relevant factors, interdependencies, assumptions, and differing perspectives more deeply.
Systems ThinkingSystems Thinking – recognizing and describing relationships and interdependencies among multiple factors that might otherwise appear unrelated.
VisualizingVisualizing – creating and thinking in mental images.
SensegivingSensegiving – communicating one’s understanding of complex or abstract concepts to others.
Downloadable/Printable exercise materials
Facilitator GuideSupporting Slides
Participant Guide
Exercise Materials: Scenarios
Supplemental Videos
