Cognitive Flexibility Boosts Creativity

When we think of a leader who is “flexible”, we think of someone who is able to modify or adjust his thoughts and behaviors to a new, changing or unexpected situation.  All professionals – and definitely all business leaders — must be able to do that.  But actually, when it comes to Executive Functions, this kind of cognitive shifting or adjustment is actually known as “adaptability”.  It’s like the children’s game of “Simon Says.”  When new instructions direct you to jump on your right foot, cognitive adaptability allows you to quickly switch to jumping just on your right foot.  An example of cognitive adaptability is when restaurants began selling all food as take-out when social distancing and government regulations prohibited dining in for customers.

But cognitive flexibility is more than just adapting to a new situation.  Some describe cognitive flexibility as the ability to think creatively or be able to see things from a different perspective.  But Professor Rand Spiro, originator of Cognitive Flexibility Theory, describes it as “the ability to spontaneously restructure and apply one’s knowledge, in many ways, in response to radically changing situational demands.” That is, it produces the versatility needed to effectively address novelty.  This kind of mental flexibility – stretch your mind to see things from different angles or viewpoints in order to find new and different ways to move forward — is more than just being adaptable.  It means coming up with unique viewpoints and new solutions.  It is that ability to “think outside of the box” that allowed some businesses to thrive despite the pandemic.

Some careers and jobs require cognitive flexibility more than others.  For example, linguists who must switch frequently between multiple languages use a lot of cognitive flexibility.  Actors must adopt different characters in the roles they play on stage – such as an actor playing Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof and then playing the part of a singer in Tin Pan Alley — requires a lot of cognitive flexibility… the ability to step into another person’s shoes.  Cybersecurity engineers must step into the shoes of computer hackers and political enemies in order to find computer system vulnerabilities and prevent attacks.  And many others professionals need cognitive flexibility if they have multiple social and cultural identities — such as someone who hosts a podcast for his charitable work, records Tik Tok videos to showcase properties for his real estate career, and has a YouTube channel where he teaches violin to children as a passion project.  A person with so many social profiles must adjust his mode of thinking and being according to what online project he is on and with whom he is communicating.  This requires cognitive flexibility.

In business, this skill might be useful for an IT consultant who switches effectively between work on various clients in markedly different sectors such as banking, medical, energy and hospitality.  Or this skill is critically important for a serial entrepreneur moving seamlessly from an Assisted Living Facility startup to a supply chain distributor business to an organic packaged food venture.  Such cognitive flexibility might need to happen simultaneously or sequentially, or both.  It is also a critical – and really common skill — for those who monetize multiple talents and expertise by alternating work on various projects or jobs today… the so-called side-gigs that so many Millennials and Zellennials have embraced.

So cognitive flexibility is a mental skill that is critically important today.  In fact, it is downright indispensable in order to navigate the changes and complexity of the 21^st century work world.  As dynamic changes wash through the workplace – such as the radical shift to remote work — some areas of expertise will have a shorter shelf-life than others thanks to the exponential growth of automation and technology and because some jobs will just cease to exist. According to author, historian and futurist Yuval Noah Harari, “in order to keep up with changes in the world of work by 2050, you will need not merely to invent new ideas and products, but you will need to reinvent yourself again and again.” This requires cognitive flexibility – the mental skill needed for reinvention.

Indeed, the modern equivalent of a “Renaissance man” is becoming increasingly critical to businesses.  As the world becomes more complicated, the solutions to problems will be found at the intersection of multiple areas or fields of knowledge, such as the intersection where virologists, epidemiologists, public health scholars, statisticians, data analysts, and database engineers collaborate to develop solutions for pandemics.  Or the intersection where climate scientists, environmental lawyers, geologists, renewable energy engineers, sustainability consultants, risk management experts, agronomists and meteorologists work together to prevent mass climate migration by developing a way to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.  The ability to step into many different shoes, wear many hats, speak multiple languages and view things from varying perspectives is becoming ever more important.  And for that, cognitive flexibility will be key.  Experts in highly specialized fields can be part of a team, but the team leader needs to help build the bridge connecting those fields… or even see what fields to invite to the table.

Can You Think Out-of-the-Box or Toggle Identities Easily?

So just how cognitively flexible are you?  Can you boost your creativity and your ability to see something through someone else’s eyes?  While some people naturally have more cognitive flexibility, we all have the ability to become more cognitively flexible with practice.  Here are some ways to improve your cognitive flexibility.

1. Change your surroundings / environment.

Switch up your environment, and you will feel your mind shift.  It can be a little shift like going for a walk around the block or taking a coffee break at a coffee shop you’ve never been to.  Or it can be a big shift like taking a vacation to someplace totally new where you know no one.  Exercise, such as going for a bike ride or hike, can also offer a change of scenery and a great mental boost.

2) Try Something New or Learn a New Skill.

Try doing something totally different.  If you always walk and swim, try Yoga.  If you usually read books, try learning to play an instrument or take a dance class.  If you usually cook indoors, try learning how to grill steaks and kabobs or learn how to bake a soufflé.  Or, try learning a new language or a new skill like knitting or woodworking.

A study in June 2020 by Wilma Koutstaal, a Professor at Harvard University who specializes in how the human mind innovates and creates using past and present knowledge, found that older adults who participated in a variety of novel and stimulating activities over a three-month period demonstrated a significant gain in creativity, problem-solving abilities and other markers of fluid intelligence over those who had not participated in new activities.  The study confirmed that novelty encourages mental flexibility and supports brain growth.

3) Question What You Think and Say.

We each have an incredible capacity to reflect on ourselves– our thoughts, emotions, habits, and relationships.  It’s exactly this self-awareness that makes us so smart.  It gives us the ability to adapt to our environment and the flexibility to create new solutions.  One of the most useful tools we have is the power to ask ourselves questions and really think about what we think and say.

Listen to your choice of words.  Instead of being sold on your ideas and viewpoints, try a different perspective.  Question why you think what you think.  Replace negative or inflexible thoughts and words with more positive ideas and phrases.  Challenge yourself to look at a situation from a different perspective… from another person’s point of view.  This pushes the brain to use cognitive flexibility.

4) Embrace spontaneity.

Human nature makes us want to develop routines to save time and reduce stress.  But routines leads to ruts.  They allow the brain to become lazy.  To increase cognitive flexibility, change up your routine. Try a new recipe. Change the order of your day.  Doing new things, changing the order or varying the activity forces the mind to be flexible and process activity in a new way.  Just thinking about how to deconstruct a routine encourages the creative juices to flow.

5) Mix up tasks.

Going back and forth between a focused/detailed task and then something less focused can lead to more creative and innovative ideas.  Alternate periods of focused thought and diffused attention (do something in an unfocused way while you are also doing something else) for best results.

These mental exercises will help increase cognitive flexibility and leave you feeling more resilient, creative and much more confident about accomplishing your goals.  And boosting your cognitive flexibility will not only benefit your brain but more than likely your business, too.  Anything that boosts both brain and business is definitely worth doing.

Quote of the Week

“Leaders honor their core values, but they are flexible in how they execute them.” Colin Powell

© 2022, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.