What’s Your Style of Thinking?
When you stop to consider your personal style, how you think is perhaps not one of the first elements that comes to mind. However, each of us has our own style of processing information that allows us to reflect, solve problems, and formulate opinions. You may notice that you are naturally more inclined to certain styles of work, such as starting a new project with a group brainstorming session vs. having uninterrupted alone time to focus. This preference holds clues about your thinking style, which falls somewhere on a spectrum between two camps: internal vs. external processing.
External processors are typically extroverts, who are drawn to people and groups and feel more energized in a collective vs. alone. External processors gain personal insight most effectively through verbalizing their thoughts to others. If you’re an external processor, you’ve probably begun a conversation without knowing exactly what you think and have arrived at many (sometimes contradictory) opinions throughout the conversation. While these exchanges help you think and arrive at conclusions, they can be incredibly frustrating to those closer to the other camp, who may find you difficult to follow and/or trust due to your opinions seemingly changing on a dime. Let’s take a look at how internal processors think...
Internal processors benefit from having time to contemplate ideas on their own. When working through a problem, internal processors enjoy a quiet space to reflect and like to gather their thoughts before speaking. These folks are likely to feel flustered if asked to engage with others before they have finished their internal analysis. Unlike their external counterparts, internal processors do not tend to benefit from rapid-fire brainstorming sessions while their thoughts are still in flux. Sharing ideas can be very disruptive and frustrating for internal processors who have not had time to think, especially if they get caught in an exchange with external processors, whose conversations can feel like utter chaos to internal thinkers.
If you have close relationships with people who have opposing styles of thinking, some simple ideas can help everyone relate more effectively. Internal processors can help out by externalizing parts of their thought process, such as writing down their ideas and making shareable notes, which invites others to follow along without interrupting. It can also be effective to vocalize your needs and ask for time to think with a sincere promise to follow-up as soon as you’ve gathered your thoughts. External processors can get along more easily by carefully choosing who to call when they need to think out loud. For instance, if you’re solving a dilemma with your partner who is an internal processor, you might start by calling a friend who can help you form your opinions before hashing things out with your partner. When you present developed ideas that you are ready to discuss, you will earn their unending gratitude of your internal processor friends.
So what’s your style of thinking? Let me know if you’ve come across other solutions to working across stylistic lines, and feel free to share this post with your team or partners to start a conversation about how to think better together!
