by 
I saw a slogan today to “demand data and think critically.” Demands for data too often serve as a lazy substitute for just plain thinking. We lack the data … so we stop. Or someone really doesn’t want to do something in the first place, so they demand the data.
And thinking critically, while generally a good thing, is now getting over-done to tear apart anything that “lacks data” or in my parlance requires thinking. A vicious circle, that is in part to blame for our current inability to get things done. If one tries to do something genuinely or innovative, the calls for data, proof, and a long list of critiques can suck the life out of it. We have an army of bureaucrats and technocrats ready and willing to squash any novel approach with demands for data and a long list of shortcomings. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get things done!
What is going on here? Why have we become so unwilling to think? Perhaps it is the hangover of modern values, with its emphasis on achievement and action that supplants thinking. When we do think, we often go overboard with critical thinking. In this case it is postmodern values gone mad, which I’ve noted several times as the mean green meme. It goes too far with pluralistic relativism — in which everything is equally good, which also translates into nothing is better (except one’s individual ideas, of course), and keeps us stuck in a limbo-land. Critical thinking becomes fault-finding, nitpicking, and “saying no” as the default. That is not the intent, but it has become the outcome. Critical thinking is very useful to help us analyze issues, but we have to put the analysis back together again. Thus, integral thinking. Integral thinking is a holistic approach that honors the quantitative and the qualitative; it honors the individual and the collective. It seeks to bring together ideas, perspectives, and approaches. It is the natural and perfect complement to critical thinking.
How about “demand thought and think integrally?” How about, when presented with a lack of data, we use our heads and think? And how about after critiquing a problem, we think integrally and come up with a holistic solution? It okay to think, and it’s okay to think big. We desperately need it! – Andy Hines
Leave a Reply