1.  Teams don’t think how they think when planning (metacognition).
There are many different ways of thinking (Thinking Styles) that should be
deliberately engaged when planning.

2.  Rigid, inflexible thinking. Teams get stuck in one way of thinking, which can lead to tunnel vision or missing 'obvious' mistakes or good ideas.

3.  Teams don’t identify, then work through, an appropriate stage-wise
Thinking Process. Most business thinking requires a stage-wise Process to be successful, even decision-making. There are very few one-step thinking activities.

4.  Teams don’t think how they should think (which Thinking Styles to engage) at each stage in a Thinking Process.

A major cause of Thinking Errors is poor Contingency Thinking: “What could go wrong?” Most people don’t realise that Contingency Thinking is a stage-wise Thinking Process that needs several different Thinking Styles to be successful.

5.  Teams may think in the wrong way - can lead to vague or wrong goals, or the wrong problem identified.

6.  They may all think the same way (naturally - because all members have similar Preferred Thinking Styles, or by GroupThink – caused by a lack of a facilitator).

7.  They don’t use Thinking Tools to guide and stimulate their thinking (such as our Thinking Styles Descriptors and mental Prompts).

8.  The team leader can have a major impact on the team’s clear thinking. It is essential to understand which Leadership Role and Style to adopt at any stage.

9.  All teams are highly subjective – they all suffer from emotional involvement and can miss a blindingly obvious mistake (obvious in hindsight).

10.  Delusion that everybody thinks that they are thinking clearly.