Clear Thinking is thinking with precision and accuracy about a situation, task, problem, or decision, taking into account the many factors that can affect your thinking and subsequent plans, either positively or negatively.

♦ Factors that can affect your thinking include: 

thinking structure (you can think in an unstructured way, or you can work through a stage-wise thinking process),
mental flexibility (your thinking can be rigid, or you can flex between many different ways or Styles of thinking),
mental stimulus (use of prompts), enquiry, groupthink, ego, prejudices, biases, assumptions, ambiguities, beliefs, emotions, hopes, fears, pressures, perspectives, openness to feedback or comment, your subjectivity ... the precision and accuracy of your language

♦ Factors that can affect your plans include:

how they are communicated, other people's perceptions and reactions, changing circumstances (eg PEST), risks, unimagined consequences or events, competing plans, incorrect forecasts, inadequate monitoring or controls, ... the precision and accuracy of your plans/communications

The key words in this definition are "precision and accuracy" and "taking account of the many factors ...".  Dictionaries often define the words 'precision' and 'accuracy' as being identical. But, in fact, they are two different concepts.

The cold fact is that you can never be certain that you are thinking clearly. You will only find out from the results - good or bad.

Your best hope is to take all these factors into account and constantly be aware of HOW you are thinking, and how you should be thinking (metacognition). To help you, and especially your teams, we have developed a unique four-stage Clear Thinking Process and the world's first training course in Flexible, Clear Thinking. 

We design and facilitate a range of in-company training courses/workshops in Flexible, Clear Thinking aimed at Professionals, Managers, Leaders, and Teams.

We also design and facilitate Thinking Competency workshops aimed at HR teams and senior managers to review and develop an organisation's competency frameworks for a range of thinking skills required for particular posts.

See the links below.

Our research identified 10 causes of unclear thinking by people and teams, even by experienced senior managers. See Our Research.

Main reasons are:
- everybody thinks they are a clear thinker
- people don't think HOW they are thinking (metacognition)
- most people are not trained to think in more than just a few different ways (if at all) and rely on their own preferred (natural) thinking styles
- they don't deliberately flex their thinking across up to 30 different ways (Styles) of thinking useful in business
- they don't identify, and follow, a Thinking Process
- and they don't work through that Thinking Process, being sure to engage the right ways (Styles) of thinking at each stage

Main cause was a massive GroupThink by virtually everybody in the finance industry world-wide. Only one major economist questioned the wisdom and risk of complex financial instruments and 125% mortgages and reliance on wholesale funds. Where was the Contingency Thinking (What could go wrong?)?

But there were several other thinking errors, not least being that a key oversight system, the Credit Rating Agencies, had an in-built conflict of interest - they are paid by the people they report on. This is a failure of Design Thinking and Controls Thinking.

Many thinking errors - all avoidable. First is poor Concept Thinking - what was it for? It took another 10 years to find a use for it. Then there were the dozens of Design Thinking errors, most notably having only one security checkpoint for the hundreds of VIP's and media editors on that freezing-cold opening night. Guaranteed negativity from day one.

Every month or so we analyse top news stories reported in the media to draw out valuable lessons in clear or unclear thinking relevant to Strategies, Plans, Projects, Innovations, and Communications.

In every study we identify good, or poor, engagement of specific Thinking Styles (whether by design or accident) and the exact stages in particular thinking processes where these Thinking Styles were applied or fudged.

For example, in one recent study we pointed out that an organisation has spent over 15 years working out the best operational system, and it has still got it badly wrong at a cost of £40million at least. Poor Design Thinking. See News.