After reading “Give and Take”, it only made sense to buy another of Adam Grant’s books. If you’re still wondering who Adam Grant is, here is his Twitter account. I happened to buy Think Again in Bombay, next to Flora Fountain which is known for selling books at a cheap price. I originally intended on picking up ‘Original;, but I’ll buy that next year.

A little bit about ‘Think Again’: This book will go to be a time-less classic, the reason being that it helps and teaches us how to re-think as individuals and how it’s alright to change our opinion. This book applies to everyone, teachers, parents, working class individuals, senior leaders. It’s packed with great value. One of many reasons I love Adam Grant’s books are because his introductory chapters make you want to devour the book. In this introduction, he highlights how in a forest fire, a forest firefighter was able to re-think his situation, drop his excess luggage and save himself, and from the very first example, Adam Grant highlights the importance of re-thinking. Another reason why I really love this book is because he highlights corporate incidents from the past and then merges the incident with his theory and framework to bring out the lesson for the reader.

The book is comprised into three categories: Individual, Inter-Personal and Collective Thinking respectively. Each section in the above categories, are unique, flavorful, concise and well-thought out. In the first category’ Individual Thinking, the sections I enjoyed most are below along with the reasoning.

1. Think like a Scientist: This is so valuable because scientists are always in search for something new and are finding ways to prove their hypothesis wrong, not right. Scientists are always re-thinking and we can learn a thing or two from them.
2. Embrace the joy of being wrong: I loved this part personally because I find true joy when someone corrects me and shows me the right way. (Respectfully of-course). It’s good to be wrong, because you learn something new.
3. Learn something from everyone you meet and build a challenge network: Listening is always greater than talking, you learn more when you listen. Also building a challenge network is important because you can reach out to them and they can challenge your opinions and thoughts.

Moving on to Interpersonal Thinking, this focuses on how to improve your conversational skills with folks around you. Sections over here that I can hopefully apply in the workplace are

1. Motivational Interviewing: Seeking perspective and having the best intentions of the other party in mind. Also there’s an interesting flow-chart by Adam Grant one can refer to.
2. Asking people how they formed an opinion and what evidence it takes to change their mind: A lot of the beliefs, opinions, stereotypes are formed by folks are because of their surroundings and society and they never really questioned it. Get them to question themselves and ask them what it would do to change their mind.
3. Re-enforcing freedom of choice: Always let folks they have the final say in their decision making, don’t force yourself upon them. A lot of individuals don’t change their opinion because of the pressure put by the other party.

The last category is collective thinking, which according to me had the most value, so I’ll be taking some of the broader topics and trying to condense it.

1. Have Nuanced Conversations: Get into the complexities of the conversation, go into the tiniest of details and expand your emotional range. Whomever you’re having the discussion with, remember that it’s okay to have a range of emotions and you need to acknowledge the other party with the same.
2. Get kids to think again: Don’t ask kids questions like, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up’, this narrows their range of possibilities. Also get kids to do multiple drafts, drawings and give them feedback so they continue improving on it. This feedback will help them re-think and it will build an early habit.
3. Creating Learning Organizations: Abandon best practices and always find room to improve on existing processes and practices. Establish a safety net for individuals to share feedback and concerns. In good learning organizations, people can feel like they can question others.

Although I have shared what I loved the most in the different categories above, I haven’t tied it into the purpose of the book, which was to encourage individuals to re-think. Humans tend to form an opinion and abide by them for the rest of the lives. Whether it’s hating a country, a race, a team, a political party, they have tied themselves down to those beliefs and aren’t willing to change their mind.

The first section, Individual Thinking is for you as Individual, on how you can improve yourself and what practices you can follow. Interpersonal Thinking comes in when you’re having a long discussion with another person and helps you improve on your questioning, critical thinking, motivational interviewing with the intent of getting the opposite party to re-think their views. Collective Thinking is what we can do as a species to ensure the next generation improves their re-thinking and doesn’t back down from a debate, regardless it being in a professional or personal environment.