Abstract: This article examines the organizational implications of prevalent "ways of thinking"—cognitive frameworks that shape how individuals and teams perceive problems, generate solutions, and execute strategies. Drawing on Crilly's (2025) comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 78 ways of thinking across research literatures, this article translates academic prevalence patterns into actionable insights for practitioners. Critical thinking, design thinking, creative thinking, systems thinking, and computational thinking emerge as the five most prevalent frameworks in contemporary scholarship. However, their uneven distribution across disciplines and applications, varying rates of adoption, and differential combinations suggest significant opportunities and risks for organizations. The analysis reveals that while critical thinking maintains broad, sustained relevance across sectors, computational thinking shows rapid concentration in specific domains, and design thinking demonstrates explosive recent growth. Organizations that strategically cultivate complementary thinking capabilities—rather than adopting isolated frameworks—demonstrate enhanced problem-solving capacity, innovation outcomes, and adaptive resilience. This article provides evidence-based guidance for selecting, developing, and integrating multiple ways of thinking to address complex organizational challenges, supported by cases spanning engineering, healthcare, education, and public services.

The provided text introduces Nested Learning (NL), a sophisticated framework designed to move artificial intelligence beyond static, pre-trained models toward systems capable of continuous adaptation. By organizing neural networks into a hierarchy of optimization problems that operate at different speeds, this paradigm mimics biological memory to prevent the loss of old information while acquiring new skills. The source highlights how this approach addresses the high costs and operational delays associated with retraining large-scale models in industries like healthcare and finance. It specifically examines innovations such as deep optimizers and continuum memory systems that allow AI to process information across immediate, tactical, and strategic timescales. Ultimately, the text argues that shifting toward temporal depth enables more efficient, reliable, and evolving AI integration within complex organizational environments.

This research analysis identifies a growing performance disparity between a small group of elite "future-built" companies and the majority of organizations struggling to realize returns from artificial intelligence. While most firms face an investment paradox of high costs and low value, leaders achieve superior revenue growth and shareholder returns by integrating AI into core business functions. These successful organizations distinguish themselves through CEO-level leadership, comprehensive workforce upskilling, and the development of interoperable data architectures. The text emphasizes the emerging role of agentic AI as a primary driver of future competitive advantage. Ultimately, the source provides a strategic framework for executives to bridge this gap by transitioning from incremental automation to fundamental workflow redesign.

This article by Jonathan H. Westover analyzes how various cognitive frameworks—such as critical, design, and systems thinking—influence organizational performance and problem-solving. Based on a comprehensive bibliometric study, the text identifies the most prominent ways of thinking and evaluates their disciplinary growth and practical applications. The author emphasizes that organizations achieve the best results by developing a balanced portfolio of these mental models rather than focusing on a single method. To successfully integrate these skills, leaders must provide developmental infrastructure, foster psychological safety, and align specific frameworks with their strategic goals. Ultimately, the source provides an evidence-based guide for cultivating a diverse cognitive toolkit to navigate modern workplace complexity.

This video discusses the rapidly evolving nature of work and the growing complexity of challenges faced by organizations worldwide. It emphasizes the importance of developing new cognitive capabilities—specifically five fundamental disciplines of thinking—that are essential for building resilient, adaptive enterprises. These five disciplines are critical thinking, creative thinking, design thinking, systems thinking, and computational thinking. Each offers a unique perspective and toolset to address problems effectively. The video further illustrates how these thinking styles complement each other through a practical healthcare example, demonstrating the power of integrating multiple approaches to generate holistic solutions. Leaders are encouraged not to make everyone an expert in all disciplines but to foster teams capable of blending these thinking styles thoughtfully and flexibly. Finally, it stresses the need for organizational infrastructure, including coaching, protected time for deep thinking, shared resources, and leadership modeling, to embed these capabilities into the culture sustainably. Highlights 🌍 The world of work is transforming rapidly, demanding new thinking capabilities for complex challenges. 🧠 Five fundamental thinking disciplines: critical, creative, design, systems, and computational thinking. 💡 Critical thinking ensures rigor, logic, and sound judgment, protecting against bias and error. 🎨 Creative thinking drives innovation by imagining novel possibilities beyond conventional patterns. 🤝 Design thinking centers solutions on human needs through empathy and iterative prototyping. 🔄 Systems thinking reveals interconnected patterns and root causes for lasting change. ⚙️ Computational thinking breaks down problems systematically and complements other disciplines. Key Insights 🔍 Critical thinking as the foundation of sound judgment: Critical thinking empowers teams to rigorously question assumptions and assess evidence, which is essential for avoiding costly mistakes and overcoming cognitive biases. In an era of information overload and misinformation, this discipline safeguards decision-making quality and ensures that actions rest on verified truths rather than unexamined beliefs. Organizations lacking critical thinking risk strategic missteps and operational failures. 🎨 Creative thinking fuels innovation and competitive advantage: Amidst saturated markets and recurring challenges, creative thinking enables organizations to break free from conventional constraints by asking “what if?” This discipline cultivates the ability to see common situations through unique lenses, generating novel ideas that can disrupt industries or create new value. It is the engine that powers transformation in stagnant environments, providing a crucial edge in today’s dynamic economy. 🤝 Design thinking connects innovation to human experience: By starting with empathy and involving users throughout the problem-solving journey, design thinking ensures that solutions are not only innovative but also desirable, feasible, and usable. This human-centered approach bridges the gap between abstract ideas and practical impact, making it indispensable for creating products, services, or processes that truly meet people’s needs rather than imposing top-down solutions. 🔄 Systems thinking uncovers hidden interdependencies and leverage points: Complex challenges often arise from interconnected factors and unintended consequences of past decisions. Systems thinking enables leaders to map these relationships over time, revealing feedback loops and structural drivers behind recurring problems. This perspective helps identify high-impact intervention points, facilitating deep, sustainable change rather than quick fixes that fail to address root causes. ⚙️ Computational thinking breaks complexity into manageable parts: By decomposing problems into smaller steps and using algorithmic approaches, computational thinking complements other disciplines by bringing clarity and structure to multifaceted issues. It is particularly valuable when dealing with dynamic systems or data-driven environments, enabling precise modeling, simulation, and iterative refinement of solutions. If this helped, please like and share the video to spread evidence-based thinking practice. #CriticalThinking #DesignThinking #SystemsThinking #CreativeThinking #ComputationalThinking #OrganizationalPerformance #Innovation OUTLINE: 00:00:00 - A New Foundation for Work 00:00:39 - The Five Core Disciplines of Thought 00:01:44 - Design, Systems, Computational Thinking 00:02:41 - Real-World Examples 00:04:12 - How to Blend + Action Plan for Leaders

This conversation identifies a growing performance disparity between a small group of elite "future-built" companies and the majority of organizations struggling to realize returns from artificial intelligence. While most firms face an investment paradox of high costs and low value, leaders achieve superior revenue growth and shareholder returns by integrating AI into core business functions. These successful organizations distinguish themselves through CEO-level leadership, comprehensive workforce upskilling, and the development of interoperable data architectures. The text emphasizes the emerging role of agentic AI as a primary driver of future competitive advantage. Ultimately, the source provides a strategic framework for executives to bridge this gap by transitioning from incremental automation to fundamental workflow redesign. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This conversation introduces Nested Learning (NL), a sophisticated framework designed to move artificial intelligence beyond static, pre-trained models toward systems capable of continuous adaptation. By organizing neural networks into a hierarchy of optimization problems that operate at different speeds, this paradigm mimics biological memory to prevent the loss of old information while acquiring new skills. The source highlights how this approach addresses the high costs and operational delays associated with retraining large-scale models in industries like healthcare and finance. It specifically examines innovations such as deep optimizers and continuum memory systems that allow AI to process information across immediate, tactical, and strategic timescales. Ultimately, the text argues that shifting toward temporal depth enables more efficient, reliable, and evolving AI integration within complex organizational environments. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This conversation analyzes how various cognitive frameworks—such as critical, design, and systems thinking—influence organizational performance and problem-solving. Based on a comprehensive bibliometric study, they identify the most prominent ways of thinking and evaluates their disciplinary growth and practical applications. The author emphasizes that organizations achieve the best results by developing a balanced portfolio of these mental models rather than focusing on a single method. To successfully integrate these skills, leaders must provide developmental infrastructure, foster psychological safety, and align specific frameworks with their strategic goals. Ultimately, the source provides an evidence-based guide for cultivating a diverse cognitive toolkit to navigate modern workplace complexity. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.