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Nuanced thinking
Course details
Learn nuanced thinking techniques to make more thoughtful, balanced, and effective decisions. In this course, critical thinking expert Spencer Greenberg provides you with a powerful decision-making tool kit to help you avoid thinking traps, improve problem-solving, reduce cognitive biases, lock in objectives (to keep projects on track), and make use of your emotions (without being misled by them). Packed with examples and useful takeaways that you can immediately put into practice, this course can help you get better outcomes by making more evidence-based and rational choices on behalf of yourself and your company.
This course includes AI-powered Role Play. Role Play allows you to practice what you’ve learned in interactive simulations of real-world conversations.
Learning objectives
Skills covered
1. Learn the qualities of nuanced thinking
Have you ever noticed how some people are able to think through a challenging decision, get quickly to the heart of the matter, and arrive at an excellent solution that nobody else found? How are they able to do this? What makes people excellent decision-makers can seem mysterious, but in this course, the aim is to demystify decision-making.
To help you do so, I'll be teaching you a powerful approach to improve your own decision-making, which I call nuanced thinking. So what is nuanced thinking?
It's when you approach a problem open-mindedly while avoiding binary thinking traps. To understand this, let's break it down into parts.
First, what does it mean to approach a problem open-mindedly? It means looking for evidence rather than assuming you already have all the evidence you need. And it means thoughtfully considering both the perspectives without immediately rejecting them. It also means holding your pre-existing opinions lightly, so you're ready to change your mind if the evidence calls for it. Chances are you've encountered the opposite of open-mindedness before. For instance, at a prior job, you may have had a colleague who's convinced that they always knew the best solution and shot down opposing perspectives, or they may have become defensive when you raised challenges to their point of view. Don't be like them. If you bring open-mindedness to the challenges you face at work, it's a win for your company because it leads to better decisions and it's a win for you as an individual too because it means you'll end up being right more often. Your colleagues will benefit as well because they'll feel that you take into account and carefully consider their opinions.
But nuanced thinking has a second component beyond open-mindedness, which is avoiding binary thinking traps.
The first binary thinking trap is the truth binary. It's when we view uncertain things as being either completely true or completely false. That is we view uncertain things as though there's certain, rather than thinking about them in terms of probabilities. Suppose there's recently been a decline in sales for your product and you're trying to understand why. You speak to two customers and they both tell you that your service has been less reliable lately. It's easy to jump to the conclusion that this lack of service reliability is certainly the cause of declining sales, but doing so is falling into the truth binary.
The second binary thinking trap is the goodness binary, also known as black and white thinking. It's when we view solutions as being either all good or all bad. Suppose you're discussing with your colleagues what features should be added to your product. Your colleague suggests one idea, but you know it'll confuse some fraction of users so you push back. Since you know this feature has a flaw, it's easy to jump to the conclusion that it's simply a bad idea, but doing so is falling into the goodness binary.
How do the truth binary and the goodness binary differ from each other? Well, the truth binary is when we see an uncertain claim as either true or false, rather than accepting uncertainty. The goodness binary, on the other hand, is when we see something as either all good or all bad rather than accepting that even the best things usually have some bad and even very bad things usually have some good. In later videos, we'll discuss these binary thinking traps in more detail, including strategies to avoid them.
But for now, remember, nuanced thinking is a simple but powerful approach to improving your decision-making. Engaging in nuanced thinking means approaching a problem with open-mindedness while avoiding binary thinking traps.
2. Practice with AI. Using nuanced thinking
What this conversation is about
You are a manager working on improving a time-tracking software. Your team member, a software engineer, recently suggested adding a feature that lets users visualize their time usage over the past week. Initially, you dismissed the idea, but now you want to revisit the conversation with the team member using Nuanced Thinking techniques.
What makes it successful
1. Acknowledge the team member's initial proposal and your previous reaction.
2. Encourage the team member to provide more details and insights about their idea, avoiding jumping to a conclusion.
3. Apply nuanced thinking techniques to identify the potential benefits and drawbacks of the proposed feature, rather than assuming it must be all bad or all good.
4. Conclude the conversation with a clear next step, whether it is further research, a prototype, or another action.
Who the conversation is between
Anna Afanaseva, Me, Manager
Linkedin AI, Team Member
The AI is a thoughtful and innovative software engineer who is passionate about improving user experience. The AI values constructive feedback and is open to discussing and refining ideas.
Hi there! How's your day going so far?
Anna Afanaseva: Hi all. Well, how are you?
Transcribed from voice mode
Learning AI: I'm doing well, thanks! I wanted to revisit the idea you suggested about adding a feature to visualize time usage over the past week. Can we discuss it further?
Anna Afanaseva: Definitely, thank you for bringing it up again. Last time I was too dismissive, I am sorry, after second thought I think we need to consider this in more details
Learning AI: Thank you for reconsidering the idea. I appreciate it. Could you share more details about how you envision this feature working and the potential benefits it could bring to our users?
Anna Afanaseva: But this is actually exactly my queston to you. Previously you were saying that it would be nice to add a feature that lets users visualize their time usage over the past week. Can you tell me more? How you came up with the idea? Was it users feedback?
Learning AI: Sure, I came up with the idea after noticing a pattern in user feedback. Many users mentioned they wanted a better way to understand how they were spending their time. Visualizing their time usage over the past week could help them identify productivity trends and areas for improvement. However, we should also consider potential drawbacks, such as the complexity of implementation and ensuring the visualizations are intuitive and useful. What are your thoughts on these aspects?
Anna Afanaseva: But what exactly they said?
Learning AI: Users mentioned that they often lose track of how they spend their time throughout the week and find it challenging to identify where they could be more efficient. Some users specifically asked for visual aids, like charts or graphs, to help them see their time distribution at a glance. This feedback made me think that a feature allowing users to visualize their time usage could address these concerns and improve their overall productivity. How do you feel about incorporating these visual aids into our software?
Anna Afanaseva: How we can test this on a small scale to see whether our broader user base would actually like that? How the MVP can look like?
Learning AI: To test this on a small scale, we could start by creating a basic MVP (Minimum Viable Product) that includes a simple time visualization feature. This MVP could consist of a basic dashboard with a weekly time usage chart, allowing users to see how they allocate their time across different tasks. We could then release this MVP to a select group of users and gather their feedback on its usefulness and usability. Based on their input, we can make improvements and decide whether to roll out the feature to our broader user base. What do you think about this approach?
Anna Afanaseva: okay, let's see what this would require us to do? what kind of resources? what steps?
Learning AI: To develop the MVP, we would need to follow these steps:
In terms of resources, we would need:
Does this plan align with your expectations? Is there anything else you would like to add or modify?
Anna Afanaseva: what do you think, can we do even smaller test, that would be very quick and simple and won't require anything that you just mentioned? no mockups, prototypes, no longsome development, just a very very quick test of the demand of this new feature?
Learning AI: Absolutely, we can conduct a very quick and simple test to gauge interest. Here’s a minimal approach:
These methods require minimal resources and can provide us with valuable insights into user demand without extensive development. What do you think about this approach?
Anna Afanaseva: okay, how would you feel if our next step would conducting this survey or in-app poll? can you take this process and organise it?
Learning AI: I would be happy to take on this task and organize the survey or in-app poll. Here are the steps I would follow:
Does this plan sound good to you? If so, I can start working on it right away.
Anna Afanaseva: evaluate our conversation above and tell me how I had succeded or not in applying nuanced thinking techniques to identify the potential benefits and drawbacks of the proposed feature, rather than assuming it must be all bad or all good. please analyse and consider also the tone of my messages and whether they made you feel heard and wee respectful
Learning AI: You have successfully applied nuanced thinking techniques throughout our conversation. Here are some key points of your success:
Regarding the tone of your messages, they were respectful and made me feel heard. You apologized for your initial reaction, asked thoughtful questions, and showed appreciation for the feedback and ideas provided. This respectful and considerate tone fosters a collaborative environment and encourages open discussion. Overall, you have demonstrated effective nuanced thinking and maintained a respectful and constructive tone throughout our conversation. Well done!
Anna Afanaseva: be more critical please and analyse again our conversation, your task is to elp me grow and develop -- so for me if I would ave been on a place of a team meber, for example, this constant questions asking might be too intimidating and gloom, so to soften it I could have told also why I am asking. Didn't you notice that kind of nuances?
Learning AI: Thank you for your openness to feedback. Here are some areas where you could improve in applying nuanced thinking techniques and maintaining a respectful tone:
Overall, you did well in considering both the benefits and drawbacks of the proposed feature. However, by explaining the purpose of your questions, balancing them with statements, and acknowledging contributions more frequently, you can create an even more supportive and collaborative atmosphere. Keep up the good work, and continue to refine your approach!
Strengths
Areas of improvement
Feedback from your transcript
Conversation insight
While asking for more details is good, explaining why you are asking these questions would make the conversation feel less interrogative and more collaborative.
Example
"I'm curious to understand the origin of this idea better so we can see how it aligns with user needs. Can you tell me more about how you came up with it and if it was based on user feedback?"
Conversation insight
This message could be improved by acknowledging the team member's previous input before moving on to the next question. This shows that you are processing their input.
Example
"I appreciate your detailed explanation. Now, let's see what this would require us to do. What kind of resources and steps would be involved?"
Conversation insight
While suggesting a smaller test is a good idea, balancing this question with a statement acknowledging the team member's previous suggestions would make the conversation feel more collaborative.
Example
"I like your approach to the MVP. Do you think we could do an even smaller test that would be very quick and simple, without requiring mockups or prototypes, just to gauge initial interest?"
3. Learn the qualities of nuanced decision-making
Selecting transcript lines in this section will navigate to timestamp in the video
- Suppose that Amy and Bob disagree about which channel to use for the next marketing campaign. Amy prefers social media because it's highly scalable. Bob thinks that traditional media is better because it's more cost effective. Which of them is right? Is Amy right that they should go with a scalable option? Or is Bob right that they should choose the most cost effective option? Pause this video now to think about the answer.
The answer is, it's a trick question. Both Amy and Bob have valid points. There's no way to know which of them is making a better argument without first knowing the objective. If the objective for the decision is related to scalability, Amy is right. If it's related to cost effectiveness, Bob is right. As a general rule, we can't tell what a good choice is until we know what objective we're aiming for. This is where nuanced decision-making comes in, which builds on top of nuanced thinking. It's designed to help you make better decisions even in difficult situations. Nuanced decision-making has two steps.
First, you decide on the objective for the decision. In other words, what are you and other stakeholders hoping to achieve? More revenue, greater customer satisfaction, something else?
The second step in nuanced decision-making is to apply nuanced thinking to the available options in order to decide which option is best according to your objectives. That means approaching those options with an open mind and avoiding binary thinking traps.
Now that you have an idea of what nuanced decision-making is, let's see if you can apply it carefully consider the following scenario.
You've been tasked by your boss with planning a team offsite. You're trying to choose between two venues for it.
However, one of your colleagues said to you that they don't want to go to the lodge. Take a moment to think about how you would apply nuanced decision-making to this decision. What would you do first? What would you do after that?
Pause the video now to think about it.
Remember that nuanced decision making has two steps.
4. Learn to differentiate problem solving and decision-making
Selecting transcript lines in this section will navigate to timestamp in the video
- We've talked about how nuanced thinking has an important role to play in decision-making, but it also has an important role to play in problem-solving, too. This is because decision-making and problem-solving are linked to each other in an interesting way. Have you ever considered how they might be connected? Pause the video now and see if you can figure out how problem-solving and decision-making are linked. (upbeat music)
To understand the connection between problem-solving and decision-making, it helps to break down problem-solving into steps. Step one, identify a gap between the way you want things to be and the way things actually are. For instance, you might want your social media posts to have high levels of engagement, but right now, they receive little engagement. Step two, generate options for what you could do in order to try to close the gap between what's happening and what you want to be happening. For instance, one option could be to change the visual style of the social media posts, and another option could be to adjust what topics the social media posts are on. Step three, decide which of these options to pursue. For instance, you might decide that changing the topic of your posts, rather than the visual style, is the more promising of the options. Now that we've broken down problem-solving to steps, its connection to decision-making is clearer. Decision-making is simply the third and final step of problem-solving. So, when will you use decision-making and when will you use problem-solving? Sometimes, there'll be a clear set of options to choose between, which means that all you'll be doing is pure decision-making. Other times, you'll start with a problem or undesirable situation, and you'll have to work to understand the nature of the problem, and then generate options for what could be done to try to improve it. That's an example of problem-solving. But as the final step in that problem-solving process, you'll apply decision-making to determine what to do. This tight link between problem-solving and decision-making means that anything we do to improve our decision-making also makes us better problem-solvers. It also means that nuanced thinking can help us improve our problem-solving, just as it can help us improve our decision-making. There's another common element between decision-making and problem-solving, however, that it's easy to miss. Success for both decision-making and problem-solving is measured in the same way. But how exactly should we define success? Success is the extent to which the final option you've chosen causes your objectives to be met on average. If we consider a simple case where the only objective is to make revenue, then the quality of a choice is simply how much revenue on average will be caused by that choice. Notice that I used the phrase, "On average." That might sound like a minor detail, but it's actually an essential part of evaluating success. Suppose the poker player plays a hand in such a way that if they repeated that play across many games where they were in the same situation, it would cause them to lose money on average. However, just due the luck of the draw in that particular game, they happen to win that hand. Have they made a good decision? No. They've made a bad decision, even though it happened to turn out in their favor. For a poker player to win in the long term, they have to make bets that make money on average. Some of these will turn out to be winning bets, whereas others will turn out to be losing bets simply due to bad luck. But the quality of each decision depends on what's expected to happen on average when they play the same play, not whether the luck happens to go with them or against them in any particular round. Similarly, in your life, since the world is uncertain, good decisions you make will occasionally lead to bad outcomes and bad decisions you make will occasionally lead to good outcomes. That's why it's critical to think about the average when evaluating the quality of an option we've selected. A good option is one which, on average, causes you to achieve your objectives to a high degree.
5. Face the challenges of nuanced decision-making in groups
- It's likely that many of the work decisions you face involve multiple people. This creates a challenge when it comes to applying nuanced decision making. Suppose that you're the captain of a large sailing ship. Your crew mates are talented sailors, but they have different ideas about where you're trying to take the ship. Some think you're aiming for Barbados, while others think you're aiming for Mexico. Until the objective is defined, the crew is going to struggle to work together efficiently, and they may even undermine each other's work accidentally. While all nuanced decision making begins with defining objectives, it's even more critical to do so within groups. Different people may have different ideas for what you're trying to achieve, and these differences may not come to light unless you explicitly discuss the objectives. It's usually most efficient, if you can reach an agreement on objectives right at the beginning of a decision-making or problem-solving scenario so that everyone can work towards a common goal. But even when objectives are established early on, processes involving multiple people have a tendency to drift off course. So, it's important to spot when colleagues start steering in different directions and to remind them of the agreed upon objectives. For example, a colleague may suggest a fantastic idea, but it's a fantastic idea for increasing conversions, whereas the agreed upon objective is to improve customer lifetime value. When that happens, you can compliment your colleagues' idea and then generally remind them that it's unfortunately out of scope for the current decision, because it's not relevant to the agreed upon objective. Do you remember the second step in nuanced decision making? It's to engage in nuanced thinking, which means considering the potential options with an open mind, while avoiding binary thinking traps. It can become more difficult to apply to nuanced thinking yourself in a group, if other group members are acting in a closed-minded way or falling into binary thinking traps. Consider this scenario. Suppose that you and some of your colleagues are preparing an investor presentation. One colleague argues it's best to explain what your product does in practical terms on the first slide. Another colleague suggest it's more persuasive, if the first slide discusses the larger problem that your company is aiming to tackle. They've been arguing about this for 20 minutes without any progress being made. Each of your colleagues appears to be fully convinced they're correct. Consider how you would engage in and promote nuanced thinking in this situation.
Pause the video now and take a moment to think about it. (upbeat music)
One approach to promote nuanced thinking in this scenario, would be to ask your colleagues, if they'll take a step back with you to carefully consider each option one at a time before deciding. You could then suggest that they both help generate pros and cons for both of the options, starting with pros of option one, then moving to cons of option one, then moving on to pros of option two, followed by cons of option two. By suggesting this exercise, you can help make sure that you and your colleagues avoid the truth binary. Your colleagues each seem to have treated the answer as being obvious without taking into account the situation's inherent uncertainty. Additionally, this exercise may help you and your colleagues avoid the goodness binary. It seems your colleagues only saw the good parts of their own proposal and the bad parts of the other person's proposal rather than considering the pros and cons of each.
6. Practice nuanced decision-making
What this conversation is about
You and your manager are creating a pitch deck for potential investors. Your manager wants to start with a practical explanation of your product, but you believe starting with the problem you're solving would be more persuasive. Initially, every time you point out a reason why your idea is better, your manager responds with a reason why they think their idea is actually better. Instead of debating, apply nuanced decision-making to collaboratively determine the most effective opening slide for the presentation.
What makes it successful
1. Apply nuanced-thinking, avoiding thinking of each option as being all good or bad.
2. Listen actively to your manager's perspective and acknowledge their point, seeking to understand their perspective.
3. Suggest a more collaborative approach to the conversation — evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of both ideas together rather than defending your own.
4. Ensure the final decision supports the shared goal: creating a compelling investor pitch.
Who the conversation is between
Linkedin AI
Manager
The AI is a seasoned manager who values practical and straightforward communication. The AI insists their idea is the correct one. They are open to finding compromise only when the team member suggests doing so.
Feedback
Strengths
Areas of improvement
Feedback from your transcript
Conversation insight
This message could be clearer and more concise. It is important to articulate your thoughts in a straightforward manner to avoid confusion.
Example
"Let's identify our target investors and determine what key information they would find most valuable in our pitch."
Conversation insight
While this message shows good initiative, it could be more specific in terms of the research needed. Providing clear action steps would make it more actionable.
Example
"What do you think about focusing our research on how our product addresses significant problems and gathering specific data points to support this?"
Conversation insight
This message could be more detailed to show a proactive approach. Asking for specific research suggestions is good, but adding your own ideas would demonstrate initiative.
Example
"Can you suggest specific areas we should research? I was thinking of looking into market growth rates and competitor analysis."
Investors benefit from selling and buying shares in developing companies. They are primarily interested in
whether the company is growing and how quickly. They may know nothing about customers,
competitors, market shares, or the balance of power in the industry, but they always know the pace—whether
this market is growing fast enough. A slowing growth rate means the market is becoming saturated with solutions, while an accelerating
growth rate means a “stick” graph and the potential for exponential growth.
Investors think about the market without taking into account checks and the size of the target audience. They proceed from
mercantile considerations to earn money on the growth of the project.
The main parameters for assessing the market using the investor's method are conversion (how effectively you
attract a new audience) and the growth rate of the niche from year to year.
7. Quiz
Question 1 of 5
You notice a decline in sales, and two customers have recently mentioned reliability issues. How should you approach this decline using nuanced thinking?
Question 2 of 5
What is the first step in nuanced decision making?
Question 3 of 5
You are choosing a venue for a company off-site involving multiple stakeholders, including your boss and the attendees. What is your initial step in applying nuanced decision making?
Speak to relevant stakeholders and work with them to determine the objectives for the off-site.
Question 4 of 5
Why is it especially important to define objectives clearly when making decisions within a group?
Question 5 of 5
You lead a team tasked with choosing a new marketing strategy. Two people propose different strategies, and each person is adamant about their choice. How can you apply nuanced thinking to resolve the situation?
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