It's All In Your Mind - Answers Revealed

In our last post, we posed Dr. Shane Frederick's three-question Cognitive Reflection Test, and promised the answers. Here they are:

1) A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? _$1.05____ cents

(2) If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets? _5___ minutes

(3) In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake? __47___ days

According to Dr. Frederick, those who are able to correctly answer all three questions are the most brilliant among us. Well, I will confess, I correctly responded to number 2 immediately, and came up with the answer to number 3 only after drawing it out on paper. However, I do not think this is in any way indicative of a lack of brilliance on my part. I simply have no interest in baseball.

I think the real test of one's cognitive reflection, or critical thinking skills, is not necessarily related to their IQ (sorry, Dr. Frederick). The real indicator is how someone looks at a problem, not just coming up with the correct mathmatical answer. To be a true critical thinker, you have to be able to suspend your own opinions and biases, and look at a problem from every possible angle - step out of your own shoes, walk across the room and see it in a completely different light. Those of us who are able to do this consistently are the truly brilliant among us, for they will see not just answers, but possibilities.

It's All In Your Mind

With the economy picking up a bit, a lot of our coaching work over the last few months has been Interview Coaching. The feedback we are hearing from our clients indicates that a lot of companies out there are utilizing interview techniques that reveal more about a candidate's ability to think on their feet than about their work experience. Candidates are experiencing "critical thinking assessment" questions, which reveal the way a candidate problem-solves and responds under pressure.

Some of these questions don't really have a definitive answer. For example, one candidate interviewing at a major oil company in Houston was asked "If you filled a two gallon jar with jelly beans and put a softball in as well, how many jelly beans will it take to fill up the jar." Obviously, the interviewer was not looking for a definitive number from the candidate. Rather, they wanted to see how the candidate would respond under pressure, and what critical thinking tools would be revealed as they tried to solve the problem.

Other employers are using Shane Frederick's Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). Although the test only has three questions, Dr. Frederick's research proves that how a person answers can be a strong indicator of both their intelligence and their critical thinking skills. Let's see how you do:

(1) A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? _____ cents

(2) If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets? _____ minutes

(3) In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake? _____ days

Post your responses. We will reveal the answers in the next blog post. Winners will be entered in a drawing for a free coaching session!

Think Outside the Suggestion Box

How do you create a culture of innovation? Where do you find those innovative process improvements? You ask the employees who perform the process for just one thing: what one thing would you do differently that would immediately improve this process or service? Empower your employees to think creatively about your business. Thomas Koulopoulos, author of The Innovation Zone, advises “You need to give people the license to take risks and to fail often enough to realize that they will not be punished for doing the right thing even though the outcome might not be what they expected. Small failures can encourage big successes.”

At this point, you might be thinking “We are already doing this. We have a Suggestion Box for our employees on every floor, or, in every department. We ask our employees for their ideas, and month after month, those suggestion boxes remain empty.” Exactly. From the employees’ standpoint, there is no expectation that they generate new ideas; just a box to drop it into on the chance they do have a new idea. Providing a suggestion box is not the same thing as asking and expecting your employees to think with economic creativity about the work they do.

Questions:

1. Do you think you currently have a culture of employee innovation?

2. How do you communicate your expectation of idea generation to your employees?

3. What venues/mediums do you have available for employees to bring forth their ideas?

4. When an employee generates a viable innovative idea, how do you empower them to implement their idea?

5. What rewards and recognition programs do you have in place for employees who successfully generate and implement economically creative ideas?

6. How do you provide feedback and coaching to employees who are generating non-viable ideas?