Flexibility: Ready to switch mental models? 

Did you crack the Color Code? This game measures a key leadership skill for today’s rapidly changing environment – cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is the ability to switch one’s attention between different processing modes.

Our two processing modes were described by Daniel Kahneman (2011) as System 1 and System 2. System 1 specializes in automatic or unconscious thinking, where your brain interprets and makes judgments with little cognitive effort. By contrast, System 2 is effortful, controlled, and slower.

Leaders must be able to quickly perceive and respond to dynamic conditions using both System 1 and System 2, as required. Cognitive flexibility counteracts potential biases in decision-making that can result from letting System 1’s unconscious thinking go. t helps leaders to be able to switch between the varying demands as they move between checking a board presentation for accuracy to shaping a five-year strategy. Cognitive flexibility predicts leader…