9 Ways to Get Teams Thinking and Accountable: The Coach-Leadership Way
Sep 1
/
Sehaam Cyrene
How to help your team build thinking muscle, stay accountable, and create value that lasts.
Why do teams find thinking so hard?
Because real thinking isn’t automatic — it’s effortful. Yet, when teams learn to think together, the rewards are powerful: sharper accountability, stronger collaboration, faster innovation, and a culture that drives performance.
Thinking underpins everything — decision-making, problem-solving, strategy, and delivery. Teams that think well set the pace, energy, and culture that create genuine business value.
Why Thinking Feels So Hard
Long before neuroscience caught up, philosophers knew thinking was tough.
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“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” — Aristotle
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"Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.” — Thomas Edison
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Thinking is hard because it requires us to override our brain’s natural tendency to rely on memory and habit — our built-in autopilot. That’s why so many workplace phrases (“barking up the wrong tree,” “think outside the box”) are placeholders for not thinking too deeply.
True thinking activates the executive centres of our brain — the anterior cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex — responsible for reasoning, planning, and self-control. These areas take effort to fire up.
What Executive Function Really Means
Our executive function is what allows us to:
- Plan and make decisions
- Hold information in working memory
- Balance conflicting priorities
- Anticipate future consequences
- Regulate emotions and behaviour
- Do complex reasoning and problem-solving
When we don’t regularly engage these muscles, thinking feels exhausting. Like any underused muscle, it resists being stretched.
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” — John F. Kennedy
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Thinking is a discipline — it demands time, patience, and courage.
The Time (and Pain) It Takes to Think
Who has time to think deeply?
Thinking means juggling variables, holding contradictions, and working through multiple outcomes — all before deciding where to start. And when we’re missing information (which we often are), it’s hard to even know that we’re missing it.
Thinking with others can be just as demanding — it requires listening, clarity, and vulnerability. Yet it’s also where growth happens, if the environment is safe enough to challenge assumptions.
Thinking means juggling variables, holding contradictions, and working through multiple outcomes — all before deciding where to start. And when we’re missing information (which we often are), it’s hard to even know that we’re missing it.
Thinking with others can be just as demanding — it requires listening, clarity, and vulnerability. Yet it’s also where growth happens, if the environment is safe enough to challenge assumptions.
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Why Teams Avoid Thinking
When time and pressure mount, teams often:
- Think fast and shallow just to move forward.
- Recycle safe statements to fit in.
- Fall into group-think to avoid tension or conflict.
- Work in silos, missing collaboration and collective wisdom.
We default to what’s familiar, even if it’s unproductive. Underneath it all is a fear of getting it wrong or being the one who slows everyone down.
But when teams stop thinking, they stop growing.
How to Get Teams Thinking and Accountable
Here are nine ways to reawaken thinking in your team — practical, coach-leadership-aligned strategies you can use in meetings, projects, and workshops.
1. Warm-Up the Brain
1. Warm-Up the Brain
Start meetings with an ethical dilemma or tricky scenario. Ethics sparks deep reasoning and self-reflection, helping people tune into how they think, not just what they think.
2. Get a Sparring Partner
2. Get a Sparring Partner
Appoint a devil’s advocate — someone tasked with challenging assumptions respectfully. This keeps thinking sharp and prevents comfortable consensus.
3. Provide a Thinking Framework
3. Provide a Thinking Framework
Structure helps thought flow. Use a framework with clear categories — for example:
Definition | Value | Priority | Effort | Dependencies | Risks | Next Steps
Frameworks reduce cognitive overload and allow ideas to be captured, compared, and improved collaboratively.
4. Remove the Distraction of “Current Status”
4. Remove the Distraction of “Current Status”
Instead of starting from what you already know, start with the end in mind.
Define the desired future state, then work backwards to identify gaps and actions needed to get there.
5. Dive Deep Into Fact-Finding Early
5. Dive Deep Into Fact-Finding Early
Collect evidence before opinions harden. Data and facts keep emotions in check and surface hidden assumptions. Encourage the team to park judgements until evidence is gathered.
6. Linger Over Dependencies
6. Linger Over Dependencies
Dependencies shape everything — timelines, risks, and value. Encourage your team to think several steps ahead and visualise how decisions impact others. This builds foresight and accountability.
7. Create an Artificial Risk
7. Create an Artificial Risk
People think more creatively when there’s a sense of urgency. Introduce a hypothetical risk scenario to stimulate problem-solving. It’s a safe way to heighten awareness and stretch thinking capacity.
“Your mind is working at its best when you’re being paranoid.” — Banksy
8. Mix It Up
8. Mix It Up
Change the tempo — literally. Incorporate short walks, energisers, or even different meeting formats to reset energy. Movement fuels creativity and prevents mental fatigue.
9. Practice Asking Questions
9. Practice Asking Questions
Questions keep conversations open. Statements close them.
Model curiosity by asking:
- “What’s another way to look at this?”
- “What assumptions might we be making?”
- “What’s missing from our picture?”
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” — Voltaire
Why This Matters
Teams that learn to think together become more accountable, more innovative, and more courageous.
They challenge respectfully, listen deeply, and make better collective decisions.
Thinking is hard work — but it’s the kind of hard work that builds cultures of trust, creativity, and ownership.
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