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Narrow thinking poses a threat to teams and organisations in today's ever-changing world, but a quick "switching" exercise can foster the agility required to keep pace, an expert in problem solving says.

In his new book Switch Thinking, Dr Ken Hudson – who has a PhD in organisational creativity, and has held both academic and corporate leadership roles – encourages leaders and teams to experiment with different ways of thinking using two different 'modes', for two minutes at a time.

'Box mode' is a more analytical way of thinking, he explains; it might be used to define a problem and develop a few initial solutions. The more playful 'ball mode', on the other hand, can be used to generate more original, imaginative ideas.

Hudson tells HR Daily that most people operate in box mode when they're at work, focusing on structure, KPIs, goals, and progress. That's also the mode people tend to default to when under pressure...