I’ve always paid attention to the way we try to explain thinking… how we map it, categorise it, make it teachable.

I came across a framework recently that grouped thinking into four modalities — critical, systems, strategic, design. It’s tidy. It’s appealing. It’s simple and makes what could be an extremely complicated topic…palatable.

And yet… as I looked at this simplification, I knew in my heart of hearts that while the intention was well meaning, the information and the categories were misleading.

Because when you sit with people long enough… when you listen to how they process, hesitate, justify, avoid, imagine, or react… you start to realise that thinking doesn’t move in clean, distinct quadrants. Humans don’t switch modalities like apps. We move through patterns shaped by who we are, where we sit, and what we’ve been asked to carry.

You see it so clearly inside organisations. Someone who is brilliant at systems thinking suddenly becomes narrow and tactical. Someone who normally sees patterns everywhere can’t see beyond the problem in front of them. Someone who loves designing solutions loses their creativity the minute the pressure rises. And the interesting thing is… it’s rarely about “ability.” More often, it’s about the environment they’re thinking inside of.

And that’s when the misalignment shows itself.

• A team with great people but fragile systems starts to think in survival mode… everything feels urgent, everything is reactive.
• A team with strong systems but mismatched roles slips into confusion… even their sharpest thinkers lose clarity because nothing around them supports forward movement.
• A team with clear roles but the wrong people ends up in constant friction… thinking becomes defensive, not generative. And when you have talent but nothing else fits… the thinking scatters. Potential leaks through the cracks.

I’ve watched this pattern repeat itself across industries, across countries, across personalities. The thinking isn’t the problem… the ecosystem is. People don’t lose their cognitive range — they lose the conditions that allow them to use it.

This is why, in my work, thinking is never examined in isolation. It always lives inside the dynamic between people, roles, and systems. Any shift that ripples across the whole must move through these three. That’s where the real story is.

Because when people are well-matched, roles are clear, and systems are supportive… thinking transforms. It becomes spacious, grounded, imaginative, precise. The four modalities stop being categories and start being natural extensions of how humans make sense of their world.

That’s the part these well meaning frameworks presented as diagrams can’t show you – the lived texture of thinking. It’s relational. It’s contextual. It’s shaped by alignment or the lack of it.

So yes… it’s useful to name the patterns. But the deeper work is noticing what shapes them… what constrains them… and what becomes possible when the whole environment shifts.

When people, roles, and systems finally meet each other… thinking expands. And once thinking expands, everything else follows.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

Where in your work do you feel like you’re putting in more effort than the results show… and what do you suspect might be behind that?

About Giselle

I’m Giselle Hudson — writer, possibility thinker, musician, Organization & People Development Sensemaker™, and MCODE Legacy Coach. I help leaders and soul-driven professionals decode the deeper patterns shaping their business, work, identities, and results especially when it look like a performance issue but it’s really misalignment in disguise.

If something in your life or business feels off and you can’t quite name it, message me. Sometimes one conversation is all it takes to see what’s really going on.