Have you ever noticed that sometimes your ideas blow everyone away and then, in the very next meeting, you seem to be the only one who doesn’t “get it”? What’s going on? Your ability to think can’t be changing that quickly. Can it?

No, it can’t. In fact, your ability to think changes very slowly. So why is your thinking right on sometimes and not happening at other times?

David Perkins, Shari Tishman,Ron Ritchhart, Kiki Donis, and Al Andrade argue that good thinking is driven by three dispositions: (1) sensitivity – recognizing that it is an appropriate time to employ a set of critical thinking behaviors (2) inclination – the desire to apply those behaviors; and (3) ability – the knowledge, skills and tools needed to think (Perkins, D, Tishman,S, Ritchhart, R, Donis, K, and Andrade, A. Intelligence in the Wild: A Dispositional View of Intellectual Traits, Educational Psychology Review, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2000)

For example, suppose that you are under a tight deadline to come up with a new marketing campaign. You might be so relieved when you hear the first good idea that you don’t think to explore alternatives. That would be a lack of sensitivity. Or, perhaps you know that you should look into alternatives, but due to the time pressure, you decide to go with that first good idea. That’s an example of a lack of inclination. Finally, you might know and want to find alternatives, but you are locked into a single way of thinking. You don’t know how to look at the problem from a fresh perspective. That’s an issue of ability.

Successful leaders and experts have mastered all three of these dispositions. Unfortunately, most critical thinking or innovation/creativity courses only focus on ability. Improving sensitivity and inclination is left up to you. That’s too bad since most thinking problems are rooted in those two areas.

Getting a handle on your triggers is one way to overcome sensitivity and inclination issues. Triggers are situations that cause you to stop thinking. Often some type of stress in the environment drives your triggers. In the earlier example, the deadline was the trigger. Time pressure often causes us to stop thinking.

Each person has his or her own set of triggers although there are some common themes. Examples include deadlines, confrontation, working with peers, working with your boss, working on something new, working on something old, and change.

Your job is to figure out 1) which ones impact you the most 2) how they impact your thinking, and 3) how to recognize if you are falling victim to one.

Unfortunately, most people aren’t always aware of their triggers. That’s why they are so dangerous. The good news is there are a few ways that you can better understand your triggers:

• Ask someone. While you might not be aware of your triggers, the people around you probably are. Ask them what your “hot buttons” are. Find out what situations set you off. Ask how your thinking changes when those buttons are pressed.

• Ask yourself. Even though you might not be conscious of your triggers, your body usually is. Pay attention to the signals that your body gives you – butterflies in the stomach, feeling flushed, heart pounding, sweating, dry mouth, insomnia, irritability, etc. All of these might be signs that you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed. Take a step back when your body sends you a message. Try to pinpoint what is causing the stress. That is probably your trigger.

• Reflect. After your meetings or projects sit down and review your thinking process. Did you seek alternatives, validate information, and challenge assumptions? If you find that you didn’t, think about what got in your way. Look for patterns over time that predict when you are more or less likely to engage in good thinking.

Once you understand your triggers, you can start to act on them. Proactive steps like building thinking time into an agenda can help. Or, you can assign someone the role of playing devil’s advocate. You also might start recognizing the signs that you’ve turned off your sensitivity and inclination. When that happens, the best solution is to call a brief time out to regroup and refocus.

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Brad Kolar is the President of Kolar Associates, a leadership consulting and workforce productivity consulting firm. He can be reached at brad.kolar@kolarassociates.com.