Liminal Thinking summary

In the early 1990s, Gray was considering becoming a university professor. Despite being told by both an art teacher and a friend that he couldn’t get the job without a master’s degree, he applied anyway – and ended up being hired. 

Gray’s experience taught him that other people’s beliefs, while well-meaning, can limit your sense of what’s possible. And this is the fourth principle: beliefs create blind spots. In other words, beliefs help guide your actions but also create boundaries that can prevent you from seeing real opportunities. Questioning these limiting beliefs – whether they come from others or yourself – can open up new possibilities.

So you want to improve your ability to think clearly and solve problems?

Start by assuming you’re not objective. When you’re part of a problem, it can be hard to see your own role in it. One senior executive, for instance, found that his team was hiding information from him. He didn’t realize that his strong reactions to bad news made people hesitant to tell him the truth. If you’re part of the system, you’re also part of the problem. To get a clearer view of yourself, ask a few trusted friends to point out traits they see in you that you may not notice. Compare their views with your own, and reflect on any blind spots you discover.

To better understand people and situations, it’s important to look at things from various perspectives. Triangulating and validating different viewpoints – the fourth practice – helps you challenge your assumptions. Sometimes, assumptions about others are based on incomplete or false theories, like thinking someone is difficult or unreasonable when you don’t have the full picture. Instead of sticking to your initial beliefs, take a step back and consider other possibilities. For instance, Adrian believed a colleague was working late to outshine everyone else. But when he confronted him, Adrian discovered his colleague had a deeper issue at home. The lesson is simple: if something doesn’t make sense, you’re likely missing a key detail. To test this for yourself, think about someone you struggle with and come up with several possible explanations for their behavior. Then, have a conversation with them to test your theories.

The fifth practice is to ask questions and make connections. This helps you explore a situation by digging deeper into others’ experiences. When Mitchell Sipus, a humanitarian aid worker, was hired by the mayor of Mogadishu to help solve problems in the city, he found that local fishermen were catching plenty of fish but weren’t making money because they lacked proper refrigeration. By asking around, he found someone with a solution – a local ice vendor – and connected the two parties. As a result, the fishermen’s business improved. The key here is to uncover people’s hopes, frustrations, and needs. Ask questions about their goals and challenges, just like Sipus did. Then, make a connection between their problems and a solution they haven’t considered.

The seventh practice encourages you to act as if in the here and now. Jason Roberts, for example, wanted to recreate the vibrant European plazas he had seen in his Dallas neighborhood. But outdated laws made that seem impossible. Instead of accepting these limits, he and his friends staged a temporary transformation. They added crosswalks, put out tables, and turned an empty lot into a park – all without official approval. They then invited the city council to see the result, questioning why such rules existed in the first place. Acting as if those barriers didn’t matter brought the conflict into the open, leading to real change. Pick an area of your life you’d like to improve. Write down your beliefs about it. Then, list alternative ones – even absurd ideas – and act on one to see if it makes a difference.

Humans naturally turn to stories to explain why things are the way they are; stories shape our beliefs and how we make sense of the world. The problem is, these explanations often rely on faulty logic. For instance, executives who see poor sales might blame individual team members instead of investigating the real causes, letting their stories reinforce their existing beliefs. That’s why the eighth practice says to make sense by telling stories, or inviting others to share theirs. In doing so, you can learn more about the beliefs underlying your own or other people’s actions. Reflect on the stories you regularly tell about yourself. What beliefs do they reveal? Now, think about the stories your friends and colleagues share. What do those stories suggest about their beliefs?