The Power of Switching Our Thinking with Dr Ken Hudson

Hello and welcome to Episode 343 of The People Powered Business Podcast.

Have you ever sat in a team meeting, watched everyone go round in circles on the same problem, and thought, why can't they just see it the way I do? You can jump from the numbers to the client to the team to the tech in the space of an hour without blinking. Your team often can't, and that's one more reason so much ends up back on your desk.

I see this all the time with the business owners I work with. Most of you are wired to switch between different ways of thinking. It's second nature. But we can't expect our team to think like us, because they're not wired the same way. So that's why I've invited Dr Ken Hudson on to chat about his new book, Switch Thinking.

Ken spent around 15 years in marketing with large companies, including as head of marketing at American Express in Australia, completed his doctorate in organisational creativity, and has spent the last 20 years helping business owners and leaders solve problems and think differently.

Ken shares where the idea came from (watching a colleague move effortlessly between Mandarin and English at a conference in Singapore) and why he believes switching your thinking is a skill you can learn and teach, not a personality trait. We talk about why the word "switch" gets a much better reaction from a team than the word "change", and why a switch doesn't have to be permanent. Ken explains his box mode and ball mode approach. Box mode is structure, goals and decisions. Ball mode is play and experimenting with ideas. Neither one is better than the other, and the real value comes from moving between the two. We also get into AI, including how Ken has trained ChatGPT to respond in both modes so it adds to his thinking rather than replacing it.

Here's the part that surprised me most: giving people less time often gets you better ideas. When there are only two minutes on the clock, there's no room for the voice asking "what if I'm wrong?" or "what if I look silly?", so people stop filtering and start creating.

If you're the one in your business who always seems to find a way through, this conversation gives you simple language and tools to help your team do more of that thinking for themselves.

In this episode we cover:

• Why switching between ways of thinking is a skill your team can learn, and how one word can get it started
• Why "switch" lands better than "change" with a team, and why two minutes is the sweet spot for thinking differently
• Box mode and ball mode, and how Ken moved a team from 30 ideas to three they could test in 30 days
• How to use AI to extend your own thinking instead of handing it over
• A simple pause, switch and play approach for when a situation or conversation isn't going the way you expected

You can connect with Ken via: https://drkenhudson.com 

Or grab your copy of the book: https://drkenhudson.com/books-videos/switch-thinking-the-book/ 

Links & Resources:

💬 DM Kristy-Lee on Instagram @kristy.lee.billett

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristyleebillett/ 

Email me at [email protected] 

Book a 15-minute clarity call: https://calendly.com/kristyleebillett/chat 

What this episode covers

Business owners tend to move between different ways of thinking without noticing, but their teams often don't, which leaves problems and decisions sitting with the owner. Dr Ken Hudson, author of Switch Thinking, explains why switching your thinking is a learnable skill and shares practical tools leaders can use themselves and teach to their teams. Listeners will come away understanding the difference between box mode and ball mode, why two-minute thinking bursts work, and how to use AI to add to human thinking rather than replace it.

Key insight from this episode

The biggest barrier to fresh thinking is usually a person's own internal filter: the worry about being wrong, making a mistake or looking silly. Short two-minute bursts leave no time for that filter to kick in, which is why tight time limits often produce better ideas than hour-long brainstorming sessions. Switching back to structured "box mode" then turns those ideas into clear priorities and decisions.

What you'll take away

• Use the word "switch" with your team to invite a different perspective without the resistance the word "change" tends to bring
• Run a two-minute thinking burst in a meeting to get past overthinking and generate new ideas quickly
• Recognise whether a situation calls for box mode (structure and decisions) or ball mode (play and ideas), and move between them deliberately
• Take a long list of ideas and narrow it to a few worth testing in the next 30 days
• Prompt AI tools to respond in both modes while keeping control of the thinking and the final call