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You work inside 5 nested boxes. Stay aligned.

You work inside 5 nested boxes. Stay aligned.

You work within a set of nested boxes and it’s your job to keep them mentally aligned. Otherwise, you’ll be blind to emerging problems and opportunities. Plan on spending 90 minutes every quarter with your team to discuss the implications of changes in the larger environments that might affect your plans and decisions. Work on…

Systems thinking and the pragmatic thinker

Systems thinking and the pragmatic thinker

I recently presented my case for becoming a thinking generalist. However, I’d like to modify that title a bit and rename this person a Pragmatic Thinker. As stated last time, Pragmatic Thinkers incorporate the essentials of five schools of thought into their daily lives. Critical thinking – because we must evaluate evidence and arguments. Skepticism…

At intersection of paths, people debating which way to go - illustration

Pragmatic Business Thinking

In the last issue of MindPrep I mentioned our plans to create a course focused on Pragmatic Business Thinking and I drafted a course description. Mary, my friend and advisor, reminded me that I just might want to define the term before I described the course. Of course, I was assuming that all of you…

Defective Thinking ?

Defective Thinking ?

First, a quick quiz. What do they have in common? Well, obviously, they are no longer needed. But ponder this – these businesses were managed by experienced, educated, well paid, and (supposedly) smart people. What went wrong? Why did they disappear? I suggest that poor quality thinking is at the heart of the decisions they…

Your Thinking Machine

Your Thinking Machine

There is this cool, but complicated, thinking machine that sits between your two ears. You might think it looks like a grey blob, but I imagine it as a rather interesting machine that produces a custom version of “my truth.” Maybe it looks like this: Rin Duong You’ll note that the inputs to the machine…

Strategy and thinking in boxes

Strategy and thinking in boxes

In an earlier post I explained the need to think in a set of six nested boxes rather than simply “outside the box.” Context: a set of boxes Here is a set of boxes shown with some of their component parts. These parts change and interact in an amoral sense – not good, not bad….

Let’s think about thinking

Let’s think about thinking

Here are some components of thinking and some notes I made about myself and the world at large. Components 1. Perception: The process of taking in sensory information and making sense of it. I sense the weather every day but am not sure about climate change. To misquote Sherlock Holmes, we see but we do not…

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