I recently received a gem of a question from
Don Li, an education software entrepreneur
in Virginia who is one of my regular
readers. Don’s question was simple but
worth thinking about. He asked, “How do
you improve your thought process?” One of
the keys to becoming a great leader is to
constantly improve your strategic thinking,
so you can adjust to new global realities.
Yet with time limits and stress from work
and family, managers often feel they don’t
have the time to improve. That is a big
mistake. Your own career and the future of
your company depend on your strategic
thought and its constant if incremental
betterment. Even in only 15 minutes a day
you can improve your strategic thinking.
You can do it between driving your kids to
soccer games and responding to e-mails
from your boss.
How?
One of the worst things managers can do is
always think they are right. You know the
type. They dig in during meetings, refusing
to listen to others. They grow red in the face
with apoplectic anger that anyone dare
have a different view. Anyone who does not
agree with them is a fool or a knave. These
people destroy an organization no matter
how talented or brilliant they are.
The first step is just to make sure you
constantly question your own opinions.
Take for instance my view on China’s
economy and whether or not there is a real
estate bubble there that could undermine
the global recovery. My firm’s research
suggests that business and consumer
confidence there is high, that there is not
too much leverage in China’s marketplace
(leverage, not high prices, is what causes
dangerous real estate and stock bubbles) and
that the government is investing smartly in
infrastructure projects like rail lines,
subways and clean technology initiatives
that improve economic efficiency and lower
the costs of doing business.
Yet I rarely listen to or read the opinions of
people like me who are bullish on China’s
economy, like World Bank officials or Jim
Rogers. Instead I constantly read the work
of bears like the hedge fund short-seller Jim
Chanos, to see if they see something that I
miss. Although I almost always disagree
with economists like Paul Krugman and
Martin Wolf, I avidly read them. I even
read the work of China bears like Andy Xie,
who are more entertainers and masters of
the sound bite than economists, to see if
they have noticed something I’ve missed. On
a regular basis I question my own analyses
to see if others’ criticisms of my positions
make sense.
It is dangerous to read the work of people
who agree with you and surround yourself
with yes men. You end up falling into the
trap of group think and believing in your
own infallibility. It is startlingly how
similar the thinking is of analysts from
Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley . When
you talk to people who think like you do,
you end up thinking the same, and you fail
to see reality.
Second, don’t just read people who look at
the world differently; surround yourself
with them. You can do this either at work
or by regularly setting up gatherings with
friends who think in other ways. For
instance, I was trained in graduate school
by political scientists like the late Harvard
professor Samuel Huntington (of The Clash
of Civilizations fame) and economists like
Janos Kornai, yet I am completely mystified
by chemistry. Therefore our team is strong
in biologists and chemists–because their
fields are what I am weakest in. They
analyze the development of Google or Apple
in China very differently from how I do. I
ensure that the team for every project is
made up of consultants with totally
difference consulting experiences and
academic backgrounds.
For a project we had in the apparel sector, I
assigned the project team to include a
computer scientist, a financial analyst and
a poet whose last projects had been,
respectively, in consumer electronics,
chemicals and online games. Their different
thinking methods and experiences helped us
develop a quite profitable strategy for a
client and have improved my own thought
processes too.
Finally, make sure you recharge your brain
and body regularly. College professors are
encouraged to take sabbaticals every few
years for a reason. Go off and experience
something different, and see how others
view the world. Not everyone can afford to
take a year off, but you can do it on the
cheap. You can take a trip somewhere
where the people are different. You can
volunteer in a soup kitchen for a week.
Whatever you do, you need to put yourself
in different environments that will help
give you perspective and test and challenge
your world view.
Leaders who rise to the top are ones who
constantly sharpen their strategic thinking
by questioning their own views, by listening
to different viewpoints, surrounding
themselves by people with different
expertise areas and doing anything else they
can to gain different perspectives.

May the force be with you Op for sharing. Such timely post and what a way to start a week. Carpe diem people!

A hellishly good one to stumble upon. Thanks op

Areacode213: A hellishly good one to stumble upon. Thanks op

anytime.

Areacode213: A hellishly good one to stumble upon. Thanks op

anytime.