One of the complaints I hear is often is “I have no time for strategic thinking.” The more projects land on executive desks, the greater the need for creating high impact with little time.
Imagine you are leading a process improvement project to reduce duplication in the branch offices and improve operating margins.
Does the project and team get your Best Thinking, or your Busiest Thinking?
Many critical initiatives compete for leadership attention. But a project doesn’t need a calendar slot as much as a brain slot.
How much time do we dedicate to quality thinking?
Do we allow a full schedule to fill our minds as well as our calendars, leaving precious little room for breakthrough ideas?
Brain space may not be available if it is already fully employed with chronic busy thinking.
Try to remember the last time you had an insight about something. Maybe it wasn’t related to work. You just saw something differently than you had before.
Consider how much detail it cut through.
Perhaps you’d been puzzling something for days. Then a new idea arrives and suddenly you can’t imagine how you didn’t think of it this way before.
Do you remember the feeling of an insight? For me it often has a simple, clear resolve to it. It doesn’t feel like those scampering and frantic ideas I have when I’m torn in many directions or have taken in a lot of contrary opinions.
Next time you have an insight, pay attention to the feeling and use it as a guide.
If you can get a feel for this you can start allowing the natural brilliance of insightful thinking it to work for you more often.
It may change the way you think
About the author.
Elese Coit is a Large-Scale Change Consultant who helps organizations succeed at technical, system and process transformation. Elese Coit & Associates partners with companies undergoing change to build engagement and overcome resistance .
