OK, yes, you can hold onto a thought. But don’t hold off on
thinking.
We should care that people do not spend enough time
thinking. We tend to focus on the actions, the tactics, before thinking about
the strategies and objectives they’re supposed to support. What passes for
thinking is often unfocused busywork, a churning of un-prioritized activities.
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke of one of the best
pieces of advice he ever received about strategic thinking; it was from former
President Bill Clinton. The president said, “Scheduling.” In a Stanford
Graduate School of Business seminar a few years ago, Mr. Blair talked about how
he both used and passed along this tidbit. “Where’s your thinking time? Where
am I going? What am I trying to do? You have to create the space to be thinking
strategically all the time,” he said.
It’s another example of how process and creativity are not
mutually exclusive. As a fan of the Arthurian legends, I was taken aback by a
comment made in The Once and Future King
about the king’s style of thinking toward the end of his life: “The old man had
always been a dutiful thinker, never an inspired one.” Again, it was a
poor characterization and sets up a false choice. We need both varieties. A
dutiful thinker is one who is habitually observing, searching for solutions,
and attempting to anticipate the future.
The creative spark is precious but dutiful thinking, steady
and stepwise – hand-in-hand with research and analysis – is a virtue of its
own. Sometimes we can get to the goal line in one play. More often, though,
progress is made in important, incremental steps that ultimately add up to the
win.
Friedrich Nietzsche observed the interplay of thinking
behaviors in 1878. "Artists have a vested interest in our believing in the
flash of revelation, the so-called inspiration... shining down from heavens as
a ray of grace. In reality, the imagination of the good artist or thinker
produces continuously good, mediocre or bad things, but his judgment, trained
and sharpened to a fine point, rejects, selects, connects... All great artists
and thinkers are great workers, indefatigable not only in inventing, but also
in rejecting, sifting, transforming, ordering."
There are many ways to think and in any number of
combinations, including:
• Concrete
• Narrow
• Creative
• Analytical
• Visionary
• Critical
• Ideological
• Radical
• Logical
• Ordered
• Groupthinking
And now we can add “unsafe thinking” to the list. In a new book
by the same name, Jonah Sachs places the “unsafe” label on what is actually an amalgamation
of vision, bold moves, measured risks and follow-through. I don’t think Sachs
is lobbying for ideas that are literally unsafe. Unsafe is clever and attention
getting in the same way the profiles in the book showcase inspired, double take
moments created by smart thinkers.
Smart thinkers and good leaders also ask probing questions
and seek a variety of inputs. But some, especially in the public relations,
marketing and advertising realms, seek seclusion so they can develop “the big
idea” on their own. Then, they present their campaigns as a fait accompli like Athena bursting out
of Zeus’s head fully armored and ready for battle.
While there is a clear need for individual thought, creativity
is no one’s personal domain. You want and need exceptional thinkers but they must
know how to leverage a team. Beyond using other minds to reality check, pressure
test and sharpen concepts, we should be accessing ideas from across the
organization. If not, we risk wasting, alienating and demoralizing a most
precious resource.
I invite you to follow me here and on Twitter @pauloestreicher.
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