Jay shri krishna
LKrishna THINKING
PORTRAIT OF A GOOD THINKER
You often hear someone say that a colleague or friend is a “good thinker,” but
that phrase means something different to everyone. To one person it may mean
having a high IQ, while to another it could mean knowing a bunch of trivia or
being able to figure out whodunit when reading a mystery novel. I believe that
good thinking isn’t just one thing. It consists of several specific thinking skills.
Becoming a good thinker means developing those skills to the best of your
ability.
It doesn’t matter whether you were born rich or poor. It doesn’t matter if you
have a third grade education or possess a Ph.D. It doesn’t matter if you suffer
from multiple disabilities or you’re the picture of health. No matter what your
circumstances, you can learn to be a good thinker. All you must do is be willing
to engage in the process every day.
In Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras describe what it means to be a
visionary company, the kind of company that epitomizes the pinnacle of
American business. They describe those companies this way:
A visionary company is like a great work of art. Think of Michelangelo’s
scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or his statue of
David. Think of a great and enduring novel like Huckleberry Finn or Crime
and Punishment. Think of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or Shakespeare’s
Henry V. Think of a beautifully designed building, like the masterpieces of
Frank Lloyd Wright or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. You can’t point to any
one single item that makes the whole thing work; it’s the entire work—all
the pieces working together to create an overall effect—that leads to
enduring greatness.
Good thinking is similar. You need all the thinking “pieces” to become the
kind of person who can achieve great things. Those pieces include the following
eleven skills:
Seeing the Wisdom of Big-Picture Thinking
Unleashing the Potential of Focused Thinking
Discovering the Joy of Creative Thinking
Recognizing the Importance of Realistic Thinking
Releasing the Power of Strategic Thinking
Feeling the Energy of Possibility Thinking
Embracing the Lessons of Reflective Thinking
Questioning the Acceptance of Popular Thinking
Encouraging the Participation of Shared Thinking
Experiencing the Satisfaction of Unselfish Thinking
Enjoying the Return of Bottom-Line Thinking
As you read the chapters dedicated to each kind of thinking, you will discover
that they do not try to tell you what to think; they attempt to teach you how to
think. As you become acquainted with each skill, you will find that some you do
well, others you don’t. Learn to develop each of those kinds of thinking, and you
will become a better thinker. Master all that you can—including the process of
shared thinking which helps you compensate for your weak areas—and your life
will change.
Cultivate Big-Picture Thinking
“Where success is concerned, people are not measured in inches, or
pounds, or college degrees, or family background; they are measured by the
size of their thinking.”
Big-picture thinking can benefit any person in any profession. When somebody
like Jack Welch tells a GE employee that the ongoing relationship with the
customer is more important than the sale of an individual product, he’s
reminding them of the big picture. When two parents are fed up with potty
training, poor grades, or fender-benders, and one reminds the other that the
current difficult time is only a temporary season, then they benefit from thinking
big picture. Real estate developer Donald Trump quipped, “You have to think
anyway, so why not think big?” Big-picture thinking brings wholeness and
maturity to a person’s thinking. It brings perspective. It’s like making the frame
of a picture bigger, in the process expanding not only what you can see, but what
you are able to do.
Spend time with big-picture thinkers, and you will find that they:
Learn Continually
Big-picture thinkers are never satisfied with what they already know. They are
always visiting new places, reading new books, meeting new people, learning
new skills. And because of that practice, they often are able to connect the
unconnected. They are lifelong learners.
To help me maintain a learner’s attitude, I spend a few moments every
morning thinking about my learning opportunities for the day. As I review my
calendar and to-do list—knowing whom I will meet that day, what I will read,
which meetings I will attend—I note where I am most likely to learn something.
Then I mentally cue myself to look attentively for something that will improve
me in that situation. If you desire to keep learning, I want to encourage you to
examine your day and look for opportunities to learn.
Listen Intentionally
An excellent way to broaden your experience is to listen to someone who has
expertise in an area where you don’t. I search for such opportunities. One year I
spoke to about 900 coaches and scouts at the Senior Bowl, where graduating
football players participate in their last college game. I had the opportunity,
along with my son-in-law, Steve Miller, to have dinner with NFL head coaches
Dave Wannstedt and Butch Davis. It’s not often that you get such an opportunity,
so I asked them questions about teamwork and spent a lot of time listening to
them. At the end of the evening, as Steve and I were walking to our car, he said
to me, “John, I bet you asked those coaches a hundred questions tonight.”
“If I’m going to learn and grow,” I replied, “I must know what questions to
ask and know how to apply the answers to my life. Listening has taught me a lot
more than talking.”
When you meet with people, it’s good to have an agenda so that you can learn.
It’s a great way to partner with people who can do things you can’t. Big-picture
thinkers recognize that they don’t know lots of things. They frequently ask
penetrating questions to enlarge their understanding and thinking. If you want to
become a better big-picture thinker, then become a good listener.
“Many an object is not seen, though it
falls within the range of our visual ray, because it does not come within the range
of our intellectual ray.” Human beings habitually see their own world first. For
example, when people arrive at a leadership conference put on by my company,
they want to know where they’re going to park, whether they will be able to get
a good (and comfortable) seat, whether the speaker will be “on,” and if the
breaks will be spaced right. When I arrive to speak at the same conference, I
want to know that the lighting is good, the sound equipment is operating
effectively, whether the speaker’s platform will be close enough to the people,
etc. Who you are determines what you see—and how you think.
Big-picture thinkers realize there is a world out there besides their own, and
they make an effort to get outside of themselves and see other people’s worlds
through their eyes. It’s hard to see the picture while inside the frame. To see how
others see, you must first find out how they think. Becoming a good listener
certainly helps with that. So does getting over your personal agenda and trying to
take the other person’s perspective.
Live Completely
French essayist Michel Eyquem de Montaigne wrote, “The value of life lies
not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long
yet live very little.” The truth is that you can spend your life any way you want,
but you can spend it only once. Becoming a big-picture thinker can help you to
live with wholeness, to live a very fulfilling life. People who see the big picture
expand their experience because they expand their world. As a result, they
accomplish more than narrow-minded people. And they experience fewer
unwanted surprises, too, because they are more likely to see the many
components involved in any given situation: issues, people, relationships,
timing, and values. They are also, therefore, usually more tolerant of other
people and their thinking.
Jay shri krishna
LKrishna THINKING
Contact MAIL. lkrishna.htat@gmail.com
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