Friday, October 17, 2008

The Right Way to Ponder

Say you need to solve a problem. You need to figure out the best way to get something done. First you have to lay out the goal. Then you need to outline some of the obstacles. Then you need to propose some solutions. You best do this in such a way that you do not claim the proposals. This allows others present to take parts of them and use them to build other ideas. Or to reject them outright. It allows you to look at them more objectively and not defend them as much as you might if they were yours. The proper way to do this is to couch all proposed ideas and sub-ideas in "A guy could . . . . "

1 comment:

Chuckles said...

David Brooks expands on your thoughts today in the NYT - The Behavioral Revolution