We can’t tell the future. We acknowledge that we don’t know what we don’t know. There are even things we know we don’t know. There are therefore more gaps in our thinking than we have surety in. In fact, every positive decision we make may be one step away from failure simply because we didn’t know what we didn’t know (remember bounded rationality?). Hence, even when we have made the right decision, we cannot keep it delivering the right outcomes. At any point in time, that r

​ When you have an intent to achieve for the future, we tend to look at how we reach that from where we are. While this is essential, many a times, we can trace the steps of how we got to where we are now, and they may also show us they way to the future. This is called thinking in time. As you all know, we are the product of all the decisions we have made in our life. Our situation is the result of all our decisions and all the events that shaped it. Sometimes, we simply ign

Systems thinking is a very important aspect of being strategic. To be able to see things from above, and from below; to make the connections between different drivers of the system to identify the centres of gravity of a recurring problem; to fix the true cause of the problem, so that it does not recur, these are some of the important element of systems thinking, and I invite you to check out the process in the related posts. Related: New Systems Thinking I will not repeat pr

Simon Sinek is a TED talk sensation and the topic of his talk is the same as that of his book, Start With Why. In his book, he spoke about why it was most important to start all decisions, all discussions, all actions with why – why are you doing what you are doing. That is the most important question in strategic thinking. When we start thinking strategically, we start with the why. Yet, we know from the cognitive bias called the substitution effect, we seldom ever say what

(Dedicated to the Trainers in Indonesia!) This is a very good question, because at the back of it, there are similar questions like: should we apply strategic thinking all the time and what conditions can we dispense with strategic thinking, and when must we absolutely need to apply strategic thinking. Finally, it also begs the question: what is strategic thinking? Let’s start with the definition. Readers familiar with our work will know that strategic thinking is the applica

I chanced upon your website and been reading your posts. I find some of them rather interesting. I also saw that you answered people’s queries. So I have decided to send a query too; I hope you will answer it. I run a 6-man team, operating two retail stationery outlets. I want to innovate, but I realize that all the things you talk about innovation is more applicable in bigger companies. My question is can a small company adopt innovation? If so, how? Desperately Seeking Answ

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore face a hard time recruiting people. For one, they cannot hold on to talent because the job market is so tight. A person can find a better paying job anytime in Singapore these days, simply because all organisations are looking for talent. This is exacerbated by the crimp in foreign manpower quotas, which in the past, have been a boon for SMEs to fill vacancies. Now that this has been tightened, they are turning back to Singapor

No, it is not the Most Valuable Player but the Minimum Viable Product, which in a sense is the most valuable play in innovation. The MVP helps entrepreneurs learn about the product as it is put through its paces in development. This is the lean startup process, and is contrary to traditional product development where countless hours of testing is done shrouded in mystery, and made perfect, before the product is launched. In lean startup mode, there is no real product launch a

As with all thinking endeavours, it is as much what you say that determines the richness of your thoughts, as with how you think it. One can apply frameworks and tactics, but the depth and breadth of our thinking is largely shaped by the words we use in applying these frameworks. It is for this reason that neuro-linguistic programming became so popular in the ‘70s and ‘80s. The premise that the language used (linguistic) can model (program) the brain (neuro) in adopting excep

You know the famous stories: The Hare and the Tortoise, The Little Engine that Could, and The Saggy, Baggy Elephant. All of them have a similar storyline – two main players, a better-endowed antagonist and a less-endowed protagonist. The story is always the same; the antagonist uses less than all its gifts and ends up being shown as “losers” by the more hardworking, or determined, protagonists. These are great stories of moving past one’s limitations through sheer will, deter