This book answers the question, "What is this Logical Thinking Process and how can it be useful to me?" It's a quick read, with pertinent illustrations.
'A major rewrite of Dettmer's classic Goldratt's Theory of Constraints, this new edition presents a whole new approach to building and applying logic trees. The logical thinking process referred to in the title is nothing less than a broadly applicable, systems-level approach to policy analysis. Dettmer has streamlined the process of constructing the logic trees while simultaneously ensuring that the results are more logically sound and closer representations of reality than ever before. He explains an easier, more logically sound way to integrate Current Reality Trees with Evaporating Clouds. His new version of the thinking process "retires" the Transition Tree in favor of the marriage of a more detailed Prerequisite Tree and critical chain project management. This book contains new examples of logic trees from a variety of real-world applications. Most of the diagrams and illustrations are new and improved. Explanations and procedures for constructing the logic trees are considerably simplified.
This book reveals that the mind automatically sorts information into distinctive pyramidal groupings. However, if any group of ideas are arranged into a pyramid structure in the first place, not only will it save valuable time and effort to write, it will take even less effort to read and comprehend it
Solving complex problems and selling their solutions is critical for personal and organizational success. For most of us, however, it doesn’t come naturally and we haven’t been taught how to do it well. Research shows a host of pitfalls trips us up when we try: We’re quick to believe we understand a situation and jump to a flawed solution. We seek to confirm our hypotheses and ignore conflicting evidence. We view challenges incompletely through the frameworks we know instead of with a fresh pair of eyes. And when we communicate our recommendations, we forget our reasoning isn’t obvious to our audience. How can we do it better? In Cracked It!, seasoned strategy professors and consultants Bernard Garrette, Corey Phelps and Olivier Sibony present a rigorous and practical four-step approach to overcome these pitfalls. Building on tried-and-tested (but rarely revealed) methods of top strategy consultants, research in cognitive psychology, and the latest advances in design thinking, they provide a step-by-step process and toolkit that will help readers tackle any challenging business problem. Using compelling stories and detailed case examples, the authors guide readers through each step in the process: from how to state, structure and then solve problems to how to sell the solutions. Written in an engaging style by a trio of experts with decades of experience researching, teaching and consulting on complex business problems, this book will be an indispensable manual for anyone interested in creating value by helping their organizations crack the problems that matter most.
The book begins with an overview of the constraint-based perspective on systems and organizations, commonly referred to as the theory of constraints or synchronous management. The first section will guide you through the fundamental principles and processes that are the backbone of the thinking process application tools. The second section contains the step-by-step guidelines for each of the five thinking process application tools. These tools utilize sufficient cause thinking and necessary condition thinking. Third section introduces two ways that two or more of the thinking process application tools are combined, providing robust processes for the understanding and communicating problems and solutions. This book can be used as a field guide to learning the five thinking process application tools as needed, based on their own particular issues. You will have a full understanding of the theory and practical application of these powerful processes, including when and when not to use each tool. The total benefit is not just to apply the thinking process, but to develop intuition and have the ability to combine logic and intuition in the same thinking process.
Train your brain for better decisions, problem solving, and innovation Think Smarter: Critical Thinking to Improve Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills is the comprehensive guide to training your brain to do more for you. Written by a critical thinking trainer and coach, the book presents a pragmatic set of tools to apply critical thinking techniques to everyday business issues. Think Smarter is filled with real world examples that demonstrate how the tools work in action, in addition to dozens of practice exercises applicable across industries and functions, Think Smarter is a versatile resource for individuals, managers, students, and corporate training programs. Thinking is the foundation of everything you do, but we rely largely on automatic thinking to process information, often resulting in misunderstandings and errors. Shifting over to critical thinking means thinking purposefully using a framework and toolset, enabling thought processes that lead to better decisions, faster problem solving, and creative innovation. Think Smarter provides clear, actionable steps toward improving your critical thinking skills, plus exercises that clarify complex concepts by putting theory into practice. Features include: A comprehensive critical thinking framework Over twenty-five "tools" to help you think more critically Critical thinking implementation for functions and activities Examples of the real-world use of each tool Learn what questions to ask, how to uncover the real problem to solve, and mistakes to avoid. Recognize assumptions your can rely on versus those without merit, and train your brain to tick through your mental toolbox to arrive at more innovative solutions. Critical thinking is the top skill on the wish list in the business world, and sharpening your ability can have profound affects throughout all facets of life. Think Smarter: Critical Thinking to Improve Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills provides a roadmap to more effective and productive thought.
Start With Why has led millions of readers to rethink everything they do – in their personal lives, their careers and their organizations. Now Find Your Why picks up where Start With Why left off. It shows you how to apply Simon Sinek’s powerful insights so that you can find more inspiration at work -- and in turn inspire those around you. I believe fulfillment is a right and not a privilege. We are all entitled to wake up in the morning inspired to go to work, feel safe when we’re there and return home fulfilled at the end of the day. Achieving that fulfillment starts with understanding exactly WHY we do what we do. As Start With Why has spread around the world, countless readers have asked me the same question: How can I apply Start With Why to my career, team, company or nonprofit? Along with two of my colleagues, Peter Docker and David Mead, I created this hands-on, step-by-step guide to help you find your WHY. With detailed exercises, illustrations, and action steps for every stage of the process, Find Your Why can help you address many important concerns, including: * What if my WHY sounds just like my competitor’s? * Can I have more than one WHY? * If my work doesn’t match my WHY, what should I do? * What if my team can’t agree on our WHY? Whether you've just started your first job, are leading a team, or are CEO of your own company, the exercises in this book will help guide you on a path to long-term success and fulfillment, for both you and your colleagues. Thank you for joining us as we work together to build a world in which more people start with WHY. Inspire on! -- Simon
A major rewrite of Dettmer's classic Goldratt's Theory of Constraints, this new edition presents a whole new approach to building and applying logic trees. The logical thinking process referred to in the title is nothing less than a broadly applicable, systems-level approach to policy analysis. Dettmer has streamlined the process of constructing the logic trees while simultaneously ensuring that the results are more logically sound and closer representations of reality than ever before. He explains an easier, more logically sound way to integrate Current Reality Trees with Evaporating Clouds. His new version of the thinking process "retires" the Transition Tree in favor of the marriage of a more detailed Prerequisite Tree and critical chain project management. This book contains new examples of logic trees from a variety of real-world applications. Most of the diagrams and illustrations are new and improved. Explanations and procedures for constructing the logic trees are considerably simplified.
YOUR CREATIVE POWER How to Use Imagination BY ALEX OSBORJSf CHARLES SCRIMERS SOWS, MEW YORK CHARLES SCWBNERS SONS, Ltd., LONDON 1948 This book is dedicated to BRUCE BARTON in appreciation of our 30 years as partners and friends . . . A. F. O. ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . . by Samuel Hopkins Adams Hamilton College graduates have the habit of keeping an attentive eye upon their fellow alumni. Thus, although he graduated eighteen years after me, I knew of Alex Osborn long before he had any inkling of my interest. There was another Alex in that able class of 1909, Alex antler Woollcott, whom I had sponsored into a newspaper job upon his graduation. Only a few years thereafter he was a notable in the newspaper and theatre worlds. About the time of his early success, we met at the home of Laurette Taylor, where one met everybody. Aleck buttonholed me What do you know about my classmate Alex Osborn Nothing I answered. Weil, youd better. Why What am I supposed to do about this Osborn Nothing, Nobody has to do anything about him. Hell do it, himself AH right I said. Tm open to conviction. What is he doing Aleck was a bit vague about that. His friend and class mate had been teacher, reporter, had taken a shot at maga zine writing, had touched upon banking and a few other lines, and was something in factory management. It isnt what hes doing its what he fe Woollcott insisted. When the subject next came up between us, Alex Osborn was well on his way to becoming head of the great advertis ing firm of Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osbom, and I had come to know and admire him personally as one of the most versatile, vigorous, and provocative minds among my wide range of acquaintances, His classmate recalled tome our conversation of years before. What clo you think of Osbom now he demanded with rather the air of having patented, or, at least, invented him. You were right 1 admitted, I am always right, said Aleck Woollcott blandly ix ABOUT THE BOOK . . . hy Alex Osborn Ten years ago, the editor of a leading magazine invited me to lunch. I had been one of his contributors, but we had never met. lie broke the ice by asking, What is your hobby, Mr. Osbom Imagination, I replied. He paused, then wrote on the back of an envelope, u Mv HOBBY Is IMAGINATION. Mr. Osborn, he said, you must do a book on that. Its a job that has been waiting to be done all these years. There is no subject of greater importance. You must give it the time and energy and thoroughness it deserves. That remark started this book. Although I earned my masters degree in practical psy chology and have devotee most of my life to the psychology of advertising, I cannot claim to be a psychologist. Nor have I tried to write as a psychologist, I have felt free to take figurative liberties with academic concepts. For instance, I realize that imagination is an integral part of mans mind fxxly function and yet, for the sake of clarity and read ability, I refer to imagination as if it were an entity of itself. My frequent use of the term brainstorm may bother the reader at first. Although Chapter 33 will fully explain, an inkling of its meaning may be helpful here Brainstorm is used mainly to label the kind of conference where a few people sit clown together for an hour or so solely to use their creative imaginations solely to suggest ideas on a specific . subject right then and there. During the past ton years, in quest of material andinsight, -I have interviewed hundreds of people and have read hun dreds of books, speeches and articles, I am indebted to all who talked with me and to all whose writings I read. Many of their names will be found in the index, My .. special thanks go to those whose books were most helpful, and this list includes Julius Boraas Teaching to Think, Alexis Carrel Man the Unknown, James B, Conant xi xfi On C ndfer standing Science, Robert P...
The world is a complex system. Whatever part of it we inhabit or function in, everything within it is connected in some way to other components, both within and outside the part we occupy. Nearly all of the problems mankind experiences result from our inability to recognize intra- and inter-systemic connections... in other words, to THINK SYSTEMICALLY. This is particularly true of the massive, widely impactful problems we face. Unfortunately, systems thinking is not a part of most people's education, though it is probably the most crucial foundation for everything we do. Systems Thinking and Other Dangerous Habits aims to alleviate this widespread unawareness of the importance of viewing everything we think and do through the lens of systems. It begins with a review of some high-visibility systemic failures, segues into the history and basics of systems thinking, then examines some critical areas of systems knowledge, tools, and human motivation. This book is an introduction to systems thinking, pointing the reader to important topics worthy of more comprehensive research.