Making Sens #5. Thinking is like running
Hi! Do you have mates who think they’re so smart they can’t be wrong? This one’s for them:
I teach things that contain in their titles words like “thinking” and “decision-making” and I often see a reflex reaction: “What? I don’t need to learn how to think!!!!” Okay, okay.
That’s actually somehow right. Thinking and decision-making are things we develop naturally from really early on. We have a well-functioning built-in OS and we start practicing from a very early age. Psychologist Gary Klein (the one who also invented PreMortem) created a good theory on it, it’s called Naturalistic Decision Making, look it up.
So, in this regard, thinking is like running. And we, adults, don’t need to learn how to run, do we? So why should we study decision-making, when we’ve been doing it for ages, successfully? Why should we put structure in our big decisions?
Well, to continue the analogy, yes, we don’t need to learn how to run. If we only need to catch the bus. But when preparing for a marathon, we do.
Lessons for long distance runners.
Here are some lessons most runners learned from peers or from experience:
Nothing new on race day.
Increase your long run with max 10% per week.
At first, train at a pace where you can talk but you can’t sing.
Dress like you go for a walk and it’s 10 degrees warmer.
Have a buddy.
Aim for 180 steps/min.
If you want to increase speed, increase cadence, not stride.
Following these rules will first of all prevent injury, but also increase performance. Could we expand on this analogy? Of course we can!
Lessons for high stakes decision-makers.
If the stakes are high (marathon-like decisions), you better know and follow some rules:
Don’t jump to the solution before understanding the problem.
Dig for the root cause.
Have a clear objective.
Know who you decide with.
Don’t choose between one option.
Have clear criteria for selecting the best option(s).
Don’t think “or” when you can think “and”.
Identify the hidden assumptions behind the solution and the plan and mitigate the solution accordingly.
Knowing and following these rules prevents failure and increases performance.
Metaphors! (in fact analogies) One more?
If thinking is like running, then we built Sens to be:
Sens = online coach + Strava/Garmin + training plan.
Do you have a marathon-like problem to solve or decision to make? Give it a try! (Sens also works for 5k, 10k, and half-marathon decisions).
Question(s) of the week
What is a problem that could benefit from a bit of structured thinking?
What’s new at Sens?
We’ve been doing workshops and people seem to be thrilled with using Sens. The last one in this series of 5 workshops will be on Monday, face to face, in Bucharest, at BISM. Details and registration here. See you there!
Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
Radu
Founder @ Sens