The Thinking.school Podcast

Hearing. It's an automatic ability we all have, right? The problem is that our greatest strength is also our biggest weakness: our mind is designed to interpret and judge what we hear as we hear it – the problem is, just as neuroscience has found we make decisions subconsciously up to four seconds before we are aware of them, the background noise of our judgments from previous experiences or preconceptions colours our understanding of what people actually say without us being aware of this effect. In this week's post, I want to pass on a little mental trick that I was given by one of my mentors – and I practice using it all the time: "The Gap". Check it out…

https://thinking.school/blog/getting-my-team-to-care/   For the last installment of our 'Three Things' series, "Getting my team to care" is one of those phrases that turned up again and again in our research. It seems like getting a team on board with your visioin, goals or the goals of the business feels like it is nearly impossible for a lot of people. This week I want to show you the three steps to get a team completely engaged in a vision and goals. The secret is simple: motivation is short term and superficial, while inspiration drives real behavior change. So how do you 'create' inspiration in a team? For this week's post, I am standing on the shoulders of giants:   Simon Sinek wrote a the book called Start with Why. You should get it! Chip and Dan Heath have written a bunch of amazing books. Their book called "Make to Stick" reveals the anatomy of ideas that "stick" and explains sure-fire methods for you to use. Absolutely worth reading this one!   Go on, give it a try! I am final

https://thinking.school/blog/being-undersood-with-email/   "Being Understood with Email" is another one of those key phrases that turned up again and again in our research. Email, just like every other medium has its own specific way of being used and we need to recognise that to use it effectively. Just like other forms of communication we often think we're perfectly good at it until we see responses that don't make sense – or worse, our emails are just ignored. These are 3 ways to change how you think about email – and change your results when you use it! Use these three strategies to:   get your point understood when using email set up the right relationship spend less time replying to emails over and over again because they are effective the first time   Go on, give it a try! I am finalizing the Thinking School course, so it would be great to get your feedback about how you have used these 'top 3' or any other techniques – Please share them in the comments below. Look forward to seei

https://thinking.school/blog/top-3-ways-to-break-through/   When I asked you the favor of completing the survey in January when we launched, I could never have expected the amazing response. It has been an enormous undertaking to work through all of the detailed responses – but well worth it! In doing the analysis there were so many situations where the biggest communication concern was just trying to be heard. "Breaking through the clutter" and "Getting people to listen to me" were key phrases that turned up in slightly different ways again and again. It seems that everyone is so busy nobody remembers anything you say even when you finally do get someone to hear what you have to say. These are my top 3 ways to cut right through the noise – even when you are the most junior person in the room – or a complete stranger! Have you ever been in a situation where you felt like you explained your idea or product and the description was just perfect, only to have them 'not get it' and ask questions about strange

https://thinking.school/blog/history-is-a-source-of-innovation/   This week we are transported into medieval times as we visit Ironfest. History is often seen as being dry and boring – the act of memorizing facts and figures with no practical use. In reality, history can reveal so much when it is truly explored. It is a source of inspiration and rich information – the shoulders on which today's innovation stands. Of course 'living' history can be a lot of fun too – Ironfest certainly is that. Hopefully this week you get a chance to look in to a subculture that provokes ideas and also leaves you inspired to visit Lithgow to taste the action first-hand next year! If you haven't joined the mailing list already – now is your chance! This week I am sending a special email to my VIP subscribers – they get a chance to see what communication and innovation challenges people are facing right now. It's an insight!    

See the blog post at: https://thinking.school/blog/disruptive-innovation/   This week I am sharing a podcast exploring the big question about innovation: how do you 'get' it? What about this idea of 'disruptive innovation'? Is it just an overused buzzword? Probably. Is there really a way to do it? Absolutely. We look at some of the 'usual' approaches to innovation but then...I share my golden secret. What does surfing, genetic algorithms, and blackjack have to do with the golden secret I have used for the last twenty years to achieve 'disruptive innovation'? Have a listen to the podcast, find out and see how its so easy you can do it yourself. PS: - make sure you <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-thinking.school-podcast/id1085405371?mt=2" target="_blank">subscribe on iTunes</a>!  

See blog post at: https://thinking.school/blog/move-position-hypothesis/ This week I look at how framing people’s ideas as hypotheses can give you the freedom to lead a group of people to come up with experiments to identify the best solution. By changing one person’s opinion about design into thousands of experiments (moving from position to hypothesis) Dan Siroker raised $60,000,000 for the Obama campaign. By changing aimless guessing and stubborn opinions into short experiments Eric Reis changed how companies scale. His stories include companies like DropBox and Wealthfront going from nothing to literally billions. Hopefully, using some examples and strategies in this week’s video, you can guide your team (wether you are a leader or not) to a place where they are more effective because they are focused finding the best solution to the challenges you all face rather than just guessing. If you haven’t joined the mailing list already – now is your chance! I am sharing the Ch

This week I look at how we achieve simplicity in communication by creatively leveraging what other people already know to help them understand new ideas. Isn't it curious that the best tool to use for communicating your ideas is, in fact, understanding the other person's view of the world? The more complex or unusual the idea, the more deeply you need to understand your audience to help them navigate that complexity and make the idea 'feel' simple. Your role as a communicator of ideas is to spend time understanding your audience and their reference points to then elegantly deliver those ideas using the mental models with which your audience is already familiar. Some of the strategies I use for doing this are in the Cheat Sheet I will be sharing next week with the subscribers of the email list. If you haven't joined the mailing list already - now is your chance! https://thinking.school/blog/simplicity-is-leverage/

This week I look at leadership. Getting ideas beyond yourself and leading a team is no easy task. In today’s video we learn how we can adapt to get results. Can you build trust, step back and give your team the room to execute? Do they know their responsibilities? Do they understand the big picture – the why? We talk about a great book called Extreme Ownership and explore how stepping in to the role of a leader means you have to change your frame of reference – for you and for your team. This is a conversation about understanding mental models in action!PS: Check out the book by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. It’s a great read for people starting their leadership journey and seasoned leaders alike. Look forward to sharing more with you next week.

In this episode I'm sharing a presentation I did for the regional ICT group I was invited to attend - at the University I had been fortunate enough to study at a decade ago.   The theme of the presentation was "Attracting and Retaining Talent" - so naturally I wanted to share a talk about the most viewed Powerpoint presentation in history, a dead psychologist and the mating rituals of the Giant Australian Cuttlefish. Yes, three strange and seemingly disconnected ideas, but I promise they all make sense. Have a listen and let me know what you think! Hit up the blog at https://thinking.school/blog and have a great week!   Links to the presentations and books referred to in the presentation are: Netflix Culture: Freedom and Responsibilityhttp://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664  Peak:How Great Companies get their Mojo from Maslow by Chip Conleyhttp://www.amazon.com/Peak-Companies-Maslow-non-Franchise-Leadership-ebook/dp/B0067KS0VS/  Leading Snowflakes by Oren Ellenbogen (See Le

In this episode we go for a walk (!) and talk about the idea of 'levels of detail' in our communication. One of the traps smart people fall in to when they share their expertise is not being clear on the consumption of the information being shared. I look for some examples where an intuitive sensitivity to this concept of 'levels of detail' can take people on a journey of discovery and open up ideas rather than overload them.     Hit up the blog at https://thinking.school/blog and have a great week!   Shoutout to Johan Andersson for the sound track (Acoustic cover of Rambo - originally composed by Martin Galway) download his tunes at http://bit.ly/1XXwOGw 

This week I explore a thinking ‘hack’ to unlock learning and creativity.  We uncover the concept of mental models from psychology and how they shape our perception of people and the world around us. While this hack is incredibly powerful its also easy to forget. PS: Check out this site dedicated to the understanding of mental models here. While its a bit psychology heavy – its a great starting point if you’re interested in the topic. Look forward to sharing more with you next week.

In this week's episode I am talking about one of the most important thinking hacks I use: clarity is a habit. I talk about a different way of thinking about clarity – some of the strategies I use to achieve it – and the benefits of the practise. Hope you find this one useful!   See the full video and blog post at: https://thinking.school/blog/clarity-is-a-habit/