Don't forget to exercise your brain

Gym membership can be expensive but thinking is free and it's good exercise for the brain. So why don't we do it more often?

Logical thought can often be overtaken by the real or sometimes artificial sense of urgency to take action. Whilst exiting a burning building might be a good case for immediate action, taking the quick and easy option to supposedly fix a process problem in order to meet an artificial deadline may not be the best choice. Finding root causes, considering all solutions and gaining consensus from stakeholders before taking action, would be the better move.

Whilst I don't have an App for that I do have an acronym to act as a memory jogger and it's called T.H.I.N.K. which translates as

  • Take time to analyse

  • Highlight root causes

  • Investigate solutions

  • Neutralise resistance to change, and

  • Keep a check on the outcomes.

Whilst there are no absolute guarantees in life, except for the usual death and taxes, if you THINK before you act, there should be a good chance that your changes will be improvements.