Dare to make a difference.
Find fresh inspiration.
Expand what’s possible.
Gain insights through making.
Discover what works.
Achieve impact sooner.
We call them Think Wrong Practices for a reason.
The more you use them the better you become at them.
Think Wrong Practices, and the mindsets and drills that support them, foster a culture that allows novel and compelling solutions to be born, to thrive—or to be ruled out because they do not work—in an affordable and swift way.
The beauty of these practices is you can use them in combination or individually. As you become more adept at using them, you may find you only need to pull out one or two drills when one of the critical junctures in the discovery-and-development process arises.
Dare to make a difference.
Why Be Bold.
Critical Moment
When you want to make a meaningful difference, are willing to question the way things are, are eager to explore how things might ideally be—and want to do work that matters.
What to expect.
Think Right Responses
Do what you are told. Focus on the bottom line at the expense of better solutions. Go along to get along.
Why it’s hard.
Biological Forces
Bold questions and challenges are daunting because our brains are forever weighing what one neurologist dubs the “carrot of desire against the whip of fear.” We worry that our vision won’t find support in the mindset, policies, and procedures of our organization.
Cultural Forces
Top-down hierarchies and command and control cultures tell us not to ask too many questions. Don’t rock the boat. Don’t ask why. Just get on with it already.
What to do.
Think Wrong Responses
Be courageous.
Dare to imagine the biggest difference you could make.
Be idealistic. Consider your legacy. What’s worthy of your life’s work?
Be challenging. Refuse to accept the mandate of the status quo.
From Idea to Action
Be courageous: Dare to imagine the biggest difference you could make.
Be idealistic: Consider your legacy. What’s worthy of your life’s work?
Be challenging: Refuse to accept the mandate of the status quo.
Seek fresh inspiration for status quo-busting ideas.
Why Get Out.
Critical Moment
When you decide where your inspiration and guidance will come from—who and what will inform your decision making.
What to expect.
Think Right Responses
Right Thinkers hunker down and draw comparisons with long-established actions and familiar experts.
Why it’s hard.
Biological Forces
Familiar environments cause the brain to tune out, be less alert, and less receptive to new input. Our instinct for survival sometimes keeps us from exploring the unknown and biases us to the familiar.
Cultural Forces
Organizations silo disciplines and stunt collaboration with rigid job descriptions. We silo our own lives as well, keeping our variant selves packed into confined and tidy categories—the person we are at work, at home, on vacation, and so on.
What to do.
Think Wrong Responses
Open the aperture in your mind. Prime yourself to take in new information and make surprising, serendipitous connections along the way.
From Idea to Action
Be adventurous: Find inspiration in new people, new places, and new experiences.
Be attentive: Pay close attention to what is going on—looking for, listening for, smelling, and feeling what’s new—collecting the most compelling things as fresh inspiration.
Be receptive: Accept every offer without judgment and with an eye toward expanding what might be possible.
Stretch beyond assumptions, biases, and orthodoxies to expand what’s possible.
Why Let Go.
Critical Moment
When you consider what might be possible—increase the number of ideas available for further exploration, development, and consideration.
What to expect.
Think Right Responses
Right Thinkers want to be sure of what they’re going to suggest before they will speak up. They are afraid to appear foolish. Right Thinkers defend their answers no matter what.
Why it’s hard.
Biological Forces
Our brains create synaptic connections and heuristic biases that cause us to jump to known solutions.
Cultural Forces
Pressure to solve, to have the answer, to be right. Fear of being wrong. Efficiency valued over possibility.
What to do.
Think Wrong Responses
Trick your brain into a creative hyper-drive where unusual and surprising ideas emerge.
From Idea to Action
Be uncensored: Turn off your internal judge and let your ideas flow unfettered by what might be right or wrong.
Be crazy: Imagine the nuttiest, wildest, most outrageous solutions you can.
Be prolific: Put quantity before quality.
Gain insights that can only be gotten through making.
Why Make Stuff.
Critical Moment
When you want to shift from high-level abstract thinking and debate to more concrete and promising solutions.
What to expect.
Think Right Responses
Right Thinkers are cloistered, proprietary, and secretive.
Why it’s hard.
Biological Forces
Synaptic connections create pre-determined paths that keep us from exploring and building on vague, ambiguous, and unformed possibilities.
Cultural Forces
Organizations separate the formation of strategy from making and doing—greatly limiting what can be known and understood about potential solutions.
What to do.
Think Wrong Responses
Build with others to discover, understand, inspire further creativity, and inform strategy.
From Idea to Action
Be collaborative: Find co-conspirators who have something unique to offer—including the people you are building for.
Be ingenious: Make clever, practical, and original use of existing resources when building your solution.
Be simple: Build just enough to answer your biggest questions—avoid overbuilding too early and be willing to share many shitty first drafts.
Discover what works without risking it all.
Why Bet Small
Critical Moment
When you are deciding why and where to invest your time and resources.
Why it’s hard.
Biological Forces
We are genetically wired for survival and to avoid risks.
Cultural Forces
Individual and organizational fear of failure is mollified by exercises like three-year strategic plans, business plans, and ROI assessments that give a (false) sense of control.
What to expect.
Think Right Responses
Right Thinkers obsess over unknowable ROI, make massive launch plans, or do nothing at all.
What to do.
Think Wrong Responses
Manage portfolio of possibilities designed to produce LFI (Learning From Investment) and reduce risk through small experiments and quick insights.
From Idea to Action
Be curious: Let discovery drive your solution.
Be experimental: Test your hypotheses and treat unexpected results as new opportunities for breakthrough solutions.
Be thrifty: Use the least amount of time and fewest resources possible to get answers to your most important questions.
Let others help improve your solutions and achieve impact sooner.
Why Move Fast.
Critical Moment
When you want to speed up the learning process so that you can move your new way of doing things into the world more quickly—and achieve greater impact sooner.
What to expect.
Think Right Responses
Right Thinkers manage their processes through metrics and confidentiality.
Why it’s hard.
Biological Forces
Procrastinate and put off decisions that carry risk and uncertainty.
Cultural Forces
Focus on beating the competition to market rather than time to insight and impact.
What to do.
Think Wrong Responses
Admit you don’t know, accept unknown futures, share insights, learning, and knowledge openly to accelerate progress.
From Idea to Action
Be open: Share broadly across your team, organization, communities, industries, regions, and nations.
Be cooperative: Seek unexpected partnerships.
Be united: Integrate learning from across your portfolio of small bets to build momentum and durability of difference- making solutions.