The July 2007 newsletter is about solving tough problems and thinking clearly about complex issues. Here are some highlights:
Adam Kahane is a former scenario planner for Royal Dutch Shell, who has gone on to become the facilitator of some of the tensest, most complex negotiations imaginable, including the transition from apartheid in South Africa. … Over and over, as I read Kahane’s accounts of working in high conflict situations, I saw that logic, focus, and hard work often hit a brick wall. On a surprising number of occasions, breakthroughs came when participants/antagonists had the opportunity to engage informally with each other. … Often we need to step back, to relax and to adopt a different mind set if we want to make progress on a tough problem.
Although some boards and management teams have the tendency to act without thinking or without establishing an overall sense of direction, others have a tendency to think and plan without moving to action. Action without a target leads to ineffectiveness because there is movement without direction. Planning without implementation is “ready, aim” without “fire.”
Creating a diagram is a tool to help you listen carefully, react thoughtfully and communicate clearly, applying logic and good judgment to a difficult situation.... One-dimensional thinking is almost always superficial. Proposing a simple way to evaluate two criteria simultaneously (a 2-by-2 analysis) is a way that an executive can make a concrete and valuable contribution to team deliberations.
To read this month's issue, please click on the link below.
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