Do you know how to make up your mind when faced with a dilemma? Don’t react instinctively. And don’t make a dash for the first solution that comes your way or leave it all to chance. Trust in a considered response so you can make a mature decision.
Based on
Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish, Penguin Random House, 2023
1. ARE YOU CLEAR ABOUT WHAT THE POROBLEM IS?
You’ve been trained to solve problems since you were at school – not to define them. But if you make a botch of the definition, you’ll end up trying to get to the bottom of… the wrong problem. The first principle is to split up the problem definition phase and the resolution phase.
Are you part of a team? Then hold a meeting to define the problem, when:
You should ask each participant to answer the question: “What do you know about this subject that the other people in the room don’t know?” In this way, you’ll avoid superfluous contributions.
Don’t grab the first definition that comes along: more often than not, it is the symptom that is identified rather than the underlying issue. Dig deeper until you get to the root cause of the problem.
Do you have to get to the bottom of your question individually? Describe the problem in writing, and give it the once-over the day after. Is your text full of jargon, labyrinthine, and difficult for anyone else to fathom? If so, that’s a sign that you’re not lucid about your objective. Rewrite it: “What is clearly thought out is clearly expressed”.
A graduate of HEC and the Master's program in Psychology at Université Paris Cité, Marianne combines her expertise in management and human sciences to produce written content in the fields of higher education, publishing, and corporate communication. She also works as a psychologist.
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