There’s No Class Called "Clear Thinking 101”The author of
Clear Thinking mentions this memorable story about former U.S. Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger (1923-2023):
• “A staffer had drafted a memo and left it on Kissinger's desk for him to read. A while later, Kissinger approached him and asked if it was his best work. The staffer said no and rewrote the entire memo.
• The next day the staffer ran into Kissinger again and asked what he thought. Kissinger asked him again if this was the best he could do. The staffer took the memo and rewrote it yet again.
• The next morning, the same scenario played out, only this time the poor staffer stated that yes indeed it was his best work.
• Kissinger replied,
‘Okay, now I'll read it.’”That insight—and dozens more from a former intelligence agent—is from the
New York Times bestseller:
Here’s my question for you today. Would you rather read ONE book or read 20 books? If you could scan my copy of
Clear Thinking, you’d see more than 20 book titles written in the margins. Much like Patrick Lencioni summarized his 20 years of thinking and writing in
The Advantage (my 2012 book-of-the-year), so Shane Parrish summarizes, with an extraordinary grasp, many of the must-read leadership and management books.
If you’re wondering how some of the Ivy League schools apparently missed the boat on educating clear thinkers (
breaking news), you’ll find some very helpful analysis in Parrish’s commentary on “The Enemies of Clear Thinking.”
The author writes,
“If you’re like me, no one every taught you how to think or make decisions. There’s no class called Clear Thinking 101 in school.” He adds, “As it turns out, though, learning about thinking—thinking clearly—is surprisingly hard.”
READ 1 BOOK OR READ 20 BOOKS?#1. TAGLINE. “If there is a tagline to my life, it is ‘Mastering the best of what other people have already figured out,’ and this book is a tribute to that belief.”
On his journey, the author writes that he devoured more books than he could count. (I’m wondering if he read another
NY Times bestseller,
Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure.)
#2. RESULTS. “In order in order to get the results we desire, we must do two things. We must first create the space to reason in our thoughts, feelings, and actions; and second, we must deliberately use that space to think clearly. Once you have mastered this skill, you will find you have an unstoppable advantage.” (Read
A Year with Peter Drucker: 52 Weeks of Coaching for Leadership Effectiveness.)
#3. THE FOUR DEFAULTS (Emotion Default, Ego Default, Social Default, and Inertia Default). “The ego default: we tend to react to anything that threatens our sense of self-worth or our position in a group hierarchy.” (This reminded me of Andrew Murray’s classic,
Humility.)
#4. NO JOY AT WORK. “One reason people find it hard to empower others at work is that having them depend on us for every decision makes us feel important and indispensable.” (Read
The Decision Maker and
Joy at Work, both by Dennis Bakke.)
#5. QUIET QUITTING. “One example I've seen too many times in the workplace is when you stop putting in 100% of what you are capable of because you feel underappreciated.” (Read
Stay Sane in an Insane World: How to Control the Controllables and Thrive. Note:
Stay Sane, apparently, is working for the University of Michigan's football team.)
#6. THE SOCIAL DEFAULT. The author quotes Princeton professor Robert George:
“I sometimes ask students what their position on slavery would have been had they been white and living in the South before abolition. Guess what? They all would have been abolitionists! They all would have bravely spoken out against slavery, and worked tirelessly against it.” (View the episodes on the small-pox epidemic in a Welsh mining town in Season 2 of the Amazon Prime drama series,
The Indian Doctor).
#7. BEST PRACTICES? “If you do what everyone else does, you’ll get the same results that everyone else gets.
Best practices aren’t always the best. By definition, they’re average.” Parrish adds, “The ‘zone of average’ is a dangerous place when it comes to inertia.” (Read Roger Martin’s 2022 book,
A New Way to Think.)
#8. THE INERTIA DEFAULT. “The inertia default pushes us to maintain the status quo.
Starting something is hard, but so too is stopping something. We resist change even when change is for the best.” (Read
Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward, by Dr. Henry Cloud.)
#9. COMPLAINING! In the chapter on self-accountability (one of four strengths you need), the author quotes Jeff Bezos:
“Complaining is not a strategy. You have to work with the world as you find it, not as you would have it be.” Parrish’s transparency in this chapter is remarkable. (Read
The Amazon Management System.)
#10. HIRING INSIGHT. Parrish asked the CEO of a large public company,
“If you could pick one trait that would predict how someone would turn out, what would it be?” The CEO’s response: “That’s easy. How willing are they to change their mind about what they think they know.” (Read another “thinking” book,
Both/And Thinking.)
#11. THE WARM WATER. Note:
Today’s university demonstrators (and some presidents) should study this book. Parrish writes, “The real test of a person is the degree to which they are willing to nonconform to do the right thing.” He adds,
“And once you dive into the warm water of group acceptance, it’s hard to get back out. The social default strikes again!” (Read
Hardwiring New Leadership Habits.)
#12. JERKS. “We unconsciously become what we’re near.
If you work for a jerk, sooner or later you’ll become one yourself. If your colleagues are selfish, sooner or later you become selfish." (Read
The Boys in the Boat and view the movie coming Dec. 25.)
The Boys in the Boat bestseller is now a major motion picture (coming Dec. 25, 2023). View the trailer. This true story spotlights the power of teamwork and mutual respect.#13. CHARLIE MUNGER. In the “Building Strengths” section, there are two must-read short chapters: “Setting the Standards” and “Exemplars + Practice.” In the latter, Parrish quotes Charlie Munger (1924-2023),
“I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything unless I know the other side’s argument better than they do.” (
Read about the
WSJ reporter's recent four-hour interview with Munger.)
#14. RULE-MAKING. “To protect yourself from the influence of the social default, you
decide to implement a safeguard.
You form a rule for yourself: never say yes to something important without thinking it over for a day.” (Read Steve Macchia’s book,
Crafting a Rule of Life, and understand why slow decision-making is difficult for Drivers and Expressives, per the
four social styles.)
#15. NFL EXCELLENCE. The author affirms the high standards set by numerous NFL coaches including Bill Walsh, Bill Belichick (
he’s having a tough season!), and Pete Carroll. Parrish writes,
“Champions don’t create the standards of excellence. The standards of excellence create champions.” (Read
Culture Is the Way, by Matt Mayberry, former Chicago Bears linebacker.)
#16. EXEMPLARS. “Show me your role models and I’ll show you your future.” Read why you should recruit “your personal board of directors,” an idea he borrowed from Jim Collins. (Listen to Shane Parrish’s
podcast with Jim Collins. And read the HBR Press book (96 pages, 2017) from Collins,
Turning Goals Into Results.
#17. WEAKNESSES. “The formula for failure is a few small errors consistently repeated.” (Read
Little Bets.)
#18. BLIND SPOTS. Parrish says we fail to see our weaknesses for three reasons. Reason #2:
“…seeing our flaws bruises our egos—especially when those flaws are behaviors that are deeply ingrained." (Read:
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.)
#19. EXPERTS VS. IMITATORS. I’ll bet you’ve never read five tips on “how to approach an expert in a way that will set your request apart and get people excited to help you.” (Must-read!) Plus,
“Take time to distinguish real experts from imitators. Not everyone who claims to be an expert is. Take the time to know the difference." (Read
Drucker & Me: What a Texas Entrepreneur Learned from the Father of Modern Management.)
#20. FINISH LINE. The author’s final section, “Wanting What Matters,” is less helpful for people of faith, but he does note, “Evaluating your life through the lens of your death is raw, powerful, and perhaps a bit scary.” I’d suggest you skip “Section 5” and read, instead, Robert Wolgemuth’s excellent 2023 book,
Finish Line: Dispelling Fear, Finding Peace, and Preparing for the End of Your Life.
So…read 1 book or read 20 books? You decide! To order from Amazon, click on the title for
Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results, by Shane Parrish. Listen on
Libro (6 hours, 41 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:1) Clear Thinking is both a 101 course and a master’s class in decision-making. The chart on page 185 on “Types of Decisions” is worth the price of the book. Two axes: Consequential and Reversible. Plus, see the chart on page 120: the five steps of “The Decision-Making Process.”
How many decisions will you make this week? How many books have you read on effective decision-making?2) The chapter on “Margin of Safety” notes the “bullets before cannonballs” management practice in
Great by Choice, by Jim Collins and Morten Hansen. Shane Parrish suggests you create a “margin of safety” in your hiring process by giving two or three candidates a “small test project” to see who looks good in practice, not just on paper!
How effective are we in our decision-making and in recognizing the four enemies of clear thinking?3) Clear Thinking spotlights a new CEO who took a sledgehammer to 76 of the company’s substandard refrigerators and smashed them to pieces—while employees watched! The CEO kept that sledgehammer “in a glass case in the boardroom for the remainder of his tenure, as a symbol of the high standard he expected from the company.”
Read more.
What’s encased in your boardroom?
Mastering 100 Must-Read Books
Part 10: White House/Fight HouseBook #57 of 100: The GatekeepersFor your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #57 in
Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.
The Gatekeepers:
How the White House Chiefs of Staff
Define Every Presidency
by Chris Whipple
Books #56 through #60 spotlight five books on U.S. presidents in the section, “White House/Fight House.”
The Gatekeepers highlights leadership insights from the White House chiefs of staff. The competency continuum runs from Erskine Bowles’ “missionary zeal for management” to Bill Daley who got shingles from stress after serving President Barack Obama. The book was so fascinating, I wrote two reviews.
•
Read my review.
• Order from
Amazon:
The Gatekeepers • Listen on
Libro (12 hours, 13 minutes).
•
Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson).
TRUE OR FALSE? Read my
review for the
True or False questions on each of the 23 White House gatekeepers. Example:
DONALD RUMSFELD, 1st Chief to President Gerald Ford (1974-75). (See also my review of
Rumsfeld's Rules.)
[ ] T/F: Rumsfeld convinced Ford that the “spokes of the wheel” organizational chart didn’t work. Ford noted, “Without a strong decision-maker who could help me set my priorities, I’d be hounded to death by gnats and fleas. I wouldn’t have time to reflect on basic strategy or the fundamental direction of the presidency.”
[ ] T/F: “Genial and outgoing, Gerald Ford saw the best in everybody;
it was Rumsfeld’s job to suspect the worst.”[ ] T/F: Advice to Rahm Emmanuel: “Immediately pick your successor.”
PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Sure…you and your team could read or listen to 20 books on marketing and communication (here’s one!)—or just cut to the chase and invite a creative facilitator to help you discern your storytelling next steps. Need help? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).
