Category: Thinking Hat

On pushing back against personality tests

Last year, my firm’s leadership group debated whether we wanted to have a firm-wide discussion of everyone’s Enneagram. Most people were ambivalent about taking a test and discussing the results. Even those proposing it seemed ambivalent—it was just a fun idea! Two of us, though, resisted the idea. I felt—or maybe knew is better, having … Continue reading On pushing back against personality tests →

On compassion and curiosity when someone makes a mistake

The ideal response to a mistake, according to an article in Psychology Today, is compassion and curiosity. The not-so-ideal response? Well, anger, of course—not that I needed an article to tell me that. What delighted me about this article, though, was that it made me reflect on my own recent mistakes and I realized that … Continue reading On compassion and curiosity when someone makes a mistake →

On doing the right thing poorly instead of the wrong things perfectly

Oh no. Have I been doing the wrong things? I fight the instinct to do what everyone else does. After all: do I really expect to do the same things everyone else is doing better than everyone else? Better to do something else that no one else is doing poorly. For example, in my industry, … Continue reading On doing the right thing poorly instead of the wrong things perfectly →

On using the Johari window to orient project process

Despite having loved Donald Rumsfeld's "unknown unknowns" for years, I only recently learned its origin: the Johari window. The "window" is a 2x2 grid of four boxes with axes of "known to self" and "known to others." https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Johari_Window.PNG The Johari window was developed by two psychologists in the 1950s, Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham, as … Continue reading On using the Johari window to orient project process →

On applying the BCG matrix to my personal life

I wrote a few weeks ago about how Amy Whitaker's appropriation of Hollywood's "major dramatic question" as a personal development strategy, and wanted to touch on another thoughtful exercise in her book Art Thinking. This conceptual framework was developed by consultant Alan Zakon at Boston Consulting Group in the 1970s as a tool to analyze … Continue reading On applying the BCG matrix to my personal life →

On being the student who always waited until the last minute to study

Transcribing my daily journals, which I began keeping six years ago, has been startling at times. First, my memory is as poor as I suspected (if not worse!). Second, I see myself more clearly now. Especially at work. A recent entry notes a comment from my boss about a close deadline: Busy day, especially at … Continue reading On being the student who always waited until the last minute to study →