Thursday’s Thinking and Tinkering
My favourite time of day to think is before the sun is up — it’s how I start most days. This morning, not surprisingly, I’m thinking about the material I’ve been reading lately. I don’t read fiction — my books are mostly biographies, history, philosophy, and business-related.
I am again reminded that so many don’t spend enough time spent on just being still and thinking — processing the random thoughts in our heads, or an article that was partly read and unfinished. Once the workday starts, the frenzy that goes with that simply takes over. Why not make a different choice?
I teach a course in Risk Management, in which we use a case study of a large diversified commercially successful multi-national company. The CEO in the case study insists that every employee take 10% of every working week and dedicate it to ‘Tinker Time’ — what a great idea! I started using this case study more than 3 years ago and since then I’ve found myself doing the same thing.
What does ‘Tinker Time’ mean? The case study is very specific. But — you can adapt it to whatever you want it to be for you. For me, I tinker with the ideas that seem to be clearest when I’m walking. Every day, Monday to Friday, I spent an hour doing nothing but ‘THINK’. During that time everything else is shut off. This is a choice you can make too.
Albert Einstein was quoted as saying “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
I am passionate about my work — I help leaders and their companies to raise the bar for achievement — in essence, to improve their conditions. Bringing independent thinking into the mix is valued. The difference is not in what I think about when crafting a solution — it is in how I think about what needs to change that will improve their condition. Alternative ways of thinking lead us to innovation — and is that not what the future is about?
I don’t mean to simplify this to the point of petty thinking, but I do mean to say, that when we stop for a bit, many things become much clearer. I would even speculate that it is some clear thinking that led a lot of people into the ‘Great Resignation’!
As another economic and social icon, Steve Jobs, once said: “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
So true! When the way ahead is clear, the climb to the top is much easier. Ask any mountain climber!
I’m on a roll with quotes today . . . must have been that morning snow and the hilly road to the lake and back.
“Stop thinking and end your problems.” Lao Tzu. However clever Lao Tzu may have been, this was not his best thought. When you stop thinking, this is when the world stagnates and very little new emerges. We just get caught up in the frenzy.
Never is there a good time for stagnation, least of all during a period of recovery as we will experience in the coming year or two.
I wish you many days of clear thinking ahead.
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I specialize in helping organizations raise the bar on performance by advising and coaching managers and executives on their development journey.
