Making up minds
An approach to strategic thinking and creative mind setting
by Armin Kreiner Norkunas
«Think of never have been thinking, as the thinking of thoughts is just a thoughtless thinking, because if you think that you think, you only think that you think, but thinking you are actually not.»
-Erich Kästner-
Have you ever thought about thinking? Have your ever thought about the way you think? Have you ever thought about the way others might think? What is thinking? Simply put, it is the assertion of a person’s perception. The Oxford dictionary defines it as «…rational judgement…». Which puts the question, what is rational? The dictionary further reads about that «…based on or in accordance with reason…» So, what is the reason a person does think the way they think? The following approach explores this phenomenon making strategic thinking a powerful tool for any kind of target set.
​
Primarily it is essential to recognize and acknowledge the individual. What is an individual? Why is it called individual? An individual is a unique creation – a complex and colourful creation of genetics and experiences. The physical part exists of molecules, atoms and subatomic particles circling around centres – biology and physics are the most suitable sciences to explain the complexity of an individual’s physical composition. Strategic thinking however does not focus on the physical part, but on something one organ, the human brain, produces: The mind.
Every person has his or her own distinctive mind. Going one step further you could say, that a person IS his or her mind. The structure of the mind is built by past and present contexts, such as up-bringing, education, cultural background, religion, social status, environment etc. All these aspects form a decisive mental window through which a person perceives the environment. The obtained information is processed by the mind and put into mental frames, which are the evaluation of things you perceive based on previous observations through the mental window. This assertion of the environment does create mental models, which reflect on previous perceptions and mind-sets. The mental model consists of many dots – each dot represents a thing learnt in the past. Gaining the ability to connect these dots in the highest possible way creates a powerful network of all the information stored in the brain. This structure of learning and reflection is also known as cognition, which leads to the fact that perceptions vary from each other because they are based on each single person’s unique mental windows, mental frames and mental models – in short: Every person has an «individual reality».
As a matter of fact, changing a person’s already established perception is a very difficult thing to do as 90 % of the attention is registered unconsciously. Our unconsciousness automatically uses the existing mental models in order to reflect and evaluate situations. There are ways to break the habit of thinking, i.e. by changing the language of a context people involved will perceive their environment differently. Strategic thinking often cannot change the context of thinking habits, but deals with the intricate situation of individual perceptions. A group of individuals has as many distinct realities as many members there are. Strategic thinking is the ability to move in this state of complexity.
«Reality is subjective»
In intricate situations the definition of an acceptable target is the alpha and omega of any project. As Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus states in his success story «…I realized that it was within my capability…» – by this he established an acceptable target.
The basic question revolves around the perception of the target group, which makes it essential to understand the mind-set of this particular group to create a thriving connection.
​
​The Grameen bank in Bangladesh – a visionary success story from a different angle.​
At the point of defining an acceptable target leadership using strategic thinking comes into the picture. An ideal leader is capable of thinking ahead and prognosticate the target group’s perceptions on future creations. For this particular move passion and a high level of imagination are crucial. Imagination itself leads back to the brain, because its energy produces vivid images about how things could develop in future and the theory of mind goes even one step further by asking how the reflection on future developments could be. In order to be able to comprehend the future any way, it is of high importance to have the ability to reflect on the past and present in the first place. Examination of the past and present does not only give an insight on people’s current perceptions, but also could lead to a pioneering vision. Having in mind that everything is connected and everything constantly flows – note, that life is a «flux» – the real art of a vision is its clear formulation and its realization. The ground-breaking potential of a vision can only be reached by its implementation – also known as innovation.
​«Leadership delegates a vision for innovation»
As everything is interconnected and living systems could be considered as a target group, innovations are only accepted by a large number of people when their mental models reflect positively on the innovative suggestion. What makes it crucial, that leadership understands the target group and acknowledges the fact, that there is also something like a «group reality». Similar mental models, due to e.g. parallel cultural backgrounds, common education, and same religion reflect similarly on things. Having understood this important link between individuals and a group, strategic thinking can address a wide range of people considering their needs and expectations. A group can also be seen as a living system in motion, which requires inner and outer balance, consisting of a vast diversity of mental models – a vast diversity of «individual realities».
In times of globalization this kind of approach does bear the potential of implementing a vision successfully, as groups intent to react rather to leadership than to management. Colloquially the distinction between these two terms purportedly vanished these days and one became a synonym for the other. However one of the differences lies in the approach of strategy. Management analyses and diagnoses a present situation, proposes solutions and acts accordingly – in short a manager does, what needs to be done. Leadership on the other hand does analyse and diagnose visions, formulates and communicates them – in short a leader delegates visions for implementation. This way of strategy is also called «dynamic approach». Leadership considers the vast diversity of individuals and their distinct mental models, as well as management does, but additionally the leaders use imagination, creativity, and ask questions resulting into ideas and innovation in the long run.
Muhammad Yunus’ success story shows in a very demonstrative way, how an initial vision turns into a prosperous business concept. He recognized the huge potential of beggars being on the streets all their lives nobody could possibly know better the best spots in town for selling goods. Yunus gave them a small amount of money in order to start off their business, he says that «…all we needed to do is put a roof on top and they become businessmen and -women, right there…». He gave the poorest of the poor an opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty. In exchange he received a high level of loyalty from the people having profited from his concept – this loyalty made him run a multibillion enterprise and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
«there are opportunities you just need to look»
When reading about visionary and successful strategic thinking, people tend to forget, that there are much more impressive stories and opportunities, than a multinational electronics producer putting a fruit on its computers. In today’s computerized and televised lethargy world people often have difficulties to make up their minds or simply don’t know how to do it, because they are used to having someone else doing it for them. In this case leadership using strategic thinking can achieve a real change of mind set and giving people the power to step outside their treadmill. Although only visionaries, who understand and consider the current and future mind set of their target group, have the potential to be successful.
Strategic thinking is the acknowledgement of individual perceptions. If you gain a deep understanding of groups as living systems and their need for balance, you are capable to understand the framework thinking processes take place in. The mental models in people’s minds are the mirror of the way they perceive their environment – taking a look into this mirror image can «make up minds».
Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi founder of the Grameen Bank and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, provides an incredibly successful concept in micro lending and micro financing in the banking sector. His ground-breaking idea of innovative and strategic thinking created a business model in which social good and profitability go hand in hand.
In Bangladesh hundreds of thousands of people engage in one of the oldest occupations in the world: begging. They roam from house to house throughout villages each day asking for pennies or small amounts of food to feed themselves and their families. Most of them are the forgotten of the society – the lame, the blind, and the limbless – who perch in strategic spots hoping that passers-by will be kind to them. They represent the lowest level of the poor, the «hopeless» cases doomed to chronic poverty. Yet Yunus recognized their potential and understood how they perceive their environment by saying: «…they become businessmen and -women right there, because nobody knows the best spots better than they do». His ingenious strategy turning thousands of beggars into viable entrepreneurs became a worldwide success story.
In 1974 Yunus being a lecturer at a university, could no longer tolerate «teaching about elegant fields of economics» knowing that people just around the corner literally starved to death. On one field trip with his students he interviewed a women who made bamboo stools and learned that after repaying the usurious middleman for raw bamboo each week she was left with only a penny profit for her work. Yunus compiled a list of 42 such people who suffered similarly at the hands of lenders and discovered that the total amount of money they needed was a mere $27. «I realized that it was within my capability to solve the problem, so I gave the money, the $27, and got them liberated from the clutches of the money lenders», Yunus recalls.
He came up with the idea of helping the poorest to begin lifting themselves out of poverty. The ingeniously simple plan involved offering beggar women the option of selling merchandise such as food, toys, and knickknacks to homes where they solicit. They are allowed to borrow merchandise from local stores, sell what they can, and return the rest at the end of the day. Yunus covers the loan for the merchandise. The response has been extremely heartening. Grameen has around 9,000 beggars voluntarily participating in the program, each operating on a typical loan of about $10. Their services have come to be in considerable demand, given the thought that traditional housewives are forbidden to shop on their own – so the shop comes to their homes.​
Grameen has offered stationary beggars – generally those who are blind or missing limbs and are not capable of roaming around – the option to sell small foodstuffs from their beggar's bowls. «Since they sit in very strategic places, they already know how to run a business», comments Yunus. «They now give passers-by the choice as to whether they want to throw in a penny or buy a soft drink or a banana. All we need to do is put a roof on top and they become businessmen and -women, right there».
When Yunus was unable to persuade the local bank to loan money to the poor, he offered himself as the guarantor. «I started signing papers, taking money from the bank, and giving it to people for entrepreneurial activities. It worked perfectly, because people were paying back 100 percent without any problem». Encouraged by this success he set up his own independent institution, the Grameen Bank. Today the bank has 3.5 million borrowers, 95 percent of whom are extremely poor women, and has given out more than $4 billion worth of loans at a 99 percent recovery rate. «With an average loan of $200, people invest in small businesses and change their lives», he says. Poor women not only gain financial self-sufficiency, they are able to send their children to school and college and thereby break the cycle of illiteracy.
Although Yunus has created a business model in which social good, not profit, is the objective, in 2003 alone Grameen Bank made more than $11 million, proving that the two goals are hardly mutually exclusive. Yunus acknowledges that such ideas inevitably seem unviable at the beginning, but he encourages to think positively and boldly. «At Grameen, we don't have any legal instrument between the lender and the borrower, and it is a very scary thing when we are lending more than $4 billion», he says. «Everybody asks, 'What will happen if nobody pays back?' I say, 'but everybody pays back, so why should I worry about it?'»
Source STANFORD BUSINESS UNIVERSITY
