Cognitive Toolkit

Thousands of people just like you enjoy my weekly Friday missive exploring Leadership, Learning and Innovation.

Practices that empower teams to collaborate and deliver iteratively

"If we have our own why in life, we shall get along with almost any how." Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, or How to Philosophize with a Hammer Where do we want to go, together? I first encountered the Nietzsche quote on the above in Viktor Frankl’s excellent book, M

Frame your problem better with different levels of abstraction.

Week 6 of “Think Alone, Think Together” a Facilitation Essentials series

Inversion is a powerful mental model to improve your thinking because it helps you identify and remove obstacles to success. Most of us tend to think one way about a problem: forward. Inversion allows us to flip the problem around and think backward.

“Look at me as an example of what not to do,” my father once told me.

Rather than focusing on having a brilliant day, why not consider what a crap day would look like and avoid that? It will likely be easier and will achieve similar results. Or, as Charles Munger pointed out: "It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent." Inversion involves looking at a problem or decision from the opposite point of view so, for example, rather than focu

One of the best ways to solve problems in life is to use the mental model of inversion. Read this article to learn how to become a better thinker today.

I can’t tell you how many times in my life I’ve looked back and thought, “What went wrong?” And in the business world, that’s par for the course in good leadership — we’re supposed to reflect, analyze and learn from our mistakes. That’s part of the growth mindset.

Curious about product design at Dropbox? Here’s a look at tools we use for solving problems, making decisions, and communicating ideas.

Approach a problem from a different point of view.

New to this series? Check out the other articles 👉 Mental Models & Product

https://mannhowie.com/second-order-thinking?utm_campaign=share

We often think about the immediate consequences of our decisions and actions, whether they will be beneficial, harmful, or neutral in…

Use Howard Marks' second level thinking (or higher order thinking) to test your decisions and to boost the likelihood of achieving positive outcomes.

Leaders and decision-makers need to be able to think beyond the immediate consequences of their actions. The ability to anticipate the potential long-term effects of a decision is crucial for success in any field, whether it's business, politics, or personal life.

New to this series? Check out why I started writing it and why mental models are important in the product space 👉 Game Theory & Product

Second-order thinking is a mental model that smart people like Warren Buffett & Howard Marks use to avoid problems. Read this article to learn how it works.

Consider the long-term consequences of your decisions.

President Eisenhower used this simple grid to distinguish between the Urgent and the Important and prioritize his time and tasks accordingly. Learn how to apply his framework to your own tasks and projects.

Learn how to be more productive by using a decision making matrix called the Eisenhower Matrix. (Plus, get a free template of the Eisenhower Box I use.)

Prioritize your actions and tasks by importance and urgency

The Eisenhower Matrix is a task management tool that helps you distinguish between urgent and important tasks so you can establish an efficient workflow.

The Eisenhower Matrix helps you separate important and urgent tasks from the items that distract your workflow. Here’s how to implement your own.

Occam’s Razor is a problem-solving principle arguing that simplicity is better than complexity. Here' s how you can apply this principle in UX design.

In philosophy, Occam's razor (also spelled Ockham's razor or Ocham's razor; Latin: novacula Occami) is the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements.

Systems thinking helps tackle complex issues with a holistic approach. Learn more about the systems approach in this comprehensive guide.

In this series on systems thinking, I share the key insights and tools needed to develop and advance a systems mindset for dealing with…