Find Time to Read About Thinking (Worry About Finding Time to Think Later)

I recently received in the mail a copy of the book “How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life.” My initial witty reaction was “I don’t have time to think, let alone to read about thinking!”

But I can scan, and after a flip-through I settled on the chapter about strategic thinking, a topic healthcare marketers should be thinking about. But strategic thinking, writes author John C. Maxwell, is not just about marketing plans that will turn your organization around. “Strategic thinking can make a positive impact on any area of life,” he writes.

Some of the tips that resonated with me (sorry, Mr. Maxwell, but there’s no way I’m capable of planning my life, hour by hour, for 40-day chunks of time as you suggest at the start of the chapter):

• Create a system (or strategy) for filing quotes, stories, and other materials that can help you when you need to prepare a presentation or are looking for inspiration.
• Ask questions to break down complex issues, such as “what should we do next?” and “Why?” In fact, you should ask “why?” before you ask “how,” he writes. “Asking why helps you think about all the reasons for decisions. It helps you to open your mind to the possibilities and opportunities.”
• And a tactic that I think is too often overlooked: Include your team as part of your strategic thinking. Why? Well, duh: Who do you think is going to implement all your strategery? “Before you can implement your plan, you must make sure you have the right people in place,” Maxwell writes. “Even the best strategic thinking won’t help if you don’t take into account the people part of the equation.”

Though short on detail and specifics (the 6×5 inch book is just 124 pages long) there are some gems in here–so maybe I will find time to read it after all. Or maybe I’ll get the audiobook version.

(Thanks to the folks at Barlow/McCarthy, for sending me the book.)