Instant MBA 1 of 100

In Instant Business Speak-here-I defined an organisation as  an entity or body which employs intelligent and very often well motivated men and women and causes them to become stupid. What happens to all the good practices we learnt on our MBA programme? What happens to the good advice we appreciate from our thought leaders? What happens to mind-numbingly good practices such as regular business planning?

We've stopped thinking, that's what. Too often, we're reacting, fighting fires and hoping. Stage 1 in re-vitalising good practices in a business-what I shall call Instant MBA- is to start thinking again:

1. Stop and think. Build time into the day to reflect and ask: what do I need to anticipate? Take any business which is having a challenging time: what did they not anticipate? And could they have anticipated it? Often the answer is yes, it's just they were seduced by the busyness of the day-to-day.
2. Think critically. Ask: what could we do better? In a shrinking pie, how can we pull ahead of the crowd?
3. Think laterally. Ask: what could we do (possibly very) differently? And one dramatic 'better' is often to do it differently.

Resources:

1. Great business blogs such as Michael Wade, Tanmay Vora. These guys will get you thinking and have links to other great bloggers in their fields.
2. How To Think Like... free PDF
3. Instant MBA, the book
4. Brilliant at the Basics of Business 100, the book