Roger Martin Coined Integrative Thinking
http://rogerlmartin.com/thought-pillars/integrative-thinking
Roger Martin coined the word “integrative thinking” when he observed in his multiyear study of exceptional successful leaders. He found a consistent pattern to the leaders thinking approach when they were faced with challenging choices. In 2007, Roger published a book called The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking. The book describes the components of Integrative Thinking and provides a guide for those who want to manage their own Integrative Thinking capacity. Roger states, “Many people assume that Integrative Thinking is a skill which one must be born to demonstrate. This is definitively not the case! It is clear from this teaching experience that anyone who is willing to work at Integrative Thinking can develop the thinking pattern exhibited by the highly successful leaders that I studied.” I agree with Rogers statement because not every successful leader is born with every skill set to make them successful.
Do you think integrative thinking is an easy skill to learn? How much time do you think you need to put into learning the skill set of an integrative thinker?
We can change the way we think!
Summary of “How Successful People Think”
Integrative thinking is in some way or another an art form, but also is something that can be learned, practiced, and built upon throughout a life time. I believe in order to become an integrative thinker we first need to learn how to think better. “How Successful People Think” by John C Maxwell is a book that addresses 11 skills of a good thinker possess, and how to adopt these skills. These 11 skills are:
1)Big picture thinking
2)Focused thinking
3)Creative thinking
4)Realistic thinking
5)Strategic thinking
6)Possibility thinking
7)Reflective thinking
8)Popular thinking
9)Shared thinking
10)Unselfish thinking
11)Bottom-line thinking
Maxwell’s quote “If you embrace unpopular thinking and make decisions based upon what works best and what is right rather than what is commonly accepted, know this: in your early years you won’t be as wrong as people think you are. In your later years, you won’t be as right as people think you are. And through all the years, you will be better than you thought you could be.”
Maxwell says we can develop these skills during ordinary daily routines. Does anyone have any ideas how they would practice one of the 11 skills in their daily life?
Practicing Integrative Thinking Skills
This week in class, we are discussing the art and science of integrative thinking. To learn more about integrative thinking, I explored online for relevant articles. On The Huffington Post’s website, I located an article entitled Becoming an Integrative thinker: The Keys to Success, by Roger Martin, the academic director of an institute of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and author of the article we read for class.
Martin uses the expression “opposable minds” to explain the decision-making styles of successful leaders; he explains that when faced with options, these individuals do not choose the lesser of two evils but instead synthesize a unique option that is superior to its alternatives.
More interestingly, in my opinion, he argues that integrative thinking is a skill rather than an innate ability—one that must be nurtured to develop, as opposed to one assigned by nature.
As I thought more about the prospect of developing one’s integrative thinking skills, I began to wonder what type of practice is best. Should one focus on case studies, or should one aim to tackle real-life problems? Should one type of practice precede the other, or is a mixture of the two optimal?
Lastly, do we already practice our integrative thinking skills more regularly than one might think?
How to Get the Job When You Don’t Have the Experience
“The Permission Paradox” – You can’t get the job without the experience but you can’t get the experience without the job – is one of the great career Catch-22s.
I came across this article on Linkedin, while I was scrolling for jobs. Almost every job I came across required 3-5 years of professional experience. How can I have experience if I cant get a first job? Well, James Citrin, author of The Career Playbook, tells you how in just 5 steps. Reading this article gave me confidence that not all requirements are so black and white.
James gives a few pointers that stuck with me after reading:
1. Be willing to start at the bottom. Just because we have a degree, doesn’t mean we should automatically get a high paid salary in a fortune 500 company. Sometimes you need to work up the ladder.
2. Re-imagine your experience. Have you ever planned a spring break with your friends? That counts as some type of “project managing” right? It was your responsibility to collect money, work with budgets, and research unknown variables of the trip.
To those of you who are still searching for jobs or have already gotten an offer, have you used creative stories like these in interviews to fill an under qualified job requirement?
“Cars You Can Drive Will Eventually Be Outlawed”
http://www.theverge.com/transportation/2015/3/17/8232187/elon-musk-human-drivers-are-dangerous
We discussed heavily in class the disruptive innovation of autonomous vehicles. What I found most interesting however was not the technology itself but the regulatory implications.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors says that cars controlled by people will eventually be outlawed in favor of those controlled by robots. He compares it to that of the elevator where the development of simple circuitry led to the elevator operators’ extinction.
So when autonomous car adoption reaches a critical mass, will the government require car owners to purchase autonomous vehicles if they want to “drive” on main roads? Will the government provide a cash for clunkers program? Will they provide 0% interest loans to those who cannot afford the full cost for the sake of public safety? How do you think a government would even go about this?
AI + IoT = Good or Bad?
According to this article, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with the Internet of Things (IoT) is inevitable, and there are prominent people such as Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk that warn against what may result by the combination. Fears range from the simple (putting employees out of work) to the extreme (Terminator SkyNet scenarios), but there are also people like Kevin Hally (founding editor of Wired magazine) who see the integration of IoT and AI to bring huge benefits to business (i.e. cutting costs by automating tasks) as long as they remain “consciousness-free”.
With over 50 billion devices expected to be connected to the internet by 2020 (more than 7 times the entire human population as of now), what do you think the implications will be if billions of embedded devices are eventually connected to artificially intelligent machines? Do you think AI is still too far in the distant future to even worry about? And, arguably as important, how can AI become a disruptive innovation unto itself? Do you agree with Kevin Hally that soon start up businesses will start basing their business plans on “cognitizing” what was previously “electrified”, with AI eventually becoming a commodity like electricity currently is?
PlayStation Mobile Shutting Down..Reflections on the “Internet of Things”
As confirmed in this article, Sony has announced that it is shutting down its PlayStation Mobile service; this happened just ONE DAY after I recommended in my presentation last Tuesday that Sony use the service as part of its strategy to protect itself against new entrants such as OnLive that are attempting to disrupt the market. Launched in October 2012, the service will officially end on July 15, culminating in a mere existence of 2 years and 9 months (for those who weren’t in class for my presentation, PlayStation Mobile was basically a framework for an “app store” that hosted exclusive games and other content that catered to indie developers). A listing here shows that the service was compatible with 72 devices, including the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV, taking full advantage of the “Internet of Things”, or IoT. Yet, with such a broad range of compatibly and a strong brand name, the service was ultimately known for poor developer support, a weak game library, and a small user base.
In light of this failure by an established incumbent but the continued success of other services that take advantage of IoT devices (such as iOS, Android, and Valve’s Steam) and a wave of new entrants (such as OnLive, as from my presentation, and Nvidia’s Shield, as posted by James Brunetto), what do you think a company needs to do in order to achieve success and stay relevant with a service that is meant to be compatible on a wide range of popular devices? Was PlayStation Mobile not innovative enough? And what features would a service like this in the gaming industry need in order to truly be considered disruptive?
The Internet Of Things & Energy Costs
For my disruptive innovation project, I looked at “The Internet of Things,” one of the top disruptive innovations recently, and an idea that I was not familiar with. This concept is that of things all around us, from watches to refrigerators, being embedded with sensors that allow these devices to communicate and share data. In doing some further research, I found this article about how The Internet of Things can help companies slash their energy costs- a concept that I had no considered.
While I think many people focus on The Internet of Things as a way to make people more connected and make our lives easier, I don’t think there’s enough focus on the good that IOT can do. The article talks about how companies can use smart grids, which will run on the IOT, which allow energy distribution to be evaluated in real-time, rather than based on historical data. This will allow companies to more effectively manage their energy usage, thus saving them money and helping the environment through reduced energy usage/waste.
What other potential do you see for IOT savings money and doing good? Do you think there are applications for a smart grid in a smaller sense, rather than just for businesses?
The Five Most Disruptive Innovations At CES 2015
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bigbangdisruption/2015/01/09/the-five-most-disruptive-innovations-at-ces-2015/
This year was the Consumer Electronics Show 2015 (CES) filled with big bang disruptors. There were disruptors from incumbents and start-ups with the likelihood to cause big changes. The five most disruptive innovations were:
1) Transportation – Autonomous Vehicles
2) Health and Fitness – The Quantified Self
3) Manufacturing – 3D Printing and Robotics
4) The Internet of Things
5) Augmented Reality
I found this article very interesting because the top five most disruptive innovations at the CES were covered in our class through our case analysis. Two of the five disruptive innovations I found amusing were the autonomous vehicle and 3D printing. I would have never thought in a million years we would have a self-driving car. When I listened to the presentation in class I was very fascinated with the information. My case analysis was on 3D printing which I also thought was interesting because I never knew much about the product. After reading this article, I learned a lot more about 3D printing and the new features. If technology is this advanced in 2015, I can only imagine how advanced technology will be 30 years from now.
The disruptive innovations at the CES fall in the “early market experiment stage of big bang disruptions.” According to Forbes, “Some–perhaps most of them–will never make it to mainstream success. But even those that don’t succeed send a strong signal to incumbents of imminent disruption when some entrepreneur hits on the right combination of new technologies and business models.”
What are your thoughts on this years Consumer Electronic Show? Do you think the innovations listed in this article and what we discussed in class will make it to mainstream success? Why or why not?
Nvidia plays Shield console as Netflix for games
After the presentation on Tuesday involving video games/consoles, I thought this product was worth mentioning. In this article, Benny Evangelista, talks about Nvidia’s new console know as Shield. Priced at $199, Shield is described as “part smart TV, part game console, and part Netflix.” With an emphasis on gaming, Shield aims to stream video games the same way the Netflix streams videos. This would allow gamers to play instantly instead of waiting for hundreds of GB to download and plan to have 50 on-demand games by its launch date in May. Nvidia believes that with Sheild’s processor, it will be able to play games better than current video game consoles. Along with this, Shield will also have voice-controlled Android TV and will stream ultra HD online movies and video, play music, and display digital photos and running apps. With all these features, Nvidia hopes to make current video game consoles like PlayStation and Xbox obsolete. While also competing with streaming media devices like Apple and Roku.
Do you think that Nvidia’s Shield console has the ability disrupt the current video game console market and/or the streaming media device market? What suggestions/actions do you think companies in these markets should do to hinder Shield from gaining a share of the market?
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