The Million Copy Bestseller THINK AGAIN - Visually explained
A visual walkthrough Adam Grant's book, that will make you rethink!
When I read an interesting book, I like to also capture some of the ideas in digital drawings that I later post on Instagram or Linkedin to keep learning together (Hi dear friends !).
However I always had troubles when it comes to sharing larger stories or collection of drawings, so happy to have found this way. Hope you will like it too!
Enough introduction, you came for the visual book so here we go:
I - INDIVIDUAL RETHINKING
How many phones have you had in your life?
Phones have a clear lifecycle - they slow down, stop receiving updates, and eventually break… We know when to change them.
But what about our non-physical belongings?
🧠 Our ideas, assumptions, opinions, habits… How often do we update those ?
Our ideas are intertwined with our identities, making it challenging to change our minds.
Yet, this ability can lift us out of stagnation.
Adam Grant describes three postures we use to avoid rethinking our opinions and strategies:
👨🏫 The Preacher:
No evidence is needed, our ideas are on a sacred pedestal, and we will protect and promote them.
👨⚖️ The Prosecutor:
We will carefully examine other ideas with the sole goal of finding their flaws.
👔 The Politician:
We will use charm and present our ideas in an appealing way, shifting arguments as needed by the audience.
"Pride comes before the fall" or as a poet would say, "Check yo' self before you wreck yo' self."
In a VUCA world like ours, we need the humility to take a scientific approach, putting our ideas to the test and revisiting them regularly.
Break the Overconfidence vicious cycle with Humility & Curiosity!
Your values are part of your identity, but your opinions shouldn't be.
It's easy to feel threatened or undervalued when our opinions are challenged, but instead of raising our shield to protect ourselves, we should detach from our opinions and listen carefully to the opposing view…
… ready to change our minds!
The problem with stupidity and biases... We recognize them only in others.
The concept of “Confident Humility” is similar to having a growth mindset.
↖️Being insecure about yourself, & certain about tools = Obsessive Inferiority
↙️ Being secure about yourself, & certain about tools = Blind Arrogance
↗️ Being insecure about yourself, & uncertain about tools = Debilitating Doubt
↘️Being secure about yourself, & uncertain about your tools = CONFIDENT HUMILITY
By combining Self-assurance, with the humility to recognize that we don't have all the answers, we can walk on the path of growth.
Let's be confident enough to keep re-evaluating our actions, ideas and tools!
II - INTERPERSONAL RETHINKING
Conflicts are uncomfortable but can lead to high-performing teams...
..If they are of the right type!
Heres a helpful frame for conflicts presented in the book:
🥊 Relationship conflicts make us less likely to cooperate, share ideas, and work together efficiently.
📦 Task conflicts, however, let ideas clash and diverse perspectives collide, challenging us to refine our ideas and ultimately, deliver better results!
Expert negotiators and debaters use particular ways manage to make us change our minds:
🩰 They dance:
Unlike average negotiators who prepare for a fight, experts search for common ground. What can we agree on?
They're preparing to dance.
❓ They ask questions:
Questions are powerful because the person most capable of changing our minds is ourselves!
Questions force us to rethink and open up to new possibilities.
Average negotiators instead focus on defending their arguments, which has a lesser chance to convince someone with an opposite view.
🪨 They bring only their best arguments:
While it's tempting to explore every possible argument and exploit weak opposing views, expert negotiators concentrate on "strong men" arguments – countering the best opposing views with powerful points.
They focus on fewer but more compelling arguments.
The "Motivational Interviewing" technique is a well-established, effective way to facilitate meaningful change. Research shows that it can work in diverse areas (addiction, professional performance, diet, ecological choices etc..).
In this method, the interviewer comes with a positive and empathetic mindset, aiming to empower the interviewee to reach their goals, by focusing on their innate capacity for change.
The core principles include:
❓ Asking open-ended questions
Ex: "How do you feel about..."
🪞 Utilizing reflective listening
Ex: "So you're saying..."
❤️ Affirming the person's desire and ability to change,
Ex: "Have you ever felt a profound need to change..."
III - COLLECTIVE RETHINKING
The B.I.K.E acronym wasn't mentioned in the book, I just tried to structure my thoughts after having finished the drawing, so please accept it's shortcomings 😄.
🦁𝗕𝗲 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲 (𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆):
Confident Humility is a mindset in which we believe in our ability to learn and figure out solutions, but are uncertain about the tools to get there.
A culture that encourage a Confident Humility mindset allow people to be brave and experiment new approaches, putting the organization on the learning road.
📈 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 (𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲𝘀):
Performance cultures have a problem… They can get stuck into “Overconfidence Cycles”. Their positive past results can hide deep process flaws.
In Learning cultures “Rethinking” becomes a routine, for example:
- Asking “How do you know …?”,
- Seeking and Giving feedback repeatedly,
- Challenging Authority.
This lead to constant improvements, spinning the learning wheels to push the organization forward.
❓𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀:
Expanding on the idea above, best practices can be problematic when they stop innovation, during unexpected changes, or when they haven't been deeply thought through.
The book introduce the concept of “Process accountability” which is about examining how deep the thinking went for a decision, and how carefully different options were considered.
A shallow decision can sometime lead to a positive outcome, but that would only be luck. Deep thinking and rethinking is how you course correct and learn.
💛 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘆 (𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆):
At the cornerstone of all the topics above is psychological safety.
Without a culture where people feel safe to speak up, admit mistake or provide candid feedback, you can't have a learning organization.
Psychological safety start with leaders role-modeling confident humility, being sincerely looking for feedback, and having enough empathy to look for the barriers that could prevent people to feel safe to speak up.
Once you jump on the 𝗕.𝗜.𝗞.𝗘, starting may be hard, but you can believe that the momentum generated will keep the group / organization on the learning road and bring higher performance, engagement and innovation!
🚲🚲🚲
VI - CONCLUSION
The common path seen in career developments:
1. 🔴𝗜'𝗺 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁
2. 🟡 𝗜'𝗺 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁
3. 🌏 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁
Make time to Think and Rethink regularly about your future, and see if your actions still contribute to the larger purpose you are aiming at!
And that’s it ! Hope you enjoyed the visual walkthrough. Tell me what book should be next or any feedback to help me rethink this newsteller :).
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Your illustrations are so creative Lud, really great work. This book was already on my shortlist but now it quickly rises to the top, a lot of interesting concepts here. Thanks!