there is a very good chance that you may
not make it to the end of this talk
without getting distracted you see speed
busyness and multitasking have all
become weapons against thoughtfulness
good thinking critical decision-making
have elapsed to the point of great if
not grave concern and do not get me
started about our creativity we don’t
have any time for it anymore
indeed it is time to rethink our
thinking and I have a few suggestions
for you today
in which to do so in 2016 in the United
States of America vehicle accidents as a
result of distracted driving outpace
those caused by impaired or drunk
driving distracted driving of course are
the antics and habits by which we are
driving and you are phone and texting
and e-mailing but it’s also eating while
driving in 2017 in Canada vehicle deaths
as a result of distracted driving
outpaced those caused by impaired or
drunk driving
why have we figured out that it’s not a
great idea to go boozing or binging on
drugs on a Friday night and then drive
home but it’s a good idea to answer a
text or an email from your boss or your
friend while driving 75 miles an hour on
a highway speaking of which did you know
that the amount of time it takes to look
down at your phone and back up while
traveling on said highway at 75 miles an
hour is the length of a football field
what deleterious action could occur in
that time now speaking of driving in
2018 in Vermont a man was invited to a
party at his friend’s house his friend
had moved house so like we all do we
pull out our phone we open up our map
app we put in the coordinates and we
hope that it’s the quickest way in which
to get to the destination now
unbeknownst to said Vermont driver the
app recommended that the quickest way in
which to get to said destination was
through Lake Champlain and so our driver
drove down a boat ramp submerged his car
into the middle of Lake Champlain and
waited for the Coast Guard to rescue him
and his two passengers
everybody was saved not to be outdone in
Australia in more town Queensland east
coast of Australia three Japanese
tourists saw this Island over yonder
they said we must visit that Island and
so they plugged in the coordinates of
the island into their onboard on
propagation system unbeknownst to the
drivers there was 15 kilometers between
the mate the augment of gravel mud and
what was it oh the ocean and so our
three Japanese tourists started driving
in the gravel they got stuck in the mud
they panicked the Thai quickly came in
and so true the coastguard had to rescue
these three everybody was saved why are
we outsourcing our thinking why aren’t
we making good critical decisions what’s
happening to our creativity it gets
worse we’re losing our focus researchers
have proven that in the year 2000 us
human beings our attention span was 12
seconds you’re like wow that’s not a lot
well today it’s eight seconds that is if
you’re a mathematician a 33 percent drop
now here’s the kicker the attention span
of a goldfish is nine seconds
well you don’t even have the attention
span of a fish so yes for the past four
years or so I’ve been thinking about our
thinking I’ve been researching chatting
with artists and others across this
planet and it comes down to two key
things I believe if you want to become
an open thinker the first is reflection
to reflect is to id8 it’s the brainstorm
it’s to marinate in the moment it’s the
ponder it’s the pontificate but so –
it’s to be wise it’s to base a decision
on fact not fiction
you must be judicious if you leave
reflection too quickly by the way you
may miss out on one of those ideas but
you also may make a decision in haste
spend too long in reflection and you’re
called a fence sitter what psychologists
refer to as suffering from paralysis by
analysis so we must balance our
reflection we must look up and out as
much as we must look down and in and the
second bit to open thinking is action
now some of us get stage fright as it
turns out we don’t want to jump to
action right we’re we’re worried about
what our boss may say or what our peers
at work may say we’re a little bit
fraidy-cat but what’s really gripping
Society is this addiction to action
we’re jumping to execution if you prefer
this sort of analogy we are suffering
from tyranny of the urgent syndrome we
are all addicted to a pill and on its
label it says busyness and if you’re a
star Wars fan because I am think of
being sucked in by the Death Star’s
tractor beam to something called
multitasking and distracted miss and in
the organizations in which I work with
there’s this mantra do more with less
so our organizations are rife with
action well here’s the problem
guess what happens when we get stressed
our bodies emit a hormone is called
cortisol that is the stress hormone when
we’re too stressed we have the fog of
war in our minds we
creates and we don’t make great
decisions so how is our action actually
gonna work out now I like metaphors I
also like popcorn so here we go
so movie night at the Ponte frat house
we make popcorn but the old fashioned
wait we get the pot hook we put the oil
in we sizzle up the kernels put the lid
on of course shake it up put the popcorn
into the bowls we enjoy our movies now
what if we were to take that metaphor of
popcorn and plot it against an XY axes
of reflection in action if you want to
be an open thinker let’s say you want to
have that fluffy delectable delicious
popcorn you will balance action and
reflection right but what if you jumped
into action right away what if you got
too impatient what if you wanted to
popcorn so quickly you didn’t care what
would you be left with
kernels in oil gross flip it around what
have you spend too much time reflecting
you know maybe you actually got the pot
on there maybe you put the oil in right
but they’re like I don’t know is it how
long does this take I don’t know what
what’s that smell I’m not just oh yeah
it’s burnt popcorn but worse what if you
didn’t care maybe you put the pot on
there but then like some of us at work
we just walk away
we’re apathetic what happens when you
walk away from a stove fire you see when
we our poor thinkers were lost in a corn
maze and I’ve got some habits to
introduce today to reintroduce for some
of you but the first isn’t easy to
remember tagline dream decide do repeat
so I will dream decide do repeat when
you dream you idea you brainstorm you
marinate instead moment maybe you’re
collaborating with people maybe you’re
not maybe you go for walks maybe you’re
hiking you’re just soaking up what’s out
there when you decide you’re taking the
facts the evidence and your ideas and
making those judicious decisions
ethically and on time but we must apply
our thinking we must do but the problem
is that we’re all jumping to the doing
so in dream decide do don’t start
with Dew but also reserve the right to
repeat and go back to dreaming and
deciding if new information presents
itself or things go awry when things go
awry so it’s not going well this dream
decide do thing in the run-up to the
2016 US presidential election did you
know then candidate Donald Trump was
endorsed by Pope Francis amazing first
pope ever to endorse a political
candidate except there was a teensy tiny
little problem here
he didn’t yet the new site called WT o e
5 News I put out this wonderful press
release with copious amounts of Pope
Francis quotes that said he had endorsed
the Pope hundreds of thousands of people
shared the news via Twitter feed
Facebook email you know letter carrier
but they were duped but what did they do
it’s a metaphor
they jumped to action they did not come
back and ask themselves is this true and
what other opportunities may there be
the Pope had to come out an issue his
own press release I never endorsed
political candidates anywhere or what
about the lead up to World War two the
Maginot Line now the French were
expecting the Germans to invade their
country and so they went back to sort of
World War one thinking I was World War
one fought trench warfare so they said
let’s build a bigger of trench heavily
fortified armored in it were shopping
malls and cinemas you could watch a
movie get your hair cut down there and
they waited and the Germans what did
they do well history tells us that they
invented a new type of thinking a new
type of warfare
it’s called blitzkrieg the translation
Lightning warfare which means they
attack and surprise their opponent from
above and from the sides and behind
called flanking so it’s 1940 the French
lay there in their trenches and their
ditches and their tunnels and Germany
went around them France never saw it
coming because they didn’t think about
it
if you want to go back to our popcorn
metaphor fire so I urge you today to
become the chef of your own life
think about chefs for a second chefs do
three types of thinking they are
creative thinkers they’re critical
thinkers and they apply their thinking
this is the essence of open thinking so
chefs what do they do they go for walks
they talk with their colleagues their
chefs their line chefs they talk to
customers right
they talk to farmers they smell the
produce they’re always thinking of ways
in which to inculcate a new type of menu
but so too they must make decisions not
in haste but practical there’s budget
there’s time but they’re always also
writing things down past menus past
examples does this pair with that what
season it what color should we use does
fish go with Nutella I don’t think so
but you know I’m not a chef and then
what happens
they gotta apply that thinking there’s
customers in the restaurant so they need
to be in the kitchen actually cooking up
what they’ve dreamed up and what they’ve
decided but things happen
allergies special requests birthday a
run on salmon what do we do we do some
more creative and critical thinking
don’t we become the chef of your own
life and employ these for win back
solutions the first win back your
imagination practices at home in the
mirror slow down I D eight go for a walk
enjoy the pleasures of life hike cycle
talk to people when was the last time
you went into an elevator and instead of
staring at your phone you said hello
what’s your name
we must be ID a ting better than we are
today
enrich your lives by thinking about the
art of the possible secondly win back
your attention and your focus this
starts with getting organized we cannot
remember everything as is our attention
span is also decreasing from 12 to 8
seconds so write it down make
list get organized and then concentrate
concentrate concentrate take a look at
your laptop what’s going on there
do you have notifications and emails and
Twitter’s and all this stuff happening
what about your phone is it buzzed
constantly do you have red dopamine hits
that someone likes something you did
here go to it right away you need to put
a Do Not Disturb sign on your mind
that’s winning back your attention and
your focus thirdly win back your
decision-making this starts by the
simple adage we are entitled to our own
opinion we are not entitled to our own
facts search out the truth bring facts
forward then check it then double check
it then triple check it then you can
make that judicious timely ethical
decision and fourthly win back your time
to ensure that you have action and
reflection to ensure you can dream
decide do and repeat to ensure that you
employ creative critical and apply
thinking to become the open thinker
remember this each of us have a hundred
and sixty eight hours a week 60 to 70
depending who you are ours about
sleeping right so we got about a hundred
hours to work with how are you using
that time win back your calendar stop
accepting meeting requests for just
because stop programming every inch
every nanosecond of your day how much
time are you spending mindlessly
scrolling through Facebook Twitter and
Instagram
how much time are you spending binge
watching Netflix on a weekend win back
your time action and reflection the
balance allows you to enjoy your own
bowl of scrumptious fluffy delectable
popcorn you become the open thinker when
you are the chef of your own life
balancing creative critical and applied
thinking this journey for me started
four years ago my family and I my three
goats and my beautiful wife Denise
we’re at a Mother’s Day brunch and in
walked a family of eight three teenagers
two parents two grandmothers and a
grandfather for the entirety of that
brunch the five younger ones the three
teenagers and the parents sat at and
stared at their phone and my family and
I looked at each other and this is what
we thought how many mothers days do
those two grandmothers have left what
happened to dreaming and deciding what
happened to conversation and in our
organizations are suffering from
something I call corporate ad D we’re
doing so much inside our organization’s
it’s causing duress and we’re not
getting the great ideas in our org we
have words like housework homework
artwork roadwork
we don’t have think work we need a new
dream decide do repeat and when you do
you will win back your life you will
become again the open thinker and in the
words of the great roman marcus aurelius
very little is needed to make a happy
life it is all within yourself in your
way of thinking thank you [Applause]
not make it to the end of this talk
without getting distracted you see speed
busyness and multitasking have all
become weapons against thoughtfulness
good thinking critical decision-making
have elapsed to the point of great if
not grave concern and do not get me
started about our creativity we don’t
have any time for it anymore
indeed it is time to rethink our
thinking and I have a few suggestions
for you today
in which to do so in 2016 in the United
States of America vehicle accidents as a
result of distracted driving outpace
those caused by impaired or drunk
driving distracted driving of course are
the antics and habits by which we are
driving and you are phone and texting
and e-mailing but it’s also eating while
driving in 2017 in Canada vehicle deaths
as a result of distracted driving
outpaced those caused by impaired or
drunk driving
why have we figured out that it’s not a
great idea to go boozing or binging on
drugs on a Friday night and then drive
home but it’s a good idea to answer a
text or an email from your boss or your
friend while driving 75 miles an hour on
a highway speaking of which did you know
that the amount of time it takes to look
down at your phone and back up while
traveling on said highway at 75 miles an
hour is the length of a football field
what deleterious action could occur in
that time now speaking of driving in
2018 in Vermont a man was invited to a
party at his friend’s house his friend
had moved house so like we all do we
pull out our phone we open up our map
app we put in the coordinates and we
hope that it’s the quickest way in which
to get to the destination now
unbeknownst to said Vermont driver the
app recommended that the quickest way in
which to get to said destination was
through Lake Champlain and so our driver
drove down a boat ramp submerged his car
into the middle of Lake Champlain and
waited for the Coast Guard to rescue him
and his two passengers
everybody was saved not to be outdone in
Australia in more town Queensland east
coast of Australia three Japanese
tourists saw this Island over yonder
they said we must visit that Island and
so they plugged in the coordinates of
the island into their onboard on
propagation system unbeknownst to the
drivers there was 15 kilometers between
the mate the augment of gravel mud and
what was it oh the ocean and so our
three Japanese tourists started driving
in the gravel they got stuck in the mud
they panicked the Thai quickly came in
and so true the coastguard had to rescue
these three everybody was saved why are
we outsourcing our thinking why aren’t
we making good critical decisions what’s
happening to our creativity it gets
worse we’re losing our focus researchers
have proven that in the year 2000 us
human beings our attention span was 12
seconds you’re like wow that’s not a lot
well today it’s eight seconds that is if
you’re a mathematician a 33 percent drop
now here’s the kicker the attention span
of a goldfish is nine seconds
well you don’t even have the attention
span of a fish so yes for the past four
years or so I’ve been thinking about our
thinking I’ve been researching chatting
with artists and others across this
planet and it comes down to two key
things I believe if you want to become
an open thinker the first is reflection
to reflect is to id8 it’s the brainstorm
it’s to marinate in the moment it’s the
ponder it’s the pontificate but so –
it’s to be wise it’s to base a decision
on fact not fiction
you must be judicious if you leave
reflection too quickly by the way you
may miss out on one of those ideas but
you also may make a decision in haste
spend too long in reflection and you’re
called a fence sitter what psychologists
refer to as suffering from paralysis by
analysis so we must balance our
reflection we must look up and out as
much as we must look down and in and the
second bit to open thinking is action
now some of us get stage fright as it
turns out we don’t want to jump to
action right we’re we’re worried about
what our boss may say or what our peers
at work may say we’re a little bit
fraidy-cat but what’s really gripping
Society is this addiction to action
we’re jumping to execution if you prefer
this sort of analogy we are suffering
from tyranny of the urgent syndrome we
are all addicted to a pill and on its
label it says busyness and if you’re a
star Wars fan because I am think of
being sucked in by the Death Star’s
tractor beam to something called
multitasking and distracted miss and in
the organizations in which I work with
there’s this mantra do more with less
so our organizations are rife with
action well here’s the problem
guess what happens when we get stressed
our bodies emit a hormone is called
cortisol that is the stress hormone when
we’re too stressed we have the fog of
war in our minds we
creates and we don’t make great
decisions so how is our action actually
gonna work out now I like metaphors I
also like popcorn so here we go
so movie night at the Ponte frat house
we make popcorn but the old fashioned
wait we get the pot hook we put the oil
in we sizzle up the kernels put the lid
on of course shake it up put the popcorn
into the bowls we enjoy our movies now
what if we were to take that metaphor of
popcorn and plot it against an XY axes
of reflection in action if you want to
be an open thinker let’s say you want to
have that fluffy delectable delicious
popcorn you will balance action and
reflection right but what if you jumped
into action right away what if you got
too impatient what if you wanted to
popcorn so quickly you didn’t care what
would you be left with
kernels in oil gross flip it around what
have you spend too much time reflecting
you know maybe you actually got the pot
on there maybe you put the oil in right
but they’re like I don’t know is it how
long does this take I don’t know what
what’s that smell I’m not just oh yeah
it’s burnt popcorn but worse what if you
didn’t care maybe you put the pot on
there but then like some of us at work
we just walk away
we’re apathetic what happens when you
walk away from a stove fire you see when
we our poor thinkers were lost in a corn
maze and I’ve got some habits to
introduce today to reintroduce for some
of you but the first isn’t easy to
remember tagline dream decide do repeat
so I will dream decide do repeat when
you dream you idea you brainstorm you
marinate instead moment maybe you’re
collaborating with people maybe you’re
not maybe you go for walks maybe you’re
hiking you’re just soaking up what’s out
there when you decide you’re taking the
facts the evidence and your ideas and
making those judicious decisions
ethically and on time but we must apply
our thinking we must do but the problem
is that we’re all jumping to the doing
so in dream decide do don’t start
with Dew but also reserve the right to
repeat and go back to dreaming and
deciding if new information presents
itself or things go awry when things go
awry so it’s not going well this dream
decide do thing in the run-up to the
2016 US presidential election did you
know then candidate Donald Trump was
endorsed by Pope Francis amazing first
pope ever to endorse a political
candidate except there was a teensy tiny
little problem here
he didn’t yet the new site called WT o e
5 News I put out this wonderful press
release with copious amounts of Pope
Francis quotes that said he had endorsed
the Pope hundreds of thousands of people
shared the news via Twitter feed
Facebook email you know letter carrier
but they were duped but what did they do
it’s a metaphor
they jumped to action they did not come
back and ask themselves is this true and
what other opportunities may there be
the Pope had to come out an issue his
own press release I never endorsed
political candidates anywhere or what
about the lead up to World War two the
Maginot Line now the French were
expecting the Germans to invade their
country and so they went back to sort of
World War one thinking I was World War
one fought trench warfare so they said
let’s build a bigger of trench heavily
fortified armored in it were shopping
malls and cinemas you could watch a
movie get your hair cut down there and
they waited and the Germans what did
they do well history tells us that they
invented a new type of thinking a new
type of warfare
it’s called blitzkrieg the translation
Lightning warfare which means they
attack and surprise their opponent from
above and from the sides and behind
called flanking so it’s 1940 the French
lay there in their trenches and their
ditches and their tunnels and Germany
went around them France never saw it
coming because they didn’t think about
it
if you want to go back to our popcorn
metaphor fire so I urge you today to
become the chef of your own life
think about chefs for a second chefs do
three types of thinking they are
creative thinkers they’re critical
thinkers and they apply their thinking
this is the essence of open thinking so
chefs what do they do they go for walks
they talk with their colleagues their
chefs their line chefs they talk to
customers right
they talk to farmers they smell the
produce they’re always thinking of ways
in which to inculcate a new type of menu
but so too they must make decisions not
in haste but practical there’s budget
there’s time but they’re always also
writing things down past menus past
examples does this pair with that what
season it what color should we use does
fish go with Nutella I don’t think so
but you know I’m not a chef and then
what happens
they gotta apply that thinking there’s
customers in the restaurant so they need
to be in the kitchen actually cooking up
what they’ve dreamed up and what they’ve
decided but things happen
allergies special requests birthday a
run on salmon what do we do we do some
more creative and critical thinking
don’t we become the chef of your own
life and employ these for win back
solutions the first win back your
imagination practices at home in the
mirror slow down I D eight go for a walk
enjoy the pleasures of life hike cycle
talk to people when was the last time
you went into an elevator and instead of
staring at your phone you said hello
what’s your name
we must be ID a ting better than we are
today
enrich your lives by thinking about the
art of the possible secondly win back
your attention and your focus this
starts with getting organized we cannot
remember everything as is our attention
span is also decreasing from 12 to 8
seconds so write it down make
list get organized and then concentrate
concentrate concentrate take a look at
your laptop what’s going on there
do you have notifications and emails and
Twitter’s and all this stuff happening
what about your phone is it buzzed
constantly do you have red dopamine hits
that someone likes something you did
here go to it right away you need to put
a Do Not Disturb sign on your mind
that’s winning back your attention and
your focus thirdly win back your
decision-making this starts by the
simple adage we are entitled to our own
opinion we are not entitled to our own
facts search out the truth bring facts
forward then check it then double check
it then triple check it then you can
make that judicious timely ethical
decision and fourthly win back your time
to ensure that you have action and
reflection to ensure you can dream
decide do and repeat to ensure that you
employ creative critical and apply
thinking to become the open thinker
remember this each of us have a hundred
and sixty eight hours a week 60 to 70
depending who you are ours about
sleeping right so we got about a hundred
hours to work with how are you using
that time win back your calendar stop
accepting meeting requests for just
because stop programming every inch
every nanosecond of your day how much
time are you spending mindlessly
scrolling through Facebook Twitter and
how much time are you spending binge
watching Netflix on a weekend win back
your time action and reflection the
balance allows you to enjoy your own
bowl of scrumptious fluffy delectable
popcorn you become the open thinker when
you are the chef of your own life
balancing creative critical and applied
thinking this journey for me started
four years ago my family and I my three
goats and my beautiful wife Denise
we’re at a Mother’s Day brunch and in
walked a family of eight three teenagers
two parents two grandmothers and a
grandfather for the entirety of that
brunch the five younger ones the three
teenagers and the parents sat at and
stared at their phone and my family and
I looked at each other and this is what
we thought how many mothers days do
those two grandmothers have left what
happened to dreaming and deciding what
happened to conversation and in our
organizations are suffering from
something I call corporate ad D we’re
doing so much inside our organization’s
it’s causing duress and we’re not
getting the great ideas in our org we
have words like housework homework
artwork roadwork
we don’t have think work we need a new
dream decide do repeat and when you do
you will win back your life you will
become again the open thinker and in the
words of the great roman marcus aurelius
very little is needed to make a happy
life it is all within yourself in your
way of thinking thank you [Applause]
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