Excerpt: Chapter 1, “Big Think and the Trojan Horse”

Big Think Versus Small Think

The chief executives, department heads, and entrepreneurs with whom I speak all say they need big and bold strategies to compete. They tell me they want to think out of the box, develop creative strategies, and execute in bold strokes that shake up markets.

So, the leaders all want to think big. Why don’t they?

Because their organizations are trapped in a mode of small thinking that kills creativity right from the start. This kind of “Small Think” is characterized by inertia and resistance, narrow-mindedness, and risk aversion that stifle true innovation[...].

Big Think differs considerably from Small Think. Big Think is a creative and visionary thinking and leadership style that leverages bold ideas and actions. Big Think organizations are integrated around a few core ideas that produce lasting impact.

Where Small Think deals with the known, the pretested, and the prechewed, Big Think faces challenges creatively, reasoning about them from new angles and generating innovative ideas and actions to solve them. Big Think does not just occur in the head. It involves action: managing people and teams, and driving organizational change. It is not simply creating something new; it is behaving differently...