The Six Disciplines of Strategic Thinking

THE DISCIPLINE OF PATTERN RECOGNITION

Reflection: What can you do to avoid falling into these traps, cultivate your curiosity and ensure that you are updating your mental models?

How can you improve your ​pattern-​recognition ability? While it is essential to watch out for ways in which pattern rec ognition can let you down, don’t let that detract from its enormous power. The capacity to recognize patterns is built into our brains. But, like the other disciplines of strategic thinking, it can also be developed. Research on neuroplasticity has shown that the brain directs attention and rallies effort to activities that strain our cognitive abilities. 11 As you learn, you become better at your craft, and your mind no longer works as hard. The regions of the brain that govern attention and effortful control show ​much-​reduced activity. Total immersion is the best way to learn a new language. It’s also a great way to gain deep insight into complex business envir onments. Immersion is essential because people need significant “soak time” in a milieu to build powerful mental models. (Note to ​talent-d​evelopment professionals: this insight also highlights the dangers of moving people too rapidly from business to busi ness or job to job, because there isn’t time to master the core dynamics of each new situation.) You cannot hope to develop superior pattern recognition in every business domain. You must immerse yourself deeply in selected ​areas – ​for example, business functions such as market ing, industries like ​fast-​moving consumer goods or stakeholder environments such as government relations. The implication: you need to put a lot of thought into selecting the domains in which you aspire to become a strategic thinker. Only then can

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