Latest Unthinking - January

Welcome to the Latest Unthinking newsletter, January edition!🤘🏼

560+ words. 3 parts. 3 mins of your time.🚀

1. Tell me something new!

2. Dirt track mindset

3. Highlights

Chat GPTs quick summary of today’s newsletter:

“Ever had that moment when your "great" idea feels so good, you think it's a genius? Spoiler alert: it's probably just the warm and fuzzy feeling of fitting in. Embrace uncertainty, because unanimous agreement is the archenemy of change – just ask the guy who outran a wildfire by stopping to create more fire. Also, shoutout to Janne, who was awarded CEO of The Year and check out the last four Unthinking Thursdays”

Enjoy!

Tell me something new

You know when you have an idea that feels great.

It’s likely it’s going to work, you may have seen it done before even.

You run it by some people in your team and they like it too.

Not much feels better than fitting in. You’re comfortable.

That’s your sign to pause.

And think: is this idea great because it fits in? Or is it great because it is actually brilliant and unique to our exact context?

Likely the first, I’ll bet.

Unanimous agreement and acceptance is the enemy of change.

Those decisions that make you feel uncertain and a little bit nervous are signs that change is coming.

We hear it a lot that companies want change with their DEI and talent development measures.

When you resign with a big 4 management consultancy partner, do you feel comfortable, or do you feel scared?

Dirt track mindset

Wildfires took the lives of dozens of wildland firefighters in 1990’s and 2000’s when they failed to outrun the blazes racing across the ground.

In one in particular fire that a squadron of 15 firefighters were attempting to outrun, the leader Wagner Dodge made an implausible move.

He stopped the group, lit a match and threw it on the ground. The crew were in disbelief. In trying to escape a onrushing wildfire, Dodge stopped to create more fire.

The crew hardly attempted to understand Dodge’s thinking before trying to continue outrunning the blaze. Outrunning the blaze is what they had been taught. They didn’t understand, or wait to understand, Dodge’s survival strategy.

This left Dodge on his own. The small fire he created would burn the grass around him, creating a safe area where the on-rushing blaze could not feed on.

He dampened a handkerchief and led face down on the barren area for 15 minutes whilst the flames surrounded him.

He later learned 12 of the crew sadly did not outrun the blaze.

Highlights

⚡Janne was awarded CEO of The Year in the Leadership Development Solutions - London category! Congrats Janne!

⚡Did you catch Janne and Sarah chat all things Unthink with the awesome Lamees Butt on In Her Shoes podcast? We recommend you do!

⚡Our personal highlights from 2023 - check them out here 📹

🔄 ICYMI: Our last four Unthinking Thursdays 💡:

💡Everyone is obsessed with counting and it’s become really, really, boring

💡The need for storytelling & what we can learn from The Repair Shop

💡Happy Chrismukkah - Using social theory of religion to improve your DEI strategy.

💡Premium Experiences: A case study on Third Space

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Team Unthink 🫶