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Mental Agility
As you focus on the discipline of mental agility, it’s important to understand that there really are two elements to it. Let’s start with this idea of level-shifting. There’s a CEO I work with who describes this as cloud-to-ground thinking, the ability to move from a high level perspective, to be in the clouds to see the big picture of what’s going on, but also to drill down into the detail when necessary. And the ability to be intentional about what level you’re flying at, right, and not get caught up in the clouds or down on the ground. The great strategic thinkers I know are able to move between those levels of analysis and do so fluidly and also intentionally.
Another way to think about it, another analogy I use is being up on the balcony as opposed to down on the dance floor. Down on the dance floor, you’re focusing on your moves and you’re dancing. Up on the balcony, you’re seeing the big picture. So if that’s a helpful analogy, think about moving between those perspectives, but doing so again with intention and deliberation.
Game-Playing
The other piece of mental agility is what I think of as the game-playing dimension. At its simplest level, it’s that capability that chess masters have to think forward multiple potential moves, then reason back to what are the implications for the next moves I need to make. What’s the right set of combinations that I’m going to use to improve my position. This is about can you anticipate reactions to the actions you take as an organization? And can you, by thinking that through, ultimately chart the right course forward? Sometimes it’s just about striking out in the right directions and adjusting as you go forward, which, of course, is a part of the mental agility overall portrait.
A good example of thinking things through from a game theoretic perspective is product pricing. You might think, well, you know, let’s raise the price of our product because, obviously, that’s going to improve our margins, but what are the likely reactions to that move? What are competitors likely to do? Are they likely to raise their prices? Are they likely to stay the same? Are they going to take market share from you depending on what happens? So what signals are you sending is a critical question to be asking yourself. And likewise, what about your customers? How are they going to view that shift in price? Does the quality of your product and your brand support your ability to do that? Or are you at some tipping point where just that little bit more increase in price is going to generate a significant migration to another competitor’s product?
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, there was a general who was famous for asking one question over and over again, and the question was: And then what? And I think it’s really worth instilling the discipline of thinking through what are the consequences of our actions? And given those likely consequences, what’s our best response?