Innovate over optimize

Emailed on July 31, 2020 in The Friday Forward

Research shows that strategic thinkers perform better than those who only "optimize." The good news is you can retrain your brain to think strategically with three short questions.

According to a new study, strategic minds ask:

“How else can I do this?”
“Is there a better way?”
“What could I do to help myself here?”

And that’s true whether they’re trying something new or doing something for the thousandth time. People with strategic mindsets are more successful at meeting their goals -- at the office, in the gym, or in the classroom. They’re less likely to get frustrated and throw in the towel.

In one experiment, participants were asked to crack a bunch of eggs. Whoever could separate the most yolks from the whites in under 2 minutes would win a prize. Some people read an article about strategic mindsets first. The strategizers fried the control group. Their secret? They found entirely new ways to crack the eggs.

More on the research here.