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Category: Strategic Thinking

analytical thinking vs critical thinking

Analytical Thinking vs. Critical Thinking

The step-by-step process of how information becomes ideas – the Information Chain – is one way to define ‘analytical thinking.’ But even that phrase is loosely defined because I often
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Stengthen Your Intuition in Ten Steps

Here’s how to strengthen your intuition in ten steps. Similar to creativity, intuition is something everyone understands at a basic level because we’ve all felt it. But, when pressed about
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The Difference Between Being Strategic vs. Being Creative

At a recent meeting, a client kept using the words being strategic and being creative in ways that I couldn’t decide if he knew what the words meant. Later on, when I
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Problem Solving the Cause or Effect

Understanding and articulating the problem (“a less than ideal state”) is a crucial step in creative thinking, but it’s also important to know if you are ‘fixing’ the cause or
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The Most Common Mistakes in Brainstorming

Recently I gave a presentation on Creative Slip-Ups: The 11 Most Common Mistakes in Brainstorming to the Worldcom Public Relations Group, the world’s largest partnership of P.R. firms with more than
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Reframing

Did you hear the one about the man who called up a local church? The minister’s secretary answered the phone.  The man said, “I’d like to speak to the head
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New Business: 3 Questions To Ask

If there’s one driver common among all agencies, it’s the desire to keep winning new business. But it’s also a difficult balancing act. How do you keep your existing accounts
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Levels of Problem Knowledge

In his book The Concept of a Problem, Gene Agre defines a problem as “The gap between the current state of affairs and the desired state of affairs.” In other
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How To Write SMART Objectives

First outlined by George T. Doran in his 1981 article in Management Review, the system of SMART objectives is one of the most well-known method for writing objectives.  Yes, there’s
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The Creative Brief

The creative brief is one of the most useful and adaptable tools in business, and not just for people who work in marketing and communications. They’re known by many different
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