By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you be more strategic in your problem-solving. Reading time: 2:56.

One and one don’t always add up to two. At least not to astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington.

He noted that we often think that when we have competed the study of ONE, we know all about TWO, that TWO is ONE and ONE. “We forget that we still have to make a study of AND.”

That’s what leaders do. They make a strategic study of AND. They don’t grab at the easiest solution. They broaden their reach. They grasp at what could be plausible not simply possible.

They don’t settle for stating the following letters in order: IMPOSSIBLE. Instead they restate for added emphasis the same letters in the same order: I’M POSSIBLE.

Likewise when confronted with a mathematical proportion problem, they don’t grab for the most obvious course of action. Instead they grasp at the larger more strategic issue to solve the real problem. They seek to answer the more defining and refining question: AND? No wonder former 60 Minutes investigative interviewer Mike Wallace always said that one word -AND?-was his most revealing question. Leaders command the strategic study of AND.

Consider the pizza restaurant that sponsored a back-to-school promotion. Continue reading →