The More Senior Your Job Title, the More You Need to Keep a Journal
Dan Ciampa
July 07, 2017
Dan Ciampa is a senior advisor to CEOs and boards of directors, especially during a transition, who must implement new corporate strategies which call for structure, systems, and process changes that are significant enough that the culture must change. The most important challenges a leader faces lie at the intersection of strategy, operations, and culture. Dan has devoted his long career to mastering the knowledge, skills, and behavior needed to thrive at that intersection. Often, these changes coincide with a leadership transition. Dan specializes in helping leaders prepare themselves and their organizations for the hand-off to their successors, and in helping new leaders who are just assuming control.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
The French philosopher Blaise Pascal pointed out that “All of humanity’s problems come from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” He didn’t mean sitting quietly in front of a laptop responding to emails. The best thinking comes from structured reflection — and the best way to do that is keeping a personal journal.
Also, when we slow things down and reflect, we can be more creative about solving seemingly inscrutable problems. Take, for example, a technique called the “second solution method” that I’ve used in the past. If a group was struggling to come up with options to solve a tough problem, we would brainstorm to identify a list of possible solutions. Before switching to prioritizing, making items specific, etc., we tried to identify all possible options. I found the best approach was to tell the group to take a break and when it reconvened to ask, “What else occurs to you?” Inevitably, this simple question resulted in about 50% more items, often of higher quality. By experimenting, I found that the break that took place between the first and second rounds was more important than the question.
A journal is an effective, efficient, private way to take a similar break.
Read more: The More Senior Your Job Title, the More You Need to Keep a Journal