“thinking first” may focus too heavily on the matter itself, interfering with deep understanding of the issues dividing people and actually preventing a good decision.

This is all according to a fascinating post today by my South African friend and Edge International colleague, Robert Millard, called Logic Not Always Best For Real-World Decisions Robert discovered what he called a “startling conclusion“ in an MIT Sloan Management Review Article by famous strategy authors Henry Mintzberg and Frances Wesley (more details in Robert’s post). Sometimes there are better ways — instead of thinking first, we can see first or do first. PUNCHLINE: My take on this for Managing Partners (and others involved at the senior end of law firm management) is Robert is guiding us not to address problems in our old familiar patterns but to acquire the capacity to use diverse approaches depending on the situation. Check it out.