unimagined futures

Searching for YOUR most valuable ROADS AHEAD
In a world relentlessly moving toward new and different futureS
This site provides the elements
for creating a "life time" work approach

Thinking canvas © and thinking canvases ©

Contact me (bobembry)

Bookmark this on Delicious

Donation: Click the button below to make a donation through PayPal. Just a few dollars helps with the books, software, web site hosting, and the time devoted to enhancing the work approach blue print available on this site. See the text site map for a view of the site's unique scope and resources. Also see links to external resources on my delicious page

Thinking Canvas Purposes: to see the action landscape—social and economic environment in time; thinking through the right actions; and determine the appropriate reminders to be entered in one's action management system.

Thinking canvases are attention-directing tools

Thinking canvases are thinking blueprints which are part of an action system (what do I have to do … to …?)

A thinking canvas may be an early step in calendarization. Or a part of blue hat thinking for figuring out where one is and where one goes next
Useful in concepts to daily action, collecting thoughts on a topic or creating and portraying a system view (radar design). What is the composition of an action area and what de-mystification would be useful?
Can be done on printer or copy paper OR electronically (mind mapping or illustration software)
Schedule a reminder to work on the canvas
Spend some time creating a future directed decision foundation (FDDF). How broad does the canvas need to be? Does it need to capture the entire universe of the main topic? Does it need to capture related universes?
Schedule reminders to carry out conclusions
Test: Are the conclusions adequate to the challenges ahead?
Test: Is my action management system adequate to the challenges ahead?

blank thinking canvas

The master preliminary thinking canvas should essentially and eventually capture everything about the topic—not the details but the surrounding walls.
Attention focusing
Six Thinking Hats overview (PDF). Six Thinking Hats table of contents with some quotes. Thinking broad and thinking detailed. Dense listening and dense reading. See Edward de Bono bio and Snacks for more thinking ideas
Defining the thinking question. See Peter Drucker on Effective Decisions: "What is the decision all about?" What needs doing? What's the right thing to do? Specifically: "What are the challenges AHEAD?"
Connection to the individual's effectiveness (The Effective Executive in Action)
What will it lead to? Where will it leave me?
What would be the consequences of ignoring the topic or area?
Thinking canvas content alternatives
David Allens' Natural Planning Technique

Topic thinking guide

I suggest you focus on one topic at a time

And then first ask: What do these issues, these challenges MEAN for our organization and for me as a knowledge worker, a professional, an executive?

Once you have thought this through, ask:

What ACTION should our organization and I, the individual knowledge worker and/or executive, take to make the challenges of this topic into OPPORTUNITIES for our organization and me?

AND THEN GO TO WORK!

The topic referred to above can be elevated by using the ideas in thinking broad and thinking detailed to get to the highest strategic level, mind mapping some alternatives, and then possibly re-perceiving the topic

Content 101

mind map

Examining the clues:

radar

Anxiety diagnosis (below)

steven seagal title chart thinking canvas

thinking canvas ipad pop science

Full size