In order to comprehend some of the essential underlying principles of the world, society, and nature, smart and successful people tend to use particular sets of "life and business models,“ like a tool box, which help them to guide and focus their thinking Academics have coined them "mental models,“ defined as a collection of someone's thought process about how something works in the real world As such mental models assist in seeing a problem from different perspectives All of us can the same By studying the biggest ideas and principles (models) from different disciplines such as physics, sociology, philosophy, management, we can create our own network (or latticework) of models We can use some of them in one situation and others in differing situations; resulting in better decisions Tech Executive, Marketing Expert, Leadership & Executive Coach, LinkedIn Influencer, Author, Speaker © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act Vice Chairman of iconic Berkshire Hathaway and currently one of the best multi-disciplinary thinkers in the world © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act Warren Buffett, aka the "Sage of Omaha”, is a master in time management, focus setting, and priority management It is said that one day Buffett asked his pilot to draft a list with the 25 most important things he wanted to in his life In a next step Buffett asked him to circle the most crucial ones Buffett challenged his pilot to solely focus on those to avoid being distracted Consequently, only when you figure out your priorities and follow through with dedicated and concrete action plans you set your own agenda and will succeed © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act Dwight Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States and was highly productive over decades of his life His most famous productivity strategy is known as the Eisenhower Matrix, a simple decision-making tool that you can use by separating your actions based on four possibilities: Urgent and important (tasks you will immediately) Important, but not urgent (tasks you will schedule to later) Urgent, but not important (tasks you will delegate to someone else) Neither urgent nor important (tasks that you will eliminate) © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act SMART is a mnemonic acronym, giving criteria to guide in the setting of objectives, for example in project management, employeeperformance management and personal development Ideally speaking, each corporate, department, and section objective should be: SPECIFIC – target a specific area for improvement; MEASURABLE – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress; AGREED UPON – specify who will it; REALISTIC – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources; TIME-RELATED – specify when the result(s) can be achieved © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act One of my favorite ones KISS is an acronym for "Keep it simple, stupid" as a design principle noted by the U.S Navy The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore simplicity should be a key goal in design and unnecessary complexity should be avoided © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act Versus Critical Thinking (which is primarily concerned with judging the true value of statements), Lateral thinking - the term was coined by the physician and psychologist Edward de Bono - is about solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic Techniques are e.g Random Entry Idea, Provocation Idea, Disapproving or de Bono´s Six Thinking Hats Approach (Parallel Thinking) © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act We often tend to address topics in a superficial manner by asking questions which rather test and reward knowledge (mostly using closed questions) than stimulating inquisitiveness (applying e.g open questions) To flip that I suggest to apply the model of "Wonder Questions, " a set of powerful questions: The Why? and Why Not? questions; The What If? and What If Not? questions; The What Else? and the How? questions © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act To find out more about these “Wonder Questions” you can check my previous Slideshare SUCCESS QUESTIONS YOU MUST ASK © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act The opportunity cost, also known as alternative cost, is the value (not a benefit) of the choice of a best alternative cost while making a decision A choice needs to be made between several mutually exclusive alternatives Assuming the best choice is made, it is the "cost" incurred by not enjoying the benefit that would have been had by taking the second best available choice © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act A sunk cost is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered Sunk costs do, in fact, influence actors' decisions because humans are prone to loss aversion and framing effects In light of such cognitive quirks, it is unsurprising that people frequently fail to behave in ways that economists deem "rational" © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act Loss aversion refers to people's tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains: it's better to not lose $5 than to find $5 Some studies have suggested that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains Loss aversion was first demonstrated by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act A false positive error is a result that indicates a given condition has been fulfilled, when it has not In the case of "crying wolf" – the condition tested for was "is there a wolf near the herd?"; the result was that there had not been a wolf near the herd " A false negative error is where a test result indicates that a condition failed, while it was successful A common example is a guilty prisoner freed from jail © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act The boiling frog story is generally offered as a metaphor cautioning people to be aware of even gradual change lest they suffer eventual undesirable consequences It is also used in business to reinforce that change needs to be gradual to be accepted © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act By using this argumentation approach, a party asserts that a relatively small first step leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant (usually negative) effect, much like an object given a small push over the edge of a slope sliding all the way to the bottom Because no proof is presented to show that such extreme hypotheticals will in fact occur, this fallacy has the form of an appeal to emotion fallacy by leveraging fear © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act You might have heard the phrase "Mind over Matter", meaning that there is a strong connection between mind and body Your every thought produces a biochemical reaction in the brain Essentially, when you think happy, inspiring, or positive thoughts, your brain manufactures chemicals that make you feel joyful, inspired, and uplifted © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act A cognitive bias refers to the systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment, whereby inferences about other people and situations may be drawn in an illogical fashion It is helpful to know some of the most common ones like the Bandwagon Effect, the Confirmation Bias, the False Consensus Effect or the Hindsight Bias A great list of cognitive biases you can find here © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act linkedin.com/in/avonderheydt slideshare.net/AndreasvonderHeydt facebook.com/ConsumerGoodsClub twitter.com/ConsumGoodsClub youtube.com/user/BlondJames007 soundcloud.com/andreas-700932257 iTunes Podcast – Leadership XXL © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act USA USA Amazon UK UK Audible Germany Germany iTunes Spain Spain Italy Italy France France Japan Japan Canada Canada India India Australia © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act 10 11 12 13 14 15 Charlie Munger via Farnam Street Blog Warren Buffet via Forbes Dwight D Eisenhower via Wikimedia Images Eisenhower Box via James Clear Edward de Bono via News.com.au Robert Rosenthal via UC Riverside Laurence J Peter via Lamentees Marivillosa Lorenz Attractor via Gakushuu.org Edward Lorenz Portrait via Subhankar Biswas Robert Dunbar via Wikimedia Images Vilfredo Pareto via Biografias y Vidas Economies of Scale Graph via Course-notes.org Amon Tversky & Daniel Kahneman via Danielgogek.com Abraham Maslow via Sofia University Human Mind Jigsaw via Freepik © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act ... Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think And Act For a reversible decision (aka two-way-door decision), if it were not good you can change it However, a irreversible decision (aka one-way-door... How Smart And Successful People Think And Act Whatever a person is doing, she should stay human, approachable, and show respect towards others One should choose being peoplefocused over task-focused,... they like and not necessarily their customers To sum it up: What is best for your customers is ultimately also best for your company © Andreas von der Heydt – How Smart And Successful People Think