Mindful thinking is the new competitive edge
Science confirms the distinction between the biological brain and the conscious mind. Each day, a game of mind versus matter plays out on a field defined by the problems we must solve. Most are routine, and don’t demand a more mindful approach. It’s when we’re faced with more difficult challenges that our thinking becomes vulnerable to brain patterns that can lead us astray.
We leap to solutions that simply don’t work. We fixate on old mindsets that keep us stuck in neutral. We overthink problems and make them worse. We kill the ideas of others, as well as our own. Worse, we keep doing these things, over and over again, naturally and instinctively.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
In Winning the Brain Game, author and creative strategist Matthew E. May explains these and other “fatal flaws” of thinking, catalogued over the course of ten years and hundreds of interactive creative sessions in which he gave more than 100,000 professionals a thought challenge based on a real case far less complex than their everyday problems. Not only did less than 5% arrive at the best and most elegant solution, but the solutions given were remarkably similar, revealing seven observable problem-solving patterns that can block our best thinking.
Calling on modern neuroscience and psychology to help explain the seven fatal flaws, May draws insights from some of the world’s most innovative thinkers. He then blends in a super-curated, field-tested set of “fixes” proven through hundreds of creative sessions to raise our thinking game to a more mindful level. Regardless of playing field, mindful thinking is the new competitive advantage, and the seven fixes are a magic set of tools for achieving it.
Winning the Brain Game will lead you to better decision-making, higher levels of creativity, clearer strategies, and overall success in business, work and life.
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“In an era where entire industries are being disrupted and rapid, agile experimentation are becoming mainstream, the question in every leader’s mind is ‘which side of the equation will I occupy?’ In reading Winning the Brain Game, the reader quickly recognizes that the only limitations to ability to be on the winning side are in our own mindsets and approaches. Matthew May’s identification of the seven fatal thinking flaws, and the pragmatic application of field-tested fixes are actionable, and this book should be a must-read for any innovator, business leader, or problem solver.”
— Brad Smith, chairman and CEO, Intuit
“This book is a gem! Matthew May has given us a practical research-backed (and downright fun!) guide to creative problem solving.”
— Nir Eyal, author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products“Matthew May’s book reminds me of Irma Rombauer’s beloved Joy of Cooking book―but instead of recipes for meals, May’s provides recipes for re-thinking. A broad range of creative thinking styles are presented―with all pitfalls and pluses clearly highlighted, so that you might just get ‘dinner’ made and ready in time for a deadline.”
— John Maeda, partner, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & ByersBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Matthew E. May, a graduate of the Wharton School of Business, is the author of the critically acclaimed Elegant Solution. A popular speaker, he lectures to corporations, governments, and universities around the world on ingenuity and innovation. He spent nearly a decade advising Toyota, and his articles and profiles have appeared in USA Today, Strategy & Business, the Wall Street Journal, and on CNN and National Public Radio. He lives in Lake Sherwood, California.
Alexander Cendese is a New York–based actor and narrator whose credits include roles on and off Broadway, in films, and on popular television shows, including Law & Order: SVU and All My Children. He holds a BFA from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.