The Power of Impossible Thinking: Transform the Business of Your Life and the Life of Your Business

Preface

Hijackingo Our Minds

At first glance, mental models may seem abstract and inconsequential. But they cannot be dismissed as optical illusions, parlor games or academic curiosities—all in our head. Our models affect the quality and direction of our lives. They have profit-and-loss and even life-and-death implications.

The debate about U.S. intelligence following the September 11 terrorist attacks illustrates the difficulty of making sense in today's complex environment. Congressional post-mortems focused on who knew what when—on the information—but not on the more critical mental models that shaped how that information was processed. As is almost always the case in our information age, what led to the tragedy was not primarily a shortage ...