“Chance favors the prepared mind.” It’s a statement attributed to Louis Pasteur, the pathbreaking scientist who advanced the germ theory of disease, and it’s also the central focus of this instructive book by Kellogg professor Jean Egmon and consultant Bill Welter. “We believe ‘the prepared mind’ is the hallmark of twenty-first-century leaders who are remarkable in their ability to sense, make sense (the development of an understanding of what they are sensing), decide, and act across a complex set of conditions,” they write. “We also believe that the prepared mind is not a matter of chance.”
A leader’s prepared mind, they assert, requires eight mental skills that must be built through practice over time. These are: observing, reasoning, imagining, challenging, deciding, learning, enabling, and reflecting.
Each skill merits a chapter of its own. “Observing: Seeing Beyond the Obvious,” for example, describes how to become open to new information, especially when it does not match our assumptions. Breaking down the skill of observation even further, the authors outline its three “anchoring concepts”: attention, perception, and pattern recognition. Then they offer tips and strategies for stoking these practices.
“Once you have uncovered the assumptions in use today, it’s time to challenge them,” they conclude. “How many are necessary? How many are wrong? How many are slowly changing?” By asking questions within an easy-to-navigate framework, they put the eight skills within reach for leaders both present and future.