5 Tips to Think More Critically in Cannabis
Today’s Geek Time post focuses on some vital but undervalued skills: problem solving and strategic thinking.
These competencies have never been more important for our industry. The career and business challenges in the cannabis sector are formidable – but also resolvable.
As an operational leader and consultant, I have learned that brains, industry experience and effort are often insufficient to address cannabis’ major issues. Managers and organizations need to systematically and regularly ‘think critically’ if they are going to overcome nagging hurdles and build profitable & competitive firms.
What does ‘thinking critically’ mean in the context of strategy development, operational problem solving, and undertaking market research?
I advise my cannabis brothers and sisters to do these 5 simple things:
1. Heed Rene Descartes – This 17th century French philosopher and scientist formulated the Cartesian thinking system, at the time a breakthrough way of approaching problems or questions. Cartesianism includes breaking down an issue into discrete elements, thinking sequentially and using a priori deductive reasoning.
2. Challenge assumptions – Cannabis is full of debateable assumptions around what key terms like strategy or brand mean, what consumers want and what is the best operating model. Key strategic assumptions should be pressure tested to ensure they are still valid and don’t kibosh solutions or the best laid plans.
3. Triangulate the information – Most cannabis companies don’t have enough quality data to effectively make mission critical decisions. This is often the case when estimating market size or understanding consumer behaviour. Triangulation is the process of finding and synthesizing quantitative and qualitative pieces of the data puzzle to see the complete picture.
4. Elevate the data – Not all available data should be treated the same. The lowest form and least helpful is raw data. Applying evidentiary validation, sector learnings, and expert judgement moves this data up the value ladder to the ultimate goal: wisdom, which is vital for optimal decision making.
5. Foster diversity of thought – To a hammer everything looks like a nail. Strategy development and problem solving is best done by multi-functional collaborators with different perspectives. For example, decision making processes should include different thinking styles (e.g., left vs right brain), social & organizational backgrounds, and participatory roles (e.g., devils advocates).
Better decisions and problem solving come from structured critical thinking not smarter people.
#problemsolving #criticalthinking #strategydevelopment #planning