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Letters to a Young Manager


Ping Pong Thinking, #34
LTYM > Communication



Dear Adam,
***
So you are having some difficulty coming up with a presentation on the IT opportunities for your organization? It may be time for some ping-pong thinking. What's that you ask?

When I had a consulting business with my brother and partner, we would often brainstorm such questions. But it was more than that. There was it was a sense of accelerating --accelerating ideas, building on each other. That's where we came upon the notion of "Ping-Pong" thinking. That bouncing off of each other, back and forth, like the Ping-Pong ball or the tennis ball in the tennis match, was a way to arrive at the solution. And to talk through the problems. It was almost like a chain reaction --like the atoms Ping-Ponging off of each other and before you knew it, you've got something nuclear, you've got a major light bulb that blossoms out of it. I think that type of creative interaction, that type of bouncing off of each other in that way in the world of ideas, served us well.

So when you have a problem to solve or assignment to deliver, find another smart person and start tossing out ideas. If they start bouncing them back fast and furious, you've found the right person.
***
Best,
Ed
________________________

[1] This appeared in one of our consulting newsletters. See the interview by Carolyn Lee, "Meet the Partners", in the HPMD Newsletter, Summer, 1995, here: http://www.hpmd.com/hpmd/HPMDNEWS.NSF/links/950626-2

Takeaways:

Iterative thinking builds an idea

Discussion Questions:

1) When have you had a discussion that rapidly builds ideas? Is it in a particular place or special person?
2) If you go to the person or place expecting to develop an idea, does it usually happen? Can you choose to put yourself in that situation?

For Further Reading:





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