MindSights MBA Mentor

MBA Mentor – A self-mentoring hypertext database application

As technology evolves, it is no longer as important how much you personally remember, but rather how quickly you can access the right information and right cognitive tools. MBA Mentor is a 475 page hypertext MS Word wikipedia-like application. It contains cognitive tools, called Thinklets, that represents best practices and tools distilled from over 25,000 pages of information.

This self-mentoring product is designed to be used on-demand as if you had a human mentor or consultant working directly with you. It functions by delivering the right cognitive tools (thinklets) to use for the most common critical thinking work tasks.

Note: Thinklets are cognitive tools that provide thinking stimuli to enhance natural human thinking effectiveness. In its purest sense a Thinklet can be as simple as “asking the perfect question at the perfect time.” Or, expert “facilitation” questions embedded in traditional thinking techniques, templates and worksheets.

Below is MindSights MBA Mentor’s Main Menu. Simply click on the blue hyperlinks. The [Home] button always brings you back. Note: Gray hyperlinks are active in the full MBA Mentor product.

MindSights MBA Mentor

Main Menu (Home) toc TOCMainMenu

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1. Instructions & Navigations

2. Project Consultants (Critical Thinking Processes)

3. Thinklets Tool Sets (Thinking Functions)

4. Question Sets (Basic Thinking Tasks)

5. Meeting Planning (Thinking Emulation Grid)

6. Facilitative Management & Leadership

7. Alphabetical Order of Thinklets

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2. Project Consultants (Critical Thinking Processes) critical TOCType

Like using human consultants, these virtual consultants provide you with the critical questions to ask and tools to use, all within the correct thinking sequence.

Project work efforts (critical thinking) in business and organizations typically have one of the following 7 aims.

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Virtual Project Consultants	Critical Thinking Purpose/Aim
Basic (90-minute) Problem Solving	Resolve an urgent problem, issue or challenge.
Corrective Action Problem Solving (RCA)	Restore something to a past, standard or original condition.
Systems Problem Solving	Resolve a complex cross-functional or organizational problem.
Creativity & Innovation	Develop something new and of value that has never existed before.
Improvement	Make current levels of performance better.
Planning	Anticipate and prepare for future opportunities or imminent problems.
Decision Making	Select a course of action among alternatives.

3. Thinklets Tool Sets (Thinking Functions) .addendumtools

It’s no longer as important how much you remember … but rather how quickly you can access cognitive tools to help improve thinking performance

Like any manual tool, performance is based on choosing the right tool for the task-at-hand. Find the tool you need and then consider customizing with your own knowledge.

1. Observe and become aware of problems & opportunities

2. Define and describe the problem or situation.

3. Analyze and understand the details.

4. Create and innovate something new or different

5. Systems Think the whole problem or situation

6. Tap into Subconscious thinking

7. Decision making tools

8. Project management tools

9. Team thinking tools

Observe-It obsret

Use these tools to promote awareness of opportunities or prevent problems from arising.

See Descriptions

Define-It defret

Tools for gathering, filtering and organizing data into useful relevant information.

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Problem (Opportunity) Statement
Eye-of-the-Beholder Viewpoints
Customer Observation & Analysis
Mindfulness & Transformation
Problem vs. Opportunity vs. Issue
Delphi Technique
Observing Trends and Analysis
Historical Pattern Observation
Product (Service) Observation and Analysis
Process Improvement Observation & Analysis
Individual Work Observation and Improvement
Putting Problems on the Table
Personal Observation & Understanding

1. Basic Background Information

2. Transient (Change) Description

3. Data Relevancy Analysis

4. Understand Key Information

4. Data Gathering Strategy

5. Data Types

6. Data Collection Tools

7. Current Data

8. Past or Standard Data

9. Future Data

10. Non Data

11. Mind Mapping

12. Affinity Diagram

13. Pareto Chart

14. SIPOC Diagram

15. Input-Process-Output (IPO) Chart

16. Interaction & Relationships Matrix

17. Voice of the Customer

18. Value Stream Mapping (System Map)

Analyze-It anatoolret

An array of tools to achieve a detailed understanding of any problem or situation.

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Create-It creret

Tools that promote the same core qualities of creative action that creative geniuses follow.

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1. SWOT Analysis

2. Obstacle (Gap) Analysis

3. Root Cause Analysis Questions

4. Deviation Analysis

5. SWOT Jump Start Survey

6. STOP (Situation-Target-Obstacle-Proposal)

7. Cause & Effect (Fishbone) Diagram

8. Why/Because Causal Chain

9. Practical Solution - Pros & Cons Analysis

10. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA)

11. Run & Control Charts

12. Scatter Diagrams (Correlation Charts)

13. Histogram (Frequency) Chart

14. Data Presentation & Analysis

1. Basic Creativity Trigger Questions

2. Brainstorming with Note Cards

3. Idea & Solution Requirements

4. Reverse Thinking

5. Creative Focus Statement

6. Classic Group Brainstorming

7. Personal Brainstorming

8. Thinking in Analogies

9. Regular Association

10. Fantasy or Wishful Thinking

11. Worst Ideas

12. Attribute Brainstorming

13. Imaginary & Backward Thinking

14. Scenario Building

15. Assumption Reversal

Systems Thinking systoolsret

These tools look at the broader context in which the problem resides and helps determine the points at which change can have the greatest impact.

See Description

Subconscious Thinking subret

Tools to tap into a vast reservoir of knowledge and creativity you did not know you had.

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1 Vision and Mission Statements

2. Reframe the Problem or Opportunity

3. Goal Statement Development

4. Preferred Futures Statement

5. Futures Wheel

6. Systems Think Problems or Opportunities

7. Real Problem Analysis

8. Purposes & Goals Analysis

9. Group Goal Setting (Shared Understanding)

10. Personal Goal Setting

11. Systems Feedback

12. Systems Hierarchy

1. Mind Mapping

2. Incubation

3. Personal Visioning

4. Unclutter Your Mind to Think Better

5. Tap Your Subconscious For Ideas

6. Personal Performance Success Patterns

7. Using Your Subconscious Mind

8 Awareness Journaling

Decide-It dectoolsret

Gives a better chance for making the right decision with a variety of quantitative, qualitative, group and intuitive decision-making tools.

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Manage-It manret

Achieve project objectives: quality, on time, and within budget with these tools.

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1. Prioritization Matrix

2. Decision Making Strategies

3. Force Field and Change Analysis

4. Evaluation Criteria Checklist

5. So What Test

6. Certainty Test

7. Multi-voting (Large List Reduction)

8. Idea Evaluation

9. Criteria Decision Matrix

10. Consensus

11. Paired Comparison Meetings

12. Intuitive Coin Flip

13. Go/No-Go Decision

14. Validate the Correctness of the Decision

15.Pros and Cons Analysis Template

16. Do Nothing Alternative

17. Weighted Decision Making

1. Project Roadmap (Milestone Chart)

2. Project Charter

3. Responsibility Assignment Template

4. Action Work Plan

5. Balanced Scorecard - Dashboard

6. Cost/Benefit Summary & Go No/Go

7. Manage & Resolve Anything

8. Gantt Chart

9. CPM/PERT Diagram

10. Five How’s

11. Future Events Action Plan

12. Task and Resource Template

13. Contingency Plan & Corrective Action

14. Status Reporting

15. Change Request

16. Prioritized To Do List

17. Lessons Learned Facilitator Questions

18. Post Project Summary Template

Team Thinking teamtoolret

Tools to harness the collective intelligence and genius of teams.

See Description

Team Thinking cont.teamtoolret

1. Dialogue Process

2. Devil’s Advocate

3. Group Goal Setting

4. Collaborative Team Effectiveness

5. Assemble a High Performance Team

6. Establish a High Performance Environment

7. Drivers of Team & Organizational Success

8. Impacts of Beliefs on Team Thinking

9. Nominal Group Technique (NTG)

10. Role Playing

11. Team Productivity Tips

12. Responsibility Assignment Matrix

13. Time Manager Log & Review

14. Top 10 List to Improve Use of Time

15. Meeting Communication Style

4. Question Sets (Thinking Tasks) rightquestion

Asking the right questions gives the mind the best

chance of finding the right answers.

Forty Basic Thinking Tasks

forty

1	Describe Situation or Problem	Describe the current situation, problem or opportunity.
2	Assess Importance	Assemble an evaluation team to assess the criticalness of the situation.
3	Align with Objectives	Identify key factors that drive organizational or personal success.
4	Observe other Problems	Look beyond the current situation for other potential problems or opportunities.
5	Prioritize Problems	Select the most critical problem or opportunity to work on.
…	…	…

5. Meeting Productivity (Thinking Emulation Meetings) grid

The #1 way to ensure effective meetings is asking the right 2-3 key questions. Use this Meetings (Go buttons) to quickly help find the right tools to use and

questions to ask during your meeting.

Common Thinking Tasks	24 Common “Thinking Oriented” Meeting Tasks	Thinking Processes 1. Resolve an urgent problem 2. Restore to a past condition 3. Systems think a complex problem 4. Brainstorm, create, innovate 5. Improve and make something better. 6. Anticipate and plan for the future 7. Make a decision
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Mission/Vision	Describe the organization’s purpose/mission					Go	Go
Observation	Observe trends, problems and opportunities.			Go	Go	Go	Go
Problem State	Precisely state the problem or opportunity.	Go	Go	Go	Go	Go	Go
Systems Think	Systems think and validate the real problem.			Go		Go	Go
Goal Setting	Determine the GOAL (desired outcome).		Go	Go	Go	Go	Go
…	…

6. Facilitative Management & Leadership mgmt \

Facilitative Leaders & Managers maximize employee potential and contributions.

Use the following basic management and leadership functions to find the right tools and questions to ask that stimulate individual and group productivity of thought.

Basic Function	Purpose/Aim
Team Building	Build and maintain a high performance team and work environment.
Goal Setting	Set meaningful goals that are achievable.
Project Management	Execute project objectives (quality, on time, and within budget).
Time Management	Find ways to improve use of both work and personal time.

7. Alphabetical Order alpha

Review the list for tools that might help with a thinking task. Blue links are active links. If there is a tool you want to use, simply copy and paste it to your document or agenda.

Action Work Plan	Action plan development represents the critical stage in planning when general strategies and goals are made specific and aligned with resources.
Affinity Diagram	It is a method of capturing tacit knowledge about a particular issue and organizing large numbers of data into manageable groupings of information.
Analogies	Analogies provide a thought process of converting the strange into the familiar that generates creative ideas and solutions.
Assemble a High Performance Team	Getting the right mix of people with complimentary skills can greatly enhance a team’s effectiveness.
Assumption Reversal	Reversing initial assumptions broadens thinking. You may often find yourself looking at the same thing as everybody else and seeing something different.
Attribute Brainstorming	This technique defines product, process or problem attributes which are then modified in ways that stimulate new ideas or solutions.
…	…

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