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

Product Author Bios

Yoram (Jerry) Wind is The Lauder Professor, Professor of Marketing, Founding Editor of Wharton School Publishing, and Academic Director of The Wharton Fellows Network at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the Founder and Director of the SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management, The Wharton School's think tank. Wind led the development of a number of key Wharton programs including the reinvention of the Wharton MBA curriculum and the creation of the Wharton Executive MBA Program. Among his many affiliations is former chancellor, the International Academy of Management (IAM). One of the world's most cited marketing authors, his books include Driving Change: How the Best Companies Are Preparing for the 21st Century, and The Power of Impossible Thinking. Dr. Wind has served as an advisor to many Fortune 500 firms and non-U.S. multinationals throughout the financial services, pharmaceuticals, information, and consumer packaged goods industries, and as advisor and board member for a wide range of entrepreneurial ventures. His consulting focuses on global corporate and business strategy, corporate transformation, marketing strategy, and especially new business development. He is the recipient of all the major marketing awards. Wind received a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Colin Crook is senior fellow of The Wharton School of the Universityof Pennsylvania, Advisory Board, member of Rein Capital, editorialboard member of the journal Emergence, and has served on numerousNational Academy committees and advisory groups. He has providedadvice to governments and businesses around the world, and is aFellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK). He was formerlyChief Technology Officer for Citicorp.

50,000 copies sold, now in paperback... If you can think impossible thoughts, then you can do impossible things!!

• The power of change: create new thinking for new solutions!
• Includes a new introduction demonstrating the "power of impossible thinking," plus access to exclusive book summary and authors' interview at the book's companion Web site.

The Power of Impossible Thinking is about getting better at making sense of what's going on around you so you can make decisions that respond to reality, not inaccurate or obsolete models of the world. This bestseller reveals how mental models stand between you and the truth and how to transform them into your biggest advantage!  Learn how to develop new ways of seeing, when to change to a new model, how to swap amongst a portfolio of models, how to understand complex environments and how to do "mind R and D," improving models through constant experimentation.  Jerry Wind and Colin Crook review why it's so hard to change mental models and offer practical strategies for dismantling "hardened missile silos". Finally they show how to access models quickly through intuition, and assess the effectiveness of any mental model. Purchasers of this book gain access to audio summaries on a companion web site, along with a new half-hour interview with the authors.

Table of Contents

(An Aside) Is This Any Way to Start a Book?  xxiii

Preface  xlvii

Introduction to the Paperback Edition  lix

Part 1:  Recognize the Power and Limits of Mental Models  1

Chapter 1:  Our Models Define Our World  3

Chapter 2:  Running the Miracle Mile  21

Part 2:  Keeping Your Models Relevant  37

Chapter 3:  Should You Change Horses?  39

Chapter 4:  Paradigm Shifts Are a Two-Way Street  57

Chapter 5:  Seeing a New Way of Seeing  77

Chapter 6:  Sift for Sense from Streams of Complexity  93

Chapter 7:  Engage in R&D of the Mind  121

Part 3:  Transform Your World  139

Chapter 8:  Dismantle the Old Order  141

Chapter 9:  Find Common Ground to Bridge Adaptive Disconnects  157

Part 4:  Act Quickly and Effectively  171

Chapter 10:  Develop the Intuition to Act Quickly  173

Chapter 11:  The Power to Do the Impossible  189

Chapter 12:  Challenging Your Own Thinking: Personal, Business, and Society  209

Conclusion:  What You Think Is What You Do  235

Appendix:  The Neuroscience Behind Mental Models  239

Selected Bibliography  257

Acknowledgments  261

Index  263