Why Your Business Needs Both Dreamers and Doers: Exploring Types of Thinking

Happy Sunday Operators!

I spent this week traveling a bit and visiting some great small businesses. At one stop I toured and spent the day with a team that serves manufacturers in the US. This team reminded me of the importance of building companies that help employees not only economically, but also relationally, mentally, and spiritually. Building manufacturing is a chance to truly touch people’s lives and create a better world - one person at a time.

I hope you enjoy today’s issue!

THIS WEEK
A Few Things You May Have Missed

MAIN ISSUE
Thinking in 3D: The Art of Business Imagination and Execution

One of my favorite parts about building a business is the long-term, compounding of thought that occurs with it.

Each day, during runs, during showers, during drives your mind is grinding on new, better, and different. The business is a living entity that you are developing and molding. The continual grinding on problems, dreaming of outcomes, and hashing out methods are some of my favorite parts.

I have seen that there are two types of this thinking, and they are hard to do together; and because each takes years of grinding on, it is hard for one person to do them both.

Type 1 Thinking

Type 1 thinking is a divergent form of exploring the world, and exploring possibilities. It's a mental game of building and tearing down futures. It’s the type of thinking that creates something from nothing.

There are 3 main aspects to this type of thinking. As the thinker gains more and more knowledge on the below aspects, they build and tear down bigger, more specific, more achievable futures for their company.

Macro

Macro is about seeing where the world is going. Less in the form of short-term trends, but instead on long-term inevitabilities. This is watching the collective direction of humanity, countries, and industries.

The more you read, watch, and think about the same topic, the more small insights will build on each other, giving you unique perspectives and opinions on where things are headed.

Resource Availability

Resource Availability is about what is available in the present to use, acquire, or build upon. Even more the most audacious dreamer, the ideas that they devote their life to must be grounded in what is available or what is possible.

Taking a look at science, the latest trends in technology, and the availability of global resources can help you see what is available now, and what will most likely be available soon - through discovery or innovation) - and what will most likely be possible in the future.

Combining the resources you have to build the vision you see from your knowledge of the macro, helps you build a business with all the colors available to you, creating a much more vivid painting.

Resource Acquisition

Resource Acquisition is an entirely different area that requires constant thinking. There are natural resources, raw talent, and the latest technology available today. However, the higher the value, the more scarce, and thus more important to constantly think about building the ‘machine’ that can attract and retain resources of all types.

The acquisition strategy is partially based on vision, partially on cash, and partially on downright creativity.

All three of these are looking to build and acquire that which isn’t yet within the boundaries of the business. Thinking on these areas builds a composite vision far into the future and sets a waypoint.

The type of person who does this type of thinking best has a low conformity aspect, pushing them to new ideas in all areas.

Type 2 Thinking

Type 2 thinking is a convergent form of figuring out How. This is a very different form of thinking. It's more problem-solving than creating. It is an entirely different and near opposite form of thinking than Type 1 thinking. It is also therefore nearly impossible to perform both over long periods of time.

Type 2 is looking at some outcome, some vision, some waypoint, dreaming of the best possible version of that, and working backward to build a real ‘thing’.

It requires hours every day of considering how to achieve outcomes like

• attracting the best talent

• maximizing cash flow at each department

• building the most engaged and satisfied workforce

• finding and acquiring the top customers

Days, weeks, and months can be spent going over each part of these ‘machines’ that are part of the business looking to make them better.

It’s a compounding of 1%s over years, always looking to have breakthrough ideas alongside continually improving machines.

The three main aspects of Type 2 thinking are composed of working backward in a creative way to build what isn’t and arrive at the desired outcome.

Macro

This is a different type of macro awareness as we saw with the Type 1 thinker. Here, we need to understand where we are now.

Because Type 2s are building now, for somewhere later, they need to understand where trends are in their cycles. They need to know where we are as an economy and what going on with labor and capital. Type 2 thinkers need to understand the current state of the industry, where breakthroughs are happening, and how that impacts the current ‘machine’.

Type 2s need to be constant gatherers of ideas, inputs, and data sources - helping them identify and synthesize what to build, how to build it, and how to solve for the eventual outcome set by Type 1 thinkers.

Resource Allocation

If the Type 1 thinker is concerned with Resource Acquisition, then the Type 2 is concerned with its Allocation. How do we best use the resources we have to build the business to go where we want it to go.

These resources can be built to grow, or they can be used to mitigate risks. Finding their best, and often novel, use requires constantly churning on permutations of existing and new ideas.

Systems Building

The third aspect of Type 2 thinking is building systems that combine into machines that run the company.

If you were to think about building a company, it can be thought of as

1. Figuring things out and doing yourself

2. Hiring others to help you do

3. Building systems to allow those people to work more efficiently, with less error, in a more scalable way

4. Problem-solving the problems that labor and systems create

5. Hiring and building systems to perpetuate your values and philosophies through decisions, policies, and new systems (what I call Meta Systems).

Building systems that correctly navigate the company, assist in its growth, mitigate its risks, and build a collectively beneficial company requires constant thought, day and night. You are not only building but anticipating. You want to avoid problems, and reach goals. To do this you need to constantly look at the metrics and outcomes of the systems, measure them to that waypoint, and make adjustments. You need to mentally explore what could go wrong by playing the system out in creative ways - all to reduce risk.

Building a better business is thinking about every aspect in minute detail and obsessing over making that one part, the best in the world. Now you take that to the millions of details that exist, and you have your continual long-term Type 2 thinking that can occur for decades.

The mindset for this type of thinking encourages curiosity in exploring the tools, frameworks, and systems available to build with. It’s connecting existing dots in new ways to re-create a better version.

The real game changer for any business is when 2 or more people join together, who each gravitate towards Type 1 or Type 2 thinking. The long-term potential of such a group will be exponentially better than a Type 1 or Type 2 alone.

RECOMMENDED READING
You May Find These Helpful Too