A summary of things you should know about How to Solve Problems and Make Brilliant Decisions according to Richard Hall:

Introduction

In this episode Richard Hall takes a deep dive into his book, How to Solve Problems and Make Brilliant Decisions, where he shares practical skill and techniques to think better, faster, and more productively.

In his book, Hall teaches you how to shape, train, and inspire your thinking to deliver more effective results. The goal of the book is to help you improve your thinking skills, become more confident in making decisions, and become more effective at problem solving.

This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who need to improve their decision making skills in order to achieve success at a faster rate than currently able.

The Book’s Unique Quality (3:58)

This book is very accessible, practical, energetic and optimistic. If you read this book it will save you a lot of time reading a whole lot of other books. I summarized and used some of other ideas and made an accessible primer for anybody who wants to think about thinking.

The Best Way To Engage (5:32)

It’s set out in such a way that the reader can go in and out of it or read it back to front. It is very user and reader friendly.

The Reader’s Takeaway (18:26)

Look around yourself and see what is going on around you. Listen to people and learn to change your mind. I would like everybody to start thinking about thinking and that is a big step forward.

A Deep Dive Into The Book (6:19)

We know little about the brain but what we do know is that there are two parts of our brain, intuition and rationality. Through the book I have tried to look at the various things we need to have in business. I start the book with a reflection on what I think the most four potent words are in English language which are what do you think. We should all be asking ourselves these four words and it’s not easy to do. The book constantly advices us to slow down and don’t get so stressed because the more stressed you are the less effective you’ll be. I talk about how to think better and give advice for that. The first advice is to not multitask. The brain is not designed to multitask and you need to concentrate on one thing at a time. The second advice is to loosen up, take time and be in a good mood.

The key thing to know about problem solving is the brain is lazy and we worry more about what other people think. I advise people to just sit down, look out of a window and work things out. It’s amazing that when you are stopped and not rushing around your mind suddenly starts working in a way that you wouldn’t believe. Another important thing if you are going to be a good problem solving is to ask questions and listen to what other people have to say.

A second part of the book is about decision making. I used to think making decisions was very easy but it turns out that it is actually difficult because of all the things going on around us. Good decision making is well judged risk taking because some you win and some you lose. But in the end good decision making is based on experience, breaking problems down in to small pieces and giving yourself the most amount of time to make those decisions.

Creativity is another part of the book. The logic of creativity is searching for alternatives and the ability to make connections and I don’t think it’s more complicated than that. It’s not wacky or inexplicable but it’s about a form of thinking which enables people to look at what’s in front of them and say is there another way of doing this. The most important thing about creativity is that you need to be a bit of a rebel. I think one of the joys of good creative thinking is you need to have a sense of humor because if you make people laugh they behave accordingly. In the end if we don’t engage with other people and get them to do the things we want them to do, it won’t work. I have come to the conclusion that the only thing that makes a difference between success and failure is working with other people and getting other people to be on board with what you want them to be on board with. Increasingly we are living in a world which is group driven, not solo driven, and it really matters that people hear what you want them to hear. What matters is not what you said or what you think you said but what they think you said. And unless we crack the understanding of how to get other people to think then we are not going to be successful.

The key thing about the book is for people to make the most of the amazing engine they have in their heads.

Notable Quotes From The Book (19:46)

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Mike Tyson

The Credibility/Inspiration Of The Author (0:55)

I have been around in business for a long time. My background is in marketing, advertising and consulting and I’ve worked with a lot of major companies. I have had a fantastic time and am very enthusiastic about the prospects of the changing world.

I have written a number of books before on presenting career development marketing and they are all very specific in their topics. I began increasingly concerned and aware of the fact that we’ve stopped thinking in the way that we used to and there are a number of reasons for that. And this seemed to be an issue worth looking at. The second thing is that it became increasingly clear to me that we don’t know very much about the mind at all. It seemed to me that if you are going to succeed in business today you need to be thinking about thinking at the top of all things that you do.

Other Books Recommended By The Author (21:29)

Enthusiasms by Bernard Levin

Back To Blood by Tom Wolfe

More Information About This Book and The Author

Buy How to Solve Problems and Make Brilliant Decisions by Richard Hall on Amazon today

Visit ColorfulThinkers.com to learn more about Richard and his book

Connect with Richard Hall on LinkedIn

More Information About This Episode

Download the full transcript here (coming soon)

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud

Related books: Powerhouse by Mike Clayton | The Discomfort Zone by Marcia Reynolds | The Upside of Your Dark Side by Todd Kashdan

Relevant advice and tips: 10 Bad Habits That Successful People Avoid

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Wade Danielson

Wade is a 4-time serial entrepreneur and is the Founder/Host of The Entrepreneurs Library. With a long time passion for reading books, Wade created an online resource and podcast for entrepreneurs who love to read personal and business development books. His long-term goal in life is to start an entrepreneurial home schooling program for children of business-minded families.