May - Winning the brain game: fixing the 7 fatal flaws of thinking

Winning the Brain Game

In an era where entire industries are being disrupted and rapid, agile experimentation are becoming mainstream, the question in every leaders mind is which side of the equation will I occupy? In reading Winning The Brain Game , the reader quickly recognizes that the only limitations to ability to be on the winning side are in our own mindsets and approaches. Matthew Mays identification of the seven fatal thinking flaws, and the pragmatic application of field-tested fixes are actionable, and this book should be a must-read for any innovator, business leader or problem-solver.

BRAD SMITH, Chairman and CEO, Intuit

What worked then may very likely not work now. In Winning the Brain Game , Matthew May deftly explores entirely new ways of thinking and mines the findings of neuroscience to create practical applications that will transform how you solve problems. This book is the best defense against the pitfalls of traditional thinking. A true breakthrough!

MARSHALL GOLDSMITH, Thinkers50 #1 leadership thinker and New York Times bestselling author, What Got You Here Wont Get You There and Triggers

This book is a gem! Matthew May has given us a practical research-backed (and downright fun!) guide to creative problem solving.

NIR EYAL, author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

In Winning the Brain Game , Matthew May has brilliantly coalesced remarkable work from leading scientists and psychologists with his decades experience in design thinking to produce an exhilarating rethink of conceptual problem solving. I recommend designers and marketersstudent and professionalread and make use of this compelling book. Personally speaking, I wish Id come across this book thirty years ago; my hair would likely not be so gray.

LINDON LEADER, creator of the FedEx logo

Matthew May is like a Mr. Miyagi for untapped creative brain potential. The good news here is that we can switch a few levers to better unlock our own inner creative Karate Kidand, the principles are backed by science.

PETER SIMS, founder/CEO/chief whip, Parliament, Inc. and author, Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries

This is the book I wish I wrote! Smart. Insightful. Practical. It powerfully shows why we are our own worst enemy!

STEPHEN SHAPIRO, author, Best Practices are Stupid

Do you want to tune up your creative thinking process? Winning the Brain Game is more than a bookits a tool chest full of supremely useful tips and techniques. Using them will boost your ability to ship elegant, remarkable solutions.

DIEGO RODRIGUEZ, partner, IDEO and creator of Metacool

In this elegant book, Matthew May teaches us how to avoid seven fundamental thinking flaws that keep us from thinking clearly. From the factories of Toyota to the bomb technicians of the LAPD, May shows us how we can use the insights of science to help us solve our hardest problems.

SHLOMO BENARTZI, professor, UCLA Anderson School of Management and author, The Smarter Screen

Witty, incisive, and inventive. A refreshing view of creativity in action. You will never think of problems in the same way.

TOMAS CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC, CEO of Hogan Assessments, Professor of Business Psychology at University College London and Columbia University and author, Confidence

Matthew Mays book reminds me of Irma Rombauers beloved Joy of Cooking bookbut instead of recipes for meals, May provides recipes for re-thinking. A broad range of creative thinking styles are presentedwith all pitfalls and plusses clearly highlighted, so that you might just get dinner made and ready in time for a deadline.

JOHN MAEDA, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Every politician on the planet needs to read this book, immediately.

GUY KAWASAKI, Chief Evangelist, Canva and author, The Art of Social Media

Winning the Brain Game reveals the invisible barriers that get in the way of problem-solving. Better yet, it delivers practical ways to jump start an entirely new approach to tackling your biggest challenges. Dont just read this book. Use it as your go-to tool to take things to the next level.

SOREN KAPLAN, affiliated professor, USC Center for Effective Organizations and author, Leapfrogging

Innovators think differently. In Winning the Brain Game , Matthew May outlines the seven ways youre not thinking differently enough... and how to think like an innovator.

DAVID BURKUS, author, Under New Management and The Myths of Creativity

Huge kudos to Matt May for giving us these easy-to-grasp, ready-to-use fixes for the screw-ups most of us make in trying to use our brains intelligently to solve the vexing problems of our lives at work and beyond.

STEW FRIEDMAN, author of Leading the Life You Want and Total Leadership

Winning the Brain Game contains an actionable set of thinking tools that will help you and your teams more effectively solve complex problems. Give them a try!

DAVID SHERWIN, Sr. Manager of User Experience, LinkedIn and author, Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills

Copyright 2016 by Matthew E. May. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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ISBN 978-1-259-64239-5

MHID 1-259-64239-9

e-ISBN 978-1-259-64240-1

e-MHID 1-259-64240-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

May, Matthew E.

Winning the brain game : fixing the 7 fatal flaws of thinking / Matthew E. May.

New York : McGraw-Hill, 2016.

LCCN 2015051017| ISBN 9781259642395 (alk. paper) | ISBN 1259642399 (alk. paper)

LCSH: Thought and thinking. | Reasoning. | Decision making. | Mind and body.

LCC BF441 .M3495 2016 | DDC 153.4/2--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015051017

McGraw-Hill Education books are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions or for use in corporate training programs. To contact a representative, please visit the Contact Us pages at www.mhprofessional.com.

Cover design by Joanne Lee.

A MANTRA

What appears to be the problem, isnt.

What appears to be the solution, isnt.

What appears to be impossible, isnt.

THE ELEGANT SOLUTION

PART ONE
Misleading

PART TWO
Mediocre

PART THREE
Mindless

T his book almost wasnt. Undoubtedly due to one or more flaws in my thinking, I had somehow convinced myself that most of the world no longer had the time or interest in reading books, and that the volume of noise in the form of information was already so overwhelming to most people that another book would only speed the saturation level. It was self-censorsing at its finest, and it took a good bit of poking and prodding from my wise advocate and agent John Willig to convince me I was wrong, and to give it another go. He had help from Knox Huston, my terrific editor from McGraw-Hill. I am grateful to them both for getting me to practice what I preach, to look at things from another perspective, and to produce an elegant solution. I am really proud of this little book, and I think it may indeed be my best work. For the first time in a decade of authorship, I have a book that has broad appeal and universal applicability, regardless of ones walk in life. Thats cool. Thank you, gentlemen.