In a world of noise, the certainty of knowing your highest-impact move can be a huge relief. To have someone help you survey the business, consider your ultimate goals, and determine what's most important, right now, is the name of the game.
Like an investigative journalist, I'm on a hunt for the truth of one simple question: what’s matters most right now?
It could be in your thinking, or in your operations. Because, unlike some traditional consulting models, I seem to be motivated by ‘the truth’ of a situation, I can perhaps discover things that may otherwise be missed. The fun part? That I have a flexible set of tools to help me in my investigations.
This is the category — and the bet — that die-hard philosophy students, ones who are genuinely motivated by concepts like "the truth," would make excellent investigative consultants, if they had the requisite complimentary skillset.
“What do I focus on next?” “How could this system work better?”
Any question that can have a "truth" to it is an excellent candidate for this process — defined by the object of the game being the truth of the answer.
Do you need a thinking partner? Someone to help you work out what is most important, right now? An objective, distanced, truly open search, hunting for the truth of that one question, repeatedly if required.
I find gaps and structural anomalies in thinking, operations and systems - the most significant to address.
The ‘truth’ about the one missing piece that will have the biggest impact is the motivator.
Investigative consulting doesn't assume, and it doesn't have a one-size-fits-all mentality. It conducts a rigorous enquiry into what's missing — a human enquiry, AI-assisted, but human-led.
Cutting-edge cognitive science can ground the method, too, with questions like:
What are the active assumptions — the weighty prior beliefs?
Where are the mismatches between expectation and results, appearing as a problem?
How do we most effectively resolve the uncertainty in the system?
Do we act in a certain way to close expectation gaps, or is it more effective to update our understanding of the world?
We are talking about a philosophically rigorous investigation of complex, dynamic systems.
Happily, there are multiple thinking tools I can leverage, tailored to the situation: philosophical reasoning and stress-testing, cognitive science understandings and frameworks, systems thinking, ecosystem mapping, technology and artificial intelligence.
This is the swiss-army knife: business edition, and I’m excited to deploy it in the service of people trying to make a difference in the world through their work, leadership, and so on.
In a world of noise, the certainty of knowing your highest-impact move can be a huge relief.
To have someone help you survey the business, consider your ultimate goals, and determine what's most important, right now, is a service I think many can benefit from.
One alternative (as I’ve experienced myself) can be endless wasted work and resources. I now use my training and tools to survey the terrain, get crystal clear on the ideal focus, and devise a plan to move forward with confidence.
It’s about pinpointing the next move. Deducing.
And sometimes eco-system mapping, if that’s what it takes — it depends on the situation. Again: a Swiss Army knife. Only using what's required, for each situation. A truly flexible partner is what I like to be.
A way of thinking about it is a multifunctional, adaptable toolkit — the use of varied cognitive strategies, like metacognition or artificial intelligence, to solve diverse problems:
Metacognition — thinking about how you think, so you can actively monitor, adapt, and improve your problem-solving on the fly
AI and digital processing
Mental models — surfacing answers by drawing from multiple disciplines (economics, psychology, systems thinking, neuroscience, enactive cognition)
Mapping and systems thinking
Advanced analytical and logical reasoning
The actual process is quite simple.
Clients fill me in on what's bothering them. I gather the relevant data, use whichever of the cognitive and technological tools is appropriate, and deliver a clear, thoroughly justified solution.
You can’t read a label from inside a jar, and sometimes a dedicated thinking partner and analyst can really lighten the load. It's a very noisy world, and so easy to climb a sub-optimal ladder. I invite clients to step off the ladder, exit the noise a moment, and allow for things to be properly thought through.
