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Making innovation work for good. T:@inspirechilli

Friday 13 January 2012

Wanted: Advantaged Thinking

It's taking me a while to acclimatise in London after Japan, but now I have got used to having a cold and living in the dark, I'm feeling back at home. At least Farringdon Station is beginning to emerge in size and beauty each morning like a butterfly.

Back at home means it is time for a fresh challenge. The other day, someone asked me what Advantaged Thinking was. As I trotted out the answer, I thought now would be the right moment to raise the stakes and introduce the world to the tests of Advantaged Thinking.

Anyone reading this blog will hopefully have worked out that Advantaged Thinking is a vision to develop people’s assets and advantages instead of supporting deficits and disadvantage. It is a campaign to disrupt our traditional approach to social problems by investing in the solutions that will evolve the way we think and live as human beings.

The tests of Advantaged Thinking look in detail at seven areas of inquiry:

1.       How you talk about people

2.       How you understand people

3.       How you work with people

4.       How you invest in people

5.       What you expect for people

6.       How you involve people as their own solutions

7.       How you act to find, develop, support and challenge thinking in others

Each area offers a way in to explore, strengthen or transform the way in which current belief systems, strategies, communications, and practices operate to ‘advantage’ or ‘disadvantage’ people.

I’ll be writing about Advantaged Thinking across these areas over the year ahead, and am keen for others to ‘spot’ examples of Advantaged Thinking in different areas of life so we can collectively recognise, celebrate and learn from it.

 I’ll also be starting to review how the different organisations we all love and hate really match up as Advantaged Thinkers, because I believe it is time that those who are in positions of responsibility to lead and influence social change are actually called to account for the way they think about and do things.  That is, if the disadvantaged thinkers don’t stop me first… If you know any organisations you think ought to be tested out, or spot any examples of advantaged thinking, drop me a line at advantagedthinking@gmail.com

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