ABSTRACT
Changing the focus from short term efficiency to longer term effectiveness requires a major shift in thinking. This chapter explains why the simple question: “What’s it for?” is so important. Although the question is often asked, it is frequently not followed through to its ultimate conclusion. There is also a tendency to think about and to measure the individual parts that constitute a project or initiative and this draws attention away from concentrating on the whole and on longer term outcomes. But asking the question: “What’s it for?” and thinking about the whole, is not enough. It is also necessary to influence others to change they way they think, to take a longer-term view, so the chapter includes sections on communication and influence and how to manage change. The latter part of the chapter examines effective thinking, touching on the balance between intuition and evidence, how successful senior managers think and how to frame problems and learn from experience.
