Think Again

don’t plan to rethink.
Impact Lab reminded me once again how much teachers can learn from
students. Vanessa Wanyandeh challenged me to consider how power
imbalances affect which groups should be doing the majority of the
rethinking and highlight whose responsibility it is to fight prejudice. Akash
Pulluru fearlessly obliterated weak arguments and debated the principles of
good debate. Graelin Mandel called for more information about when and
why task conflict causes relationship conflict, and Zach Sweeney made a
passionate case for expanding the role of the rethinking cycle. Jordan Lei
pushed me to delve more deeply into the first-instinct fallacy, and Shane
Goldstein took the lead in talking me out of the blank-page epilogue and
into showing some edits and margin notes. Nicholas Strauch requested
more context on how to ask good questions and defended the frog, and
Madeline Fagen suggested more clarity on the distinction between beliefs
and values. Wendy Lee advised me to go into more detail on expressing
confident humility, Kenny Hoang suggested I demonstrate some of the
interpersonal rethinking principles in my writing, and Lizzie Youshaei
called for more analysis of when and why people are open to being wrong.
Meg Sreenivas pointed out extraneous details, Aaron Kahane clarified
confusing arguments, and Shaheel Mitra suggested the Edgar Mitchell
quote.

---

I was lucky to have the support of top-notch teams at InkWell (shout-
out to Alexis Hurley, Nathaniel Jacks, and Eliza Rothstein) and Viking (a
group of people whose curiosity I miss every week I’m not writing or
launching a book). Special thanks to Carolyn Coleburn, Whitney Peeling,
Lindsay Prevette, and Bel Banta for their publicity prowess; Kate Stark,
Lydia Hirt, and Mary Stone for their creative marketing; Tricia Conley, Tess
Espinoza, Bruce Giffords, and Fabiana Van Arsdell for their editorial and
production expertise; Jason Ramirez for art direction; Camille LeBlanc for
wrangling; and Brian Tart, Andrea Schulz, Madeline McIntosh, Allison
Dobson, and speed demon Markus Dohle for their ongoing support. Also, it
was a delight to collaborate with Matt Shirley on the charts. Along with
lending his characteristic cleverness and humor, he showed impressive
patience in working to make sure they fit the content and tone of the book.
A number of colleagues contributed to this book through conversations.
As always, Dan Pink gave excellent input on framing the idea and tips on
relevant research. My colleagues at Wharton—especially Rachel Arnett,
Sigal Barsade, Drew Carton, Stephanie Creary, Angela Duckworth, Cade
Massey, Samir Nurmohamed, and Nancy Rothbard—modeled many of the
principles in the book and led me to think again about many of the points I
was making. I am also grateful to Phil Tetlock for the preacher-prosecutor-
politician framework and referrals to Kjirste Morrell and Jean-Pierre
Beugoms; Eva Chen, Terry Murray, and Phil Rescober for the analysis of
Jean-Pierre’s forecasts; Bob Sutton for putting Brad Bird on my radar and
analyzing his Incredibles leadership so perceptively, as well as Jamie Woolf
and Chris Wiggum for opening the Pixar door; Karl Weick for introducing
me to Mann Gulch; Shannon Sedgwick Davis and Laren Poole for putting
me in touch with Betty Bigombe and sharing background on her story; Jeff
Ashby and Mike Bloomfield for the referrals to Chris Hansen and Ellen
Ochoa; Eoghan Sheehy for the connection to Harish Natarajan; and
Douglas Archibald for recommending Ron Berger (props to Noah
Devereaux and the Strive Challenge for that serendipitous conversation).
Early on, Eric Best showed me how rethinking could help people raise the
bar, and Brian Little, Jane Dutton, Richard Hackman, and Sue Ashford
taught me to see rethinking as one of the great joys of being an
organizational psychologist.
Every day, being a parent shows me that we all have the innate capacity
to change our minds. As I finished writing this book during the pandemic,

---

Henry wondered if the water supply might be affected and was eager to
rethink where we get running water (Is there a tube that connects the ocean
to our house? We might get an octopus!). When I asked how she convinces
me to rethink things, Elena opened my eyes to a persuasion technique I had
completely overlooked (Puppy dog eyes! Works every time!). When we
were considering various optical illusions for the jacket of this book, Joanna
came up with a better idea (What about a candle with a flame that’s water
instead of fire?). I came away rethinking where creative ideas come from: if
our twelve-year-old can come up with the perfect image for my book jacket,
what else can kids do? I love how happily and effortlessly our children
think again—and how they coax me to do it more often, too.
My deep gratitude goes to Allison Sweet Grant for her love, advice,
and humor every step of the way. As always, she helped me rethink many
of my assumptions and put up with countless trivial questions, random
requests, and unnecessary debates. I still pronounce it man-aze, not may-o-
naze, but she makes a compelling point that no one says “Please pass the
man”; it’s “Please pass the mayo.” For the record, I don’t even like
mayonnaise.

---