John Maxwell recommends good thinking because it
will make you better and more successful at your job.  He cites many well-known successful people in business as
examples of good thinking.  Good
thinking consists of several different thinking skills.  He lists eleven.

1. seeing the wisdom of
   big picture thinking
2. unleashing the
   potential of focused thinking
3. discovering the joy of
   creative thinking
4. recognizing the
   importance of realistic thinking
5. releasing the power of
   strategic thinking
6. feeling the energy of
   possibility thinking
7. embracing the lessons
   of reflective thinking
8. questioning the
   acceptance of popular thinking
9. encouraging the
   participation of shared thinking
10. experiencing the
    satisfaction of unselfish thinking
11. enjoying the return of
    bottom line thinking

He
emphasizes that it take a great deal of work to change one’s thinking.  He gives many cases of people who have
managed to change their own thinking and tries as best he can to explain what
good thinking is.  Different chapters
address each of the eleven thinking skills.

            The trouble with Maxwell’s approach
is that he has no good evidence that it actually helps people, beyond
anecdotal, with is really worthless. 
What’s more, there is already a whole industry of study on what counts
as rational thinking, and there are college courses on critical thinking.  He makes no reference to any of that work —
his approach is far closer to inspirational thinking, and is based mostly on
his own experience.  Whether this will
be useful or not to his listeners or readers will be fairly random.  It is certainly possible that some people
may feel that Maxwell’s practical suggestions are very helpful, but it is
equally possible that people will find his approach utterly useless.  Personally, Maxwell’s recommendations seem
to me to be a mixture of platitudes and vague suggestions, but there are
occasional moments when his ideas do seem helpful.  Probably the best one could hope for is that focusing on this
audiobook, one forces oneself to contemplate one’s own thinking, and that can
be useful.

 © 2003 Christian Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian Perring, Ph.D., is Chair of the Philosophy Department
at Dowling College, Long Island, and editor of Metapsychology
Online Review.  His main research is on philosophical issues in
medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

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