What is Analogous Thinking?

Strategy is about choice. The soul of an Entrepreneur's strategy is what he or she chooses to do and not do. The quality of the thinking that goes into such choices is a key driver of the quality and success of an Entrepreneur’s strategy. Most of the time, Self-starters are so immersed in the specifics of strategy—the ideas, the numbers, the plans—that they don’t step back and examine how they think about strategic choices. But they can gain a great deal from understanding their own reasoning processes. In particular, reasoning by analogy plays a role in strategic decision-making that is large but largely overlooked. Faced with an unfamiliar problem or opportunity, Self-starters often think back to some similar situation they have seen or heard about, draw lessons from it, and apply those lessons to the current situation. Yet they rarely realize that they’re reasoning by analogy.

As a result, they are unable to make use of insights that psychologists, cognitive scientists, and political scientists have generated about the power and the pitfalls of analogy. Self-starters/Entrepreneurs who pay attention to their own analogical thinking will make better strategic decisions and fewer mistakes.

Here is Jigsaw Thinking's Program Lead, Kriti Thakur, guiding you through the ins and outs of Analogous Thinking so you can learn how to effectively think about & implement your business strategies going forward.