With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the people in my learning network that I’m intellectually grateful for — and while the list is ALWAYS long, I’m not sure that any single person influenced me more than David Jakes this year.

You see, it was David’s presentation on design thinking at Educon back in January that forced me to think about whether or not I’m a “what if” or a “yeah, but” person:

(click to enlarge)

(Download PPT Version: Slide_YeahBut)

I’ll be honest, y’all: I’m a “yeah, but” kind of guy by nature.

As embarrassed as I am to admit it, I can almost always give you the six thousand reasons that any new idea is likely to fail before I can come up with a single revision to an idea that just might work.

#intellectualhandcuffs

While I still haven’t COMPLETELY stopped wearing my but on my shoulders, I have gotten better at looking for the small forward steps that I CAN take in any situation.  It’s like I’ve got David whispering in my ear every time I throw out a “yeah, but” in the face of a challenging circumstance.

#thanksdavid