A Spy's Guide to Thinking

"Head wounds bleed. All those vessels going to the brain. Carrying nutrients so you can think. Which I hadn't...I was stunned. But I hadn't lost yet. I still had the phone. And two options."

There are a select few people who get things done. Spies are first among them.

In this 45-minute listen, a former spy introduces two simple tools for thinking. The first describes how we think. The second helps us think ahead. They are the essential tools for getting things done.

The tools are applied to an incident in a subway car in Europe where a spy faces a new enemy. Then, they're reapplied to Saddam Hussein's stockpiling (or not) of weapons of mass destruction.

John Braddock was a case officer at the CIA. He developed, recruited and handled sources on weapons proliferation, counter-terrorism, and political-military issues. A former university research fellow, he is now a strategy consultant. He helps people and organizations think more effectively about their strategy, their customers, and their competition.