3 Things They Teach You In Spy School

On your first day working as an analyst for the CIA, they tell you…  “The world is overflowing with data, secret and otherwise. It has to be shrunk. It’s your job to become experts at seeing what others miss. Connecting the dots. Generating insights. Lives depend on it. Don’t screw it up!”  After intensive training on how to think and analyse incomplete information, a geopolitical hot potato, like the news that broke this week, lands on your desk:  “Russian Warplane Drops Bombs To Deter U.K. Destroyer in the First Move of Its Kind Since The Cold War.”  The President wants to know - should America be worried?  The White House follows up with more urgent questions:  “What’s Russia up to?” “Where do our allies stand on this?” “What’s Putin’s next move?”  [You get to work putting all your training into action.](  That’s when you remember the second thing they teach you in CIA school:  “It doesn’t help to rush. Hurrying is the surest way to screw up. Focus first on exploring the frame…”  The frame is the frame of reference. It’s vital anytime you have incomplete information and conflicting viewpoints that you zoom out and test the frame.  Your job, your unique training, is to figure out what someone else will do?  What motivates them? What are they really pursuing? (Beyond the surface claims.) What are they trying to achieve?  And critically, what kind of game are they playing?  There are only 3 types of games.  And knowing which one is being played instantly moves you closer to the holy grail of thinking…  [Predicting what others will do next.](  Suddenly, there’s a knock at your desk next to you.  The sound jolts you back to the present.  You look up and see the big yellow post-it note on your desk. The 3rd thing they taught you in Spy school:  “If thinking doesn’t end with action, it’s useless.”   So, like Carrie Mathison, you begin pulling the pieces of data together… constructing a mental map of the landscape to predict what Russia is going to do next.  Exactly what top-notch NLPers do anytime they help someone.  While many people want to jump to action, the first step in solving any problem is to [get better intel as today's video shows.](  Enjoy! Tom [Unsubscribe]( | [Edit your details]( D&T New Media Limited Office E, 25th Floor, King Palace Plaza Kwun Tong Kowloon Hong Kong - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -