One Dot, Two Dots, Get Some New Dots

By David Silverstein

One Dot, Two Dots, Get Some New Dots

Before you can connect the dots, you have to collect the dots

Contents

Chapter 1: Read, Aim, Fire 1

Meet Colonel Blaber whose story encapsulates why collecting the dots is so important.

Chapter 2: Reading for Leading 9

Why reading is the most efficient and effective way to collect dots.

Chapter 3: Ask and You Shall Receive Dots 17

How asking questions can extend the here-and-now experience for later application.

Chapter 4: Sightseers See Dots 21

Where you should look in the broader world to find useful dots.

Chapter 5: Intellectual Curiosity Skilled the Cat 27

The key to connecting dots: Learning for the sake of learning.

Chapter 6: Collecting Other Dot Collectors 33

Surround yourself with interesting and intellectually curious people. 

Chapter 7: Collaborating with Other Dot Collectors 39

Open innovation programs make this easier than ever.

Chapter 8: Collecting Better Dots 47

Learn to increase the quality of the dots you collect. 

Chapter 9: The Dotty Dozen: Tips for Dot Collectors 55

Techniques so you can become an expert at collecting dots.

Chapter 1: READ, AIM, FIRE

U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Pete Blaber, a Delta Force Commander, was stationed in Hungary in 2001. One day in September, he was tailing a mock terrorist around the streets of Budapest for a training exercise when he got a call. A passenger jet had crashed into the World Trade Center. Pete quickly wrapped up the exercise and hurried back to his hotel room where he learned of the terrorist attacks and the ensuing tragedy. As a warrior who had seen combat in Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, and other places he can’t tell us about, Pete’s experience told him that there was an awfully good chance he would soon be paying a visit to Afghanistan.

What did Pete do when he learned of the 9/11 attacks? What he didn’t do is head out to the firing range to work on his marksmanship. Instead, he began honing his mind for the potential mission before him. Pete quickly began searching for, downloading, and reading articles about Osama bin Laden, whose name he himself had only heard for the first time a couple of years earlier. He began reading up on Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and Afghanistan. He logged into the online databases of LexisNexis to gather content from newspapers, magazines, and legal documents. He ordered books about the Taliban and books written by former Soviet generals about their Afghan exploits in the 1980s. He also read books by Afghanis themselves, many of them former members of the Mujahideen that resisted the Soviets for a decade.

Pete wanted to get all the different perspectives on strategies and tactics tested by different parties across Afghanistan’s rugged terrain. In short, Pete’s first instinct was to collect information. 

 Next, Pete needed to get his men accustomed to maneuvering in Afghan terrain. So he researched Afghanistan’s geography and winter conditions. His research revealed that, through fortuitous insight and planning, he had already made great headway. As it happened, less than a month earlier he and his men had been training in the snow-filled mountain passes of Montana that resembled the mountains of Afghanistan.