As knowledge workers, we weave other people’s thinking (and experiences) into our own. We construct recommendations that we believe have value. We try to envision what is not yet visible and bring it to life.

We also get lost in the forest of disparate opinions. We go down promising paths and find dead ends. We discover a viable path ... and almost nobody follows. We are sometimes screaming into the wind.

Constructing something whole and actionable from abstract ideas requires creating conceptual integrity.

Unfortunately, we are truly terrible at creating or maintaining conceptual integrity … unless we are supported by practices.

Fortunately, writing is the practice of crafting conceptual integrity.

Writing practices help us to:

- Strengthen metacognition – awareness and understanding of our own thought process.

- Synthesize knowledge, experience and sound judgement into well-reasoned recommendations.

- Inquire and explore new insights.

- Integrate disparate ideas and experiences.

- Focus on how to think, rather than what to think.

- Structure our learning and help us navigate uncertainty.

- Think well, together.

The better our thinking, the better the outcomes. When people collectively strengthen their reasons for acting, they make better decisions together. How we engage each other's thinking is critical to creating high-levels of conceptual integrity. When we structure spaces where knowledge can grow and flourish, we provide integrative leadership … and generate true and lasting change.