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Chapter 3. Choose your animal carefully

Firstly, we will look at what I see as each animal’s individual ways of thinking – their
‘thinking patterns’. Then we will look at some different sorts of problems to see how to

use the different animals’ thinking patterns.

Note to parents, teachers and sceptics:

The imaginary menagerie

OK, I know that in reality animals don’t think the way we do, but I believe that

relating the various thinking techniques to the unique characteristics of story-book
animals makes it easier for children to understand each concept.

If your children also find it difficult to accept the animal metaphor, they are either too

old for this book, or they really need it!

Crocodile-thinking

Crocodiles make snap decisions (ha ha). “I’m hungry. There’s some food – eat it!” Snap!
Problem solved!

I’ve already mentioned crocodile thinking as the way most people seem to deal with
their everyday problems, and sometimes, their huge, ugly problems as well. This is not a

bad thing, most of the time. But it can be a bad habit to get into and snap decisions may

not lead to the best solutions for big and ugly problems.

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