The PATH Assessment® has four modes — Purpose, Approach, Thinking, and Habits — which identify our go-to problem-solving processes. Everyone accesses all the modes at different times, but we only have one dominant mode. We’ve put together the PATH Picks list to help you learn more about each of the modes and how to maximize them in different ways.
Thinking is taking solo time to process the world around you. It’s how you evaluate and understand both problems and solutions. When you use your way of thinking as a tool at work, you are likely to get your colleagues to walk through problems the same way as you. Check out the books that have helped us grow our Thinking traits:
1. Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad
Another amazing book from Austin Kleon – this one is all about how to keep going when you’re feeling burnt out and uninspired. And we all could use a little encouragement after the last year of pandemic life.
“The creative life is not a linear journey to a finish line, it’s a loop—so find a daily routine, because today is the only day that matters. Disconnect from the world to connect with yourself—sometimes you just have to switch into airplane mode. Keep Going celebrates getting outdoors and taking a walk (as director Ingmar Bergman told his daughter, ‘The demons hate fresh air.’). Pay attention, and especially pay attention to what you pay attention to. Worry less about getting things done, and more about the worth of what you’re doing. Instead of focusing on making your mark, work to leave things better than you found them.
Keep Going and its timeless, practical, and ethical principles are for anyone trying to sustain a meaningful and productive life.” – Goodreads
2. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
We love how Charlie Mackesy makes us realize how we’re on the same journey and not all that different from each other. Another great read for inspiration and hope in seemingly uncertain times.
“Enter the world of Charlie’s four unlikely friends, discover their story and their most important life lessons.” – Goodreads
3. Designing Your Work Life
Bill Burnett and Dave Evans help us understand how we think about our current situation and how reframing the narrative can give us entirely different results.
“In Designing Your Work Life, Burnett and Evans show us how design thinking can transform our present job and our experience of work in general by utilizing the designer mindsets: Curiosity. Reframing. Radical collaboration. Awareness. Bias to action. Storytelling.
Dysfunctional Belief: Good enough isn’t good enough. Reframe: Good enough is GREAT—for now. Burnett and Evans show us how, with tools, tips, and ideas, to enjoy what we have and to live in a state of ‘good enough, for now,’ one of the strongest, most effective reframes there is, and how this idea, once understood and accepted, can make new possibilities available, giving us the energy to enjoy the present moment and allowing us to begin to prototype possible futures.
And if we want to quit? Burnett and Evans show us how to use the job we have to get the job we want (in another company), and show us as well, the art and science of quitting (leave the campsite better than we found it), using the power of the quit design to reframe how we finish our current job and get a better one.” – Goodreads
4. Where to Begin: A Small Book About Your Power to Create Big Change in Our Crazy World
Another great read for reframing the way we think about our lives and where we are. Sometimes all it takes to push us forward is to accept where we are.
“Where to Begin is perfect for those who are ready to be a part of building a society rooted in love, acceptance, justice, and equality.
From Cleo Wade: Change-making comes in all sizes. It doesn’t always have to be one big gesture or nothing. As my friend Jenna often says, ‘The big stuff is the small stuff.’ Your big life is made up of a collection of all of your small moments. Our big world is a made up of a collection of all of our small actions. This book is about where to begin.” – Goodreads
5. Lean UX
Learn how to move and adapt quickly to situations at work and at home. This book will help you learn how to break everything down and tackle the big stuff.
“Inspired by Lean and Agile development theories, Lean UX lets you focus on the actual experience being designed, rather than deliverables. This book shows you how to collaborate closely with other members of the product team, and gather feedback early and often. You’ll learn how to drive the design in short, iterative cycles to assess what works best for the business and the user. Lean UX shows you how to make this change—for the better.” – Goodreads