MTI CEO Hilmy Cader delivering the keynote at the Toastmasters National Conference challenged a packed hall of over 300 Toastmasters to be ‘Thought Masters before Toast Masters’. Following are excerpts:

The world is in trouble today because there is too much toast and too little thought.

• Concept of ground zero: In order to improve processes and visit concepts anew, it is important to shed your baggage and think afresh and this can be done successfully by unwinding and undoing previous learning and thinking anew. This is a principle that is practiced to perfection at MTI.
• Quality thinking: To become a thought master, thinking should be embedded in your lifestyle. There are two ways of doing it, either by deliberately putting time aside to think or to embed it into your lifestyle. Make use of the slack time such as while driving, in the shower or even on the treadmill and use it for thinking.

When was the last time you took a thinking holiday?

• Get the setting and mood right: Quality thinking cannot happen after five meetings on a Friday afternoon. Your mind should be at ease to trigger quality thinking, and this could even mean through a walk in the park. Getting the mood right also cannot happen if there is a lot of bugging irritancy and stress in your mind. Although stress is what we live with on a day-to-day basis, unless these are addressed and put aside, you fundamental quality thinking will be effected.
• Learn to switch off: One of the challenges the knowledge workers have to go through is that the work done during the day tends to linger, and we are unable to switch off. Again, this effects quality thinking, and would end up in a ‘thought pickle’.
• Structured thinking: Quality thinking and structured thinking is not being a walking encyclopedia. If put quality thinking in to practice, structured thinking, this will come in time. Have a simple structure in your mind that fits in all the additional information will create the big picture, and this will begin to unearth, when structured thinking takes place. Can we have a model of life plan since we all manage life – like the marketing plan? Life has many elements to it, how do you look up to life holistically? The 8Fs model looks at eight aspects of one’s life: faith, family, fit: mental fitness and physical fitness, finances, fraternity, fun and faded memories. Is a framework to get in to thinking and where do you fit in this? Even a simple model of catch>offer>deliver comes about as a result of structured thinking.  
• Limitless thinking: Very often the biggest obstacles in our mind is limited thinking, and at one point, your thinking might gets so conditioned, it makes impossible to think even in dreams because even dreams gets conditioned after a while! Be able to try and get rid of the fear of failing. Liberating your mind and this can result in new ideas in the longer term. Worst feeling is to have not tried.
• Keep it simple: We work in very diverse industries. There is a customer and a value proposition and a supply chain. Avoid gathering an information clutter.
• Diverse reading, diverse triggers: Speak to diverse people in diverse areas; have a chat with a baker or the cobbler but these diverse people will have diverse thinking triggers. Diverse readings/diverse people; be our own critique

You have to be your biggest critique of your own thinking, lest you run the risk of being a thought prisoner.

• Build a challenging culture around you: This does not mean you have to surround yourself with people who are extremely negative, neither keeping yourself around people who gives a lot of ‘external bluff’ what is important is to associate more people who can build a challenging culture around you which is important in developing yourself.
• Talk to yourself – think aloud: Engage in a conversation with yourself.

Commenting on the first Toastmasters exposure, Cader said: “For what I have seen during the last few minutes, I am impressed with the amount of passion demonstrated and which is what goes a long way for any endeavor one undertakes.”

“Get your thinking first and right – the ‘toasts’ will just pop out. Effective thinking gives you wings.”

Conference Chair Mithraka Fernando said: “Hilmy’s keynote address on ‘Thought Masters before Toastmasters’ was an intriguing topic which challenged around 320 Sri Lankan Toastmasters present at the 2012 National Conference and made them think ‘out of the box.’”

International Director – Region 13 of Toastmasters International, Arunasalam Balraj said: “Hilmy’s presentation provided unmatched value for money for Toastmasters who were fortunate to attend the National Conference this year.”

MTI Consulting is an international strategy consultancy – having carried out 680 projects across 51 countries, over the last 27 years via 7 Regional Offices and Associates across 30+ countries.

Photo: Toastmasters audience