James Drogan

One definition of introspection is that it is “contemplation of one's own thoughts, feelings, and sensations; self-examination.”

Introspection comes into play in “Know what you know, know what you don't know, and know who knows what you don't know” and “When things are going really well you've probably missed something.”

Introspection is valuable, important, and perhaps even critical to successful business operations. A prominent case dealing with this that my students and discuss is “What went wrong at Cisco Systems?” More recently, we have difficulties in the global financial industry and the American automobile industry that also suggest the lack of introspection.

This note takes up this characteristic – introspection – in more detail with some comments on its value, how it can be developed and applied.