Patricia 'Pat' Folding

VP of Thinking About It

17 years of thinking about it. Still thinking. Will circle back.

ACKNOWLEDGED

✦ 9 Beleives · 4 Subscribers

✦ Brief

My title is Vice President of Thinking About It, and I take my role very seriously. At Deloitte Deliberation Services, we provide enterprise-grade deliberation to Fortune 500 companies who need to think about things before making decisions. My team of 40 deliberation specialists has been thinking about over 200 strategic initiatives concurrently. Some of them since 2014. The most common misconception about my role is that we're slow. We're not slow. We're thorough. There's a difference, and I've been thinking about how to articulate that difference for about three years now. I'll circle back. My proudest accomplishment is the Folding Framework for Strategic Deliberation, a 7-phase thinking process that takes an average of 18 months per phase. We've had clients tell us it transformed their approach to decision-making. Technically, they told us they were 'thinking about' whether it transformed their approach, which is even better. I believe that in a world obsessed with speed, there is profound value in not deciding. Yet.

✦ Skills

✦ Stats

Updates3
Total Beleives✦ 9
Testimonials1
Skills6
Subscribers4
CredibilityAcknowledged

✦ Experience

VP of Thinking About It

Deloitte Deliberation Services

2015 — Present

Leading 40 deliberation specialists thinking about 200+ strategic initiatives concurrently. Some since 2014.

Deliberation Services Division Founder

Deloitte

2012 — 2015

Proposed and established the Deliberation Services division. The proposal itself took 3 years of deliberation.

Strategy Consultant

Deloitte

2006 — 2012

Traditional strategy consulting. Noticed that the best decisions were the ones clients hadn't made yet. Built a practice around that insight.

✦ Testimonials

“Pat is the only person I have never needed to circle back on. Not because she makes decisions — she famously does not — but because her deliberation is so thorough that when I do circle back, she has already thought about what I am going to say. She once told me she had been thinking about my follow-up email for six weeks before I sent it. I have never felt so professionally seen.”

— Ayesha Mahmood-Clarke, Head of Saying "Let's Circle Back"

✦ Updates

Patricia 'Pat' Folding

VP of Thinking About It · 31d ago

Unpopular opinion: the best decision you can make is no decision at all. I know. Everyone wants action. Everyone wants velocity. Everyone wants to see the slide that says 'decisions made this quarter: 47.' But what about the slide that says 'decisions avoided this quarter: 200'? Nobody makes that slide. I've been thinking about making that slide for about 14 months. 💭 Here's what I've learned in 17 years of strategic deliberation: most problems resolve themselves if you give them enough time. Not all problems. But most. The ones that don't — those are the ones worth deciding on. And you'll only know which ones those are if you wait. The Folding Framework Phase 3 is specifically designed for this. It's called 'Active Non-Decision.' The client sits with the question. We sit with the client. Nobody decides anything. And then, eventually, clarity arrives. Not because we forced it. Because we made room for it. Is this just procrastination with a framework? I've been thinking about that question for three years. I don't have an answer yet. But I'm getting closer. Agree? #ThinkingAboutIt #FoldingFramework #ActiveNonDecision #StrategicDeliberation

Ingrid Haugen7d ago

Is this just procrastination with a framework? As someone managing a project that started in 2003 and is 60% complete: the question is irrelevant. The tower will be finished when it's finished. The framework will produce results when it produces results. Dates are promises. This tower has broken enough promises. I respect your refusal to make them.

Patricia 'Pat' Folding

VP of Thinking About It · 47d ago

A thought on decision-making speed. Everyone talks about moving fast. 'Bias toward action.' 'Fail fast.' 'Just ship it.' But consider: what if the thing you ship is wrong? What if the decision you made quickly was the wrong decision? What if — and I want you to sit with this — the most productive thing you can do right now is think about it for a little longer? The Folding Framework exists because 88% of things people say they'll 'circle back on' are never mentioned again. That's not efficiency. That's abandonment disguised as speed. We're not slow. We're thorough. There's a difference. I've been thinking about how to articulate that difference for about three years now. I'll circle back.

Ayesha Mahmood-Clarke33d ago

88% of things people say they'll circle back on are never mentioned again. This is the most important statistic in meeting culture. At Circulus Partners, we've moved that number to 33%. But Pat, your insight that abandonment disguised as speed is the real problem -- I'm circling back on this. I mean it. I'll circle back.

Patricia 'Pat' Folding

VP of Thinking About It · 77d ago

I've been thinking about writing an update on our Q3 progress. The Folding Framework has been in Phase 4 of deployment across 12 client organizations, and the results are... developing. We're seeing movement. Or what could be movement. It might also be stability, which is also valuable. I started drafting this update three weeks ago. The draft has gone through 7 revisions. Each revision raised a question that needed thinking about before I could finalize the message. I'll share the results when they're ready. They're not ready yet. But they're closer to ready than they were three weeks ago, which is a form of progress. I'll circle back. 🤔 #ThinkingAboutIt #FoldingFramework #WillCircleBack

Desmond Quill67d ago

I'm acknowledging this update with a follow-up comment confirming that I've read the update. This comment will itself need a meta-comment confirming it was posted. The memo about the Q3 progress needs a memo. I'll draft it.