Find a practice for your goal
Search for the skill or situation you want to work on, such as focus, negotiation, or setting boundaries. Open a practice to read its steps before choosing what suits you.
59 results (expanded search) for "test"
Leadership
Saying Yes to a Bad-Seeming Idea to Test It Cheaply
When an idea seems intuitively bad but its test cost is low, approve it as a cheap experiment instead of rejecting it on intuition alone.
Psychological
Just-World Test
"People deserve what happens to them" — test on people you love.
Administrative
Decision Stress Test
Before big commitment: "what if X drops 50%?" Test plan robustness.
Leadership
The "Front Page Test" for Decisions
Before any sensitive decision, ask: if published with full detail on tomorrow's front page, would I defend it with pride or look for an exit?
Psychological
Universalizing Test
Your negative self-thought — if 100 people who know you heard it, how many would agree?
Social
Test Humor Before It Crosses Cultures
Before a joke with a multicultural group, run it through a filter: does it rely on local wordplay?
Social
Test Your Empathic Accuracy
After guessing what a close person feels, verify explicitly instead of trusting your hunch alone.
Leadership
Weekly Autonomy Test
5 questions every Friday: did reports decide without me? If not, why?
Digital & AI
Testing 5 Thumbnails/Covers Before Publishing
Just as you brainstorm 10 titles, generate 5 different thumbnail/cover concepts, and pick via a small sample, not instinct alone.
Leadership
Pretotyping: Test Idea Before Building
Before building full product, test with "fake prototype" (10× simpler than MVP). Saves months + tens of thousands.
Administrative
10-10-10 Test
How will I feel about this decision in 10 minutes, 10 months, 10 years?
Leadership
Knowledge Reversal Test
Imagine entering the decision with what you know today — would you still make it?
Leadership
Role-Model Decision Test
Imagine someone you deeply respect and ask: "What would you do in my place?"
Psychological
Behavioral Experiment for a Prediction
Turn your anxious prediction into a testable hypothesis, then act and collect data.
Social
Discover Their Real Love Language
Don't assume your partner's love language — test it with three situations this week and compare reactions.
Leadership
Rapid Prototyping Mindset for Leaders
Before approving any big idea, ask: what's the cheapest, fastest version testable within a week, instead of waiting for a full plan taking months?
Psychological
VIA Character Strengths
Free test reveals top 5 character strengths.
Professional
Power Posing (Cuddy)
Wonder Woman pose 2 min before — raises testosterone.
Professional
Decision Assumptions
Before any big decision, write 5 assumptions you relied on — test the weakest.
Leadership
Translating Strategy into a Frontline-Repeatable Line
Test your strategy with one question: can a frontline employee repeat it verbatim to a customer?
Administrative
"What If I'm Gone?" Audit
If you vanished for two weeks with no contact, what stops? That's your urgent delegation list.
Psychological
Universalization Question
Your negative thought — if someone else thought it, would you agree?
Leadership
Experimentation Mindset for Adaptive Problems
There's no ready solution for adaptive problems — treat your next solution as a small learnable experiment, not a final plan that must succeed on the first try.
Psychological
Self as Context
You aren't your thoughts or feelings — you're the context they happen in.
Psychological
Ethical Will
Write what you want to bequeath to descendants — discover what matters.
Professional
Promotion Case Brief
Write a 2-page document compiling all achievements + next-level requirements before requesting promotion.
Professional
Career Pivot Risk Map
Before pivoting to new field, map 5 risks and 3 cheap experiments before full leap.
Professional
Annual Theme
Instead of New Year resolutions, pick one "theme" (year of health, year of depth...).
Professional
Compelling Hook
Open with shocking question, surprising stat, or personal story — grab first 5 seconds.
Social
Challenge the Catastrophe Prediction
Write your catastrophic prediction pre-event and compare with what actually happened — evidence stacks.
Social
Reverse Mentorship
Mentor a younger person in new tech/culture, and learn from them in return.
Social
Text-Tone Calibration
Before sending an emotional message, read it aloud in three tones and adjust.
Administrative
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Cycle
Improve any process via a weekly four-stage loop: Plan, Do, Check, Act.
Administrative
No-Code First, Then Code
Before requesting a developer to automate a process, trial it with a no-code tool for two weeks first — if it works, you saved months.
Administrative
Standard Work as the Improvement Baseline
You cannot improve what isn't first documented as a standard — document today's best-known method before searching for a better one.
Administrative
Stakeholder Communication Cadence Plan
For every stakeholder, explicitly define: how often, which channel, what level of detail — no randomly-timed communication.
Administrative
Managing the Difficult Stakeholder
Before labeling someone "difficult", diagnose the specific type: are they anxious, ignored, or genuinely conflicted in interest?
Administrative
Pre-Drafted Crisis Holding Statement
Before all facts are known, issue a ready holding statement within minutes saying "we know, we're acting" — not silence that invites speculation.
Leadership
Whistleblower-Safe Culture Building
Test your confidential reporting channel yourself (not just theoretically) — is it actually anonymous, and did it respond the last time it was used?
Leadership
Ethical Decision-Making Under Commercial Pressure
When an urgent profit target conflicts with an ethical principle, write both sides explicitly on one page before deciding — don't let it be settled only in your head.
Parenting
Teen Talk Without Solutions
When your teen shares a problem, don't offer a fix unless explicitly asked.
Parenting
Limit with Empathy
Say firm "no" with warm "I understand" — Janet Lansbury's classic formula.
Digital & AI
AI Brainstorming 10 Titles
Don't pick the first title that comes to mind. Generate 10 with varied angles, then choose the best.
Digital & AI
AI for Code Review vs. Code Generation
Know when to ask AI to generate new code versus review existing code — the two uses need different prompts and different caution.
Digital & AI
Cross-Model Verification Habit
For critical information, ask two different models (Claude and GPT, say) the same question independently, and compare before relying on either.
Digital & AI
Red-Teaming Your Own AI-Assisted Work
After completing AI-assisted work (report, presentation, plan), ask AI itself to attack the work as a strict external critic before submission.
Psychological
Graded Exposure Ladder
Rank your fears from lightest to hardest and climb one rung every 2-3 days.
Psychological
Physiological Sigh
Two nasal inhales, then long mouth exhale — fastest research-backed nerve calmer.
Psychological
Emotion Validation
Tell self "it makes sense to feel this" — don't contest.
Leadership
3-Scenario Planning
Craft three plausible futures (optimistic, base, hard) and test your decisions against each.
Leadership
Power Pose Before High-Stakes Moments
2 min in a power pose before meeting/pitch = cortisol -25% + testosterone +20%.
Leadership
Celebrating Smart Failures Publicly
Design a monthly public ritual celebrating the best "smart failure" (a hypothesis tested fast and cheap, proven wrong) — not every failure deserves celebration.
Parenting
Drawing Without Judgment
Keep drawing as joy not test — don't say "that's pretty" or "what's that?" — ask about the story.
Psychological
STOP in an Impulse Moment
Stop, take a breath, observe, proceed mindfully — four seconds save a decision.
Administrative
Zero-Based Process Justification
For every existing operational process, ask: if we designed it today from scratch, would it look like this?
Leadership
Powerful-Question Bank Building
Collect 20 strong open questions fit for any coaching session, instead of improvising or repeating "how do you feel about that?" only.
Parenting
Feynman Technique
Ask your child to explain what he learned in simplest words — teach him "how to know".
Digital & AI
Building a Personal Prompt Library Habit
Whenever a prompt works exceptionally well, save it immediately with a simple tagging system instead of relying on memory or digging through old chats.
Digital & AI
30-Day Social Media Fast Protocol
Delete social apps (not just deactivate the account) for a full 30 days, with a conscious reintegration plan afterward.