Being explicit means that we must be "up-front" about what we are doing. For me, it usually means that things should be put in writing and put up in front of people in as many ways as I can think of. I don't mind someone saying "that's the wrong thing to do" nearly as much as I hate someone saying "I wish I had known you were doing that."
Write it down. Summarize it. Put it on a web page, mail it to people, and let them know that something is happening.
Being intentional means that we do things because we intended to do them, not because we fell over them (proactive vs. reactive). Whenever possible, lay out a plan, think it through, then do it--and revise the plan where needed. Think about scenarios.
Make plans. Stop, think, then act. Think about alternatives, and practice responding to crises before they ever happen.
Being better means that we do things to improve even though they may fall short of being perfect. Complete, final, total knowledge just isn't available, so we have to act without it. A fully automated answer may not be possible in the time available--that doesn't mean we can't use the smaller step of doing partially manual things.
Think about what we CAN do to improve. Do it.
Facing reality means that I recognize that plans, designs, and other abstractions are "maps" which may have mistakes in them. That doesn't mean that you try to force reality to match the abstraction (very frustrating), instead you adjust the maps to match reality. Indeed, in making abstractions like plans and designs, we must recognize that they are incomplete and incorrect. So we have to provide ways to adjust them as the missing pieces and mistakes are identified through experience.
Face it--the map is NOT the territory. Don't obsess about trying to get a perfect plan or design until you've explored the territory--and then you make the plan fit the experience.