The holidays allows time to think. In most cases our thinking is in confirmation of our beliefs. One of the best bumper stickers I have seen stated: “Don’t Believe What You Think”. I is clear to me that this statement is warning us about our biasses and misconceptions, which we have many!
With his book “Think Again” Adam Grant helps us to understand our biasses and misconceptions, and how we can remediate the situation.
Grant even goes as far as share about life of death situations, where firefighters lost or saved their life based on thinking differently. This is a complicated subject because we start with a framework of thinking, our mindset, that has been structured for many years and based on people and circumstances that are familiar. Thus, very difficult to analyze. The difficulty of thinking differently comes from evolutionary psychology, where we have use the stubbornness of our ideas as a way to survive. But it has also been counterproductive. Think about companies that have not survived. Examples. like the BlackBerry, Kodak abound which leaders were unwilling to change because they were sure they knew all about the company and unable to see that the reality of the environment had changed. After all these leaders were the ones that lifted these companies to the high level of success they attained. Yes, but that happened under past circumstances, now things were different. These companies failed because they weren’t able to innovate and adapt.
These last days of 2023 are for me, days to reflect and find my blindspots. Where am I thinking wrong? Which ideas, deep in my ego, are wrong, and need to be replaced?
It is hard work to be done by yourself alone. There are techniques that help you see your ideas through a critical lens. Get help from those you trust. Quakers have what is called “clearness committees” https://www.fgcquaker.org/fgcresources/practical/practices/clearness-committees/ which is a tool used by Quakers to find, as the name implies, clearness in their thoughts. The main reason you, probably, need outside help is that your mind is already set. Your ideas are already yours! This is where someone else can ask you something like “have you thought of ……?” Which, of course, you might have not thought of. Now you have a new idea! If this new idea is better than the one you had before then you go ahead and replace it, innovate, adapt.
Successful leaders have learned this. Steve Jobs, for example, was opposed to the idea of the iPhone! Until he was for it. Convinced by people who had his trust and were able to speak freely, people who weren’t “yes sir” employees. This is what successful leaders do!
These last days of the year are overwhelming to our inbox, all fundraisers are busy sending emails telling us that the time is running out before we get extra impact on our donations. I have been busy deleting all these emails. So, I am not too optimistic about you having time to read it but I hope that one day you will. Meanwhile my thoughts are about wishing you all a great new year, I hope that 2024 will bring you good health, peace and prosperity.
David J Terrell 