Dare to be Dumb!

Too often it is very tempting to showing off how 'cleaver', 'smart', 'knowledgeable' or 'experienced' we are. We often hide our flaws/ ignorance so we may not feel vulnerable or be judged. You can even have situations where you are the smartest in the room, where you know everything, you tend to write off the meeting by saying 'I know' when you don't actually know. Has that ever happen to you?

Often our education, wealth of experience, transferable skills, expert knowledge makes us feel superior and not be completely open to new learning and really listen and understand situations. Our blind spots. We often make assumptions and judge situations before we get to really understand them. This has to be one of the biggest sabotage to have attained an insane amount of knowledge, weather it's from Harvard, Deloitte, Westpac, only to get your pride, ego or feeling of self worth let you down from really understand real world challenges.

To really learn something new, one of the best strategy I have learnt from a wonderful man who is a Professor in his sixties with a wealth of experience who have taught me. It is the leadership concept of 'Dare to be Dumb'. We were in a meeting and he happened to ask the most stupid question to the client and we all thought how could someone of his calibre, who was literally the smartest guy in the room ask this? I decided to ask him afterwards when we went to get the coffee from our meeting. I asked "why did you ask this question?". To my surprise he said, "Yes. I thought I did but you know if you could dare to be dumb, I can learn something because the client has a different perspective and viewpoint of this topic and I just wanted to confirm what I knew but every now then then, I learnt something new." That day changed my life!

One of the reasons I have learnt so quickly in Forestry is that I asked the 'dumb' questions even when I knew the obvious answer to it because of my hunger for knowledge was sometimes bigger than our 260K hectares of land we operate in. Met some of the most talented individuals with so much potential and humility, it makes what I do, all the more rewarding! I have not stopped learning continuously since leaving school, not just because I love it but I realised, I can never be more qualified for what I do. Other than looking to find my bliss (which I have now found at HVP), 'Learning something new' is what drives me every morning when I jump out of bed at 5am to run to F45! I question my ethics, morals, values, religion, background, culture, media... everything, maybe like a child with creativity and pure genius. I try not to make assumptions or biases even though as human beings, we are hard wired to do so. Instead I challenge them every day and test them with a cricket bat and really try to understand another person's perspective and am still trying to be better at it. I found I have learnt a hell of a lot more this way. Without this, I will be only a Development Manager and 'Learning' will not happen and my role undoubtedly will become one that lacks creativity, innovation and vision. In my view, you are either learning, or dying in this competitive world full of change and unpredictability, even in Forestry.

Being the smartest in the room is not a blessing but a curse. People often say, how can you be so adaptable and dynamic? I always answer: "That's because, I dare myself to be Dumb :)"