Expand Your Mind
Answers are definitive
Questions can seem endless
Our future
Can be discovered
Somewhere in between
How carefully are you reading this sentence?
Did you read it word for word?
Or are you only half paying attention? Letting your mind wander.
I hope so.
Which is not the usual expectation. To be encouraged?to not fully pay attention. To let our minds wander?– as innovation?depends on our ability to think in new ways.
The people who change the world are the dreamers.
The ones only half paying attention.
While looking out the window. Imagining new possibilities. Transforming what is into what might be.
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In times past, leaders would direct their people to bring them solutions not problems. It is an understandable behaviour?– aiming to build a proactive problem-solving culture.
This approach can work when the problems are simple. Able to be solved in isolation.
In an increasingly complex world this often is not the case. As a result, in recent times we have seen a profound shift in philosophy. A shift in emphasis to valuing problems as much as solutions. With methodologies?such as design thinking?advising us to fall in love?with the problem, not the solution.
Think about the meetings you are in. How quickly do people start suggesting solutions? Rushing to answer a problem that we have yet to fully understand. Or align on.
As German?theoretical physicist?Albert Einstein?is reputed to have advised, “If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution.”
There are many reasons why this rebalancing between problem definition and solution exploration is advised. For example in the case of saving the world, what does that actually mean? Without a doubt it will mean many different things to different people. Which means rushing into solution discussions may create misalignment and disagreements – often without the group realising the root cause?is a difference in their understanding of the problem to be solved.
By more expansively exploring our challenges, greater solutions can be discovered.
Leap Expansively Upwards
The Mindleap mnemonic?LEAP builds with an E signifying Expansive Thinking.
Better expressed as Ex p a? n? s?? i??? v???? e???? Thinking.
Looking at the world from a new perspective. Discovering new possibilities that at first seem different. Perhaps uncomfortably out of the ordinary. That maybe feel just plain wrong.
A revolutionary step that can spark evolutionary progress.
Letting your mind run expansively upwards. Imagining the impossible.
Which is easier said than done. At a neuroscience level, as thoughts?occur to us, neurotransmitters?release within our brain’s nerve cells. These chemical messengers travel across synaptic connections, often following the path of least resistance.
This is how unconscious bias?– and conscious bias?– occurs. Just like a well-worn pathway across a grassed area, or a familiar commuting?route home, we follow the same pathway on autopilot?even when other potentially better alternatives exist.
Remember, if the direction is certain and proven, everyone else most likely knows it too. Competitive advantage?is gained by expansively venturing into the unknown.
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Strategy in Action
Expansive Thinking
In your next meeting or discussion, consciously observe your own thought patterns. Notice the personal interpretations you are making and more deliberately consider if an alternative perspective might be possible. Pay particular attention to ideas that make you feel uncomfortable or seem wrong – as this may be a sign that a new neural pathway could be explored.
If someone makes a suggestion that typically you would instinctively disagree with, pause?and consider more thoughtfully how this might be able to work. For example if they suggest a timeframe that seems too short, rather than push back on the timing think more expansively about what needs to be done. Asking yourself and others, how might we change what we deliver to still provide a quality result in a shorter space of time?
Literally Think Laterally
I never fully appreciated the benefit of hindsight, until I watched the Maltese?psychologist?and philosopher?Edward de Bono?literally outline the process of decision-making.
It was like stepping back to a historic moment in time, watching a master artist?at work. Deliberately ignoring the digital revolution, de?Bono sketched for our group using a pen and transparencies on an overhead projector.
Renowned for inventing thinking methodologies?such as the ‘Six Thinking Hats,’ de Bono was the originator of the now common term ‘lateral thinking.’ Lateral thinking involves expanding our thinking beyond the obvious by shifting our perspective.
As he sketched a decision-making tree, I had a lateral thought about lateral thinking.
Explaining how each decision-making fork then led on to an ever-increasing set of further forks, de Bono drew the tree-like structure across the page. Which caused me to realise that it was not just a tree-like sketch. By rotating the image laterally it could literally be a picture of a tree.
Which expanded in my mind a whole new level of thinking.
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de Bono visually showed us how looking forward as the branches expanded exponentially?was the reason why complex decision-making can be overwhelming – with each choice leading to further choices to be made. He then demonstrated how the reverse also applied. Looking back, each decision collapsed into a single pathway with there only being one possible path back to the point of origin – critically involving no choices to be made.
Which is how the benefit of hindsight?arises. Our brains?convince us after the fact that the decision was clearly obvious and we would have foreseen that at the time. Whereas in reality that is very rarely the case.
Make Creative Leaps
Imagine you are standing at the base of a tree.
You know that the tree contains fruit. Not every branch has ripe valuable fruit. Peering up through the thick foliage above, you cannot see which branches are worth climbing.
Now imagine that every season the pattern?repeats. The same branches generate the most valuable fruit. So you learn?to conserve your energy and maximise your return on investment?by only climbing out on those branches.
As others join you, based on your wisdom?from seasons past?you are able to advise and guide them where best to focus their efforts. Which branches have been proven to provide the best returns.
Which is all well and good until the environment?changes. As inevitably it does.
Now wisdom about the past turns into ignorance of the future.
So as a leader, there are two habits?to develop in parallel. While continuing to invest for proven returns, it is also important to take creative leaps.
Venturing out onto unproven branches. Potentially for no return.
While potentially also bearing greater fruit.
Innovate Collaboratively
By thinking more expansively we are better able to innovate?and collaborate?with others.
Expanding the possible?solutions to difficult problems.
A word of caution though. Exploration?is different to decision. While exploring possibilities with a diverse?group can lead to more innovative outcomes, following the same process to decide which solution to proceed with can actually lead to less innovative outcomes.
Think of the shape of a bell curve?rising upwards in the middle, with the less common ideas on the edges?and the more frequent ideas in the centre. A diverse group can widen the bell, with individuals suggesting ideas others would never even think of.
However this very phenomenon then also means when it comes to agreeing on a solution, the group can only agree on the more common and predictable ideas?they are all relatively comfortable with.
Otherwise known as decision by committee.
Which is critical for democracy?but not for innovation.
Moving bold new ideas into action.
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Summary
This is a chapter from our book Futurework – A Guidebook for The Future of Work
Inspire
Inspire forward with new possibilities
As a Futurist living on the edge of the world, I’ve presented on stages and screens across the globe from San?Francisco to South Auckland to Sydney.
Shift
Gain momentum by shifting perspectives
Facilitation is a complex process. In a complex world it’s only getting more complex. Fortunately it’s the complexity of facilitating that inspires the way we work.
Upskill
Upskill to transform the future
Adaptive. Digital. Collaborative. Diverse. Inclusive. If you look at the critical shifts happening within modern workplaces, they’re designed to enable organisations to become more responsive.