Get Out of Your Bubble!

The world is complex, interconnected and interdependent. That’s the reality. Nothing stands alone by itself. No oceans or walls can keep anyone, country, company or individual, isolated and disconnected from the rest anymore.

John Muir, one of the greatest environmentalists and naturalists in history, said once “when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe”. He was right 100 years ago when he said that, and he is even righter today!

This interconnectedness of everything with everything else makes things great because we can literally tap on a limitless global talent pool to solve complex problems or explore great opportunities. All that is possible because of how connected things are today (outside of our bubble!). But at the same time that interconnectedness puts enormous pressure on those who feel safe within the comfort of their bubbles.

Those bubbles, whether it comes to work or anything specific in life, have an incredible negative effect in their capacity to understand the world, transform their mindsets and agilely adapt to the changing circumstances. It is bad for them and for those who depend on them (if they hold some kind of leadership position).

Every bit of new knowledge or information created in one field may have dramatic implications in another. Knowledge and information cross expertise boundaries today like never in the past. Staying within any given bubble, no matter which one it is, can be the most negative thing anyone can do for their personal and professional progress.

Albert Einstein said “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” That translates into: get the hell out of your bubble to be able to see other possible solutions beyond what you know and your paradigms, assumptions, preconceptions and limitations.

If you think about it, it is common to see our political, social and economic structures in gridlock because of the blatant inability of those leading the conversation to see beyond their bubbles. They feel safe and unthreatened within those bubbles, thus paralyzing when confronted with the idea of interconnectedness. When they stay in their bubbles they try to push solutions to common problems closer to the place where they feel comfortable. And in that space they really can’t get too creative.

Unfortunately, many people remain convinced that only by getting better in their vertical silo (bubble) will they be able to thrive in this new interconnected reality of work and life. And that’s a costly mistake.

You must GET OUT of your bubble. And these are some ideas on how to do that:

1. Mix with your non-type: get together with people in knowledge fields different than yours. Learn from them. Ask them questions. Begin by wondering about their pain points, latest discoveries and things they are working on. When you get somewhat immersed in their areas of expertise you will be able to start connecting the dots between their world and yours. And that’s going to create an immense amount of value!
2. See the invisible threads: nobody can see the invisible, right? … not true! You can. The invisible threads are the links that connect seemingly disconnected fields. What the heck does one thing have to do with another? Find the answer. If you do, you may be on the verge of discovering or inventing something new, or simply finding a new way to do something old. You will add much more value by seeing the invisible than by seeing what everybody else sees. Nobody wants answers they can find in Google. They want questions and answers that nobody has asked or responded before. To do that, you must get creative and use your imagination. And that’s only possible outside of your bubble.
3. Become radically open-mind: forget about dogmas and orthodoxy. Getting out of your bubble means seeing, hearing, touching, feeling, sensing, breathing and embracing the world as it is, not as your dogmas tell you it should be. When you liberate yourself from the tyranny of your narrow paradigms you’ll be able to see things that most people can’t see. That’s becoming radically open-minded.
4. Leave the waste and dead-weight behind: you can’t really speed up your progress by keeping one foot on the gas and another on the breaks. People carry so much useless and wasteful baggage with them. And it is not that they can’t move fast, it is that they are carrying so much of that waste that part of their energy is consumed on bringing it with them instead of creating a momentum of change and learning. To get out of the bubble you will need to understand what things do not add value to you anymore… and leave them in the bubble. I know that people get emotionally attached to things, skills, practices, thinking processes, paradigms… but that may be preventing you from doing the right thing for your future. Those things may have worked well in the past, but the new you, the outside of the bubble you, needs to embrace the new and leave the old behind. It’s hard… but worth it. 

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About the Enrique Rubio:

Enrique is a speaker, futurist, HR and Tech expert, and founder of the global learning community Hacking HR. Enrique came to the United States from Venezuela as a Fulbright Scholar. Prior to coming to the US, Enrique was the CEO at Management Consultants, a firmed specialized in Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility in Venezuela. Before Management Consultants, Enrique worked in the telecommunications sector as a Senior Project Engineer for Telefonica. His last job post was as an advisor of the CHRO at the Inter-American Development Bank. Enrique is also the cofounder of Cotopaxi, an technology-based recruitment platform focused on Latin America and the Caribbean. Enrique is a guest author in several blogs about innovation, management and human resources. He has over twenty years of experience. Enrique holds an Electronic Engineering from Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela and an Executive Master’s in Public Administration from Maxwell School in Syracuse, New York. Enrique also holds a Design Thinking certification from Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, he is certified Scrum Master and PMP.