The other day BrainBasedBusiness author Ellen Weber
brought up a great topic in her post “Is
Knowledge Power at Your Workplace”. “I am often surprised”, she said, “at
how facts are used merely to support old ideas we held”.

No wonder most
organizations have difficulty innovating! 

Innovation
requires learning. Learning requires you
to suspend your natural predisposition to judge. It demands that you consider all the angles
before you take a position (which, by the way, may change as you continue to
explore). 

We can debate the
reasons why, but people tend to collect the facts that support their views.  We filter.  Often, we’re not even aware that we’re doing it.

How do you
stop doing something that you might not even realize you do in the first place?

Here are some ideas:

1. Assume you are guilty of filtering!
2. Surround yourself with people that have diverse perspectives.
3. Encourage them to share their views and LISTEN to them. Don’t just adopt their opinions, but honestly consider them!
4. Explore companies and industries outside of your own. What do they do that you could do? What would you need to change?
5. Suspend your disbelief. Approach a new idea by first discussing how it could succeed. Try to make it work. Run with “crazy” ideas a bit and see where they take you.
6. Develop your ability to empathize (sound familiar?)
7. Promote healthy debate – encourage conflict!
8. Reflect – take it all in and determine where you stand, why that’s your position, and what you’re going to do about it.

This is the
perfect lead in to the next Concept
Age sense, Symphony. Symphony is
about bringing it all together.

We’ll talk more
tomorrow!

Technorati tags: Business, Perspective, Diversity, Empathy