There are different ways of looking at the same idea. This can be the difference between the beginner’s mind vs the expert’s mind or being curious vs being closed to new ways of doing things.
We all know what it’s like to talk to or work with someone who believes they know everything.
In this situation, it can be hard to come up with new ideas and it’s hard to create change. It can be easy to feel like things can’t move forward.
In today’s world, we just can’t work like that. We all need to be open to the possibility of not knowing, and being open to new things, as that is where new and innovative solutions are discovered.
No matter how much of an expert you are, you will need to embrace doubt and be curious, and allow others to voice their opinions. And if we all did this, we would have access to a world of possibilities.
In the recent City & Guilds Skills Index Report 2021, it was found that 30% (equivalent to 11 million people) have not received formal workplace training in the last five years and, highlighting the pandemic’s impact on training budgets, nearly two-thirds (64%) have not received any training in the past year. This only goes to highlight that many employees are working in their silos and not exploring the possibility of other avenues or acquiring new skills for a better outcome.
As the late Shunryu Suzuki wrote in 1970, “If your mind is empty…it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.”
Did you know that some of the world’s most famous artists and creators have purposefully created situations where they are seeing things for the first time?
David Bowie, for example, recognized a long time ago that for anything truly new or creative to come about, there had to be a period of letting go and unlearning. He literally made a career out of feeling lost. He loved to unlearn what he knew before, and this fuelled his many reinventions.
To deliberately put yourself into states of not knowing allows you to discover what will arise at the other end. It’s a chance to allow something new and unexpected to emerge.
The key is finding ways to chase what is new to you so that you can be more creative and find those innovative solutions.
Constrains are also a wonderful way to unleash potential and show you what is possible.
What you learn when times get tough is often what makes you so much better.
“Necessity is the mother of invention” is a very popular and widely used phrase, illustrating how constraints, the limitations that impact our ability to do something, can be sources of opportunity.
So, how can the obstacle become the way? And how can the restriction of certain conditions increase our creativity and innovation?
Experiences that excite you and force you to find a solution to a real challenge unlocks the potential in an obstacle. The key is seeing an obstacle as an opportunity and feeling truly motivated by it. To be able to see it as a stimulus for positive change, and an opportunity to explore something new.
The same is true when looking to find a solution to a challenge. Rather than looking at the resources available to you (time, money, people, ideas), and see them as limited. The trick is to find value in the opportunity, accept it, and build on it. Be resourceful. Who do you know in your network that can help? What can you trade for support? What do you have that can be repackaged to create new value?
We are also victims of our circumstances. Our cultural backgrounds, which have to do with race, nationality, language and upbringing, define what we are capable of inventing and our imagination. Our powers of creativity.
If we work with a group of people, all from the same background, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to come up with anything new when trying to solve a problem. Engrained behaviours and practices prevent us from seeing opportunity in constraints.
The key is to step out of our silos and change our perspectives to open channels in our thinking we didn’t know were there. Removing ourselves from the familiar will help us see other ways of doing things.
As detailed in the Leader cultural intelligence and organizational performance report, ‘Cultural intelligence (CQ) is a soft skill required of the leaders of organizations working in cross-cultural contexts to be able to communicate effectively. For organizations that operate in a multicultural environment, the higher the level of leader CQ, the higher the performance of that organization.’
It’s easy to avoid being pushed out of our comfort zones, and resist change, but by being pushed in new ways people learn to strengthen their ability to deal with failure.
The more people encounter setbacks the better they get at encountering them. Not only do they provide the catalyst for change at that moment, but they also strengthen people’s ability to deal with things going wrong down the road.
It’s about cultivating agency for people. Helping them unleash their purpose and helping them realise what makes them amazing. And you need to step out of your comfort zone to do that.
Experiences where you are pushed to find solutions to real challenges force people to see just what they are capable of. Proves to them that you don’t need to be someone else, and you can be that person in that role to make a difference.
What if everyone recognized their own potential? We would be in a different world if we all had the opportunity to act upon it.
The key is to help people discover what makes them incredible. Get them to amplify it. And then help them believe they can be that person in that role to make a difference.
So, remember, the opportunity to be more creative and find those innovative solutions starts with you – it’s everyone’s business to turn constraints into advantages.
We all face scarcity in our personal and professional lives. But the ability to turn constraints into opportunities will increasingly be important for creative and innovative success. Our future depends on everyone being able to unlock their creative potential. The result – finding those life-changing innovations the world needs.
Philippa White, Founder and CEO of The International Exchange (TIE)
Philippa is the Founder and CEO of The International Exchange (TIE). She is driven by the belief that when professionals fully engage with their humanity, ingenuity and purpose, good things start to happen. TIE is a CPD accredited leadership development programme that creates conscious leaders who are shaping the future of their industries and companies.
Through the simple means of disrupting comfort zones, TIE exposes people to global challenges, and creates the space for them to find their distinctive power to make meaningful change. Philippa believes that to profoundly change the world, we need people to connect with their potential. In her mind, where we were is very different to where we are going. By helping people discover more about themselves and what their distinctive power is, her ultimate aim is to help create better people, with better companies, in a better world.
Philippa is a global citizen, having been born in South Africa, grew up in Canada, studied in Thailand, and worked in advertising in the United Kingdom. In 2005 Philippa moved to Brazil and launched TIE.
Philippa is 44 years old and still lives in Brazil with her 7 and 11-year-old daughters. They spend weekends hanging out in the Atlantic rainforest and exploring local beaches. She also loves spending time with her partner at his small shipyard as he finishes creating his new class of sailing vessel.
www.theinternationalexchange.co.uk
