Are You Open to New Ideas?

LEADERSHIP PRACTICE

As Ralph Simone writes in his last post, we are sometimes too focused causing ourselves to be closed to new ideas.

An important aspect of collaboration is remaining open to new ideas, even if they seem to disagree with what you know to be possible or true.

It is essential for you to recognize that your perspective and way of doing things is simply “a” way, but not always “the way.”

The next time you’re struggling to solve a problem, try these helpful tips and be open to new or different ideas:

1. Seek out someone who disagrees with you. Embrace your opposites and respect their perspective to help you shed new light on your own.
2. Ask yourself, how could you make this worse? Sometimes by focusing on an alternative approach, the one we are looking for becomes more clear.
3. Don’t just think outside-of-the-box, be outside of it. Surround yourself with others who have different and complementary strengths and involve them in your work.