#ThinkfullyHabit: Cast a wider web
Go to someone outside of your usual network and draw from their different experiences and knowledge to help you find new ways of looking at your challenges. It’s an effective way of revealing ideas that you haven’t considered before.
Be open-minded about where expertise may lie – it may not always be the usual suspects.
“Innovation calls on firms to add variety to the mix – to include people and ideas from ‘the edges’.”
WHY?
We tend to be narrow in our reference points; working with like-minded people and looking for inspiration in the same places. We get comfortable with the familiar. But that isn’t what inspires new breakthroughs, especially when we get stuck.
“The question is how we can challenge ourselves to work with people who are not like-minded companions. By having relations with people whom we have not worked with in the past, we can learn a different way of thinking.”
Psychologist, Adam Grant encourages people to hunt out ‘disagreeable-givers’ to interrogate your ideas and who are willing to give critical feedback, play devil’s advocate and ask the hard questions*. Building in diverse viewpoints helps you to get a far deeper understanding of your challenge, discover potential blind spots and unearth richer, more diverse ideas to consider. To see things in a new way.
“Disagreeable givers are the people who, on the surface, are rough and tough, but ultimately have others’ best interests at heart. They are the people who are willing to give you the critical feedback that you don’t want to hear – but you need to hear.”