Why do we laugh at people using smartphones that are ten years old, and yet cling to opinions we formed ten years ago?
Why do we refresh our wardrobes every year, renovate our apartments every decade, but rarely change our opinions?
Why do we listen to views that make us feel good instead of ideas that make us think hard?
When it comes to our possessions, we happily update.
When it comes to our knowledge, though, we dig in and stick to our guns.
We prefer to be surrounded by yes-men—people who agree with everything we say—when we should be gravitating toward those who challenge our thought process.
These are some of the musings by Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist, about the value of rethinking.
Once you’ve read absolutely every single word of Jonah Berger’s book ‘Catalyst: How To Change Anyone's Mind’ and you understand how to reduce the barriers to change, there is only one other book about making change happen I usually recommend.
And that is ’Think Again: The Power Of Knowing What You Don’t Know’ by Adam Grant.
Yes, if your dream is to be truly remarkable and lead teams, it's required reading.
"With advances in access to information and technology, knowledge isn’t just increasing. It’s increasing at an increasing rate. In 2011, you consumed about five times as much information per day as you would have just a quarter century earlier...The accelerating pace of change means that we need to question our beliefs more readily than ever before...Most of us take pride in our knowledge and expertise, and in staying true to our beliefs and opinions. That makes sense in a stable world, where we get rewarded for having conviction in our ideas. The problem is that we live in a rapidly changing world, where we need to spend as much time rethinking as we do thinking. Rethinking is a skill set, but it’s also a mindset. ” - Adam Grant
We’re all wrong more often than we’d like to admit, and the more we deny it, the deeper the hole we dig for ourselves.
The way out starts with curiosity.
Curiosity is a basic human trait, the engine that drives both artistic and scientific discoveries.
It’s something we are all born with, but somewhere along the way, we lose it.
Sadly, as we reach school age, answers become more important than curious thoughts.
Here’s a commercial I really love.
Every once in a while I look it up again.
It’s a reminder that we can just all get along in the world everyone else is living in.
And we’ll be just fine.
Or, we can run with those who have decided to make a ruckus, explore uncharted territory; with those who believe the status quo isn’t good enough and want more.
"If you are, you breathe. If you breathe, you talk. If you talk, you ask. If you ask, you think. If you think, you search. If you search, you experience. If you experience, you learn. If you learn, you grow. If you grow, you wish. If you wish, you find. And if you find, you doubt. If you doubt, you question. If you question, you understand. If you understand, you know. If you know, you want to know more. And if you want to know more, you are alive."
The future belongs to the curious.
The ones who aren't afraid to try it.
Explore it.
Poke at it.
Question it.
There are endless opportunities to improve each day and finding them largely boils down to being curious.
That search leads us to new discoveries, which in turn maintain our humility by reinforcing how much we still have to learn.
Oh, and by the way, the Dunning-Kruger effect is real, very real. (Check this rant)
"I used to walk into a meeting room to tell clients what I know and now I come to share what I know with the hope of hearing what they know because I want to learn too. Actually, I show up in the meeting with the desire to learn. I think I am becoming a better teacher because I am becoming a better student. I don’t consider myself an expert in communication, branding, marketing or whatever you want to label it. I’m a student of communication, branding and marketing. I don’t think I know everything. In fact, I know a tiny little fraction. And that keeps me curious.”
Isn’t it sad how we talk about a learning culture and yet we demand more performance based metrics every day for so-called accountability?
It's our obsession with metrics that has destroyed many effective organizations.
In a performance culture, we ask: "Will this be on the test?", "Will I get a bonus?” or "Can I put this on my CV?"
In a learning culture, we're heading in a different direction with questions like: "How does that work?”, " Why?”, "What are we missing?”, " Will this teach me something new? and “What if…?"
Curiosity is a key part of what it means to be human.
People who are better in the end are usually curious in the beginning.
I’m pretty confident that in life, curiosity is an increasingly important habit.
Of course, I might be wrong.
I’m very curious to know.
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