We’re all biased, so biased that we love to hang out with people who think like us, read stuff that we agree with and do stuff we like to do. It’s all good and well, but what we get in enjoyment we lose in perspective; because that one perspective that we hold isn’t the complete picture of life.
In the world of product design, your goal as the designer is to make the product easy to understand and use. People will get frustrated, anxious, angry and just leave it if it’s not easy to use. Similarly, organizations have to be designed to be to be easy to work with for employees, customers, partners and providers. Of course, most aren’t.
You walk into a new situation, a new job, a new team, a new everything; how do you approach it? With an open mind or a closed one? Most everyone who gets hired for a job is rewared because they have experience in doing that job; not because they don’t.
Professor X, from the X-Men is not considered the most powerful mutant. But to me, he is because he has the most powerful superpower of all: the ability to read people’s minds. While we can’t read people’s minds like Professor X can, we can get into their heads with something we’re all born with.
All organizations need to generate ideas to drive their business forward. They generate ideas in a brainstorm. Brainstorming, when done well can catalyze dormant ideas. But it can result in wasted time and resources when done wrong. How can you execute a better brainstorming session and make sure it doesn’t result in wasted time and resources?
“Be yourself”, is universal advice. You hear it in movies, songs, video games, and day to day life. Parents, friends, coaches, teachers, girl and boyfriends, co-workers; they’ve all told us. Heck, we’ve said it too to other people, “Just be yourself”.
In my eyes, the biggest mistake inexperienced leaders make is acting as if they know everything already. I’ve seen this, and have experienced people in my organization acting this way, and it’s not fun for them and everyone else.
