Yes, you read that right – the thinks you can think. It comes from Dr Seuss and it accurately articulates some things I’ve been thinking about recently. And in particular, the impact our thinking has on our business. I recently met with a client who has, in his mind, developed a cute little calculator that will help create and convert leads for his business. I was brought into conversations when a colleague saw opportunities beyond the original purpose. This ‘little’ calculator literally has the potential to change at least two industries. No kidding. The problem is, the guy who developed it couldn’t see it. He couldn’t see the possibilities. He just saw the lead generator. I’m working with him to show him the potential, but I’m consistently bumping into what I call his ‘reality-wall’. His thinking is bound by the reality walls of his experiences and paradigms. And they’re made of solid brick. From where he’s standing, he can’t see through, over or around them. Now I’m confident that my colleague and I will be able to show him the opportunities that he’s created for himself, but it really demonstrated for me the challenges most business owners face: We don’t know what we don’t know, and we often can’t see what we’re not expecting to see. In this situation the business owner in question can’t see the possibilities literally at his finger-tips.There are a few antidotes to this ‘paradigm-trap’.
- Read stories about successful people totally outside your industry. Their realities will be different to yours, and their stories will widen your ‘choices’ of paradigms. My favourites are the BRW ‘Top’ lists and the Financial Review magazines.
- Similarly, connect and mingle with people outside your industry. You may not have a lot in common, and in terms of expanding your possibility thinking. That’s a good thing :-)
- Engage in robust, potent, stimulating conversations about your business ideas, projects and ‘wild notions’ with a variety of people. Their different ‘realities’ will help you see things in a different light.
- Allow time to think ‘random’ thoughts – and capture them. I’ve just discovered Evernote which allows me to capture everything from great webpages and articles I come across to half-formed thoughts and ideas. Collecting such things in the one place allows me to generate random connections that would have otherwise eluded me. The point here isn’t about the ‘technology’, it’s about the ‘allowing the possibilities’ and facilitating the possibility thinking.
- Think wild, think weird and think ‘possibilities’ instead of ‘how’ and and ‘why not’.
As Dr Seuss says …
You can think up some birds. That’s what you can do. You can think about yellow Or think about blue. You can think about red. You can think about pink. You can think up a horse. Oh, the THINKS you can think!!
What do you THINK? What things do you think that hold you back? And when have you shifted your paradigm by thinking a different THINK?
