There was a time in my life where I believed that if no-one could prove me wrong, I was right. Then, many moons ago this comment had a profound impact on my life – “Open yourself up to the possibility of dot dot dot”. And more recently from Ray Dalio – “If you’re truly looking at things objectively, you must recognise that the probability of you always having the best answer is small and that, even if you have it, you can’t be confident that you do before others test you”.
Everything we know is just a snapshot at that specific point in time. Think of a photo, Balance Sheet, bank account balance, sunset, the taste of a meal, a kiss – all just a snapshot in time.
And, we all see and experience things differently.
A few weeks ago, I posted about being an idea person vs. an ideas person.
I have a particular interest in how people and specifically Business Owners can more optimally use our brains and specifically our decision-making.
Having an idea is exactly that – it’s an, one idea.
A cognitive truth – (1) when we think about solutions to a challenge or an opportunity, and we have an idea, we stop thinking about other solutions, and (2) we are incapable of seeing better solutions.
The tendency of the human brain is to fixate on the first solution that comes to mind.
This is not the most optimal way to make decisions.
Last night at a social gathering the “an idea, one idea” failing was illustrated by a Business Owner.
He shared how this past week they had produced 100 items for display purposes for a potential client. When it came to assembling these items, as they assembled it, he realised how they could have done it not only differently, but also much more efficiently, faster, and more profitable.
This led to the “always-next-topic” of – how much time is needed for ideas when time is an issue?
The human tendency is to fixate on “the right answer”. Very few issues have a right answer.
What if we become as consumed with the input of ideas as we are with the output? After all, the input of ideas drives the output.
Last week The Alternative Board® had our annual conference for the Master Franchisors of 25 countries, in Lisbon.
There was a definite focus on output based on as many inputs, ideas as possible.
The way it was achieved was to break the group into smaller groups where each person would give an idea. Each group then decided collectively on their best idea and that idea was then compared to the best ideas of the other groups.
At any given time, there were at least 28 ideas to every desired output.
Your idea might be great. And you might be right. But is it the best idea to achieve the desired output/outcome?