Strategic thinking is a process revered and employed by many, but how open are we really? In the confines of boardrooms and brainstorming sessions, there’s a hidden barrier—our own biases and preconceptions, often led by those in charge.
“No bad ideas.” Easy to say, harder to uphold. How many groundbreaking ideas were dismissed too early? History whispers the tales – Blockbuster laughed off digital streaming; Kodak shelved digital photography. Giants in their time were reduced to footnotes, victims of closed minds.
The irony? Innovation thrives on the absurd, the unlikely, and the ‘bad’ ideas. It’s from these seeds that novel solutions grow. Shouldn’t we embrace all contributions and sift through the trash with open minds to find the golden grains?
Enter design thinking. A principle that champions open-mindedness, encourages diverse ideas, and values iterative processes. It’s about exploring all avenues, no matter how unconventional. After all, wasn’t it George Bernard Shaw who said, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man”?
So, question your approach. In your next brainstorming session, invite the wild, the wacky, the seemingly irrelevant. Embrace each idea as a stepping stone to innovation. Remember, today’s absurdity can be tomorrow’s game-changer.
Are you ready to challenge the status quo and listen to all ideas? The floor is yours, and the ideas are waiting. What will you do with them?
