Being open-minded is a quality for both individuals and companies, positive results translate into financial growth.
Mental breadth is a quality shared by self-confident people and directly influences the company, since it opens up a world of possibilities to evolve. This translates into the opportunity to grow as a person and as a professional, and, at the same time, it is the passport for continuous learning.
Being open-minded implies, among other aspects:
- That you can understand others from their personal positions, even if they are not the same as yours.
- That you learn to live in a world full of differences.
- That you expand your consciousness beyond what you ever imagined, and you don’t need any external stimulus to provoke it.
- That you respect and assume that being different from you is simply that: choices different from yours.
- That there is no single view of things, the world, work, problems and their solutions: there are multiple alternatives to explore.
If your company is broad-minded , it reflects that:
- You will lead with team awareness.
- You will develop skills beyond the classic ones.
- You will allow coexistence and cooperation with different generations where everyone will learn from each other.
- You will project this vision of breadth in and out in every decision that is made.
- You will innovate in such a way that the process will be unstoppable: it is one of the tools of Emotional Innovation .
Now, mental breadth cannot be forced. People don’t change under pressure. They only do it if they want to. And that conditional is determinant of adherence or not, to the transformation processes. It can be stimulated, but not forced.
“Leaders must be more humble and perceptive of the ideas of their teams”
Tradition versus innovation
Today’s society encourages in many cases a certain cultural homogenization, a process by which a certain type of culture tries to dominate or invade another. If this occurs, over time cultural traits typical of that original will be diluted, and it will merge with something more global, homogeneous. In itself, when individuals have the option to choose what they want to do (the principle of free will), there is nothing wrong with this. The problem is when someone else imposes it, even knowing that the person does not want it that way.
What does this have to do with being broad-minded ? It is directly related, since the broad-minded person supports their values, beliefs and determinations while being able to understand those who see things in a different or totally opposite way.
By incorporating an expanded vision of the world, situations, problems, scope and framing of the most diverse issues, the broad-minded individual unfolds more assertively. He stops being on the warpath wanting everyone to think like him or adhere to his postulates, and simply flows with what he feels, empathically living with others . When the moment requires it, he marks position and is determined in his postures. He is firm in his convictions.
In the same way, the person who has this quality learns to let go of control, and incorporates other thoughts and ideas from others; he makes them confluence (flow with the other) and evaluates his own paradigms by incorporating different points of view
The 5 secrets to having an open mind
One of the most recurring problems in today’s culture is the one that arises from wanting to innovate by doing something new “barely”; It’s like wanting to dive into the sea and just stick your big toe in to feel the temperature of the water.
Innovation is total, or it is not. At most it can be a change. This is why open-mindedness is essential in today’s and tomorrow’s work, and in new business cultures.
Organizations that do not transform by making old paradigms more flexible are destined to disappear. The same happens with collaborators; in fact, in the companies I work with there are always a handful of people so tied to their beliefs from the past, their history in that organization, their work rituals from decades ago, that they are not encouraged or contribute to driving growth.
1. Encourage critical thinking
It consists of the ability established in the culture of the project that facilitates analyzing, arguing, applying logic and reasoning to solve problems and make decisions. It is just the opposite of defining things mechanically, the famous “here it was always done that way”. Critical thinking leads people and teams to reflect beyond pure theory.
2. Have a culture of what is different
As in everything, resistance to change usually appears, since to create cultures that integrate the disruptive it is necessary to make paradigms more flexible, understood as those deep-rooted beliefs that make you insist on the same paths, even if you do not already obtain the results you would like. I knew decades ago. Don’t get carried away by limiting link tags.
3. Know how to integrate the diverse
Mark a feature of great influence in the determination of new cultures. There is so much diversity of tribes living together and generating pulses that make transformations, that we need to learn to live together, respect and integrate. One way to do this is to take some common elements, build bridges between them, empower them, blend them, and create value.
4. In some cases, allow(s) the error
People punish themselves for their mistakes when trying to develop their actions and projects in which they have applied their greatest good intentions. The same thing happens in companies: many punish and penalize when, in the process of evolution and innovation, a collaborator makes a mistake or fails. In disciplines such as science or sport, error is valued as part of success.
5. Connect the dots of your work
“Connecting the dots” means that there will be many personal and company experiences that will not make immediate sense. Not everything has an explanation: you have to accept it. “You cannot join the different points looking forward; they can only join looking backwards.” So they have to trust that somehow the dots will connect and that it will serve the organization.
Source: The Chronicler