In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.
(Shunryu Suzuki)
(Shunryu Suzuki)
The story goes that Steve Jobs was a proponent and practitioner of the Zen principle known as shoshin or “beginner’s mind”. This involves asking fundamentally naïve questions, often involving “why”. It is based on the idea that the mind of the beginner is empty and free of the habits and preconceptions of the expert. Such a mind is open to all possibilities and can see things through fresh eyes, or in new ways.
Children up to the age of about four ask lots of “why” questions as they attempt to make sense of the world. But studies have shown that after four, coincidentally as they start school, children’s volume of questions dramatically drops off. Maybe this is because they have categorised and made sense of a lot of what they have already come across, or maybe it is because they are learning there are right and wrong answers and facts, rather than possibilities and questions.
Looking through someone else’s eyes
I often find people and groups who are struggling with intransigent or “impossible” organisational problems are suddenly transformed into creative problem solvers when they are asked to step out of their own role and pretend to be someone else. They are suddenly able to see new possibilities and solve “wicked” problems when they let go of who they are and step into someone else’s shoes and see the world through new eyes. They have been given permission to stop being an expert in what they “know” and to be a beginner in someone else’s mind – to see the old challenge through new eyes.
This explains a lot of the magic of frameworks like Design Thinking and Blue Ocean Strategy that support this kind of innovative thinking in systematic ways through tools and processes that encourage seeing the world from different angles to support more innovative strategy, change and problem solving.
Unfortunately, despite organisations espousing innovation in theory, human nature and organisational dynamics produce behaviour that stifles creativity and promotes fixed mindsets. People recruit and promote others like themselves, they look for “experts” with set qualifications in particular disciplines who come from the same industry and bring the same sorts of expertise and mindsets, and they look for people who will “fit in” and conform.
Diversity of background, experience and capability and a beginner’s mindset would more effectively support the kinds of innovative problem solving that complex systems problems require, but systems and people usually do not tolerate or reward such diversity.
Processes that shift mindsets
This is why introducing simple processes which break these patterns can be a way to shift mindsets. Such processes together with activities like deliberately going outside the organisation and talking to customers and strangers, connecting employees who don’t know each other across silos, or exploring how different industries and disciplines have tackled a similar challenge can reawaken some of that four-year-old You.
Opportunities that reintroduce some of those beginner’s questions can unstick intractable problems and make the “impossible” possible.
Susan Kehoe
Consultant | Coach | Change Leader
Work with Susan
Susan specialises in strategy development through to implementation and performance improvement; people, leadership and culture change; and transformation and innovation. She brings practical experience and thought leadership gained from many years of leading successful performance improvement and change in some of Australia’s leading businesses and government.
Children up to the age of about four ask lots of “why” questions as they attempt to make sense of the world. But studies have shown that after four, coincidentally as they start school, children’s volume of questions dramatically drops off. Maybe this is because they have categorised and made sense of a lot of what they have already come across, or maybe it is because they are learning there are right and wrong answers and facts, rather than possibilities and questions.
Looking through someone else’s eyes
I often find people and groups who are struggling with intransigent or “impossible” organisational problems are suddenly transformed into creative problem solvers when they are asked to step out of their own role and pretend to be someone else. They are suddenly able to see new possibilities and solve “wicked” problems when they let go of who they are and step into someone else’s shoes and see the world through new eyes. They have been given permission to stop being an expert in what they “know” and to be a beginner in someone else’s mind – to see the old challenge through new eyes.
This explains a lot of the magic of frameworks like Design Thinking and Blue Ocean Strategy that support this kind of innovative thinking in systematic ways through tools and processes that encourage seeing the world from different angles to support more innovative strategy, change and problem solving.
Unfortunately, despite organisations espousing innovation in theory, human nature and organisational dynamics produce behaviour that stifles creativity and promotes fixed mindsets. People recruit and promote others like themselves, they look for “experts” with set qualifications in particular disciplines who come from the same industry and bring the same sorts of expertise and mindsets, and they look for people who will “fit in” and conform.
Diversity of background, experience and capability and a beginner’s mindset would more effectively support the kinds of innovative problem solving that complex systems problems require, but systems and people usually do not tolerate or reward such diversity.
Processes that shift mindsets
This is why introducing simple processes which break these patterns can be a way to shift mindsets. Such processes together with activities like deliberately going outside the organisation and talking to customers and strangers, connecting employees who don’t know each other across silos, or exploring how different industries and disciplines have tackled a similar challenge can reawaken some of that four-year-old You.
Opportunities that reintroduce some of those beginner’s questions can unstick intractable problems and make the “impossible” possible.
Susan Kehoe
Consultant | Coach | Change Leader
Work with Susan
Susan specialises in strategy development through to implementation and performance improvement; people, leadership and culture change; and transformation and innovation. She brings practical experience and thought leadership gained from many years of leading successful performance improvement and change in some of Australia’s leading businesses and government.