I was chatting yesterday to a colleague who is a different thinker. By different I mean he is in the minority at work. He is creative, he connects people, he innovates, he experiments, he tries different things. He succeeds, but he does this often in spite of the structure around him, not because of it. He displays a lot of the traits from top right in this. I'm sure he does the others too but top right is his USP. That's the thing that makes him stand out from the crowd. Unfortunately standing out from the crowd can take it's toll, especially if the structure around you doesn't nourish, support and value your USP. It can feel like you're wading through treacle, that no one 'gets' you and that work life can be a constant battle to get your ideas heard. We chatted about this for a little while, sharing frustrations, because I tend to operate in the same space. Sometimes this is called Cognitive Diversity. We can think about how we present our ideas to try and get more buy in, but unfortunately people can be within hierarchies that squash their creativity and don't allow it to do what it does best. Innovation, improvement, efficiency all come from people with ideas. Whether that idea is for a new system, new process or new technology. There are some people who will get the job done, who's key strengths are not in improvement but lie elsewhere. We need them too. But how do we make sure that the different thinkers are heard, the ones who may be seen and described as disrupters, who may say the same point over and over again in meetings to try and get it to land and who feel like they aren't part of the gang. Life can be lonely in this space because you feel like you don't fit within the organisational norm. You can therefore feel like you're not valued for the talents, skills and diversity that you bring. We talked some more about what we could do about it and how he could feel like the organisation valued him, had its arm around him and gave him the space and support to do what he does best. One of the ideas was to fuel the debate so I found an excellent article by Deloitte on Diversity of Thought which covers the problem and the value different thinkers can bring. Have a read. Some of us see a lightbulb, some of us see a fishbowl. Take Care, don't be afraid to think differently
Paul
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AuthorMr Paul Wyse Archives
January 2021
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