Do I value the interactive process?
A wonderful
synergy often occurs as
the result of shared thinking. It can take you places you’ve never been.
Publisher Malcolm Forbes asserted, “Listening
to advice often
accomplishes far more than heeding it.” I must say, I didn’t always value
shared thinking.
For many years, I tended to withdraw when I wanted to
develop ideas. Only reluctantly did I work on ideas with others. When a
colleague
challenged me on this, I started to analyze my hesitancy. I
realized that it went back to my college experience. Some days in the
classroom I could tell that a teacher was unprepared to lecture and instead
spent the class time asking us to give our uninformed opinions on a subject.
Most of the time, the opinions seemed no better than mine. I had come to
class so that the professor could teach me. I
realized that the process of
sharing ideas wasn’t the problem; it was
who
was doing the talking. Shared
thinking is only as good as the people doing the sharing. Since learning that
lesson, I have embraced the interactive process, and now I believe it is one
of my strengths. Still, I always think about whom I bring around the table
for a shared thinking session. (I’ll tell you my guidelines for whom I invite
later in this chapter.)
You must open yourself up to the
idea
of sharing ideas before you will engage
in the
process
of shared thinking.
