A Truly Open Mind Is More Rare Than You May Appreciate

I was enjoying a meal with colleagues recently and we were discussing perspective, trust and being free within the team to share ideas.

We all agreed that the dynamic within our group was fundamental to producing our best work because it supported pushing our personal and collective boundaries.

To quote one of my colleagues, “We all come to the table with baggage - it is the natural result of the experience gleaned throughout our careers - but that baggage creates blind spots that need to be challenged.”

I couldn’t agree more, and it got me thinking about my own baggage and ultimately if I’m really as open-minded as I believe myself to be. And it also made me reflect on the times when I was open-minded but ran into the brick wall of someone else’s closed-minded baggage.

We like to celebrate innovative disrupters once the ending of their success story is indisputable, but early in their journeys they were up against bearish opposition driven by the closed-minded baggage of individuals or entire industries as a whole.

In fact, their entire vision and opportunity was DRIVEN by REJECTING that baggage.

As my beard gets whiter, I’ve grown far more comfortable with the idea that some of the things I’ve held most certain are in fact not as absolute as I previously believed.

Hanging on to things that just aren’t so is often based in fear which is typically rooted in the pain of past experiences. Or, it may be based on past successes, which can be equally dangerous because the only constant is change.

For me, I’ve come to believe that the risks generated by my blind spots pose a far greater threat than exposing myself to the fear of letting go of what I once held so firm.

Embrace the process of being a “self-disrupter” by broadly questioning your baggage and resulting blind spots. You’ll be more open-minded as a result and primed for rewarding evolution and discoveries both personally and within your professional teams.