mguhlin

New Ideas Stall. Be Eccentric Anyways

“Do not feel absolutely certain of anything,” says Bertrand Russell. As I’ve gotten older, the red hot passion of youth with which I rushed forward in righteousness has ebbed. Instead, I walk ahead with quiet trepidation, try to give the current of my thoughts slow release. How many times did I rush ahead of angels to say or do something, only to realize I was wrong? While rushing ahead, quick decisive action is the RIGHT thing to do, I am less certain when my anger flares, when condemnation rushes to my lips.

How many times have I said to myself, “Don’t be so sure of that. Pause your passionate response, and ask a few questions first.” It is hard-won advice that has served me well, if not infrequently. When I read Russell’s perspective, I realized I was not the first to have this life lesson taught me. But there are other lessons to learn, and I was glad for the opportunity Tom Barrett provided in The Dialogic Learning Weekly .

Struggles Teams Face

Isn’t that fascinating? Tom Barrett, in his email newsletter, shares results of a study that resonated with my experiences over the years:

The Australian software company Atlassian recently published results of a study into the health of teams with evidence from 1,500 team members outside of Atlassian in the US and Australia. They found that 88% of participants are operating in an ‘unhealthy’ environment.

56 percent feel their team is poorly connected on a personal level, and 37 percent feel like they can’t try new things or express themselves fully.

Tom narrows in and asks, “Why can’t 37% of participants express themselves fully?” He offers a few reasons, such as “Perceived lack of impact or influence” and “fear of not looking like a team player.” In my past experience, it’s usually due to the fact that the manager/leader/admin has already decided what the course of action will be. They are only going through (painfully obvious) motions of soliciting team feedback, then “guiding” everyone to where things were going anyways. 

In those cases, you’re offended, not by the manipulation, but the lack of honesty. Just say, “This is what we’re going to do, but I’m not sure what you have to contribute. You have to do something, so let’s work together to figure out how your strengths align to this new initiative.”

Tom makes a really important point, and I have seen this as well and experienced it:

A team member shares something new, and others require an immediate response in the group. Someone questions it confidently (because decades of experience tell them it’s not worth exploring), and the others on the team nod (because they’re too afraid to be the first one out). The new idea is squashed. Read more on Tom’s perspective

While not every new idea works, I’ve seen ideas get “squashed” then resurface years later to wild success. Then, when others notice, they say, “Well, conditions weren’t right then.” But the truth is, some team members didn’t want to do the work that came with a new initiative. Others didn’t want to do something that flew in the face of established practice. 

Bertrand Russell’s Top Ten

This focus on the struggles we all face in putting new ideas out there tied into something I read a few days ago at Open Culture, Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments for Living in a Healthy Democracy.
One of the points Russell makes is:
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
Of course, I truly enjoyed the rest of his commandments, and thought these below particularly relevant for situations where new ideas are met with “idea squashing:”
  • Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
  • Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.
I have to admit that I love those two items. When you think of #FReadom, book banning/burning desires of Texas and other Republican states who are mobilizing parents to restrict thinking and behavior, they are quite apropos. Russell says, and I’m going to paraphrase a little, the following and it’s quite insightful:

Unbiased discussion is a useful thing. People should be free to question anything if they can support their questioning with solid arguments. 

The opposite view? The truth is already known and questioning it is subversive. (Read the original version at Open Culture).

We are brainwashed from birth, fed false histories, and for what? So a few may prosper.
A few more to ponder:
  • Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement.
  • Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
  • Be scrupulously truthful, even when truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
 It may seem we’ve moved far afield from Tom’s points, but this is the time to question everything, advocate for new ideas. COVID-19 slew so many before their time while civil leaders fumbled life-saving efforts, focused on politicizing masks, and coming up with silly slanderous nicknames for their opponents. 
Time to struggle for justice, push back. Push those new ideas. Who knows, they may make the difference.

Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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