Can you teach yourself to avoid doing the obvious?

The problem that many business people, entrepreneurs, and would-be innovators suffer from is our inability to escape from our past. Simply put, we are all shaped by our past experiences, whether good or bad. We look at the end results of these experiences—“this idea worked”; “this idea failed”— and consciously or unconsciously turn these results into the rules by which we operate in the present. We find ourselves doing the obvious.

Escape From Our Past

Sometimes these rules, or assumptions, are smart and valuable. However, the problems begin when we forget that these rules are a snapshot of an old paradigm or set of circumstances. In many cases, the world has moved on, but we are still clinging to the “obvious” ideas that were once true in the rapidly receding past. In order to progress, we need to learn to identify and ignore these “obvious” rules, ideas, or beliefs, and make room for the future where the rules are constantly being rewritten.

Power of Questions

The core to my approach to “see differently” and to break away from our past is to ask questions.  I’ve been fascinated by the power of questions, either good or bad, for my entire professional life. The more I thought about them, the more I began to notice how people used them. I started to see how some people had the innate ability to formulate and pose questions that propelled others to make investigations and discoveries of their own.

A great question causes people to think before they answer it, and one that reveals answers that previously eluded them.

Phil McKinney

Stop Doing The Obvious

To avoid doing the obvious, ask great questions.  A great question is one that causes people to really think before they answer it and one that reveals answers that had previously eluded them.