Just finished reading by Hank Barnes on Gartner’s blog where he talks about his pet peeves with the B2B world and I quote
My biggest pet peeve is that the B2B world has DEVOLVED to a world where three things don’t seem to be valued anymore
– Hank Barnes (On the Gartner blog)
The three things that he mentions are “Intellectual Curiosity, Critical Thinking and Perspective taking”.
While he talks from the perspective of Businesses dealing with other Businesses, I reckon, these are true for each and everyone of us and in every sphere of life – both personal and professional. While these may not necessarily be the most important areas, they are all important.
I have written about my thinking on curiosity (here and here), interviewed people about the importance of thinking (here) and the importance of having or developing a perspective (here).
So, what more do I have to say on these topics, a lot!
In my last book (Thrive), I talk about Being Curious as one of the meta skills that, we as individuals need to develop in order to Thrive in a world where machines and algorithms dominate.
Curiosity has the potential to make some strange connections between disparate things. These connections when explored have the potential to result in breakthrough ideas.
Critical thinking is the skill that can convert the potential breakthrough ideas or strange connections and realise the power coming from it. Curiosity is all about thinking in “What if”, while critical thinking is all about thinking “How best”.
One without the other is wasted.
The ability to develop perspective is a skill that enables us to multiply the impact of the combination of curiosity and critical thinking. This helps in making the breakthrough’s accessible to the people for whom they are relevant. The ability to develop perspective builds our capability to scale.
Like anything else in life, all these skills don’t come naturally to all of us. We might have a natural inclination to one of them. We might be inclined to either being curious or being critical or perspectival. So, we have two options if we really want to scale our impact. We can use deliberate practice to get better at the skills that are not natural to us or we surround ourselves with people who have the strengths that we lack.
My approach has been to do both – continuously hone all the three skills (curiosity, critical thinking and perspective taking) and surround myself with people who are really good at perspective taking, which doesn’t come naturally to me.
What about you? What are you naturally good at? What do you need to deliberately practice and whom do you need around you to add to your natural strengths.
