How to change your mind…or someone else’s
This post was originally shared in my semi-frequent Learn Something New(sletter). To never miss info like this, join the party! 🥳
We live in a world that’s constantly changing. And that means that the pillars and building blocks that we’ve built our lives upon are shifting, too.
For someone who’s particularly stubborn (yep, that’s me!) it can be really hard to revisit previously established “truths” and decide, hey, I was wrong! (Without feeling like a total failure or that I wasted my time.)
But! If we’re going to tout the importance of being iterative, curious, and having growth mindsets... we also need to be comfortable challenging our perceived “truths.”
Join me on the journey of Think Again by Adam Grant on how we can re-think things.
Biggest whoa moment: This is unrelated to anything here BUT did you know that there’s such a thing as Forecasting Tournaments? They’re these international contests where people come and try to predict the future. Not only do they say who’ll win an election, the next world cup, which company will face lawsuits for self-driving vehicle accidents... they also have to give their odds. And then we wait and see to find out who wins. My jaw fully floor-dropped at this idea. The skill of predicting the future requires immense knowledge, lack of bias, and, the ability to comfortably learn you could be wrong. Wild. Just wild. I can barely guess who was the killer in a Law & Order episode. (Just kidding, we all know it’s the actor who’s face you kinda know but don’t know where you know them from. They did it.)
Put it into practice: Okay for real though...here are some tactics to try challenging our own (or others’) minds. Take these for a spin and see what you find out!
Ask yourself, “how do I know this?” - sometimes we are so set in something... we forget to ask how we know something. Do we know because someone told us? Because it’s “always been that way”? Is it time to go back and revisit the details? It might be time if you aren’t sure why you hold the opinion.
Ask them, “what evidence would make you change your mind?” - if you find yourself in the middle of an argument that’s devolved into simply wanting to win... ask your opponent, “what evidence would make you change your mind?” If the answer is nothing... then it might be time to stop the discussion. Or, find out if there’s evidence that supports a brain-change.
Build a challenge network - often we surround ourselves with people who pleasantly agree with us. If you really want to push yourself, find the people who won’t agree with you. And ask them to push you.
Throw out the ten-year plan - if you went back 10 years, where did you think you’d be? I’d hazard a guess... not quite where you are now. Because life ch-ch-ch-changes. You can have a general direction, but please, don’t hold yourself to it.
Celebrate being wrong - if we’re always right, then we’re not growing. Go get excited when you learn something new. Get excited when you fail. Get excited when you get rejected. Get excited when you find out that something you thought was fact is fiction. The world is fickle! Every time we’re wrong, every time we fail, every time we mess up... we’re learning, growing, and challenging ourselves. It doesn’t have to be nauseating if it’s celebrated.
Looking to be challenged? Reach out. I love helping folks re-examine what they previous thought was true about themselves.
Go deeper:
Read the book yourself: Think Again by Adam Grant
Follow him on twitter or instagram (same content, different locations)
Listen to his podcast: WorkLife