Our minds excel at creating mental structures—boxes, categories, rules, and assumptions—that help us navigate the vast sea of information. While this ability is commendable, it has a downside: the comfort of familiarity. Our attachment to beliefs and assumptions poses a challenge when the goal is to generate fresh ideas. In this blog post, we will explore how embracing doubt can help enhance your team’s creativity
Thinking Beyond Conventions: To think “outside the box,” the first step is identifying the existing mental confines. Creative thinking begins with challenging prevailing thoughts. Pose questions to yourself and your team:
- What market do we operate in?
- How do we serve our customers?
- What is our team’s significance to the organisation?
- What purpose do we fulfil?
- What assumptions underpin our answers to these questions?
Observe how responses vary, highlighting the absence of a single truth. Embrace doubt; there’s room for multiple perspectives, there is rarely one right answer. Challenge one certainty at each team meeting to increase creativity.
Softening Cognitive Biases: Doubt is a good thing, it loosens the grip of unwarranted certainty. Challenge assumptions, uncover instances that contradict them, and acknowledge diverse viewpoints. Cognitive biases are universal, but acknowledging them fosters creativity.
Unveiling Strategy Blind Spots: Doubt plays a crucial role in strategic planning. Applying doubt to assumed future scenarios allows for a more realistic outlook. Question the factors that need to be true for your strategy to unfold as anticipated. Acknowledging outliers and subtle environmental shifts prevents oversight of emerging changes. But also examine, and doubt, the assumptions you are making about the status quo, it’s often here that we have the biggest blind spots.
Exercising Doubt: Challenge assumptions by reflecting on something you and your team think is unchanging. Consider the timeframe of this assumption and extend it until proven wrong. Acknowledge the inevitability of change.
Questioning Organisational Beliefs: In organisations, collective beliefs and assumptions shape culture. An audit of team assumptions and beliefs encourages creativity. Initiate discussions with questions like:
- What do we believe is our team’s strength?
- How do we perceive our reputation among customers/stakeholders?
- What assumptions guide our understanding of customers/stakeholders’ desires?
- Where are our blind spots?
- What topics do we avoid discussing?
- What consumes excessive time in our discussions?
- What behaviours go unaddressed?
Navigating Uncertainty for Creativity: The goal isn’t to be ensnared in uncertainty but to create space for diverse perspectives. Audit your team’s beliefs, instil doubt, and watch creativity flourish.
If you need your teams to think more creatively, come up with new ideas, or challenge the status quo contact me at Sarah Robertson Consulting or book a discovery call
