Innovating With a Beginner’s Mindset (1)
Innovation can be a challenge, but an ancient Buddhist way of thinking can get those creative juices flowing again.
In fiercely competitive markets, it can seem hard to come up with anything new. Yet a change in mindset may be all it takes to generate game-changing innovations.
Take cell phones: A generation ago, they were mostly viewed as expensive niche gadgets that could never replace landlines. Then something remarkable happened. One of the large telecom companies had a crazy idea: What if it were to price wireless based on high unit volume and much lower unit costs? The idea worked. Demand skyrocketed virtually overnight. Actual unit costs plummeted. Competitors rushed to join the fray. The rest is history.
Such game-changing ideas don’t have to be random, unexpected, or the result of luck. Rather, they can be cultivated through an approach called a “beginner’s mindset.” And of all the people in a company who might want to practice it, C-suite leaders are the most critical, because they’re usually the ones with the authority to take an organisation in new directions.
The Need for Unorthodox Ideas
A beginner’s mindset is one that periodically questions and reassesses deeply held theories, archetypes, and conventions to devise new solutions – either because reality has changed or because the current approach is based on flawed thinking. As the pace of technological and social change accelerates, a wildly unconventional idea – plus the conviction to pursue it and the guts to implement it – can be the difference between survival and obsolescence.
The beginner’s mindset, however, requires a way of thinking that is often foreign to many experienced executives. That’s because it takes as its starting point a degree of ingenuousness, even naiveté, that is diametrically opposed to the emphasis on experience and expertise that earned many of these leaders their positions in the first place. With a beginner’s mindset, a business leader consistently sets aside tradition – accepted business approaches and techniques – to explore new ways of growing the company.
Let’s Get Zen
Bringing a beginner’s mindset to daily living is an idea originally articulated by Shunryu Suzuki, a Zen monk, teacher, and author of the book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. Suzuki wrote about the inherent conflict between established orthodoxies and human ingenuity. As he asserts in the opening sentence of the book: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” Suzuki espoused a way of thinking that greatly discounted the status quo—the customary ways of doing things. Being present in the moment, he believed, opens one up to progressive thinking.
Suzuki referred to this open state as “shoshin,” the Zen term for beginner’s mind, and it is in direct contrast to the expert mind. People who are experts can risk being trapped by their experience into retracing old routes over and over, seeking assurance in what has worked in the past or for others. This reliance on knowledge gained from past successes can, of course, sometimes pay off – but it can also hinder the explorations needed to uncover radical new ways of doing things.
Next week, we’ll look at how to start practising with the Beginner’s Mindset and how C-suite executives can incorporate approaches into decision-making behaviours.