From “eat or be eaten” to “navigating in social systems”

Referring to a 2012 article from Barry Gordon, who back then was the Professor of Neurology and Cognitive Science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, our brains are “always on” and there are, and always have been, good reasons for this, from historic “eat or be eaten” to modern “navigating in social systems”. And as our brains are always on, it basically means that we indeed cannot really choose to stop thinking.

But what we (mostly) can do is to choose to whether or not we want to contemplate something; to ponder it; to think it through; to question it; to challenge it or to reflect on it.

And there are many reasons that lead to us choosing to stop questioning something and to accept it as it is: the pressure of economic uncertainty, an ever growing stimulus satiation through modern media and a decrease in disposable time because of a busy working schedule as well as a busy social schedule. We can’t choose to stop thinking but so often we choose to stop contemplating.

And there you go: quite often I can’t stop to contemplate… Sure I also do not question every little thing that is happening around me. But I do go through life with open eyes and found that I keep asking myself much more often than others: Why…? What if…? Could this work…? How…? No matter if I see a new store format that opened up on the highstreet, hear about a new consumer habit which is developing in a foreign country or read about how middle class growth in one part of the world might influence what stores have to offer in other parts of the world to satisfy a whole new group of tourists visiting their place.

My brain, as every brain, is always on… and it keeps asking questions and creates thoughts…

From thoughts to ideas

Staying open minded, recognizing things that others might not, asking myself Why? and What if? consequently leads to thinking about scenarios; about strategies; actions and reactions; moves and countermoves. And that in the end leads to seeing potential; to identifying opportunities; to having ideas.

My job brings me into contact with people from every corner of the earth, different mind-sets, different cultures and different views on similar topics. I do come into contact with unique solutions to well-known problems and I do see a lot of creativity where people challenge things as they are and think about alternatives to established ways of working. This increase in information input or stimulus only leads to more thinking, more pondering and more ideas… Kind of a vicious circle (or maybe more a virtuous circle…?).

From brainstorming to solutions

There is this cartoon out there about brainstorming. You see some people sitting around a table in a conference room, flipchart paper, sticky notes, the works… One person seems to just have said something and the moderator standing in front of the room replies “Well, we are brainstorming here which means that there are no dumb ideas. But if we weren’t brainstorming, that would have been a really, really dumb idea.” Not quite the spirit of a good brainstorming session… but that’s why it is a cartoon…

The thing I like about brainstorming is that there are no limitations, no “dumb ideas”, nothing to be ruled out as being impossible. You have a problem to solve, you contemplate it and you have an idea. You share that idea no matter how “dumb” and for someone else this triggers another thought, another path down the multiple scenarios that are possible or impossible. You share that and like a chain reaction it goes on and on. Most probably it will produce a lot of impossible ideas and you will enter a lot of cul-de-sacs. But almost always you will also identify some possible, some probable and some really promising ideas.

And that is why I think that sharing ideas, no matter how insignificant or impossible they seem for someone at the moment, is so important. Because this idea might trigger another thought with someone else, exactly what that person needed to choose the right scenario to solve a problem.

Information in the past was exclusive and highly valuable, even an instrument of power. In today’s information age information becomes ubiquitous; it becomes easy to share, easy to interact with and easy to crowdsource thoughts and information.

And I hope that my humble website might add just a bit more of this information that hopefully will help someone else with getting one step closer to solving a problem. At least I like to think it will, instead of becoming just another piece of noise in the overwhelmingly growing stimulus satiation.

Haven’t read enough yet? Have a look at the blog.

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Image courtesy of noomhh at FreeDigitalPhotos.net