Perspective is challenging: we are always constrained by our worldview, by our current understanding, by the view from the platform that we are standing upon. For as long as we are caught within a current frame, within a current system, we will struggle to envisage beyond that. One facet of the Social Age, which is particularly valuable for our understanding of perspective and innovation, is that it allows us (and our competitors, if such a thing still exists), to shift perspective, and to hear other perspectives fast.
In this context, our challenge ceases to be our ability to hear other voices, but rather becomes our willingness to listen and learn from them. Connectivity is all well and good, but of little use if we don’t meaningfully connect with it.
Agility is much talked about in organisational contexts, often meaning fluidity of response, effectiveness of action, but often it starts with mindset, a willingness to engage with the notion that ‘how it was’ is not the same as ‘how it must be’. We need to build our personal agility, our ability to connect the dots, even when the dots are moving.
julianstodd