There is a book by Adam Grant called, Think Again. I love this book. I’ve done several book club discussions and each time I pull another key reflection and learning. So I thought what better than a post about myself ‘thinking again’.
I’ve had several conversations with various authors over the years. A consistent theme I’ve heard about is how people will often approach an author with something they wrote years and years ago with almost a “gotcha” element. You said this at one time. Yes, and now I think this. I’ve grown, things have changed, etc. That’s a good thing. Yet, I’ve gotten the sense that people treat this as an example of failure. That makes me sad. So I thought why not highlight a few examples that have earned me to “think again”:
- Virtual training. I think my initial statement was “the minute that I can go back to in person, I’m never doing virtual training again. Think again! Yes, I prefer in-person. Yes, I still believe in-person to be superior in experience and outcomes. AND – there are some great benefits to virtual that I have learned are worthy of continuing. Virtual increases inclusivity and equity for certain situations: I remember a client being so grateful to host a virtual training for his team as getting trainers to travel to his location was extremely difficult. I was shortsighted and too strong with my initial statement. My future will likely always have both.
- Team assignments. I truly believed that teams had to be formed and leadership ultimately knew who was best to be on that team. Think again! This seems so ridiculous to me now but it was a topic that I argued often about why volunteering wouldn’t work…I argued in theory because the minute I tried it, doh! I was wrong.
- Leader skills. Early in my career, I proudly expressed “you should never lead a team if you haven’t done their job”. Think again! First, a team should be cross-functional, so the idea that you have all of those skills is crazy. Second, you shouldn’t be doing their job. Your job as the leader is the environment, not an individual contributor. Third, if the only way to build trust and respect is -I can do your job-, are you really leading?
- Author Identity. I have said countless times “I’m not a writer.”. Didn’t matter who said what to me, this was an identity that I locked in back in high school when a teacher told me that I was a shitty writer (yes, that happened). Think again! I am a storytelling and I can deliver in many mediums.
At the end of the day – I go back to…
“Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.”
–Norm Kerth, Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team Review
There is always space to think again!
What can you “think again” about?
