Being wrong by Paul Lemberg.

What if you’re wrong?

What if that brilliant idea you’ve just hatched is totally harebrained and never going to work?

Many of us assume we are right, and that our thoughts are spot-on. We get defensive when others suggest we might be off base.

If you’re going to move fast, you’re going to have to take some risks in your thinking. Be willing to criticize your own ideas. Be open to finding fault with all your wonderful brainstorms. Look for the loopholes. Look for the mistakes. You might even invite those around you to take pot shots at your ideas.

Some ways to criticize your own ideas:

Imagine you are wrong. (Horrors!) What then? What would being wrong cause to happen, and what are some ways around these problems?

Sidestep. What else is like what you are doing? If this part of your venture is flawed, where else has similar logic caused you to go astray, with problems lying undiscovered? How will you deal with those issues when they surface?

What have you forgotten? What have you left out?

What if it’s just too big and you made it smaller? Or larger? What if it needs to be slower, or faster? A bit sooner, or perhaps later? What if you made the whole thing flashier, pumped up the volume, and turned up the heat? What if you made it more subtle, quieter?

All of these questions flow from being willing to be wrong. All of these questions can have the effect of making you more flexible in your thinking – the key to having an organization not only responsive to change – but one which anticipates change.

So, what if you’re wrong? So what if your wrong!

Copyright 2002-04 ©Paul Lemberg used with his expressed written permission

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