The speed of change right now is the slowest it will ever be for the rest our lives. In such a wild and crazy world of Uber-speed, the requirements for keeping pace or leading the pack is innovation and disruption. Innovations are improvements while disruptions are game changers. PowerPoint was an innovation to how we communicate while the internet was a disruption that radically changed how we connect, communicate and collaborate with people around the globe.
Our familiar analytical, data-based mindset has worked for hundreds of years. Copernicus ushered in the scientific era when he upset the world by proposing we weren’t the center of the universe, but a simple player in a larger celestial drama. The test and retest approach that Copernicus started has become the backbone for how we approach our economy, healthcare, education and politics. Yet this form of learning only accesses less than 10 percent of our brain’s ability for insight and discovery.
Today, using only our data-based smarts is a harbinger for death. The coroner’s report for Kodak and Blackberry might as well have read: Cause of death: Outdated thinking slowed the immune system for change.
The new normal is nothing is normal. Our biggest problem isn’t healthcare, education, poverty, war or even global warming. Our biggest problem is how we learn. The old way rewards facts, history, certainty, clarity and logic. The new way rewards discovery, emotions, creativity, the unknown and flow.
This new learning style adds energy to innovation and creates the possibility for disruption. The Copernicans of today continue to use their analytical brain. But, in this new world order of learning, they’ve added and integrated the right or intuitive side of the brain into their tool kits for surviving and thriving in these volatile times.