Conventional Wisdom

Our World has become enormous in The Last couple of weeks, but in the midst of the upheaval and emergency situations, there are reasons that We Are strengthened from The Crisis , with some human qualities, writes Matthew Syed .

A few years ago, Michael Michalko, a former U.S. Army Officer , came up with a fascinating idea to sharpen creativity. He called it "adoption reversal". You well have to take The Core concepts in any context, subject discipline, And Then , turn it on its head.

So, we assume, they think, the establishment of a restaurant (obviously not possible at the moment! ). The First guess might be: "restaurants have menus." The converse would be: "restaurants have no menus". This provokes the idea of a chief to inform each customer what he bought That Day on the market, so that you can select a tailor-made shell. The Point is not that this is a workable arrangement, but they disrupt the conventional patterns of thinking, it could lead to new associations and ideas.

Or, to give another example, suppose you are considering a new taxi company. The First guess might be: "taxi companies that own cars". The converse would be: "taxi companies do not own cars". Twenty years ago, might have sounded crazy. Today, the largest taxi company ever to not own cars: Uber has exist. We Now live by a fault (one might even say, a reversal) of unprecedented scale.

The coronavirus has upside-down our lives and, although we hope that we will return to a version of normality in The Coming months, it is likely that nothing will be quite the same again. Many have lost their livelihoods, and businesses, and there is no reduction in the difficulties - emotional and financial - this brought in its Wake.

But in the midst of darkness, there are also opportunities.

opportunities to reimagine The World and their own place in it. Reversal techniques are typically used by People in the creative industry, new products or innovations. I Wonder if we All use it to find a Silver Lining or two in the midst of the gray clouds.

Take the education. This is traditionally conceived as a place where children absorb knowledge. In Hard Times , by Charles Dickens , Mr Gradgrind Give Me the facts, sir says,"!". Education has of course moved since then, but there is still a tendency to see classroom forums for formal knowledge. So how about this for a reversal: "the training is not about teaching knowledge. "

This provoked the idea to help children to develop skills that are not drawn from the traditional disciplines. Softer Skills. Skills that are important in The Real world, but teachers struggle to find teaching time, because the requirements of the curriculum. Improvise, for example. Debate. Think on your feet. The work in teams.

Most parents (if you noticed anything Like Me ), how difficult it is to teach children At Home . But here are some "rebels" ideas, from the adoption of repentance are. You get your kids to walk to The Front of The Room , take the card Face Down horizontally, And Then rotate it to show a theme. Your task is to Turn Around And Then to the rest of The Room and speak in this topic for 60 seconds.

I tried it with My Daughter (seven) and for the First Time , she froze. You had the theme of "Paddington Bear " and you managed to get five seconds ahead of the trailing edge. But by The Second time (the topic of tennis, "was") she got to The End , even if she was in the stumble, and on The Fourth attempt (on "wildlife"), you are fluent in the entire. She is learning the art of improvisation.

I also asked you and your brother write to their biggest mistakes and what they learned from it.

The idea was to shift the concept of failure of something of stigma to be part of how we grow. We shared stories of famous People who had failed. A JK quote Rowling, was very helpful: "Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible To Live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived well - in which case, you don't by default. "

These are just a reversal of ideas about education, but I'm sure you could work think of dozens of other contexts in which this technique. To stop The Point of the education example is kids transformation of formal knowledge, but to find ways to complement them with other skills (and have fun at the same time). Innovative schools are already tested some of these ideas.

Another positive could emerge from this crisis a rise in friendliness. In the UK, More Than 700,000 volunteers came forward to help, the NHS, and the People showed his appreciation for the caregivers by applauding in unison. Usability is often considered (especially by economists) a short-lived anomaly. But I Wonder if kindness is a sustainable part of our society can not detect, especially if People that altruism and self-interest are apart so much of the distance.

Consider a study of More Than 600 medical students, which revealed that the selfish-love - People , the performed focuses on your own progress, and little for Others - that very well in your first year. These "takers" were good for the extract information, and by offering little In Return , they were able to on their own progress. Those who got more generous with their time and were willing insights to your fellow students, the "donor" Left Behind .

But here's the weird thing.

in The Second year, which had Caught Up with children of the cohort, and by the Third Year had overtaken their colleagues. In fact, last year, the donors gained significantly better grades than you had. In fact, a friendly attitude, a powerful predictor of school grades was prices than the effect of Smoking on Lung Cancer . What was going on? The dealer had not changed, but the structure of the programme had to be postponed.

As a psychologist, Adam Grant has written: "As students progress through Medical School , you move from independent classes, clinical rotations and patient care. The further you progress, the more your success is dependent on teamwork and service. Whereas, borrower, sometimes, to win in independent roles, in which The Power rollers only on the individual results, the donor will thrive in an interdependent, where co-operation counts. "

This is a finding that keeps re-emerging in the social Sciences: People with an indication of approach to thrive in a world of interdependence. The Evidence also shows that The Most successful donor strategic, in search of diversity, but to cut off selfish People trying to exploit them. As One scientist put it this way: "an attitude is a powerful plant, the allies of the Social Intelligence . "

I don't want to diminish the scope of our current difficulties, but neither do I believe that The Future is bleak. A world with more kindness, and creativity is one to look forward to. We would be Reaching Out for new solutions that will be against the traditional ideas, but in a spirit of cooperation, which will help us to be successful.

As a psychologist said: "According to Conventional Wisdom , highly successful People , three things have in common: motivation, ability and opportunity.... [but] there is a fourth ingredient: success depends heavily on how our interactions with Other People . We try to claim as much value [for us], how can we, or do we want to contribute value? It turns out that these choices have incredible consequences for the success. "

Matthew Syed is the author of Rebel ideas: The Power of Diverse thinking

the drawings of Emma Lynch

Source of news: bbc.com