“…being able to think around the question and find creative solutions is only going to become more and more valuable.”
Some takeaways…
- We can sometimes be too fixed in our own thinking.
- Flexibility of thought can result in finding an ‘outside the box’ solution.
- Use the resources at hand and think around the problem, and you may find a creative and original solution right under your nose.
Some thoughts on how a child’s lateral thinking can teach us to be less rigid in our own thoughts
In a re-creation of the ‘Home Alone’ plot this weekend, the lumbering adult (me) was once again outwitted by the nimble, free-thinking child (my 7-year old son).
I was making lunch when my son went to turn on the television for him and my daughter. Rather than have them watch more TV, I suggested they could instead read a book or do a puzzle. They both frowned at me and sloped off to do exactly that… or so I thought. Everything went very quiet, which is unusual, but I was happy as they were doing something constructive and not just watching telly.
Once dinner was ready, I went to find them, only to discover them both curled around the old iPhone I had hooked up to the WiFi for my son to write to me while I am away. He had dug it out, found YouTube and they had been watching ‘television’ the whole time!!
Try as I might, I couldn’t be cross. In fact, I was pretty impressed by the single mindedness and resourcefulness he had shown. I was also struck by how agile his thinking was. He had just one goal – to get the tv show ‘Dipdap’ for him and his sister to watch. He didn’t mind how he got there, and once he found out his first choice (the television) was blocked, he thought around the problem, worked out what resources he had to hand and found a way to make it happen. Pretty cool.
Why do I remark on this? Well, we face restrictions in our professional lives all the time – there are always complications around any solution design, and although our capabilities develop with technology, so do the complexities of the problems we must solve for. In terms of the competencies required by future generations, I believe that being able to think around the question and find creative solutions is only going to become more and more valuable.
What did his approach teach me? I can sometimes be too fixed in my own thinking. Here I was telling them not to watch tv, but it didn’t even occur to me that they could or would go and find the same thing on an old phone. I was focused only on the tv and didn’t think past that. My son, however, was focused on getting the outcome he wanted and employed alternative ways to achieve it.
Kids 1, adults nil.
Thanks for reading.