Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

January 6, 2010

What Influence Could Push You to the Magic that Is Missing?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 8:30 am

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It’s old news and I think we all know …

If we’re not adding value, we’re taking it away.

So we’re busy adding value, doing great things, working, building, being productive. We want to get on with what we know how to do well. We do something that adds to the big thing and it gets bigger and better.

Somewhere near every one of us is someone who thinks differently. He or she is smart as we are, but has different experience or a different view of how things work. He wants to add his own extra value. She has reasons to care and contribute. He might not know the process, the culture, or the traditions. One’s a coworker. One’s a customer. One’s a big brand client.

Most come with a job. We have to include them.

The temptation often is to move forward. Try to ignore them or keep them from the core of things. Add our value and show them when we’re done. That makes it hard for even the most collaborative and curious to find the right way to join in.

But what if we invite them? What if we ask these different thinkers to sit beside us, to invest in our quest and be part of the process?

They’ll bring ideas, thoughts, and opinions. They’ll influence what we’re doing. They will challenge our assumptions. People who think differently make us uncomfortable … and that can make communication and progress seem a lot slower.

The more different we find someone’s experience and thinking, the more we should consider his or her questions and reasoning. It’s the best safety net and idea test in the population. We love and understand our own thinking. Agree with the guy who thinks unlike us and we’ve got something hot cooking.

That difference — in their experience, how they see things, and how they do things — is added value we might be overlooking. That influence could the the one thing that pushes us to add the magic that was missing.

When do you invite a different influence to be part of what you’re doing?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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14 Comments to “What Influence Could Push You to the Magic that Is Missing?”

  1. January 6th, 2010 at 9:02 am
    Ben Curnett said

    Hey Liz- thanks for inviting me.

  2. January 6th, 2010 at 10:01 am
    Janet said

    Well said as always Liz. Who wants to only hang out with people with the same ideas? You get stagnant in your thinking really fast that way. Even if you don’t agree, listen with an open mind and you can often find a useful bit of information you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

  3. January 6th, 2010 at 11:04 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Ben!
    Well said. heh heh

  4. January 6th, 2010 at 11:07 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Yeah, Janet,
    Exactly. New ideas come from the tension of folks who disagree. Listening actively and looking for the common ground has gotten me to some great solutions I never would have gotten to on my own. The key sentence for me is, “Well, would it work for you if we did it this way?”

  5. January 6th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
    Q. Rafiq said

    yeah right. Conflict of interests or thoughts may become an obstacle in the way of communication

  6. January 6th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
    Nelia said

    Love this! This is a poignant and timely reminder. Living in Cambodia, I come across “different” approaches all the time. How much more potent would I be if I sought the “value” rather than the “different” in each approach?

  7. January 6th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
    Andrew @ WeBuildYourBlog.com said

    Great post! Difference does not always mean wrongness. We can all learn something from every person no matter how insignificant or different that certain person may seem.

  8. January 6th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
    Tim Bursch said

    Liz,
    I think sometimes we aren’t open to different voices because we want the credit for our value. I know I get selfish with ideas sometimes, but when I share them with others, especially people that think different, they seem to expand beyond my imagination.
    It takes confidence to invite those different voices in.

  9. January 7th, 2010 at 2:18 am
    Robin Dickinson said

    Great, Liz.

    Whoever said “great minds thing alike” clearly wasn’t an innovator.

    Surely, great minds think differently, and when we make it safe for others to share and contribute those differences, wonderful things can happen.

    Shine on, Liz.

    Robin :)

    Twitter: Robin_Dickinson

  10. January 7th, 2010 at 7:25 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Q!
    I call that looking in the wrong direction. :)

  11. January 7th, 2010 at 7:27 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Nelia,
    Welcome. Even the way you phrase your comment shows that you are sensitive to this situation. Once I discovered the value of the people who thought differently, they became much nicer to work with. Go figure. :)

  12. January 7th, 2010 at 7:38 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Tim,
    That’s a powerful first sentence you wrote there. I guess we all worry about being invisible. The irony is that we often start looking in the wrong direction to find that recognition. I know what used to do that. “See me. See what I’ve done.” would be looking for approval and it would bring validation only attention to my behavior. I agree it takes confidence and maybe a little “faith” to believe in each other. :)

  13. January 7th, 2010 at 7:40 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Robin and Welcome!
    Well said. And if we truly could understand that, we’d quit arguing with ourselves too! :)

  14. January 8th, 2010 at 7:39 am
    Top 7 Ideas of the week | Tim Bursch said

    [...] Be open to different voices and influence. [...]

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