Jonah Nyoni Leaders in any organisation are employed to think, create and change things, but most leaders entrusted with such huge responsibility sit on their laurels and ride on the norm of linear thinking. Boardrooms are not meant for ritualistic meetings but for strategising and constructing new systems and synergies. As Isaid last week, our education has limited us to adopting old paradigms. Our universities have limited most people to mere linear thinking and people end up doing what they are taught, other than what they can possibly create.
For example, what new relevant technologies are the universities producing in Zimbabwe? What new engineering are we having? What beneficiation is being brought to our mineral endowments? Textbook education has never been enough and that is why disruptive thinking or leadership has seen unlikely people coming out of the blues to invent things and lead.
It’s high time old systems are challenged, questioned, disrupted, and we grow a new mindset as a country. If the education system remains irrelevant to the ever-evolving world, we may find ourselves holding on to systems that are obsolete. Eric Hoffer says, “Learners inherit the earth, whilst the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists”. We have to dream.
Imagination Local companies should encourage “imaginative thinking”. Our minds should be allowed to think, make mistakes, take risks, and explore other possibilities. It’s in the last 15 years when we had new players such as Instagram (2010), WhatsApp (2009), Snapchat (2011), Uber (2009), and Android (2008). In Africa, what big products did we create? In Zimbabwe, are we creators or we are mere consumers? Food for thought! All in all, James Allen said the mind is a master power that moulds and makes.
Break the rules At times we are so regimented and fixated to rules that no longer work. Rules were meant to be broken, but not the law. Models are meant to be changed as long as someone created them. Long back, the model of car was meant to use gasoline, but now we have electric cars. The current model is that car is meant to use the road, but now we hear of plans to make a flying car. One scary thing is to imagine that in the next few decades it might be unfashionable to have a car with a driver. The big problem with human beings is that they are afraid of venturing into new realities. When we weigh between rules versus risks, rules seem to always win. But people who take risks will win always.
Monotony vs mistakes The world has negatively shaped us to become perfectionists and when you make a mistake you become an outcast and we even curse ourselves. At times our very own teachers, tutors, and parents punish us for making creative mistakes. Following the old models becomes boring. It’s like coming into an office or factory every day and doing the same thing. We need to be adventurous and be allowed to make mistakes. The major problem we have is that we have managers or leaders who want things done the traditional way, thereby losing the creative touch.
Generative learning Generative learning is a phenomenon that was described by Peter M Senge who wrote the book The Fifth Discipline. He came up with the concept that there are two kinds of learning. The first one is called survival learning and the other is called generative learning. Survival learning is the acquisition of skills and knowledge in order to cope with the present. Whilst generative learning is the acquisition of knowledge and skills in order to create the future. In other words, every company has to embrace what we call generative learning , otherwise it might live in a survival mode.
If you are in a survival mode, it means you wait for people to cause trouble and then you must now have to cope with the trouble that other people have caused. But if you are into generative learning, you embrace knowledge and skills so that you can create the future yourself. In other terms you are ahead of the pack and that is an element of strategic leadership. So, strategic leaders will always encourage their employees to embrace the kind of learning that will bring innovation and creativity in the company”
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Parting point: Every boardroom should be a living and breathing organism for new thoughts, debates, creations, inventions, and birthings. Think and act the way you want your personal life to be. Andrew Carnegie said, “Any idea that is held in the mind, that is emphasized, that is either feared or revered, will begin at once to clothe itself in the most convenient and appropriate form available”
Jonah Nyoni is an author, speaker, and leadership trainer. Twitter@jonahnyoni. Whatsapp: +263 772 581 918
