Recently on his Facebook page, Richard Branson shared his thoughts on five ways people can be inventive. While I don’t necessarily count Richard as a close friend, he and I have spent some time together during several of NACFE’s Run on Less events, and I do follow him on Facebook.
His ideas are pretty basic but make great sense to me, and, in fact, some of them are things I try to do and encourage NACFE staff members to do as well.
The first two—constantly ask questions and listen deeply—seem to me to go hand in hand. Asking questions means you are curious and open to taking in new information and learning new things. If you don’t know something, seek out someone who is passionate about the topic and start asking them questions. I have found that people who are passionate about something always seem to have time to share their knowledge with other people.
Once you start asking questions, make sure you listen to the answer rather than thinking about what your next question should be. I like Branson phrasing this as “listen deeply.” Others have called it listening to understand rather than to respond. When you listen to understand, you learn a lot more than when you are listening to respond. When you are in a conversation, if you find yourself formulating a question while the other person is still talking, you are not listening to understand.
See also: New Year’s Resolution: Prioritize driver health and safety
Branson’s third premise is “to be inventive, don’t try too hard to be inventive.” He says some of his best ideas come when he is on vacation (or holiday as he calls it) and when he is engaging in some other activity like hiking or cycling. I think sometimes when we try too hard to figure something out, we limit ourselves. Sometimes it is best to take a break and let a problem roll around in your head for a while. You might be surprised when a perfect solution comes to you.
His next suggestion is to surround yourself with interesting people and then make them feel comfortable enough to share their most abstract ideas. I think this stems from the fact that you never know where a good idea will come from. Think back to brainstorming sessions you’ve been in where people are encouraged to throw out all their ideas without censoring them. Sometimes what may seem like a far-out idea will trigger someone else to come up with a great idea. So, in conversations with your team, don’t immediately toss out the ideas that seem a bit far-fetched because that could cause you to miss out on a really great idea.
Finally, his advice is to write everything down and have fun. While it may be old school, I actually do keep a journal in which I physically write things down. I am not a Luddite, and I do use my laptop all the time, but there is something about the act of writing something down that makes it easier for me to remember.
I also like the idea of having fun. Everyone in the trucking industry is doing important and serious work, but that does not mean we cannot have some fun along the way, too.
As we enter the New Year, these simple suggestions from Sir Richard, seem like good advice and I will try to keep them in mind as the year unfolds.
