Brief note: I am going to do a number of blogs on different topics but focused on pondering.
What is pondering and what’s it’s value? Pondering is like wondering and wandering in your mind at the same time. It is thinking about questions/statements/things deeply that are not easily answered as you might assume.
We think about things but only for a short period of time and usually come to some immediate decision or conclusion. Pondering is a deeper type of thought process; a sort of one-on-one dialogue with your mind that evaluates a question/situation from as many sides/ways as you can possibly imagine. The objective is the varied in thinking not in reaching a conclusion or decision.
It starts with questions regarding a topic, and it requires time to look/think/talk to yourself about it from as many different perspective as you can.
GOOD LUCK
Rebel With a Cause
To quote Peter Theil, “brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius.” Do you have any courageous people in your organization? They are sometimes referred to as ‘the canary in the coal mine aka rebels.’ These are the people who always seem to bring up the dissenting opinion about the topic at hand.
Organizations talk about honest communication, valuing divergent opinions and a culture of honesty. Leaders state they want people who disagree with them to speak up. When people sit at the bottom of the hierarchy, they perceive they have very little to lose. When they are in the middle of the hierarchy where the majority of the people are found they become more insecure about speaking out because they perceive they have more to lose.
How is divergent thinking nurtured/rewarded in your organization? Where in your organization does it come from? How is it perceived when is comes from the opposite sex?
“In fact, the only sin which we never forgive in each other is difference of opinion.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.