Column Judith Witte: Keep asking questions

Do you feel like a fish in water at your workplace? I do. It feels good to be in your element somewhere. However, there is a pitfall: that you will slack off. And that is a bad thing, because the best ideas, including product innovations, are born during disruption. When you dare to ask yourself critical questions: 'What can be done differently and will it be better, why and how? 

To find answers, you have to be creative, think outside the box. That's nice, but you can only get out when you know where you stand. You have to be aware of your existing knowledge, convictions and opinions, in order to subsequently question them all. In order to innovate, you have to feel, so to speak, a bit like a fish out of water. Because in that twilight zone between what you know and what is still unknown, the place where you hover and might fall, the light can suddenly go on: Eureka! 

Except that there is just one 'but'. I know it. 'But' does not fit in with thinking differently. It is based on the principle of "yes, and...". Not "yes, but...". 

The "but" lies in the fact that we live in a performance society. From an early age, we are judged for our mistakes and rewarded for our achievements. Only when we learn to walk are we allowed to fall down, get up and carry on without losing sight. Who gets a compliment for the mistakes they make during their career or life? This makes us afraid to take risks. And yet, taking risks is the source of learning, innovation and, therefore, value creation.

I read an article in a magazine with tips to free the creative brain: go outside, walk around, meditate. Put yourself in a different environment. 

Contemplating on a large and compelling life issue, I do it all at once, as efficiently as possible. I put on my running shoes, ran through the woods and let myself be led by well and less well-marked paths. On the cadence of my feet in and on the earth, and on the rhythm of my breathing, my brain searches for new solutions. Deep in thought, I stumble over a tree trunk. For a brief moment, I was floating through the air in another dimension. Finally, I am lying on the ground, my face close to the earth. I turn around and look at the forest through the trees in a completely different perspective. And that is exactly where I found the answer to my question today.

Judith Witte
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