"Hey, what's your company doing about return to work?"
"Oh, it's still unclear. But most likely we will have a hybrid workplace. Mix of flexi, onsite and remote."
"I see. It's the same here too. Too much uncertainty. No?"
Well, haven't you been having seeing this conversation in your circle or on WhatsApp?
Same happened today in couple of my WhatsApp groups. It got me thinking.
How is it that collectively we are seeing the same thing, doing the same thing and still not sure? And then then somehow serendipitously I came across the below quote:
"The task is, not so much to see what no one has seen yet; but to think what nobody has thought yet, about what everybody sees."
- Arthur Schopenhauer (some say Erwin Schrodinger)The difference not necessarily is about seeing different but sometimes thinking different. We do same because we think same. Profound!
As part of Evolution, we have survived through herd mentality. But breakthroughs have been done by people who thought different. Forget the Future of work part, I mean this simple concept is applicable in our personal lives too.
How to think differently? Sometimes this helps me to do it once in a while:
- Being Curious. There's always new.
- Asking "What's the other side to this story?". There is always another side.
- Unstructured thinking. Best thoughts come when you're taking a shower or out for a drink.
- If more than 2 people agree on something, then I make it a point to figure out another way just for an argument sake. So that all sides get covered.
- If I'm stuck, I ask one pessimist friend and one optimist friend about their thoughts. The answer may lie somewhere in between.
But this is no research based. It is trial and error at best.
Hope this helps you to gain a different perspective to anything that you're experiencing!
Pic Courtesy: Jennifer Griffin (Unsplash)