Open Thinking...

So, what is open thinking? A state of being open in your thinking is to create and harness a mindset that enables you to learn and grow, strengthen your belief, continuously be creative, make decisions, and get the job done.

Do you as an organisation ever stop to consider what it means to think openly? Do you challenge the status quo? Do you ask the question “Can we?” but also “Should we?”. We all grew up with these assets of open thinking from childhood… Whatever happened to that?

Open thinking is imperative in today’s multifaceted business landscape. More than ever we are urged to step up, be creative in our roles, the responsibilities we have, the deliverables we must make. If you cannot think openly, how can you or your organisation be creative enough to really be competitive?

There is no timestamp or on/ off switch to open thinking. It is about enabling yourself and others around you to decide and do and work collaboratively. Individuals and organisations should be unafraid to fail, for a failure is a by-product of success. People need to take the learnings gleaned from a mishap, re-enter the creative thinking phase to eventually make another decision on what to do better next time. This is the success to delivering effectively and efficiently.

Every individual has a mission – my mission is to foster open thinking, challenge the status quo and enable understanding of the “Can we?” and “Should we?”. In our ever-evolving world, my aim is to be able to deliver Continuous Growth, Improvement and Innovation to drive organisations to operate more effectively through Culture (People), Process and Technology.

Having lived and breathed “consultancy” for some time now, with a career spanning across a broad range of sectors and domains, I have seen it all. The gap lies within how individuals and organisations apply open thinking – currently often leading to poor quality application. Solid informed decision-making requires one to understand the managing and streamlining of processes, understanding priority challenges, improving collaboration and integrating teams.

An organisation can create the conditions for open thinking to enable success in their deliverables; how they do so is via key individuals and drivers. It’s all about finding individuals who see the future and always think ten steps ahead, who build trust and display leadership naturally.

A collaborative culture greatly reduces an organisation’s burden of the closed thinking mindset. Collaboration, positive thinking and continuous growth from senior leaders encourages an organisation-wide culture that naturally demonstrates partnership between employees. Culture change is not always easy, nor is it quick, but it is not impossible to do. Embracing collaborative behaviour needs to be deeply rooted in the culture of an organisation, and by doing so open thinking will more likely materialise.

Innovation always allows for open thinking to take place. If an organisation wants an open thinking culture, it might want to consider allowing employees time to individually think and innovate. Assign a day in the week where the afternoon has a 'no meeting' policy to allow employees time to creatively think about new ideas, concepts, and solutions on their own. This can allow for continuous improvement and innovation in your organisation.

Continuous Growth, Improvement and Innovation cannot happen without thinking!  "Think Tanks" are an opportunity for employees and leaders to get together and ideate future possibilities for the organisation or a team. Decisions are not made, nor is any action assigned. They become sessions dedicated purely to creativity. "Think Tanks" are used as opportunities to collaborate and discuss ideas. They become productive exercises that stretch our brains, and our thinking, without the pressure of having to turn any new suggestion into action, revenue or profit.

 In summary, open thinking is nothing new, it is what we were brought up with and somewhere along the line we all have been laden with a culture that does not allow thinking for oneself. The goal of open thinking help’s you to learn and grow, strengthening your belief in yourself.

 “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” – Steve Jobs

We, at Qual IT are committed to ensuring you get the right advice with our Integrated QA Solutions for business change. Fit4Purpose methodologies across software/ application QA, “Good” Practice management, Mind mapping, Strategy Development, Governance, Problem Solving and Process Management are some of our Solutions as A Service for your changing business - assurance to deliver your world with the highest level of quality. Why? Because Certainty’s Good.

Reg Prasad General Manager – Advisory & Solutions