How can we reinvent ourselves in the face of uncertainty? Five things everyone should understand about embracing the new

Openness to new things can be viewed as a trait of a creative personality or as a hopeful attitude. In times of upheaval, however, it is more interesting to approach openness as skills that can be consciously practised, developed and strengthened. 

Professor of Practice at Aalto University School of Business Nando Malmelin has researched, consulted and coached many organisations that share an aspiration to renew themselves radically. According to him, openness skills are particularly important for experts and leaders in uncertain times, when the world around us is changing rapidly and the future is difficult to anticipate. Renewal then requires the ability to accept incompleteness and to act in situations where there are no ready-made answers yet. At such times we must think openly and act creatively.

Openness is also a meta-skill of creativity. It is the ability to open up to new things, ideas and interpretations. At the same time it creates the conditions for many other abilities needed in creative work, such as curiosity, critical thinking, questioning and learning. 

How can each of us develop openness to new things and at the same time strengthen our creativity? By focusing on five tasks, Malmelin says:

1. Clarify the purpose

   The importance of creativity is much discussed – often in an overly simplistic and superficial way. Creativity as such is a pointless goal. What is crucial is to ask what we want to achieve with creativity. A purpose must be defined for creativity, and in addition we must assess in what kinds of situations we need openness.

   If we want to become more open, we must first understand why openness will be important in the future. We must identify which dreams and goals we need it to achieve. At the same time we must make choices about what we will particularly focus on and what we will leave undone. 

2. Invest in renewal

   Strategic principles do not in themselves produce results. What matters is how they are reflected in practical action. That is why one of the most important practical measures is the decision to invest time and energy in creating something new. 

   Reserve, for example, Friday mornings in your calendar for creative thinking and reflecting on new learning. Title the entry ‘Strategic project – no contact’.

   Why invest in renewal when you are already busy anyway? Precisely for that reason. Working days are filled with urgent tasks, meetings and deadlines, leaving little room for pausing, surprises and new observations. If we do not consciously reserve time for ourselves for open thinking, we live and work as if on autopilot. Then there is a risk that opportunities for renewal and growth will go unnoticed.

3. Recognise thinking patterns

   Developing openness begins with recognising our own thinking patterns. We interpret the world through various assumptions, theories and models. Our history has shaped us into what we are – our upbringing, education, profession, culture and experiences. 

   At the same time our past has constrained our thinking and actions, narrowed our field of vision and blurred the horizon. That is why creating something new starts with recognising the old. Before we can think in a new way, we must understand what kinds of models guide our current thinking.

4. Question assumptions

   The prerequisite for openness is that we are able to break our thinking patterns. That is why we need questioning and contrarian thinking – a conscious effort to look at familiar things from new perspectives. Openness requires the ability to detach ourselves from familiar assumptions, routines and truths. We must also give space to ideas and viewpoints that we do not yet understand. 

   It is therefore worth creating alongside your current to-do list a to-question- or to-disrupt list. On the to-do list you record tasks that need to be done, and on the other list you note thoughts and routines that are worth questioning and reconsidering.

   Questioning our own thoughts is harder than questioning those of others. We often relate to them with emotional dedication. No wonder. They are based on who we are and what we can do – and on how we experience ourselves and see the world. That is why giving them up can feel difficult.

5. Be open to surprises

   Open people are receptive to lucky coincidences and surprises. They have the ability to look at the world without prejudice. They quite by chance recognise valuable events that lead to new discoveries and their exploitation. It has been said that luck favours the prepared mind.  

   Openness skills include the ability to encounter unexpected people, views and experiences with an open mind. In interaction our own thinking is put to the test because we encounter conflicting views and surprising ideas. Openness involves the ability to be curious also about thinking that differs from our own – or even seems its opposite. 

   Asking questions is the beginning of wisdom. It is a tool of open interaction that helps us to understand things about which we do not yet know what it is that we do not know.
    

Doctor of Social Sciences Nando Malmelin is known as an expert in renewal, creativity, communication and leadership. He has written, for example, the books Avoimuus uudelle – tulevaisuuden avaintaito (‘Openness to new things – the key skill of the future’) and Radikaali uudistuminen – miten johtaa murroksessa (‘Radical renewal – how to lead in times of change’).