Cultivating a Beginner’s Mind
When we were studying in India, a story that passed around began with the professor asking his colleagues a question before his talk on aerodynamics: Why do bumblebees fly? Most of his colleagues had some smart answers and interesting propositions. Then the professor would say that bumblebees fly because they didn’t know any aerodynamics; otherwise, they would simply stop flying. Why? Because according to known aerodynamics principles, bumblebees cannot fly.
The moral of the story is that when we are experts in a field, we see limited options, and because we think we know, we don’t see many possibilities and it is difficult to be creative. A beginner’s mind has more creativity and learning agility and growth potential, and yet we often operate from an expert mind-set.
Sam Palmisano, chairman of IBM until October 1, 2012, diligently cultivated a beginner’s mind-set among his company’s senior leaders. In the early 2000s, when he was IBM’s CEO, Palmisano placed senior executives as general managers of new, emerging businesses with no resources: they had to build them up from scratch and learn everything all over again. Some of them resisted letting go of big company processes and approaches. Others realized that they had to unlearn and selectively forget some of the big business approaches before they could become entrepreneurs.31 Over time, they began to develop humility in playing their new roles. They realized that their new position offered them a great opportunity for learning. This shift in mind-set helped them become effective in their new roles.32
We consulted for some of these general managers and experienced firsthand the way these wise leaders assumed their new role with great humility by demonstrating a willingness to learn from everyone on their team as well as from IBM’s partners. Rather than reusing past success formulas, they willingly experimented with new business strategies, many of which proved to be successful.