#41 - SMART DUMBO'S: FLEXIBLE THINKING IS KEY - Part 2

ISSUE #41

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known - Steve Furtick

GLORY OR TITANIC

IkoCiti is in the business of empowering the powerless. In part 1 of this post [here] , we made the case that people living the problems are the barrio experts who (collectively) know the ins and outs. Their knowledge is the foundation to break GenPoverty without implying that they have all the answers. Nobody does and that is why we collaborate.

For us, empowering the powerless is not a nice-sounding marketing campaign. It goes to the heart and soul of the venture. If - over time - the people in the barrio structurally are not capable of producing a self-propelling system, then we perish slowly in irrelevance. We will never pivot to become some sort of sweet social enterprise running some caring little social program. That is just not us. Our ambition is to go GLOBAL BIG and if we Titanic, we Titanic. It is what it is. So, EVERYTHING WE STAND FOR rides on the assumption that the barrio – over time - can resurrect itself by the hands of its changemakers. If the people fail, we fail. This is a fundamentally different mindset compared to almost all social organizations - they prioritize their survival above all else.

Are the Maveriqs ready to go in and perform? Hell no. Their journey is from (A) not being ready to (B) being ready. Throwing a bunch of courses at them will not be enough; we have to be smarter. We need to carefully look at how Maveriqs are using their thinking power in the first place. Are they flexible thinkers or do they suffer from the corrosive influence of socio-cognitive polarization? And if so, how does it (negatively) affect their problem-solving abilities in a fast-changing world? And what can we do about it?

Socio-cognitive polarization includes measures of conservative political ideology, absolutist thinking, intolerance of ambiguity, and xenophobia.

SILENCE OF FEAR

Many people hate change and (steep) learning curves. Is it laziness? It is a convenient but superficial explanation. We need to go deeper. The behaviors of people across the social spectrum are affected by social fears. One of the biggest fears is being perceived as dumb. And their fears of being perceived as less smart results in a series of highly advanced strategies of avoiding to express any long-tail opinions (if any).

The concept of smart or dumb is not a neutral observation. In modern society, being perceived/labeled as dumb has far-reaching consequences with increased risk of being ‘demoted’ to the lower echelons of the group – the followers who have to take the crap of Others higher up on the food chain.

Regardless of whether you rebuild the Barrio or build IkoCiti, what you need is that the collaborators are expressing themselves freely, especially those non-mainstream ideas that might seed a potential breakthrough. What good is it to have a great idea in your mind but not being able to express and defend it against criticism? The ability to express an idea is more important than the idea itself. How many great ideas have been murdered by silence – by the fear of being laughed at as a dummy? Fear kills innovation.

How do we recognize (observe) the fear in people? People tend to …

• repeat safe ‘opinions’

• become very creative in avoiding being put to the test

• avoid asking questions even if don’t understand the issue

• be not curious because curiosity leads to unknown territory

• become masters at changing the topic of the conversation.

• seek their safety in the middle of the pack

• show off college degrees, diplomas, or titles but refrain from expressing new ideas.

KILL THE ABOVE-AVERAGE

Another even more counter-productive dynamic is the collective effort to neutralize those who seem to rise above the average – those who drill down details in a coherent way. Those who are not afraid to ask dumb questions. Those kinds of people we need to succeed. It is a (subconscious?) effort to dumb down the group so that the average people feel safe in their comfort zone. It is disastrous and we must not accept it.

Mediocrity does not solve problems. It does not build self-propelling systems. It leads directly to our demise. Hence, mediocrity is our biggest enemy hidden in the comfortable shadows of friendly chatter. But let me clarify what I mean by mediocrity. I am not referring to the level of knowledge of people. I refer to their fears to express minority opinions and ideas.

My knowledge of group dynamics, or socio-cognitive polarization is certainly not higher than the average person who has read an article or two about the issue. Am I mediocre? No, not in the world of IkoCiti. I express my opinions publicly. Implicitly, I invite those with more knowledge to come up with better analyses and solutions. Collaboration means one starts, and another improves. Both are crucial to the end product.

We need to encourage people to think more flexible. To say that I know exactly how to do it, would be dishonest. I don’t know but we could start with these ‘rules’

• Build a safe place to express any idea and ask dumb questions

• Penalize the bullies

• Non-lazy failures are rewarded

• Being yourself is rewarded

• Freedom-4-all is rewarded

• See the world as-is

• Reward the initiative; not the result

• Encourage scenario-thinking

In other words, we build a Mavericks Culture that encourages creative thinking substantially reducing the so-called socio-cognitive polarization. Essentially, we encourage express dumb ideas.

But are we going to finetune HOW people express themselves?

TONE OF VOICE

Each group (person) has its tone of voice in its communication. And this creates problems. Do express yourself like a Roberta Flack song or like RUN DMC? Above all else, we fight the Bully. Yet, we make a case for authentic expressions. IkoCity connects with the rough barrios around the world. They will express themselves in many different ways and it will not always be like a Minnie Ripperton song. In perhaps a paradoxical way, we defend the case that Freedom-4-All (Authenticity) demands low sensitivity of all involved The platform cannot be governed by the upper-middle-class, suburban type of communications. We are not all the same birds.

We want people to be authentic and express themselves in their words. All of us need to understand the balancing act. On the one hand, no collaboration survives a winner-takes-all free fight. On the other hand, how can you be yourself if you cannot rap your tune?

So what kind of Culture do we encourage? My two cents are on modeling IkoCiti groups after sports teams. When playing you can be in your face with your teammates. You can even curse each other in the locker room as emotions still run high. But after the shower, you laugh together and drink a beer. Everything is forgotten because all share one goal: win the next game.

THE END