Having a Scout Mindset is what we need to go beyond

We do not like or intended to be wrong.

When we are correct, we will find all pieces of evidence pointing towards this and defend our stand. When we are wrong, we seek for the opposite, to prove that that’s wrong and we are correct. I want to be correct and do not like the feeling to be incorrect. Being right does not mean that we are accurate. There’s a difference between the two states.

When we are being blinded or having the bias to ensure our stand, we will always see that we are right and all shreds of evidence pointing towards that. Even when that is not an actual occurrence, probably based on our own assumptions.

In business, we do not have the answer to a situation that we are facing every time. Therefore, we decide based on the information that we have available on hand at that moment. We hoped that the conclusion that we made is the correct one and leads to the intended outcome. What’s the worse scenario besides making the wrong decision? It’s the inability to make a decision for the business to move forward. We are talking about opportunity cost when a company ought to seize every opportunity present to move forward.

When a decision is made, we tend to defend that decision and guide the company towards the goal. However, when we are told we are wrong, we guard the decision instead of acknowledging it. Not willing to adapt to another approach, which might be a better or proper way towards our goal. We are either fixated on our vision which could be tunnelled, or protecting our ego and pride that we have to be always right.

If we want ourselves and our business to progress beyond who we are and how we are running today, we should change our mindset. Instead of always being right, we can acknowledge that we are wrong, be amused with the new finding, and move forward. We should have a Scout Mindset, which I first heard from Julia Galef when she’s sharing with TED Ideas.

What’s a Scout Mindset?

Imagine that you are trekking towards where your enemy is to find out more about the place. You have what’s being previously obtained through different means and using that to compare against the current situation on the ground. You map out the differences, note the obstacles, and determine if something there could aid your friendly troops. You don’t hold onto the old map and markings, trying to debate why the map is correct and what you are seeing is wrong. That’s the reality on the ground, acknowledge the differences, and report the current situation and act accordingly.

This was the mindset that I am having when I am was serving as an Intelligence Specialist. When we acquire new information, we will compare that against what we previously have. Comparing that against other closed and opened sources of information to determine the 5W1H and acknowledging the new information.

“When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” — Spock in Star Trek

Thus, as a business and as an individual, I feel that it is essential to embrace the mindset of being a Scout, an Intelligence Specialist, and a child. If we move ahead in the “New World, New Norm” that’s slowly normalised after COVID-19, we should not be doing things the old way. Our way of living will differ as our priorities and how we see things shifted during the last 18 months. The old “cookbook” might not have the receipt to bring us forward in the way we wanted.

Still, we need to rely on what we currently have to move ahead. We should keep looking back at what we have previously, but we should be looking in front and move ahead into the future. When we decide as a business or an individual, it is okay to make the wrong decision. It is okay to acknowledge that we are wrong and we don’t know about that in the first place. Be amused with the new findings and make a new decision based on the latest information or input.

It is okay to be wrong, but it is not okay to dwell on that and to insist that we are right.

“What do you most yearn for — to defend your own beliefs or to see the world as clearly as you possibly can?” — Julia Galef