Another article in Associations Now this month covers a series of “mindsets” that futurist John Naisbitt is writing about. They are lenses for interpreting the world, and he recommends leaders use many of them, rather than being stuck in any one.

My favorite is Mindset 4: Understand how powerful it is NOT to have to be right.

Naisbitt says it’s his most important mantra:

Most people are run by having to be right. …Having to be right closes out all learning; it closes out all growth. …It’s not about understanding; it’s about being right.

A point I plan to make on Thursday in my speaking event at ASAE & The Center’s Springtime Event is related: we are an answer-focused society. We look for answers, and we want them quickly (and of course, we want our answers to be right). But in that process we close off possibilities, we stop exploring, and, because it’s faster, we rely more heavily on our assumptions than on gathering more data.

So try examining a situation while knowing that it isn’t important (for the time being) to be right, or to come up with a singular answer. In conflict situations I advise people to spend more time exploring the problem before you try to come up with solutions. Even if a good solution comes into your head, write it down, but bring your focus back to the problem, because it might help you come up with a better one.