No man is an island. We learned that in junior high school.
The lesson was iterated many times in subsequent years through high school and
college. Yet when we entered our careers we had to learn it again and again.
No man is an island; or woman, either. We understand much
more when we interact with other people and struggle with common meanings. In
time we know them, ourselves and whatever special knowledge we were working
with at the time.
Engagement is a process of connecting with other people and
their organizations, processes and products. And vice versa. The coming
together and dealing honestly with one another is the engagement. If unequal in
commitment by one or more of the others, the engagement fails. Simple as that.
But if the engagement is pursued and we actually succeed at
sharing our knowledge and personality at the same time, we have the chance to
alter what we think, how we think and what is then possible from future
thinking. It is a revolution in the making. And it takes time.
When it happens, we first sense it and then know it. We are
different people when the realization hits us. When it hits we come to know
that we have created something that did not exist before. We have expanded
mankind’s understanding and made a new potential possible.
Layering knowledge, education, academic specialties and
cultures often makes this revolution pop to life. It happens most often in
laboratories where we expect such to occur. But when it happens in a conference
room or over an email conversation among team members struggling with a problem
to solve, it is even more astonishing.
Classroom work is elemental. It sometimes surprises students
when they realize they are understanding something for the first time. But when
they are able to mix that understanding with another idea or subject matter and
come to yet another fresh understanding, astonishment is an understatement.
Those reactions should be the outcomes we expect from all
education! Changing minds and lives is the goal, isn’t it? Aren’t we about
putting two and two together and getting six? Wouldn’t that be terrific instead
of the four we expect? Research does
that for us. Opening minds and mixing thinking with others who do not think as
we do produces the unexpected. Those are the gains we need to adapt to change
and new challenges in life.
Business is experimenting with this. Business is gaining
insight doing this. Business is evolving faster because of this.
Now do you understand why I can say with confidence that we
can drop our oil dependence and replace it with entirely new energy resources? Science
and brainpower will do this for us but we have to want to do this and make the
proper investment in time, money and people. Of course, we must remove barriers
to do this work such as the Oil Industry, Oil Lobby, Oil Special Interests, and
political powers who live off of the former!
Engage the problem and find solutions. This is exciting work
and worth our investment. Stop adding 2 plus 2 for the expected 4; instead
learn to find the answer of 6!
June 29, 2016
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