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Thinking in possibilities
39 Plays11 months ago
Imagine you are the captain navigating a ship through unchartered waters. Instead of sticking to predefined routes, you are open to exploring different paths, always looking for shortcuts and alternative routes that traditional maps might not indicate. In doing this, you actively encourage the crew to suggest new routes and embrace the uncertainty of the journey, knowing that it can lead to exciting discoveries. Thinking in possibilities is a powerful mindset that goes beyond merely being optimistic. It actively shapes the way one would approach challenges, fostering innovation, creativity, and resilience.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:07
Speaker
Hi there. Welcome to How We Think, a podcast that takes a deeper look at coaching conversations, the biases and beliefs that show up in such conversations, and ideas that make you sit up and take notice of your own patterns, behaviors, and opportunities to change. I am Neha
Meet the Hosts: Neha & Bhavna
00:00:24
Speaker
Indoria and I have the amazing Bhavna Vasti with me. Hey Bhavna, how are you doing?
00:00:30
Speaker
Hi Neha, very well. Very excited to be here with yet another episode about how we think and very quickly, what are we talking about today?
What is 'Thinking in Possibilities'?
00:00:44
Speaker
So, Bhavna, today we are doing a quick dive into an endless ocean as we open our listeners to an idea that transcends boundaries and that is thinking in possibilities. I like how you say endless ocean.
00:00:59
Speaker
followed by thinking in possibilities. There is a good connect there. But I feel like this is an extremely simple concept, and yet the struggle is to wear away from the norm and into the unknown. And we both know that people are not comfortable existing in the unknown. Basically, thinking in possibilities isn't about ignoring reality, but rather about expanding your perspective to consider multiple potential realities.
00:01:31
Speaker
It's a mindset that encourages exploration, creativity and an openness to the unknown. What do you think? Yeah, openness to the unknown. And you know what, I mean, it mostly sounds like how you think can be either limiting or it can be empowering. And I think of it as the art of seeing beyond the obvious, an approach that turns challenges into opportunities and
00:01:58
Speaker
for the lack of a better phrase fuels the engine of innovation. So why, dear listener, should you bother to think in possibilities, you ask?
00:02:08
Speaker
Well,
Metaphor: Navigating Uncharted Waters
00:02:09
Speaker
imagine you are the captain navigating a ship through unchartered waters. Instead of sticking to predefined routes, you are open to exploring different paths, always looking for shortcuts and alternative routes that traditional maps might not indicate. By doing this, you actively encourage the crew to suggest new routes and embrace the uncertainty of the journey, knowing that it can lead to exciting discoveries.
00:02:36
Speaker
Thinking in possibilities is a powerful mindset that goes beyond merely being optimistic. It actively shapes the way one would approach challenges, fostering innovation, creativity, and resilience. I do get what you're saying, Neha. But you know what? Let me be the devil's advocate here. Changing thinking patterns takes time, and one needs to be a certain kind of person with a certain level of awareness.
00:03:06
Speaker
So for example, I would have to be open to learning new things or embracing failure and seeing failure as a stepping stone towards growth and improvement rather than a roadblock. However, when we talk about the reality and add in the contributions from our upbringing, our culture, and to some extent, even the environment, we arrive at a stage where most of us are fixed or set in our ways. And hence,
00:03:36
Speaker
Thinking in possibility then sounds nice but extremely tough to do. You know, just to build a bit of buy-in into the way of being, I want to talk about some of the fun things that may happen when you step away from the conventional way of thinking to thinking in possibilities.
Visionaries: Steve Jobs & Innovation
00:03:58
Speaker
So, you know, a very appropriate example of a person that clearly exemplified thinking and possibilities is the late Steve Jobs. And I just love his vision and love who he was, authentic straight up. His ability to envision and execute on the possibilities actually led to the iPhone becoming a
00:04:22
Speaker
groundbreaking product that redefined the smartphone landscape. I remember when the iPhone came in 2007, it wasn't just a new phone, it was an icon. Yeah. Yeah. When I got my first phone, I was like, oh my God, I have arrived. Steve Jobs actually, you know what he did? He envisioned a device that combined a phone, an iPod, and an internet communicator all into one device.
00:04:51
Speaker
And that's how his thinking and possibilities shaped the iPhone that we know and love. And I also want to point out that this did not mean that thinking and possibilities was a walk in the park for him. On one hand, he was seen as a visionary leader, someone who was passionate, dedicated, inspirational.
00:05:10
Speaker
But then there were many who also used the term egocentric, tough, extremely demanding of others, not just himself. Yeah, I know I've talked a lot. So what do you think? No, no. I mean, this story actually sent me back to the days of when I first
00:05:29
Speaker
saw the iPhone and I remember the whole the whole excitement over the pinch function like you could zoom in yeah oh my lord I was like oh really this is what happened it was fantastic um yeah and you know I mean
00:05:45
Speaker
Another iconic thing that comes to mind when you were telling me the story was something that's part of our lives. Just as much as an iPhone, I would assume. It's Netflix. I mean,
Reed Hastings & Netflix Transformation
00:05:56
Speaker
as a business, in the early 2000s, if you remember, they were like a DVD rental by mail service.
00:06:03
Speaker
And obviously, thankfully, Reed Hastings knew at that point in time that it's a dying business. He needs to get out of it and he needs to get out of it fast because the internet was just catching over the US significantly at that point in time. And, you know, he envisioned a future where streaming could dominate the entertainment landscape and that mindset shift, I think, changed everything.
00:06:26
Speaker
Netflix transitioned into a steaming platform, disrupted the entire industry. And now, I don't think any of us can imagine our lives, or to a larger extent, any of us can imagine our lives without Netflix specifically, and definitely not without OTT in some form or manner. All of us are consuming it. And he was the guy who kind of made it happen in what it was. So Netflix wasn't just a strategic move. It was a transformative one.
00:06:56
Speaker
Yeah. So while we are talking and we talked about how thinking and possibilities opens a new world in the professional space. But
Coaching Session: Personal Impact
00:07:09
Speaker
I also want to share a client conversation to show the impact of thinking and possibilities in a personal space. So just allow me like one minute.
00:07:19
Speaker
So this client walked into the session with somewhat low energy and it clearly looked like the weight of the world was on their shoulders.
00:07:32
Speaker
So as a coach, I started a conversation and when I asked about what they would like to focus on in the session, they mentioned a couple of things that were happening in their life that was bringing them down, causing a feeling of overwhelm, leaving them in a paralytic fog. And that's the word they use, paralytic fog. They were not able to come up with how to deal with the issue that they had at hand. So at that point I asked, so what should happen here that is going to serve you?
00:08:05
Speaker
They mentioned, I need perspective. I think I'm not looking at things the right way. I heard that. And then I asked, right way? Well, tell me more. So for the first time in that session, my client laughed. And I waited all that power of pause and all that so that they could tell me more. She finally smiled and said, I want to know how I'm seeing things
00:08:35
Speaker
in one way and if there is a right way to see them or if there was a different possibility and you know, that was my in, that was my turn to smile because they had given me the perfect opening and I invited her to think about the situation and possibilities and
00:08:59
Speaker
It was so amazing, she looked at me quite quizzically. And then very like she was taken aback, she went back a little bit and then she said, what do you mean? And I asked her, what else is happening or waiting to happen in your situation?
00:09:14
Speaker
She was quiet. Well, long story short, they came up with a solution for themselves and thinking in possibilities was something that defined how her mindset
00:09:34
Speaker
developed from there on. So clearly, I thought it was important for me to bring this example because why the organizations benefit when employees and people working in the organization think radically, they think in possibilities. But if one is willing to expand the boundaries and imagine outcomes,
00:10:00
Speaker
It can help in improving the personal and social relationships as well. Yeah, absolutely. And so many times one would see this happen in a coaching session because that's what the space is for, right? To just simply allow them to think about the same problem in a different way.
00:10:20
Speaker
Um, I remember someone, someone mentioning this that you should think of yourself as a coach is just being a sounding board. Like, you know, the pins are coming at you, they're moving around and your job is to stay passive and just listen to them. Yeah.
00:10:35
Speaker
But coming back to the topic at hand, which is to think in possibilities, when we look at it from a coaching perspective and we say, okay, what are the measures of success that one can employ? I think it is multifaceted. It's about creating an environment where ideas flow freely, problems are met with creativity, and work
00:10:56
Speaker
or life evolves with eternity. And this is like a journey of continuous improvement because that improvement that might not be finite in its nature, that is what becomes the true indicator of success when you talk about thinking and possibilities, if that is the core of how you show up.
00:11:17
Speaker
Yeah,
Building a Learning Mindset
00:11:18
Speaker
true. Measure of success for an individual may also be the change when one stops to look at things from how they are, but how they can be. And when one does that, one is actually consciously contributing towards the outcomes that are created.
00:11:39
Speaker
It's a very simple, more open way of not just thinking, but being. And the whole idea of this podcast or talking here, having these conversations about exploring the ways of being through how we think. Yeah, yeah, you're right. And it's also, you know, thinking in possibility is one of those things that
00:12:04
Speaker
by nature, it requires you to take baby steps. You know, you don't need that. I think drastic needs to happen overnight. It's not like tomorrow the switch will go away and I will change. You simply start by questioning assumptions. That's the first step. And when you start creating an environment where you're okay to question the assumptions that might have led you to behave or think in a certain way,
00:12:33
Speaker
You get to challenge the status quo and automatically I think the moment we start functioning from a place of, not from a place of this can't happen, but from a place of what else can happen, then you encourage the others also to do the same.
00:12:53
Speaker
And then more than a growth mindset, I feel like if you apply a learning mindset and you're open to new perspective, it is definitely something that people can try out if it fits for them. Totally. And you know what I want to add here that leaning into disruption and stepping out of the comfort zone may also be ways to inculcate a new kind of thinking.
00:13:19
Speaker
Yeah, the point is discipline. It's discipline, time, and a lot of patience. There are your friends in this journey. It's like renovating a house. You start with a vision, you create a plan that makes sense, and you honestly think that you've got this.
00:13:37
Speaker
But as the saying goes, if you want your plans to fail, tell your contractor about it. Yours will ensue, long-haired beliefs will come into play. There might be reluctance by yourself or those around you to embrace something which is so new. Mented conformity will definitely kind of push you back in the opposite direction.
00:14:04
Speaker
It's almost like sticking to the same interior design for years if we go back to the house analogy. And I shall forget thinking patterns. They are the blueprint of our mental house. So one needs to be conscious of rigid thinking patterns. Just as a renovation requires flexibility, I think what we need to think about is lots of patience and just say that we have to stay at it for the whole thing to get
00:14:31
Speaker
a do-over or a makeover. Well said, well said. So another thing when I hear you speaking that's coming to my mind is our relationship with failure. How
Failure as a Learning Tool
00:14:44
Speaker
or what we see as failure will decide how we show up in a situation.
00:14:49
Speaker
Hence, it's like literally imperative that when we are building our habit of thinking in possibilities, we not just explore what failure means to us, but create a new understanding about failure. For example, now in this new way of being, we could look at failure as a space of life learning, treated as a friend, a way to know more.
00:15:13
Speaker
leading to doing more and eventually being more. Which means it's not superficial, it's not just tactile, it's deeper. It's going deeper to create new meanings and new relationships with most things that accompany thinking in possibilities. Yeah, almost sounds like
00:15:40
Speaker
It sounds like you need to create it as a habit. And I feel that the bits that can support you in creating that habit is to surround yourself with a network of folks who kind of get it. One thing that needs to happen if you do decide to take this on is actually
00:16:03
Speaker
Let people around you say, hey, I'm trying this thing on. See if it works for all of us. Also seek mentorship and obviously continuously invest in personal and professional development.
Concluding Thoughts & Listener Engagement
00:16:18
Speaker
See how far you can take it, essentially is what I'm trying to say. And most importantly, one needs to trust the process.
00:16:28
Speaker
Trust the process. It's a simple note, but the first thing that comes to mind is why. That's how we are wired, right? But yeah, I do get trust the process is the key here. And I don't know what, it seems like this is a good place for us to pause.
00:16:46
Speaker
What do you think? Yes, absolutely. I'm trusting the process. OK, thank you for listening in, dear listeners. Do write to us about what you thought of this conversation and any other topics that you would like us to explore in the next episode. And if this episode resonated with you in any way,
00:17:14
Speaker
We would appreciate it. We would take 30 seconds to follow us on our adventures, share it with someone who may need it and hit subscribe. Please stay up to date. Thank you and goodbye.