A great quote to begin with !
I am passionate about Diversity of Thought, I am super curious and love to learn from many different quarters and channels (hence my article yesterday: “Synthesising ideas – who inspires you?“, listing some writers who inspire me, a group I’d say are quite eclectic a mix!
Oh, and around that quote and eclectic writers, do you know who Tim Berners-Lee is without searching the internet? ?
Today my thoughts go to a moment last month at a mentoring lunch with one of my inspirational mentees, an inspiring woman who lives and breathes championing diversity. Our mentoring relationship began by accident when we had a first connection lunch where she addressed bluntly that she’d put off meeting me for a while as her gut instinct was that I seemed stereotypically someone she wouldn’t want to connect with.
However, something made her decide to meet up anyway and see what emerged. We had a great conversation and when I asked her what I could do to help here, she asked me to mentor her.
It has been and continues to be an honour and a privilege and I am constantly inspired by her.
{btw, if you are considering being a mentor, my tip is to get a sense if both people will be energised and inspired by the mentoring relationship, that is what driver and sustains such relationships !}
So, fast forward a few months to a regular mentoring lunch. At one point she stopped eating, sat in deep reflection, then spoke. She had realised: “I need to spend more time with people I disagree with”, as she’d realised that her work and life tended to be spent around people she agreed with and she avoided those she didn’t agree with.
When even such a champion of diversity keeps challenging her in ways that bring even further diversity to her own thoughts, that is deeply inspiring!
If we don’t challenge ourselves, our preconceptions, there is no growth, and there is arrogance in assuming we know the answers, that there is no value in the opinions of others (even if we strongly disagree with them!).
This drawing from Seth Godin in his book “The Icarus Deception”, as I wrote about in: “Smashing Paradigms – your Comfort Zone is no longer safe..wait, what ?”
