Yesterday I had some free time and I chose to spend it in an active dialogue on Twitter around the need for radical systemic change to address inequity in the housing system in the U.K.
As I engaged with replies and comments, my self-awareness was that I chose not to jump in with my own thoughts and opinions, instead to ask more and more questions to understand how others saw the issues and what then to do. Being as objective as I can in self-assessment, I do have many years of knowledge, expertise, and experience around relevant fields (eg property development, construction, finance, economics and more), yet I wanted to listen rather than opine. I wanted to be there to learn other opinions, why people think certain ways, what sits behind that both rationally and emotionally. I learned some new things that I will now go away and research more deeply.
This brings to mind two things. The first is this quote from Richard Feynman, the second is the #OpenLeaderhip model. It takes all of these attributes, being Brave, Hungry, Open, Humble for us to grow and learn every day. I aspire to model this and hope I did in my interactions on Twitter.
The problem is not people being uneducated. The problem is that people are educated just enough to believe what they have been taught, and not educated enough to question anything from what they have been taught.
Richard Feynman