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I was recently tagged with the Think Different meme. (Thanks to The Synergy Institute for tagging me!). The fundemental challenge is to describe what happens when you, well, think different about something. For a good example, I suggest going back and reading the first one (click the banner).
My experience with thinking different.
When I first got tagged with this meme, I really relished the idea. The reason being that this is something that has been so much a part of my thinking process, that I will quite often overlook the concept when I’m discussing various topics.
So, let’s get started: When I was little, my parents wanted as much as possible for me to avoid sloppy thinking habits. One memorable event was when I was rather little and Dad was watching a war movie. I believe it was “Das Boot”, in retrospect. I asked him who the good guys were. He took this easy opportunity turn the tables on me and play with my mind a little bit 
When he got it through my head that everybody thinks that they’re the good guy, he explained the basic premise of the movie to me. From there on, my parents would not let me put simple labels on things. The term “best” was almost a joke, as there is rarely a universally “best” anything. This pattern continued on as I grew up, and I learned to be very cautious in an appraising a situation.
Of course, it becomes especially hard to apply this when you’re under the influence of some strong emotions, one way or another. But what I have found, is that if you can find the right mental leverage, you can work free of just about any kind of annoyance, distaste, or even fear. In some cases, it can be rather fun, looking for new contexts and different ways of applying known data. It almost becomes like an interactive puzzle.
Here are a few thoughts to try on for size when dealing with people:
- Everybody is the good guy. Note the wording: Not everybody thinks they’re the good guy. They are the good guy, at least in their own little world.
- Most people want what is best. The difference is in what each think qualifies as “best” (see above). Easily overlooked in our society. Particularly in politics, because people are trying to make the world a better place. Do some people lose the way? Yes. Do people have differences of views and methods? Yes. But, that doesn’t mean that the one you don’t like is out to wreck the world. If you look at just about any person, you’ll see that they’re not that different deep down.
- Everybody has the same needs. Everybody gets cold. Everybody gets hungry. Everybody wants someone to hold their hand. Some would seek to use this as a weapon. Properly used, it can enable you to overcome intense dislike or fear and deal with a difficult person.
However, thinking different goes beyond how you deal with people in your external world. For example: A while back I had a few articles I wanted to write in a certain order. I was trying to force the first one out and it was rough going. The structure was disjointed, and the ideas were tough to follow. At first, I thought that maybe I was encountering a variant of “blogger’s block”. I decided to open this up and play with it a little bit, and as I was running through different combinations of what could be going on, suddenly one of the other articles in the series jumped out of my brain, into my fingers, and onto my screen. For some reason, the other article needed to be written first. After it was done, I understood why, as there were elements in there that I needed to reference in the article I had been writing.
How to do it.
If you’re not familiar with this process, don’t worry: It’s pretty easy to get started. If you are looking at something and you want to think different, a good question to ask yourself is “What am I missing?”
I’ve got to go to the doctor today. What a hassle. What am I missing? How about the fact that I have medical care, a rarity in the world.
I’ve got a pile of books to read and I don’t even know where to start. What am I missing? Look at all of this wonderful information! Facts and fancy to expand my knowledge and mental horizons.
You get the idea.
One more technique I’d like to share is the SCAMPER checklist. Although it’s designed more for physical design and troubleshooting, it can very easily be adapted to how you think about a situation. Remember, if you can find the key factor that is giving you grief, you can then work with it to make it your ally.
The SCAMPER checklist goes like this:
- Substitute. Try replacing one factor after another and see if you get any sparks.
- Combine. Mix things up. The more unlikely the combination, the better. It’s only in the unexplored mental areas that you are likely to find something new.
- Adapt. Take an element of the situation and apply it elsewhere, or change its function. USB devices become drink coolers, and police academy becomes kindergarten (Kindergarten Cop, a funny movie)
- Modify. Change the scale, or change the attributes. A while back, I was given a simple question to look at the ethics of a situation: “Would the answer change if the scale is different?” A tricky question, but very good for a quick brain-starter.
- Put to another use. Think “MacGyver” here, (one of my childhood heroes). If you can think of a way to put what you are thinking about to an end that works for you, you have made an ally out of an enemy, which is progress all around.
- Eliminate. Sometimes, you have to reduce the problem to its basic components. Sometimes you have to trim an unnecessary add-on to an otherwise worthy idea. Sometimes it’s necessary to limit or actually eliminate an element. I did this one in a couple of different ways when I did the bravest thing I’ve done.
- Reverse. Turn the tables. Say for example, you are concerned about how someone is being treated. What would happen if the situation were reversed? What would happen if instead of us lefties being ignored, it was you unworthy right handed. . . er - Never mind The point is that by imagining the situation in reverse you can check for consistency. If you run the scenario in reverse, and it doesn’t add up, then you know that there is a factor in there which is throwing things off.
The Challenge.
Well, that’s enough info for now. Time for me to tag the next recipients. Before I do, here are the rules (verbatim).
The rules for this writing project are:
- Write a new blog post in which you “think different”. Follow my suggestions above, or be a bit different and interpret the challenge the way you want
. - State that the post is a part of the Think Different Challenge and include a link and/ or trackback to this post so that readers know the rules of the challenge. Feel free to use the above banner (inspired, of course, by Seth Godin).
- Include a link and/ or trackback to the blogger who tagged you.
- At the end of your post, go ahead and tag some fellow bloggers. Don’t forget to email them to let them know they have been tagged.
- That’s it! Just sit back and enjoy reading peoples’ responses to the challenge.
And now, for the tags:
- Titus-Armand, from Project Armannd.
- Jenny and/or Erin from Jenny-and-Erin
- And let us not forget Lorraine from Powerfull-Living
Each of these excellent bloggers will, I think, bring a valuable and unique perspective to this meme. I’m looking forward to it.
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