Have I gone mad? Last month it was paradoxes and now we have opening doors! Is it a real door or a metaphor?
This is all seems a bit deep. Here is a door, just an ordinary one apart from the fact that we know it will soon be opened. You can’t yet see what is on the other side (but you might already be making assumptions).
So whether you have your personal or business hat on, just imagine that you are seeing this door for the first time. In fact, there could be many such doors in a line or even behind these doors. You don’t really know, but you/your business are in a hurry and you think you know what is behind the door so why even bother with it?
What do you do, stop by each door that you come across, survey its surroundings and continue your journey perhaps wondering where all these doors have come from?
Are you not in the slightest bit curious as to how an ‘above average’ number of doors came to be here? This alone should spark interest. What did you do though? Did you have a brief look, compare this situation with others you have come across and conclude that there was nothing of importance or value here?
What if there is some sleight of hand, what if special effects and camouflage are creating an illusion? There could be a real door (or maybe even several) into a real room. Maybe there is just a door hanging in the wind, but since you did not even take the opportunity to walk around the other side you would not know that there was a map showing the location of lost treasure, or next week’s winning lottery numbers?
What if we get a different experience by going through the door rather than round it (it might damage the door though)?
I will not labour the point too much but one of the key principles of Innovation is curiosity. If something does not look right, what does it mean? Do you not get curious? Does it present an opportunity or a tool that we can use?
If an opportunity does present itself, do we dismiss it because we think we understand it even though we have not had a really good look at it?
Life is full of doors. We cannot look behind every single one but there is value in being curious.
Enjoy exploring! If you need some help cultivating your curiosity and opening doors then please do get in touch.