March 2023 - Peripheral Thinkers™ Newsletter
March 15, 2023
Aloha Peripheral Thinkers™,
Welcome to the third edition of the Peripheral Thinkers™ Newsletter. PTN #003. If this is your first edition or you've been here from the start, remember…
This newsletter is for you. To serve you. To inform, challenge, and occasionally entertain you.
If you like it, share it. If you disagree with something, please tell me. If something's confusing, ask me.
Glad you are here!
🤙🏽 Paul
A Peripheral Perspective: Tenure vs. Junior vs. Stranger
An idea is a possibility waiting for action. And action will happen.
Until then, can you see the idea's value without all the details?
Are you okay with the idea coming from someone younger, older, or different?
Recently, someone suggested we pair a junior member of an innovation team with a senior member to keep the junior member on track.
Seems logical.
I understand the suggestion.
No malice intended.
Efficiency and mentoring are the drivers.
Still, I had to speak up. Shocker, right? I had to speak up.
Hey, they pay me to speak up.
To provide alternative perspectives.
To highlight innovation opportunities beyond their obstacles.
Here's how it played out.
PAUL: "I believe junior members should be encouraged to question everything. During the first months, they have fresh eyes. No filters."
CLIENT: "But Paul, we must show them how we do things. They don't know the inner workings yet."
PAUL: "I get it. Some form of onboarding is needed for them to function."
CLIENT: "Right."
PAUL: "At what point do efficiency, mentoring, and onboarding by people with 5, 10, or 15 years of company experience perpetuate conventional thinking? Strengthen the status quo? Unintentionally allow self-imposed, subconscious restraints? Create limitations to your innovations?"
----
If none of that bad stuff happens, and you consistently encourage your people to think freely and question conventions…
Good on you!
You have:
→ Fresh eyes
→ Fresh ideas
→ No unintended restraints
Ready for the kicker???
Your next subconscious constraint is
Ideas from people with no experience in your industry.
Try that one on for size.
How do you feel about considering ideas from someone without industry experience?
You may still have a mild convention addiction if it gives you even a slight pucker.
On the other hand, if you are excited…
Even a little at the notion that there's a world full of ideas on the other side of the tracks…
AWESOME!
Now you're becoming a Peripheral Thinker™.
Are you picking up what I'm putting down?
If not, speak up.
If so, speak up.
If you're not sure, speak up.
Discuss. Debate. Consider. Contribute.
Until next time, I'll be looking for you in the periphery.
🤙🏽
Projects in the Periphery
🤙🏽 I'm speaking at The Dyslexia Show in Birmingham, England, on Saturday, March 25th, 2023
🤙🏽 Creating a calendar on my website listing speaking gigs and interviews (still in progress)
🤙🏽 Creating an online home for the newsletters (still in progress)
🤙🏽 Applications for the first Peripheral Thinkers™ cohort of business leaders. (still in progress)
One More Thing
If you like the newsletter, please invite your friends and colleagues to subscribe. Subscribe on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7164646484234153984
Okay… there are two "one-more-things."
Listen to Pam & Scott Harper's interview of me for their Growth Igniters Radio®. The episode releases March 22nd on their site and wherever you get your podcasts.
Until next time, I'll be looking for you in the periphery.
Mahalo,
🤙🏽
Paul
Peripheral Thinking™ Background
Other than a term that's somewhat difficult to say, what the heck is Peripheral Thinking™?
A little over 10% of the population is born with secret super-skills. While a small percentage of the population, these people represent a disproportionate percentage of notable innovators. From corporate pioneers to scientists to world-class athletes—these leaders raised the bar for their professions and, in some cases, created new industries.
Henry Ford, Ann Bancroft (explorer), da Vinci, Edison, Agatha Christie, JFK, Richard Branson, Erin Brockovich, Muhammad Ali, and more.
All innovators.
All Dyslexic.
We've cracked the code to the innovative, super-solver, swiss army knife dyslexic brain.
So, I translated the super-skills to support the neurotypical 90%.
In general terms, Peripheral Thinking™ is an unconventional approach to finding and applying seemingly unrelated ideas, principles, and proven solutions and combining them in new ways. It's a new way of pulling meaning from everyday experiences to expose patterns and hidden paths that move you beyond obstacles. It informs the way you communicate, connect, and empathize with people. It exponentially increases the resources you can tap into at will.