Tip: Get new friends

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with, according to Richard Koch. To reflect on who those five are, gives you a chance to see yourself.
Photo by Julien Harneis Flickr CC

Preaching to the choir

In his blog post Paul Sloane asks "who challenges your thinking?" If the five persons closest to you all share your opinions, how will your thinking evolve?

Mr Sloane finishes by saying:

You should seek out and spend more time with the high achievers, the ambitious, the successful and the inspirational among your friends. If you want to be a more creative, broad-minded and interesting person you should also move out of your comfort zone by meeting people who will challenge your view of the world, whose experiences are different from yours and who will confront your assumptions.

Proofread your ideas

The scientific model is made up of steps, to communicate the results is one. By publishing the results you invite comments and criticism, others will try to replicate your findings - it is an "open" system of competence building. There is an opportunity for doing the same as a leader.

If you seek out people who don't automatically accept your ideas and dialogue with them around issues close to your heart, you have the chance to finding holes and flaws in your model of the world.

Do you challenge your model of the world? Are you willing to discuss your beliefs? Can you expect others to follow you if you don't "proofread" your ideas?

Any comments or experiences you would like to share? How about a dialogue with people you don't know all that well?