Part of digging into the depth of great creativity and leadership is asking questions.
Life is fast and busy, so we often accept the first answer that is given…even if it is not the right answer. “Better to have an answer than have no answer”…but is it?
Author Kent Healy has a theory that he has spent over ten years developing. His argument is very simple; we dived the world into three categories:
- The Uninformed
- The Misinformed
- The Informed
Like all solid theories, and creative ideas, this theory has been developed to solve a problem:
“The sources of our greatest problems are twofold: One, a lack of information and two, perhaps most importantly, a plethora of wrong information.”
It is not very hard to be uninformed…you have no information, and you are not looking for any info. You have chosen to settle on the fact that what you believe is enough.
It is very easy to be misinformed. We become misinformed when we accept everything at face value. When we trust everything that is said and never prove or dig into the data. Misinformation is dangerous and causes us to react and not respond. Misinformation is lazy and scary.
The informed choose a different route. The “informed” decide to do the hard work to identify and understand what is happening, what could happen, and the variables around the topic being discussed. They also actually develop ideas that matter and create solutions that work. They do so by not jumping to conclusions, they use sources and question the status quo or the popular belief. They ask questions about the answers. The informed are not afraid to challenge everything, including themselves and their own beliefs.
As a creative problem solver and a leader, you have a choice.
Will you be uninformed, misinformed, or informed? To be the leader God has called you to be, the leader we need you to be, you need to be an informed creative leader.
How do you stay in a posture of continually learning and staying informed?
