MBA1703 Guest Teacher – Susan Robertson – How to Supercharge Your Creative Thinking by Outwitting Your Instincts

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Today's guest teacher, Susan Robertson is a world renowned innovation expert. She helps leaders and organizations unleash their creativity for better performance, productivity and profit. And she's here on the show to help you do the same. This lesson is very different, very interactive and very practical. It's going to help you switch the way you approach certain situations in your business, especially challenges. This is one you're going to want to listen to and then re listen to again for good measure because it's that impactful. I'm going to pass it on to Susan, but I'll be back to get give my takeaways and to wrap up today's episode. But for now, take it away. Susan.

Hi everybody, I'm Susan Robertson and I'm an innovation strategist for Fortune 500 companies. Thanks for joining us. Today I'm going to teach you about how to supercharge your own creative and visionary thinking by outwitting your instincts. I'm going to show you how to overcome a major creative thinking roadblock that you probably don't even realize you have. All humans suffer from a mental shortcut called the negativity bias. The negativity bias is the phenomenon that negative experiences have a higher impact on our thoughts, feelings and behaviors than positive experiences. So we're actually much more motivated to avoid negative than we are to seek out positive. And this constant drive to avoid negative dramatically affects our thinking in ways we don't realize because it's all happening subconsciously. To illustrate the negativity bias a little more, think about if you believed someone had stolen $20 from you, how angry do you think you would be? Now think about if you randomly found $20 in the street, how happy do you think you would be? There's tons of research that shows that due to the negativity bias. We're much angrier about losing $20 than we are happy about finding $20, even though the rational value of the money is exactly the same. And that's the negativity bias. The reason this negativity bias is a roadblock to creative and visionary thinking is because our brains interpret any uncertainty as danger. And the immediate subconscious result is to try to avoid that danger. Ultimately, it's a survival instinct. Think for a minute about way back in our prehistory, when our ancestors still lived in caves. Let's imagine a little cave boy. We'll call him Grog. And Grog hears a rustling over in the bushes.

Hmm.

He thinks, I wonder what that might be. And he trots over to investigate. It was a giant reptile. And unfortunately, Grog is dead. Now think about a little cave girl. We'll call her Lucy. Lucy hears a rustling over in the bushes too. But Lucy thinks, huh, that might be danger. And she runs away. And ultimately, Lucy lives to pass on her genes to all of us. So all of us are descended from the people who ran away from uncertainty. And that instinct to assume uncertainty is danger is alive and well in all of us today. Our immediate subconscious reaction to any uncertainty is to assume it might be danger. We have a really common phrase that we all say when we hear or think of a new idea that very effectively kills new ideas instantly. And that phrase is, yes, but whenever we hear a new idea or even think of a new idea ourselves, our brains instantly focus on all the potential dangers. Yes, but it's too expensive. Yes, but it will take too long. Yes, but the sales team won't like it. Yes, but it won't work in our existing IT system. And on and on. The problem with this is that it's exceptionally easy for us to identify lots of reasons why any ideas might not work. And it results in us killing most ideas before we ever even examine if there's anything good. We just reject them the moment we discover a potential problem. Because that yes but is laser focused and lightning fast. The yes but is so common that we don't realize how poisonous it actually is. But it effectively squashes all creative thinking. It squashes your own creative thinking when you say it or think it. And it really squashes any creative thinking from your team when they hear it from you. So you need to wipe it out of your vocabulary. Seriously, just hit delete on the yes but. And that sounds like it should be easy, but actually it's quite difficult because you have to circumvent an Instinctive sense, subconscious, and instant process that goes on in your brain. So that's the bad news. The negativity bias is never going to go away for any of us. But the good news is we absolutely can retrain our brains to get around it. And I'm going to show you a neuroscience brain hack that will help you defeat your negativity bias every time. I call this thinking tool GPS thinking. And GPS stands for great problem solving. The trigger to know when you need to turn on your GPS thinking is when you hear or think or say, yes, but when someone has an idea and you have to make a practice of noticing that, yes, but trigger. And by the way, now that you're aware of it, you're going to be shocked at how many times you say it or hear it every day. Once you've recognized that subconscious yes, but process has kicked in, you have to now interrupt it with the conscious GPS process. I'm going to give you the three steps of the GPS process and then I'll give you an example to illustrate. Step one is G great. The first thing you want to do is list anything that's potentially good about the idea. What's interesting, what's valuable, what's getting us toward the goal, what's new or different about it. And this G great part is the part that your brain will naturally skip if you let it. So you have to not let yourself skip this step. G Great. Step number one. Then step number two is the P problem, which is where your brain has been trying to go. But instead of simply stating the problem, there's a critical difference here. And that critical difference is you need to flip that statement into a how to question. So instead of saying it will cost too much, instead you say, how can we make it more affordable? Or instead of saying it will take too long, instead you say, how can we do it in the time that we have? That's step two. P problem articulated in the form of a how to question. Then you move on to S solving. So now you solve for those problems you found in the idea by changing the original idea but keeping something about it that you thought was great. From the G great list, I'm going to give you an example. So let's say you mentioned to your friend you've been feeling a little extra tired lately and doesn't seem to be due to lack of sleep. And your friend says, huh, I have an idea for you. Take a break every day in the middle of the day and take a two hour walk. That's what I do. And it seems to really help. And your brain instantly focuses on all the yes buts in that idea, all the potential problems. Yes, but I don't have time. I have too much work. Yes, but I have to help my kids with their homework. Yes, but I have to have dinner ready. You focus on all the problems. That's your negativity bias kicking in. And it starts with yes but. So once you've realized that the yes but is kicked in, you go through the GPS process and G great. You list anything about that idea that might be good. Well, exercise is good. Taking a break during your workday is good. You'll be more focused when you come back to the work and you'll feel more refreshed. So there are things in that idea, aspects of that idea that are good and that's what you want to draw out in the G good step. And once you've done that, you move to the step 2p problem and you articulate those problems now in the form of a how to question. So instead of simply saying I don't have time, instead you say, how can I find time for exercise? Or you might say, how can I find time to take a break in my day? Or you might say, how can I find more time to relax so I can sleep better? So that's step 2p problem, but articulated in the form of a how to question. And then you move on to step three, which is S solving. And you solve for those problems by changing the original idea. So you might say the problem you want to solve for is how to find more time in your day for some exercise. So you might say, well, I don't have a two hour block, but I could find a few 15 minute blocks. And in those 15 minute blocks I could take a couple of laps around the house or I could run up and down the stairs five times. So you've changed the idea. You've moved away from a two hour walk and you've modified the idea to be a few 15 minute blocks. So you've solved for the problem, but you kept something that you thought was good, which is both exercise and a break in your day. So that's the GPS process. I'll quickly repeat the steps. G good. What's going on? Potentially good in the idea, knowing it's not finished. P problem articulated as a how to question and S solution. Solve for those problems by changing the original idea, but keeping something that you thought was great. So that's it. Gps, as I said earlier, it's not difficult to understand, but it is difficult to do because you're having to stop a subconscious process in your brain. So I always suggest that you start small. So instead of just assuming you can do this instantly all the time, you probably can't start with once a day. There's probably at least one opportunity every day where you can make a conscious choice to apply GPS thinking. So start small every day. Make one choice. I'm going to think about GPS when you hear or say yes, but turn it off and turn on GPS thinking and see what you can come up with. And once you've gotten yourself into the habit of doing it once a day, then you can start to ratchet it up. Do it a few times a day and hopefully eventually you can get to the point where you're doing it all the time. But it is something you're going to have to practice and keep at every day. Because unfortunately the yes, but instinct never goes away, so you're going to have to keep battling it all the time. That's it. GPS Thinking A way to skyrocket your own visionary and creative thinking Once again, I'm Susan Robertson with Sharpen Innovation and if you want to learn more about how to jumpstart your creative thinking, you can visit my website at www.susanrobertson.co. thanks again and back to Omar Fidelity.

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What a fantastic lesson by Susan Robertson I want to give a couple of tips that really reinforce what Susan talked about today. We have to be very, very careful about the way we speak and think about things in our life and of course, in our business, because it's going to dictate whether we get better, we grow, we get out of a situation, we improve or not. Business is an emotional game. If you can have control of the way you feel about things and change your perspective on how you approach challenges, it can be a huge competitive advantage. And yes, the language you use does matter. What you say changes the way you think and how you approach certain situations. That's why great entrepreneurs and great minds always say, when it comes to making good decisions, solving big problems, it's good to go back to first principles. And this is a physics law or physics way of reasoning, which is you ask yourself, what do you know is true? 100%, what are the facts? And to work from there. This is very similar to what Susan's saying. You know, like, what can you do? What is possible? What are your options? This is what I know. What are the options? What can I do? You need to just suspend disbelief for a moment about what you can't do and what your limitations are. Because the problem with limitations is that they're limiting. They're going to stop you from coming up with creative solutions. Just like Susan said, when you say, yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah, but it's stops your mind from coming up with creative solutions. Also, when you sit down and ask yourself, what do you know for a fact is true right now? What are the facts? You are basing your decision on what you know and not what you don't know. Sometimes we just make assumptions. We guess, we say this could happen, and we make decisions based on something that is just not true now and may not be true in the future. That's a very poor way to make decisions. So another piece of advice I will give you, just because I've been through this so many times and expect to continue to go through this, is that you'll wake up sometimes and you'll be served so many problems. 2, 3, 4, 5 big issues you need to solve in your business. Your website might be down, an employee might be leaving you, you might get an angry customer email, and you just realize that you're not going to get that deposit from the bank that you're expecting because it's a bank holiday all in the same day, all in the same moment. And many of these things will happen and they're totally out of your control. My advice, and this is what I would do or what I have done, is just focus on one problem at a time. It's very easy to get overwhelmed when you think of many things at once. So just even tell yourself, okay, let's solve one problem at a time. What's the first one? We're going to solve this one. Let's focus on it and don't think about the other ones until you solve this one. All right, now you might be asking, which one should I solve first? Well, just solve the one that is most urgent, the one that's most time bound. And if you can't come up with some creative solutions, you can move on to the next problem. Now, what I found is that when you take one challenge one problem at a time, you tend to get some momentum. You solve one problem and you're like, okay, these problems are solvable. I can solve problems. I have that ability. There are problems and then they go away. They're not problems anymore because I've created some solutions. And this makes you feel better about the whole thing and gives you more energy, more momentum to solve the next problem. And really, it just becomes a muscle. You start to get used to having challenges thrown your way and dealing with them. Now you might be saying, man, this sounds really tough and really depressing. If you know anything about me or the $100 MBA or what we've built over the years, we're here to give it to you straight. We're here to give you the truth. This is entrepreneurship. This is what it means to build a business. Now, your level of challenges and problems will vary depending on how high stakes your business is, but you will have challenges. It is just guaranteed. So just accept that and just get good at dealing with people. Don't quit being entrepreneurs or quit having their business because it's too easy and it's boring or something like that. No, they quit because it's hard, it's challenging, it takes a toll, and it's very similar to somebody who starts to work out in the gym and they go hard the first week or two, and then they're so sore and tired they don't go back. Because it's very discouraging. But you have to see it as you're building muscles. You're building the problem solving muscle. Thanks so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. If you love what you hear, hit subscribe right now. So you never miss a beat. You'll get the next episode automatically on whatever podcasting app you like. Whether it's Apple podcasts or Stitcher radio or Spotify or Himalaya, we're on them all. If you want to learn more about Susan Robertson and what she does and maybe check out some of her content on her website. Just check out susanrobertson co Before I go, I want to leave you with this. You often hear that business is like a roller coaster ride. There's ups and downs, ups and downs, and you're going to have to endure the downs sometimes so you can enjoy the ups. And my advice to you is to try to create as many ups as possible in your business because you can't control the down sometime and you want to make sure you have enough ups to make it worth your while. So try to deliver projects quickly, meaning try to release new products or new features to your existing product or new blog posts, as many as possible, as frequently as possible. Because those are like many wins. They're going to allow you to feel good about your business and feel good about what you're doing and get great feedback and make people happy and make you happy. Get as many wins as possible consistently. So it's not just downs, it's also a ton of ups. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. See you then. Take care.

Fidelity Active ETFs have the flexibility to shift and transform as markets do the same. So instead of just riding an index, they can seek to outperform it by adapting to market conditions and pursuing new opportunities as they emerge. And while you get the potential outperformance of an actively managed fund, you can still buy and sell it on your terms. Just like any other etf. Markets can change in real time. Make sure your ETF can too. Learn more@fidelity.com ActiveETFs before investing in any exchange trade traded fund, you should consider its investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Contact Fidelity for a prospectus, an offering circular, or if available, a summary prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully. While active ETFs offer the potential to outperform an index, these products may more significantly trail an index as compared with passive ETFs. ETFs are subject to market fluctuation and the risks of their underlying investments. ETFs are subject to management fees and other expenses. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC Member NYSE SIPC.