Being Wrong is Right

We need new answers like never before. ‘Original thoughts that have value.’

That description is not mine. It belongs to Sir Ken Robinson who believes that we are all born with immense capacity for originality. In his TED talk ( http://tinyurl.com/5gsyph ) he makes this case powerfully and memorably. If you haven’t seen it you should, because he provides many of the principles by which we can begin to construct a new future from the ashes of the old one.

New answers from old. Innovation. A much over-used and mis-understood term but one we need to come face to face with.

At the core of innovation is the ability to be original - to be creative. Without that fuel, innovation disappears. Repetition is its enemy. Fear is its foe. And the tighter we cling to the past, the more we eliminate its possibility.

Ken describes one of the conditions for originality as a willingness to be wrong. I agree. An environment in which ‘right is good’ and ‘wrong is bad’ over-simplifies every proposition and reduces the chance of achieving anything great - however you define ‘great’. Ideas themselves are not right or wrong. What do you do with them is what matters.

Whatever business you’re in, it will be improved if you think again about what you mean by being ‘wrong’.

And about why being ‘right’ is so important to you.