This is my hot take, and I’m serious about it!! This is where innovative thinking happens!!
My podcast is called “Connecting the Dots with The Renaissance People“. But my #2 choice was “Off on a Tangent” because that’s when some of the most creative thinking happens. A dot is a circle, and a tangent (if you remember geometry class) is a line extending off from the perimeter of that circle at a 90° angle. And if it encounters another dot, they’re connected! Follow my visual thinking?
Going off on a tangent and bringing in ideas from a separate, but analogous topic, is how we’re going to solve problems, both big and small. We’re all stuck inside echo chambers, silos formed within industries, disciplines, sectors, you name it. And we’re just repeating the same ideas over and over in those spaces. It is only by following that tangent and connecting the dots, cross-pollinating the ideas, that we can be innovative and have real impact.
This is the power of multi-passionate, boundary spanning Renaissance People. Sure, we easily connect the dots for others.
But the secret sauce is our Renaissance Mindset. We are proud, lifelong learners who are almost childlike in our curiosity and desire to learn. We learn for the sake of learning while simultaneously believing in serendipity. We know deep down that things we learn as we’re diving down rabbit holes or listening to someone else go off on a tangent, are things that we’ll be able to use or share with others. We have the patience to listen to other’s tangents because we see value in the connections that they are making and build off of what they share.
1+1 = 4, 6, 10 or more!
This Renaissance Mindset comes naturally to Renaissance People, but it’s also something YOU can cultivate to be an innovative problem solver and team member. This is a deeply human skill that AI does not have. And for job seekers and collaborators, it is a way to stand out.
If you want to learn more about how to cultivate a Renaissance Mindset, sign up for my free listserv and listen to my podcast, Connecting the Dot with The Renaissance People where the tangents fly freely.
