Being Proactive with New Ideas

The alternative to being reactive to new ideas is to be proactive with them. That is, instead of accepting new ideas when there is absolutely no other choice, embrace them early and consider the possibilities and implications.

There are three primary advantages to being proactive. First, you have more time to adjust to new ideas. That is you can work through the implications and how they will affect you before you actually have to accept them. This advanced preparation is less of a psychological shock. Second, you can, potentially, take advantage of new ideas by thinking them through before hand. And third, you are less likely to become out of touch over time as each new idea by itself is not as threatening as an accumulation of new ideas.

There are, of course, disadvantages to being proactive with new ideas. You don't want to jump on every bandwagon that comes along. Not every new idea survives. In fact, most don't. So, if you are overly proactive to new ideas, it looks like you are just following fads. And, in fact, you may well be.

So, how do you embrace important new ideas and not jump on every bandwagon that comes along? First, you have to evaluate new ideas critically. Look at them intellectually rather than emotionally. Our emotional reactions to new ideas may not be the best assessment as they are, well, new. Emotions are good judgements but tend to work a little better in situations where we have some experience. We need to step back and evaluate new ideas critically rather than just reacting to them. Second, we need to reflect on our successes and failures. Did we accept ideas that didn't work out? Did we fail to accept an idea that did prove its metal? Over time you can get better at this.

Personally, I think being proactive is the best strategy in a dynamic world. And if you are going to be proactive, you have to refine your approach.

Being Reactive to New Ideas

In the last post, I mentioned that you can face new ideas with one of two predispositions. You can be reactive or proactive. A reactive person resists new ideas until the support for them is so overwhelming that they have no choice but to accept them. The primary benefit of this approach is that you don't have to accept every silly idea that comes along. New ideas often come along like fads and die out just as quickly. The reactive person invests no time or energy in these ideas until they have clearly proven their worthiness. The problem, of course, is how much evidence is required to prove the worthiness of an idea?

At one extreme if the person does not require much evidence before accepting a new idea, then they are really just being a proactive person but not doing it very well. At the other extreme, they may be way out of step with the people around them having failed to accept ideas that have become mainstream.

Personally, I would find it difficult to be a reactive person for two reasons. First, I would find it hard to know when it is time to give in. And, second, I would find it difficult to have to finally give in to an idea that I had resist for a long time. Further, I would find the idea of having to continually adjust and give in to new ideas difficult. But that is me and others may be different.

I would think that being reactive would be a good approach for one who is living in static times. However, for one who is living in dynamic times where things are constantly changing, this would be a strain. I would think that for dynamic times such as the present that being proactive to new ideas would be a lot easier on a person. And that is what I will turn to in the next post.