Elevate your thinking

Today we are in the innovation economy where human skills such as creativity, curiosity, courage, collaboration, compassion and communication are key to come up with new ideas that challenge the status quo.

Elevating your thinking and developing strategic foresight is all about cultivating a long-term perspective, anticipating future trends. 

Keep tabs on emerging signals in technology, society, politics, economy, and the environment. A commonly used framework is STEEP (Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political) analysis.

Look at how parts of the system interact to form a whole (zoom out), and then consider how each part behaves and influences the rest (zoom in). This helps you spot interdependencies and potential bottlenecks or leverage points.

Surround yourself with individuals who bring different cultural, disciplinary, or industry viewpoints. Novel ideas and unexpected insights often emerge from cross-pollination.

• Be curious: Read across disciplines, stay informed, and question conventional wisdom.
• Be systematic: Use scenario planning, horizon scanning, and other frameworks.
• Collaborate widely: Involve diverse teams and external stakeholders.
• Build a habit of reflection: Continuously refine your thinking, capture learning, and adapt.

Elevate your sense of taste

The social inquiry of taste – it is about the human ability to judge what is considered beautiful, good, truth, proper and valuable.

In sociology, taste or palate is an individual or a demographic group’s subjective preferences of dietary, design, cultural and/or aesthetic patterns. 

Taste manifests socially via distinctions in choices such as delicacies/beverages, fashions, music, etiquettes, goods, styles of artwork, and other related cultural activities. 

Social and cultural phenomena concerning taste are closely associated with social relations and dynamics between people. The concept of social taste is therefore rarely separated from its accompanying sociological concepts. 

An understanding of taste as something that is expressed in actions between people helps to perceive many social phenomena that would otherwise be inconceivable.

Within many theories concerning taste, class dynamics is understood as one of the principal mechanisms structuring taste and the ideas of sophistication and vulgarity.

• The culture of the old rich and the most successful – is refined taste.

• The culture of the new rich and wannabe famous  – is a taste for acceptance and recognition.

• The culture of the business savvy and entrepreneurs  – is the taste for difficult conversations characterised by innovation, creativity, calculated risk-taking and inside knowledge.

Depending what your goals are and in what circles you want to move in and to be seen in, you need to develop the taste for that circle.

Elevate yourself…

It’s NOT who you are. What stops you is who you think you’re NOT. You think you’re not the one who can go out there and do whatever it is that you want to do.

“The reason that most of us are unhappy most of the time is that we set our goals not for the person we’re going to be when we reach them, but we set our goals for the person we are when we set them.

Elevate you being interesting

One of the biggest developments within positive psychology in recent years is the identification of psychological richness as a form of the good life, distinct from happiness and meaning. 

Psychological richness describes the impact certain kinds of experiences have upon the mind. It’s a dynamic state of robust cognitive engagement that takes on its own trajectory by stimulating new thoughts and emotions.

Psychological richness arises from a vast and varied range of experiences. Some are marked by:

• Novelty – first trip 
• Challenges – environment or tasks.
• Positive emotions
• Painful emotions
• Complexity

But there’s one feature the set of experiences that generate psychological richness have in common. They are interesting. 

They arouse and stimulate minds in a way that feels interesting. The feeling of the interesting, arises when whatever it is you do, hits your mind in a way that draws you in and makes you want more. 

Maybe it’s a conversation with a friend that is so effortless and engrossing that you feel as if it could go on forever, and, afterward, you find yourself still thinking about it. 

Maybe it’s reading a book that you can’t put down, that twists your emotions and leaves you looking at the world a little differently.

Because the interesting is all about what stimulates your mind, the best way to understand the interesting is to think about your experiences of it. 

Think about how different it feels when you are captivated. Then start to pay attention to the interesting as it arises within you. Identify what the interesting feels like for you. 

That’s what is going to help you develop more psychological richness within your life. Look for the sparks that stimulate your mind to keep going, that arouse your sense of interest. 

If it is of interest to you, it will be to those you attract towards you, your social group and clients.

The concept of what makes something or someone “interesting” is inherently subjective, what piques one person’s curiosity can be entirely unremarkable to another. Still, psychologists, sociologists, and philosophers have identified several common threads that influence whether you perceive an object, idea, or person as interesting. 

The most frequently cited factors:

Novelty: When something is new or unfamiliar, our attention is naturally drawn to it. This is tied to our survival instinct to notice changes or surprises in the environment.

Uniqueness: People or topics that stand out from the ordinary in terms of behavior, style, or thinking often spark interest because they break the routine or expected pattern.

Layered Complexity: Complex ideas, stories, or personalities invite deeper exploration. If there’s more to discover beneath the surface, people are inclined to spend time engaging with it.

Mystery and Intrigue: When information is partially hidden, or when there is an element of unanswered questions, curiosity takes over, compelling us to find out more.

Shared Experience: We often find stories or people interesting when their experiences mirror our own in some way, creating empathy and a sense of connection.

Emotional Impact: If encountering someone or something elicits strong emotions, surprise, awe, joy, sadness, we tend to label that experience as interesting because it feels significant to us.

Mental Stimulation: Ideas or problems that are just difficult enough to engage our minds, but not so difficult that they feel impossible can sustain long-term interest.

Learning Opportunities: People are drawn to experiences that expand their knowledge or skills. If an encounter promises personal growth, it’s more likely to be perceived as interesting.

Genuineness: Individuals who are authentic, who consistently behave and express themselves in alignment with their true feelings often stand out. Authenticity is refreshing and captivating.

Enthusiasm and Passion: When you see someone wholeheartedly engaged in what they love, that energy can be contagious. Their fervor often sparks or renews interest in others.

Societal Values: Sometimes, “interestingness” is shaped by prevailing cultural norms and trends. What society deems valuable, exotic, or prestigious can become automatically more interesting.

Community and Belonging: If peers or social groups label something as interesting, individuals are more inclined to adopt that view to fit in or share the experience.

Unexpected Twists: Situations or personalities that have an element of contradiction or paradox capture attention. A person who defies stereotypes, for instance, can be highly interesting because they break expectations.

Humor and Wit: Surprising, clever remarks or comedic timing can make a person engaging. Humor often reveals a fresh perspective on everyday situations.

Ultimately, interestingness arises when there is a balance between familiarity (which allows you to connect) and novelty or complexity (which fuels your curiosity). 

If you strike that balance, being neither too familiar nor too alien, neither too simple nor too complex, you tend to consider it (or them) interesting.