I recently read a great quote from Seth Godin, "For me doing is the core of it. If you've done something with what you've learned, then maybe you know it."
When do you ever actually know it all about anything? Really? There is a fine line between having extensive knowledge about something, and being a "know it all". Sadly, our models of leadership and management push good people to go to bad places because they feel that their job description dictates that they "know it all".
Knowing it all is a BAD place. People who know it all take a defensive stand of their knowledge and expertise, and their capacity to learn takes a back seat to their capacity to WIN. A defensive posture is counterproductive to being open to new ideas, ways of doing things, ways of thinking, or even revolutionary breakthroughs.
We each have belief and knowledge systems that we navigate life with. These differ from one person to the next. The problem comes when we start to believe that unless what we're considering falls in the acceptable range of our life's navigation system it is wrong, bad, negative, harmful, destructive... Being open minded requires us to regularly stretch our horizons of understanding and knowledge and to test the waters of the new, different, innovative, and sometimes counterculture. Outliers are NOT our enemies but windows into different ways of thinking.
Here is a great Ted video featuring Shawn Achor that speaks to the effects of not being more open to the outliers: http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html
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