Be a Scientist, Not an Expert
A cosmology crisis or an evolution?
If you missed my last email about the difference between serving & selling, you can find it here.
The other day, I was having a conversation with my friend Theresa about astrophysics…as you do on a Wednesday morning.
We were talking about how the new images coming from the James Webb telescope are expanding — and sometimes downright changing — critical information about space that scientists have believed to be true for decades.
So much so that it’s been dubbed a Cosmology Crisis.
But even in crisis mode, scientists have been doing something cool… as they are observing the new images and data, many have responded in interviews that they don’t feel threatened, angry, or upset that they are being proven wrong.
Instead of staunchly refuting new data, they’re releasing findings as groundbreaking discoveries and updating the questions they’re asking to find the next round of information that will again lead to new questions.
Conclusions are being drawn, but space experts know that theories are temporary and able to change with new information.
In business, I’m often hired by incredible experts who KNOW their stuff. From marketers, advisors, coaches, and consultants to visionary founders and communicators, this world has a lot of creative, smart people doing values-aligned, transformational work.
People who ask themselves:
What am I really here to do?
How can I serve with the highest good in mind?
What do I value and how do these values show up authentically in my work? (See more thoughts here)
I also have known experts who are trapped by binary, reactionary thinking that is divisive and doesn’t leave room to take the bigger picture into account.
There’s nothing wrong with expertise. It’s needed to help us find new answers and evolve. But relying on “expert” status becomes problematic when there isn’t room to question. If we can’t be curious, we’ve succumbed to fixed thinking.
Nothing grows and evolves without curiosity. If we can’t challenge our minds to think bigger, we’ll never see other perspectives and act accordingly.
We could all learn something from scientists.
Curiosity over rigidity.
Both/and over either/or.
Questions over answers.
Multiple things can be true as we evolve and learn.
As we end this calendar year and are prepping for next year, consider this: How can you approach your work and life a little more like a scientist and a little less like an expert?
Reply and let me know your thoughts on this. I’m curious.
Xox
Michelle
