The Practice That Will Make You More Innovative and Open Minded

In the late 1800s, two brothers became famous for their various inventions, including printing presses and bicycles.  They made remarkable progress at a young age, and by their early 30s had a thriving bicycle shop and their own bicycle brand that sold very well.

They then began to study manned flight and used their bicycle business to fund their research.  They were very successful, studying the work of various scientists and engineers including Leonardo Da Vinci. From the moment they began to study flight, they experimented with gliders and were flying their own creations within months.  In four short years, they went from studying flight to inventing and flying the first motor powered airplane. 

Clearly, we are speaking about the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, and their plane the Wright Flyer.  But how did they make such progress so quickly at such a young age?  While they were both mechanically inclined and excellent self-taught engineers, this does not explain how they were able to leap ahead of inventors who had been working for many years to create the first airplane.

The Infamous Wright Brothers Arguments

The secret was in their interactions with each other.  From the time they opened their first printing company, to their bicycle shop and airplane facility, they were famous for the fierce arguments they would have with one another.  They were well known for having these ferocious arguments every single day.  There is nothing extraordinary about this.  What was extraordinary was how they conducted these arguments.

The Switch

Every single day they would work in their factory while discussing various theories, passionately taking opposite sides of the argument, and debating with emotion the merits of their side.  Incredibly, at mid day they would have a pleasant lunch and would spend an enjoyable meal together.  Where it really becomes the stuff of legend is what happened after lunch.  Amazingly, they would then reopen the debate, after having switched sides, and then just as passionately as the morning, argue their point of view, which was the one they were arguing against in the morning!

This method of brain storming allowed the Wright brothers to innovate very quickly and come up with new designs that ultimately led them to their greatest invention, the first powered airplane.  They did not take any of the discussions personally and saw all of the issues and challenges from both sides, allowing them to see the best way to deal with them with the goal of solving them for the sake of their mission.

This made their thinking process very innovative as they had to come up with arguments for both sides and were able to test various solutions dispassionately.  They were also very open minded as having represented both sides allowed them to see the merits of both sides equally.

The Technique Today

While it may seem that this is some lost way of thinking that would be very difficult to use today, there are two places it is used every day.  Think back to high school, if you were on the Debate Team or attended one of their debates.  The standard practice is for the teacher to choose opposing candidates or teams and assign them opposite sides of a topic.  They then debate without personal attack, the merits of each of their sides, regardless of what they personally think of the subject.  The benefits of this type of thinking are why debate clubs are so popular.  They exercise your critical thinking and open your mind to different ideas.

The second place it is used is in the legal field.  Trial lawyers represent their clients in court, regardless of their personal feelings and fiercely argue their case with the hope of winning.  They practice this skill in law school, where the teacher, just like in debate clubs, assigns them a side to argue, regardless of their personal thoughts on the subject.  In military court proceedings, armed forces lawyers from the same office are assigned to take the side of prosecutor and defender in a trial.  It is quite normal for colleagues and friends who are lawyers to argue against each other in court every single day, again, regardless of their personal feelings in the matter.  Their only goal is to win the trial either for the government or the person they are defending.

How To Use It

So, how do we use this technique to make us better thinkers and open our minds to other points of view?  The first thing we can do is to think about an issue we are passionate about and think about how everything we think is wrong and how the other side of the argument would prove it.  We can ask someone who shares our view to argue it with us while we defend the other side.  This will give us practice in seeing the other side of an issue.  We can then practice it when we are thinking other issues, using the technique to see both sides of an issue and creating solutions based on this more open minded view.

The more we open our minds to the technique of seeing both sides, the more we will see solutions where we never did before, and maybe make bigger and better strides towards whatever goals we are trying to achieve.