Obedience versus critical thinking

How we define obedience and disobedience began way back when we started the acculturating process, yes, from childhood. Simply, we learned that obeying is good and has positive consequences and disobeying is bad and has negative consequences - a trip to the ice cream shop or a trip to the wood shed.

Lets apply this to contemporary business. Do workers feel an obligation to obey their leaders without question? Or, another way, is doing the same old thing the same old way and getting the same old results advancing business in creative and innovative ways? For the sake of keeping your job, you answer the first question yes, and for the same reason, you answer the second no, entering conflict and chaos.

Let me share a math problem in Roman Numerals to illustrate how disobeying traditional processes can turn a wrong answer into a correct answer.

XI + I = X

As you observe, the equation is flat wrong! We obey our senses, and our math teachers, that tell us the equation is wrong. We do not accept this equation as right even though it is presented by a learned person. However, disobeying traditional thinking can open the observer to question how this equation can be made right.

Although your first inclination is to rearrange the Roman Numerals to make the equation right, the creative thinker - disobeying traditional processes - will correct the equation without moving a single numeral. Questioning how this can be sets you on the path toward creative thinking.

We want to obey because it feels good and is safe; we avoid consequences. Yet, situations exist in which we feel conflict and chaos with our senses and desire to obey. Sometimes we face problems that are inherently wrong and feel they must be made right. The creative thinker turns this page upside down to correct the equation.