Yes so I mean a really good question is how
do you expand, how do you in the very least
change your space of possibility?
And one way of changing of course is to expand
it.
And especially if doing so requires you to
step into uncertainty.
Because if everything is really nice inside
your little village during evolution what
a stupid idea to see what’s on the other
side of the hill because now you’ve just
increased the possibility of dying because
dying is actually really easy.
So, in fact, we even have a safety bias that
our assumptions will gear us towards safety.
Because again, it’s easy to die.
So are there tricks, are there ways, are there
principles that enable people to step into
uncertainty?
And the answer is yes.
Because it’s such an important point.
It’s such an important space to be that
evolution also gave us a solution to that.
So if you think what is the one activity where
uncertainty is not simply tolerated it’s
actually celebrated, it’s actually sought,
it’s a way of being.
And we have a name for that way of being which
we call science.
So science is not defined by a methodology
which is too often thought to be what science
is.
If you think, "What defines a good science
test or good science?", it’s this way of
being that celebrates uncertainty.
It’s open to possibility.
It’s inherently cooperative.
And it’s what we call intrinsically motivating.
The reason for doing a discovery, the reward
for a discovery is the discovery itself.
Almost everything we do in the world we do
one thing in order to get a reward that’s
different from the thing that we did.
You work to get money.
But the inherent reward for science, for discovery,
is the discovery itself.
Now if you think – and what’s more science
has an intention.
Now if you think about those first three or
four principles – celebrating uncertainty,
open to possibility, inherently motivated,
inherently cooperative – those are the exact
same definitions of play.
Which means that science isn’t like play.
Science is play.
But it’s play with intention.
And if you add rules to play you have a game
which is nothing other than an experiment.
And what’s true for science it actually
transcends science.
Because anything that is creative is effectively
play with intention.
So this concept of there being a distinction
between art and science is completely arbitrary.
Because these are different methodologies
for applying the same underlying principle
way of being which is play with intention
And this isn’t – I should say and this
isn’t to say that science is playful and
fun and all that, which I find to be a slightly
trivial way of trying to get people into science.
Because to play well is hard.
Talk to an Olympic athlete, right.
To get to gold medal is a really hard thing
to do.
To play chess incredibly well is really hard.
So to do science, to be creative really well
is hard.
But nonetheless it’s a way of putting your
brain into a space that where it’s open
and celebrates uncertainty and possibility.
Which is inherent in actually good leadership.
Because what defines a good leader is how
you lead others into uncertainty.
Which means you have to create an ecology,
an environment that enables people to celebrate
the possibility, ask questions, search, discover.
