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Consider This!

Getty Images Reflecting on how Winnie the Pooh found Eeyore’s missing tail:

“An Empty sort of mind is valuable for finding pearls and
tails and things because it can see what’s in front of it.
An Overstuffed mind is unable to. While the clear mind
listens to a bird singing, the Stuffed-Full-of-Knowledge-and-Cleverness mind wonders
what kind of bird is singing. The more Stuffed Up it is, the less it can hear through its
own ears and see through its own eyes. Knowledge and Cleverness tend to concern
themselves with the wrong sorts of things, and a mind confused by Knowledge,
Cleverness, and Abstract Ideas tends to go chasing off after things that don’t matter,
or that don’t even exist, instead of seeing, appreciating, and making use of what is
right in front of it.”
Source: Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1982), pp.146–147.

get the minnows, but succeeds only in battering itself against the glass, fi nally
learning that trying to reach the minnows is futile. The glass divider is then
removed, but the pike makes no attempt to attack the minnows because it has
been conditioned to believe that reaching them is impossible. When people as-
sume they have complete knowledge of a situation because of past experiences,
they exhibit the Pike Syndrome, a trained incapacity that comes from rigid com-
mitment to what was true in the past and a refusal to consider alternatives and
different perspectives. 29
Leaders have to forget many of their conditioned ideas to be open to new
ones. This openness—putting aside preconceptions and suspending beliefs and
opinions—can be referred to as “beginner’s mind.” Whereas the expert’s mind
rejects new ideas based on past experience and knowledge, the beginner’s
mind refl ects the openness and innocence of a young child just learning about
the world. The value of a beginner’s mind is captured in the story told in this
chapter’s Consider This.
Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, one of the most original
scientific minds of the twentieth century, illustrates the power of the beginner’s

mind. Feynman’s IQ was an unremarkable 125. The heart of his genius was a
childlike curiosity and a belief that doubt was the essence of learning and know-
ing. Feynman was always questioning, always uncertain, always starting over,
always resisting any authority that prevented him from doing his own thinking
and exploring. 30
Effective leaders strive to keep open minds and cultivate an organizational en-
vironment that encourages curiosity and learning. They understand the limitations
of past experience and reach out for diverse perspectives. Rather than seeing any
questioning of their ideas as a threat, these leaders encourage everyone through-
out the organization to openly debate assumptions, confront paradoxes, question
perceptions, and express feelings. 31
Leaders can use a variety of approaches to help themselves and others keep
an open mind. At McKinsey & Co., worldwide managing director Rajat Gupta
reads poetry at the end of the partners’ regular meetings. Poetry and literature, he
says, “help us think in more well-rounded ways. . . . Poetry helps us refl ect on the
important questions: What is the purpose of our business? What are our values?

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