Funny, if I pondered this question as a kid I might’ve answered something like: it says you earn a seat in the back of the classroom, facing the wall…or, it says that ppl won’t entertain your thoughts bc most would rather accept things as they are, than debate options.
My favorite teacher in HS was a social studies teacher who’d address every event in American History from 3 perspectives: 2 historians w very diff takes, & 1 which he as a teacher & we as a class discussed MIGHT’ve happened given the “facts” as we knew them.
I’m sure you’re not surprised that I didn’t enjoy the same type of relationship w my math teachers who only saw one specific way to solve a problem – the way they’d learned.
Traveling a lot recently, I’m almost done w the book “Originals, How Non-Conformists Move The World.” In it, one of my favorite stories is abt a research project conducted on customer service agents from the banking, airline, & cell industries – over 30k agents studied. The goal was to find out what made agents STAY in their jobs longer. Turnover was costing these industries a lot – many factors were studied.
Kid you not, the greatest factor determining a longer tenure as an agent: the type of internet browser used. How’s that possible?? Here’s how:
The agents who stayed w their companies the longest, used Chrome & Firefox. Why? Bc Internet Explorer & Safari were the default browsers. Therefore – the agents who didn’t just accept the “default” options on PC’s/Mac’s…& didn’t assume it was the best, went out of their way to find a better option for themselves. This extra step, not accepting the default, was a determinant of the agent’s future behavior to turn over stones & go the extra mile to appease customers/find solutions.
So next time someone says – this is the way we’ve always done it…you can bring this up. The default way…the same way…the tried way, isn’t always the BEST way. For decades now our MH campaigns have been focused on the same info: 1:5 sick, stopping stigma, erratic/tragic behavior of celebs. We are at a 30yr high in suicides. The default way isn’t working.