So I have this theory.
It is something that has been with me for years and something that features a great deal in my mentoring and coaching sessions - windows.
My theory is dead simple, at the highest level I am simply saying that when we came in to this word our minds/brains had a raft of windows that were wide open, all receiving the most incredible amount of information that we could process. As we grow these windows start closing, whether through choice or through things like the education system, the work we do and so on.
In my coaching and mentoring work my job nearly always is to simply help the client to recognise that they have many more windows available to them, to help them identify windows that have been systematically closed over time, and to help them force them open again so that they achieve a more rounded and educated view on themselves, their work, family and life plan.
Think about it. We can influence a child's mind before they are born. A baby arrives and it has to learn to stand, walk, play - it has to learn a language, rights and wrongs, establish values - all by the time they are two years old!
They then start kindy then school where in the early years they are bombarded with information. Then as they progress through school we start closing some of those windows - we apply curriculum, we seek to identify those areas that appeal to the child best or the ones they find easiest, we drop from a a hundred topics to streams of ten or so. We then rationalise again to 3/4 topics and then go to Uni to study just one. Then... we go to work where for so many the system closes even more windows or forces to use windows we don't like being open.
I often find when working with individuals and teams (especially those in silos) that that tickle of dissatisfaction, frustration , is linked to a need to respond to something going on in the brain that is troubling them, they don't know what it is or what to do about it - it is a window trying desperately to be re-opened. We have the most unbelievable capacity to take on information, we just need to make sure we have the right windows open that can receive and process such.
The full discussion on this theory when applied to each individuals situation is fascinating and rarely the same.
I am thinking about writing a paper, or even a book on this subject, what do you think? - if anyone would like to have a chat about their windows - then just give me a shout.