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Hey there, innovation champions!
When I was a kid, much as I dreaded the end of summer freedom, I confess I loved the fresh start feeling of “back to school.” New binder, new backpack, new pencils and erasers.
With the unknown territory of a new teacher and classroom, it was almost as if I could walk into school as a new me!
Who doesn’t love that feeling? A reboot. A refresh. Like clearing cache or rebooting your computer to see things with new eyes, like a beginner again.
September gives us a great opportunity to mindfully adopt that beginner’s mindset, just like a kid going back to school. But what if we could aim to do so continuously? What if we could create organizations that learn and adapt as naturally as a child discovering something for the first time?
The Power of Beginner’s Mind
You know that feeling when you watch a child encounter something for the first time? They don’t bring preconceived notions about what’s possible or impossible. They just explore, ask questions, and try things.
As adults, especially in our professional lives, we accumulate expertise—which is valuable. But sometimes that expertise becomes a cage. We know so much about what shouldn’t work that we can’t see what might.
That’s why the back-to-school mindset is so powerful. It’s not about becoming naive—it’s about temporarily setting aside what we know to discover what we don’t know we don’t know.
Creating a Learning Organization Through Play, Imperfection, and Rapid Learning
Here’s where my Create the Impossible™ framework comes in. The three principles—Play Hard, Make Crap, Learn Fast—are essentially a systematic way to cultivate that beginner’s mindset at scale.
Play Hard: The Foundation of Learning
In a learning organization, play isn’t frivolous—it’s foundational. When we approach challenges with curiosity and a sense of exploration, we open ourselves to possibilities we might otherwise miss.
Play reduces our fear of being wrong, which is crucial for learning. Think about it: kids learn language by babbling nonsense until it gradually becomes coherent. They don’t wait until they can speak perfectly before they start trying.
The same principle applies to innovation. When teams give themselves permission to experiment without the pressure of immediate perfection, they discover solutions they never would have found through analysis alone.
Make Crap: Embracing Productive Imperfection
This principle flies in the face of most organizational cultures, which demand excellence from the start. But learning organizations understand something counterintuitive: the fastest path to excellence often runs through deliberate imperfection.
When we give ourselves permission to create rough drafts, to build prototypes that don’t work quite right, to test ideas before they’re fully formed, we accelerate the learning process exponentially.
It’s like that first day of school when you’re still figuring out where everything is. You’re not expected to navigate perfectly—you’re expected to learn as you go.
Learn Fast: Turning Every Experience into Growth
The third principle is about creating rapid feedback loops. In a true learning organization, every experiment—successful or not—becomes valuable data.
This means celebrating the insights that come from “failures” just as much as we celebrate successes. It means asking “What did we learn?” instead of “Who’s to blame?” It means treating setbacks as stepping stones rather than roadblocks.
The Continuous September Mindset
Imagine if your organization could capture that back-to-school energy not just once a year, but continuously. Where teams approach each project with fresh eyes, where it’s safe to try new approaches, where learning happens as naturally as breathing.
This isn’t about abandoning expertise or throwing caution to the wind. It’s about creating space for both mastery and discovery to coexist.
Your Back-to-School Challenge
As we embrace this season of fresh starts, I challenge you to identify one area where your expertise might be limiting your vision. Where could you benefit from approaching an old problem with fresh eyes?
Maybe it’s a product feature that’s been “impossible” to implement. Maybe it’s a team dynamic that’s been stuck in patterns. Maybe it’s a process that’s always been done “this way.”
Whatever it is, try approaching it with the curiosity of a first-grader. Ask questions that might seem obvious. Suggest ideas that might seem silly. Create something imperfect just to see what happens.
Because the most successful organizations aren’t just good at what they know—they’re excellent at learning what they don’t know yet.
And that learning never ends. Every day can be the first day of school when you’re committed to Creating the Impossible™.
What will you discover when you give yourself permission to be a beginner again?
I’d love to hear from you: What’s one area where your expertise might be limiting your perspective? Click here to let me know!
Senior Leaders: Ready to turn your team’s knowledge into a competitive advantage through continuous learning? Book a complimentary Innovation Strategy Session and let’s explore how the Create the Impossible™ framework can transform your organization into a learning powerhouse.
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