Sunday, May 1, 2011

U-Turn

Everyone might have heard & known about U-turns both in driving and in life. We would have faced with many people who have made U-turn in our lives. This is not about the U-turn in life as this will rekindle bad experiences.

U-turn in driving is something we keep to the driving side (either right hand traffic or left hand traffic - depending on driving type - right hand or left hand drive) and then turn around 180degrees to take the opposite direction. This all drivers would be well aware of. However there was a very different U-turn that I took along with my friends recently in a trip that made me think how even a U-turn can be guided to be taken differently. This was a country with right hand side driving where usually one takes U-turn by keeping to the right most lane and then take a U-turn. However this was different, the U-turn sign on the express way guided us to the left most lane which led to another expressway which led to another expressway that brought us back to the expressway we started before on the opposite direction. Atlast we made the U-turn after 20mins of drive. This could be called as EXIT in most places, but in this country it was called as U-turn where we had to take two exits to make a U-turn.

This made me think that how even a simple U-turn concept can be looked at very differently. Is this what called out of box thinking? having different perspectives? Only when our ancestors thought differently and had different perspectives inventions, discoveries were possible. These people could be called as the outliers. The greater the number of outliers faster is the growth for mankind. The last 20years is witness of this in an exponential way, the computers and internet have made people to think different and share ideas.

To foster this kind of thoughts children should be encouraged when they question and think differently, employees should be encouraged to try new ways to handle problems, this will pave way for better future and growth.

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