Winners learn from their enemies

(Pre-note: I know the term ‘enemy’ sounds unnecessarily aggressive and adversarial. Please forgive me.) At university, I had a friend who was a born-again Christian. I once stumbled in on a conversation that he and his group were having about whether demons could heal (if it served their purpose.) The group’s conclusion was that they definitely could. Yesterday, I noticed that I was playing a game on my iPad that someone suggested to me a few years ago. I have since developed a bit of a difficult relationship with that person, but I still love playing the game! I also used my favourite task management app, Evernote, yesterday. That too was suggested to me by someone who I have an even more difficult relationship with these days. But I still love the app. Skipping quickly over my revelation that I have difficult relationships with some people, I think the main point is to learn from everywhere, not just the people and places you like. This idea relates, but is more specific than the old saying ‘keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.’ It also relates to the danger of getting into an internet echo chamber/ bubble, and only reading/ listening to those of a similar mind to you. I have noticed that issue very extremely for myself around the Israel/ Gaza news. As part of my antifragility research, I proposed that to be antifragile (gain from disruption/ chaos), companies must learn from their non-customers, ex-customers, disenfranchised and disobedient customers. As part of this research, I stumbled on a coffee shop that has a ‘customer disloyalty card’. If you go to five other coffee shops and bring them feedback, you get a free coffee. If we are to learn from our ‘enemies’, we have to be prepared to learn from others who don’t share our values. Whose motives and outcomes we may even abhor. We have to learn amorally. As Bruce Lee said “Study everything. Absorb what is useful. Reject what is useless.” Years ago, my awesome colleague and friend Leigh McMullen and I studied what digital leaders could learn from terrorists, pornographers and organized criminals. As might not be a surprise, it was decided that that might not be a suitable topic for corporate publication/ consumption, so it never saw the light of day. Especially in times of change and chaos, we must learn from everyone and everywhere. Learn from those we don’t like or approve of. Learn from the ‘enemy’. (After-note: this is a post about learning tactics, not peace and love. I know it is not good to have enemies, and we should try to fix those relationships.) #unask #unthink #unlearn #learning #stratagems