A longitudinal peer-reviewed psychological study from many years ago referred to it’s cohort of highly successful people as “Beyonders.” The interesting style of this study was near and dear to my approach and utilized interviewing and not psychological tests to uncover what it was that made these people successful, and then analyzed and coined names for the shared attributes. One of my favorite findings from the research was the term “minority of one thinking” which referred to these people’s instinctive style of being willing to articulate ideas that were completely contrary to what others were thinking. Have you ever been in a group meeting and thought to yourself, that you had a better idea, but were afraid to articulate it because everyone else had already bought in, or it was too far into a project? Well, that’s a scenario a Beyonder would raise their hand and take the floor.

 

The point of minority of one thinking is not simply to be contrarian. It really speaks to the point of trusting your instincts when something is not working well, and then utilizing the scientific method to test your alternative hypothesis. In basic statistics, we have two hypotheses: The null hypothesis, which is the generally accepted theory thought too be true and the alternative hypothesis. The alternative needs to be tested for proof, and supported with evidence. Back to what I articulated earlier about being the smartest person in the room. When you have done your homework, you can confidently and assertively be a minority of one thinker. One of my coaching clients was a VP in a Fortune 100 company who really was the smartest person in the room, but also the shyest person in the room. We worked on strategies so she could have a voice in Csuite meetings, and even challenge the CEO to steer decisions in the right direction. To date, she’s my favorite minority of one thinker.

 

The Exercise:

Here’s some questions for a journal exercise.

 

What is your level of comfort asserting a point even if you’re not 100% sure about the outcome? Is there anyone in your organization right now who is a minority of one thinker you can identify?

 

Schedule a casual meet-up and ask them how they developed that skill for themself. Do you take the time to research and test your ideas before you present them?

 

Could you be more thorough, and subsequently be a better minority of one thinker and leader?