Avoid the Don Quixote Trap

I have found that having a clear, compelling vision with conviction behind it is often key to change a status quo. However, keeping an open mind and regularly testing the underlying vision assumptions/beliefs are good practices to avoid falling into a tunnel vision ‘Don Quixote’ trap.

I personally found the concepts developed by former Harvard Prof. Agryris around ‘double loop learning’, for example, useful. When you take an action based on a chosen strategy and you get substantially different results than expected (can be negative or positive), the theory suggests not only to reflect on the strategy and its execution, but also on the underlying belief set/view on the world. A question like ‘What am I missing here?’ can be helpful.

What other practices have you found helpful?