Cathy Engelbert Quotes

An open-minded person running a business might catch a problem faster than a closed-minded person. And when they identify a problem, they can fix it much faster.

People who work with me say I have a four-step response to new ideas: rejection, reconsideration, acceptance, ownership. I need to listen more patiently.

The boldness of asking deep questions may require unforeseen flexibility if we are to accept the answers.

You have to get a little untrapped from too much prior knowledge.

You need to be open and explore while heading where you want to go. You can never be too in love with your own ideas. If you can remember every idea that is yours in a script, as opposed to someone else's, then something is wrong.

You must continue to gain expertise, but avoid thinking like an expert.

Are you going to get offended when someone says something that is counter to your worldview? I think you need to be willing to change your worldview or, at least, be open to other people's ideas.

I hope to always keep stretching myself and not stay in one box or lane.

Being nimble and ready to change our minds if need be is an attribute that is crucial to live and thrive in a society that is powered by science and technology, both as an individual and as an engaged citizen.

We would be the worst of fools if we would ever lose this extraordinary capacity to go beyond the limits of past thought and past prejudices.

An ability to embrace new ideas, routinely challenge old ones, and live with paradox will be the effective leader's premier trait.

Never...stop at the boundaries of what you think your knowledge or training would suggest. If a problem grabs you, run with it and try to understand it from beginning to end, even if that means learning new techniques or developing them yourself.

To be fertile in hypotheses is the first perquisite of creativity and to be willing to throw them away the moment experience contradicts them is the next.

Continually challenge and be willing to amend your best loved ideas.

The smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they’d already solved. They’re open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.

If you don't agree with the direction something is going in, at least at work, you should always try it first, unless it's dangerous or damaging. But if you have an opinion about the direction your work should be taking, say it. Then back it up with proof and other solutions.

I'm always learning from experiences because each one is different and there are different players involved in the project at the time with their own way of doing things.

Since we can't know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.

I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.

Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king.

The first complete sentence out of my mouth was probably that line about consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds.

I come from a background where I like collaboration and improv. I think that it is important.

Only idiots refuse to change their minds.

Well, the fact is that one imagination is critically important, and if you have had your imagination stimulated by what is basically a variety of subjects, you are much more amenable to accepting, to understanding and interacting with the realities of the world.

Part of being innovative in government is sometimes not trying to plot out the last chapter of the book, but to be open and see what comes back.