My Enemy Is Rigid Thinking

My enemy is not age.

It is not seniority.

It is not experience.

My enemy is rigid thinking, especially when it is protected by rank, authority and ego.

I have seen this problem often in Singapore, but it is certainly not limited to Singapore. It exists in companies and institutions around the world.

Someone has spent twenty or thirty years in an industry. They own the company, hold a senior title or have authority over everyone else.

Over time, they begin to assume that they must know more than anyone below them.

That is where the problem starts.

Experience is valuable. But experience is only useful when we continue learning from it.

Once experience becomes an excuse to stop questioning ourselves, it becomes a liability.

Too many Singapore companies are still led by founders, owners and managers who are deeply stuck in their ways.

They are not necessarily unintelligent. Many of them worked hard, built businesses and survived difficult periods.

But some have become so certain of their own experience that they refuse to listen to anyone else.

There is an old saying:

“I have eaten more salt than you have eaten rice.”

The message is simple. I am older than you. I have experienced more than you. Therefore, I must know better.

Bullshit…

I strongly reject that way of thinking.

Living longer does not automatically mean thinking better.

Age can provide experience, but it does not guarantee wisdom. It certainly does not guarantee that your knowledge is still relevant.

The world changes.

Technology changes.

Customers change.

Industries change.

What worked twenty years ago may not work today.

Someone younger may understand a new technology better. A junior employee may be closer to the customer. A new person may notice a problem that everyone else has stopped seeing because they have become too familiar with it.

The number of years someone has lived is not proof that their thinking is correct.

I have worked with younger employees who contributed excellent ideas because they could think clearly.

They asked good questions.

They challenged assumptions.

They noticed things that more experienced people had missed.

A good leader does not dismiss those people because they are young or junior.

A good leader listens.

I learned this lesson during National Service, around 2001.

I was only a junior serviceman, but I submitted an idea through an innovation programme. The idea later received an Innovation Award, presented by a government minister.

The idea was eventually shelved and never implemented.

But that was not the important part.

What mattered was that the organisation had created a proper channel through which a junior serviceman could contribute an idea.

My rank did not automatically disqualify my thinking.

Someone was willing to evaluate the idea based on whether it had value, rather than simply asking whether I was senior enough to have an opinion.

That is what capable organisations do.

They judge the idea before judging the person.

Unfortunately, many organisations do the opposite.

They look at a person’s age, title, qualifications, background or seniority before they even consider what that person is saying.

Rigid leaders often dismiss advice because accepting it would mean admitting that someone younger, less senior or less established may have seen something they missed.

That is not experience.

That is ego protecting itself.

When this happens often enough, intelligent employees eventually stop contributing.

They learn that management does not really want ideas.

Management wants agreement.

The strongest thinkers leave.

The most obedient people remain.

Eventually, the organisation becomes filled with people who are good at protecting the existing hierarchy, but not very good at solving new problems.

That said, all is not lost.

I have also seen many older people adapting remarkably well.

More older people are using TikTok, Facebook, Instagram Reels and other digital platforms. They are learning new technology, experimenting with AI, creating content and finding new ways to communicate.

Some are running online businesses. Others are learning skills that did not even exist when they started their careers.

That proves the problem is not age.

The problem is the refusal to adapt.

An older person who remains curious can be more relevant than someone half their age who refuses to learn.

Experience combined with curiosity is extremely powerful.

Experience combined with arrogance is dangerous.

This is especially important now.

Artificial intelligence is changing how work is done. Customer behaviour is changing quickly. Entire business models are being disrupted.

No leader can afford to believe that age or seniority gives them all the answers.

Sometimes the youngest person in the room understands the new technology best.

Sometimes the oldest person in the room has the experience needed to identify a risk everyone else has missed.

The answer is not to automatically favour one generation over another.

The answer is to listen, test the thinking and judge every idea by its value.

Young people are not always right.

Older people are not always wrong.

But no idea should win simply because it came from the most senior person in the room.

And no idea should be rejected simply because it came from someone younger or less powerful.

Seniority should earn respect.

It should not provide immunity from challenge.

Experience deserves a hearing.

It does not automatically deserve the final word.

The best leaders are not people who always need to be right.

They are people who want to find the right answer, regardless of where it comes from.

That is the standard I believe in.

Good thinking should be recognised wherever it appears.

Because the real threat to any organisation is not a lack of age, experience or authority.

It is rigid thinking that refuses to listen, learn and change.