Banana Thinking
O
tto awoke early in the jungle thicket that he
fondly knew as home. With a powerful thrust
from his long arms he stood erect, then in a commanding voice uttered his first sounds of the day,
"UHH - UHH! OOH! OOH! OOH! RIHH! RIHH!"
Otto was hungry, and so were the rest of his clan.
He and the fourteen other gorillas in his family lived
comfortably in an area of the jungle that abounded in
banana trees. After their morning stretch and some
authoritative chest pounding, they set out to vanquish every banana that lay in their path.
The gorillas spied their objective, a gangly
growth with big, green leaves and bunches of golden
bananas just waiting to be eaten. Otto was the first
to arrive at the banana tree, so he swiftly reached up
to pick the first prize of the day. With two quick
swipes he peels the banana, and the world as we
know it will never be the same.
So what is it, you may ask, that makes Otto's
banana eating episode different from any other? The
answer and the "root" of banana thinking lies in this
article published in the July 1992 issue of Quality
Digest.
Banana Thinking
"Learning a new way to peel a banana should
show that unlimited possibilities await discovery."
16
Banana Thinking
"Banana Thinking"1
A work associate came into my office during
lunch time the other day eating a banana. It wasn't a
terribly significant event except for one aspect. He
was eating the banana peeled from the bottom
instead of the stem end. I told him that I had never
thought of peeling a banana in such a manner. His
response was that it was much easier to peel a
banana from the bottom than from the top. I could
hardly believe that I had never thought of peeling a
banana from the bottom.
My buddy told me that he had recently seen a TV
documentary on gorillas. As the story was told, a
family of gorillas surrounded a banana tree. The
gorillas peeled bananas from the bottom as fast as
they could so that each gorilla could eat as many as
possible. Then they went on to eat the banana tree
itself. We should take a lesson from the expert
banana eaters. But we should stop short of consuming the whole banana tree.
I assume that when I was much younger someone showed me how to peel a banana from the stem
end and I never questioned that knowledge. It is
very likely that it was my mother or father who first
showed me how to peel a banana. I am also very certain that the idea of there being only one way to peel
a banana is connected to the concept that we rarely
question our parent's teachings. So with this
thought in mind I made a special effort to show my
son how to peel a banana from the bottom and the
Banana Thinking
top with the hope of sparking his imagination in
other areas.
Many of us insist on carrying our limited thinking to the grave. Somehow we choose to quit learning early in life when there is a lifetime of things still
to learn. Learning a new way to peel a banana should
show that unlimited possibilities await discovery.
Before I was introduced to the way of the
banana, I would sometimes resort to cutting below
the stem to get to the fruit without bruising it. I
would do this primarily when the banana was a little
green. But now I have the knowledge to peel those
green bananas as easily as the ripe
ones.
Here was something so simple peeling a banana, and I never questioned there was a more effective way
to get to the fruit. Upon seeing the
documentary on gorillas, what I heard
from my work associate was verified
before my eyes. I was fascinated. From
then on it was only natural to presume there must be
a host of other similar situations where I could apply
the banana concept. It was suddenly clear to me that
there must be different ways to peel other fruits,
too, and there must be different ways to solve those
simple problems that I encountered every day.
So I began to look for innovative ways to do the
simplest tasks and make basic decisions. I discovered
the banana concept could be related to almost everything I do, and that looking at things from the bottom
Banana Thinking
and the top gave me a new view of most situations. I
began peeling away at my old way of thinking trying
to come up with the non-traditional approach to the
most basic tasks. And I began looking for effectiveness as I searched for new ideas.
I always thought of myself as an innovator, but
the banana incident showed me that I was just as
guilty of confining my thinking to conventional wisdom as the next guy. I scrutinized the people around
me, pondering how often a truly original idea is
formed by anyone today. I even questioned whether
we have possibly come to the point that nothing we
do is original.
I began searching through most of the basic concepts that deal with truly original thinking. I looked
long and hard. Then I found it - a simple, but profound notion: "Imagination is more important than
knowledge." And who coined such a preposterous
idea? Albert Einstein was his name, and thinking
was his game. Einstein was truly the most original
thinker of our time.
With this notion in mind, I set out in search of my
own original idea, and after awhile, I actually had
one. The thought I developed was really a corollary
to Einstein's quote, but original nevertheless. "The
majority of people have stopped coming up with
new ideas because they have stopped imagining."
Coming up with new ideas is not as complicated
as you may think. There are only a few basic things
that you need to know to be successful. One of them
is to keep learning about the world in which you live
Banana Thinking
and strive. And if you can learn something new
about peeling a banana, you can only imagine the
endless possibilities there are to improve the very
nature of how you think, work, and make decisions.
In fact, there are new ways to do what you have
done the same all of your life. There are new ways to
get out of bed in the morning, and there are better
routes to travel to work. There are new ways to shop
for groceries, and new ways to prepare them. There
are new ways to communicate with your work associates, and there are countless ways to improve your
listening skills. There are new ways to word process,
and there are many new ways to
electronically manage data. In
short, there are new ways to
think and new methods to generate ideas. There are millions of
books to read and endless knowledge to acquire. And all you have
to do is to be open to the way of
the banana.
Go peel a banana from the
bottom, and you will see. You
will discover a new concept that
can help you take an innovative look at everything
you do. You will become a more effective thinker.
You will become a better banana thinking you.
Banana Thinking
The Bottom Banana Peeler's Creed
A banana is good,
It can show you something new;
You will soon have new ideas,
And you will find out something true.
It can show you something now,
It can show you something then;
It can even change the minds,
Of limited thinking men.
So peel it from the bottom,
And do it every day;
You will be inspired,
With this more effective way.