open-minded

(adjective)

Willing to consider new and different ideas or opinions.

Related Terms

Examples of open-minded in the following topics:

  • Be an Open-Minded Listener: Suspend Judgment and Exercise Empathy

    • Open-minded listening requires empathy and a suspension of judgment on the part of the listener.
    • Though Kate was annoyed that Jackson had left the car windows open in the rain, after listening to his explanation with an open mind, she understood that he'd been under a lot of stress at work lately and that he was sorry for the mishap.
    • Someone who listens with an open mind is willing to be influenced by what he or she hears.
    • People who listen with an open mind avoid anticipating what they think their conversational partners are going to say.
    • Come to the presentation with a mind like a blank slate.

  • Techniques for Accepting Criticism

    • When receiving criticism try to be: accepting, open-minded, and willing to seek clarity.
    • Be open-minded to the fact that others may see something that you do not.

  • Culture

    • Because of this, an open-minded listener will work hard to focus on what the speaker is actually saying regardless of how they're saying it.
    • Maintaining this kind of cultural sensitivity requires some basics of open-minded listening: suspending judgment and employing empathy whenever possible.

  • Characteristics of Innovative Organizations

    • To realize them, everyone in the business needs to keep an open mind and develop the capacity to look at things with fresh eyes.
    • When the collapse of communism opened the Russian market to the west, Nokia's core business was seriously threatened by cheaper imports from Russia's seemingly limitless forests.

  • Rules to Follow When Listening

    • It's important to come to the presentation with an open mind—that is, to at least listen with respect and courtesy to ideas that may be in conflict with your own personal beliefs and values.
    • Again, if you expect others to be open and receptive to your ideas, you must extend that same courtesy to others.

  • Step 2: Researching

    • The primary thing to keep in mind during the research phase is that you're seeking primarily to inform your own thinking on the topic.
    • Your mind is open to all the possibilities.
    • You're the moderator of the discussion, and you want to hear from everyone before you make up your mind.
    • You might actually change your mind in the course of your research, and that just shows how flexible your thinking is.
    • You can also keep an open mind about how you're going to present your paper.

  • Some Examples of Pericyclic Reactions

    • The third diagram above shows an apparent electrocyclic ring opening reaction.
    • The racemic diastereomer of this compound undergoes the same ring opening at a lower temperature, and this is believed to be a concerted conrotatory electrocyclic reaction..
    • With this caveat in mind, extensive lists of pericyclic reactions may be assembled, and their rationalization by the previously noted mnemonic or orbital analysis is both remarkably successful and instructive.

  • Evaluating the Psychodynamic Approach to Personality

    • Freud's theory rested on the existence of a particular structure of the human mind.
    • The mind was thought to consist of the id, ego, and superego, the interactions of which determined human personality and behavior.
    • Freud believed that psychic energy functioned much like any other (as in thermodynamics) and thus, personality could be predicted and manipulated using transformations and exchanges of energy among the various structures of the mind.
    • He did an entirely qualitative study of the human mind, resulting in theories that were not falsifiable, but rather, open for interpretation.
    • On this diagram, the portion above the water signifies the conscious mind, while the portion below the water illustrates the unconscious mind.

  • Other Presentation Software Options

    • Microsoft PowerPoint dominates the presentation software market, but other options include Mind Maps, SlideRocket, and Prezi.
    • Mind Maps You can use mind maps to plan and modify your presentation.
    • Mind Maps break away from the linear format of PowerPoint by using graphic symbols to show connections between different ideas, allowing the presenter to show a top level map and then drill down to show details for different connecting ideas.
    • You can summarize the sub points and then go back to the main, top-level mind map to show the connection to the whole.
    • The free service includes it own presentation software that can be exported in open office format as well as Microsoft Office.

  • Types of Corporate Involvement

    • There are many different reasons open source projects get corporate support.
    • Sometimes companies support a particular open source project as a means of undermining a competitor's product, which may or may not be open source itself.
    • Having your company associated with a popular open source application can be simply good brand management.
    • Whether this is a problem for you depends on where you fall on the "open source is just a way of software development" to "open source is a way of life" spectrum.
    • Keep these questions in mind as you read the guidelines that follow.