How do you round numbers? The answer matters

I am on the steering committee of a National Academies initiative called “Educate to Innovate,” and it so happens this week we are hosting a workshop in Washington, D.C to culminate our first phase of a study about how to nurture the next generation of innovators. After months of in-depth interviews with some of America’s most successful innovators, we are gathering with experts in K-12 education, academia, and industry to discuss the skills, experiences, and environments that are critical to innovation success.

Although our study is still in progress (I plan to write more about our results in future columns), we’ve identified a list of key skills and attributes that we must learn to instill in our young people.

Three key attributes on the list strike me in particular: intense curiosity, the ability to handle uncertainty, and the ability to listen and appreciate multiple viewpoints. And the way we’re teaching rounding—or other lessons, for that matter—definitely doesn’t nurture these innovation skills.

What’s the best way to instill these attributes? “I love telling our participants there are no rules, only guidelines,” explains Scileppi. “Also, diversity is huge… I try to bring in diverse thinkers to open them up, expose them to as much variety of viewpoints as possible.”

“I’m very comfortable admitting what I don’t know and having them explain something to me. I encourage them to teach me.”

This last point especially resonates with me; in a column I wrote last spring about Dr. Sugata Mitra and the TED Prize, I argued that admitting you don’t know is the first step to teaching students how to learn. And in this age of rapidly evolving information and knowledge, it’s especially critical for us to know how to learn, not just to regurgitate one answer.

The good news is that our children might be learning these skills on their own, despite old-fashioned teaching methods still in practice today. “We’re better at [innovation now] because we’re so connected; we have so many streams of information,” Scileppi points out. “When the people around you used to have such an authority, you had less information. But now that we have access, we’re more open to different ways of doing things.”

Back to the rounding exercise. After a quick survey of dozens of friends and colleagues through email and social media, I discovered that they all learned differently. Most learned to always round up from 0.5, even though it adds a slight upward bias to the numbers.

But tellingly, not one of them had learned as a kid that there were different ways to do it. Almost all were genuinely surprised that other approaches even existed. Some wouldn’t even accept there were other ways, because the “always round up” rule had been drilled into their heads.

How would you round 16.5? And would you be open to another way?

Despite the resistance of some, that didn’t prevent a few of the more imaginative ones from coming up with their own rules.

“It depends what it’s for,” someone offered. “We all round down on our age; up for tax deductions.” Now that’s what I call creative thinking.

This article originally appeared in Forbes.com.

Author: Krisztina “Z” Holly is an entrepreneur, engineer and a contributor to Forbes. She is also the chair of the Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Fostering Entrepreneurship. Follow her on Twitter @krisztinaholly.