Open minded people can hold on to their own way of thinking, while, at the same time, considering alternate points of view.
There is always the possibility that you are wrong, if you are open to that possibility. It is also possible the other viewpoint is wrong, if you are open to that possibility.
If you are not open to the possibility, then you can only solve the problem one way. And, if that doesn’t work, you are hopelessly stuck.
The possibility of wrong opens other alternatives, that just may contain the idea that saves the day. But, only if it’s possible that you are wrong.
This seems like a two-way street. I want the empower my peer to take ownership of the project tasks (so I don’t have to do the whole thing,) but also to be open to learning from the past mistakes and successes of others. I am a project manager working with an engineer who has a quite different idea about the basic nature of the solution we are developing. I actually said “I may be wrong” in a current interaction, as a way to keep the conversation moving. That is still possible (that I may be wrong,) but I wondered if it was a good idea after the other party just became more aggressive at that point. In any case, I called the other party back and we agreed to review the progress after the current task is complete. We will see how it progresses from there. I would like the other solution to work, and to empower the other person to finish the work so I am willing to surrender my position if there is a workable alternative.