Perspective is Everything!
???? Ben Baker???
Telling your story in ways that align you with engaged and profitable internal and external stakeholders and dissuade those you cannot add value to from darkening your doorway.
I talk to people from around the world weekly and the number one question people ask me today is how close are the forest fires to where I live right now.
I let them know that the closest fires are hundreds of kilometres away, yet, the smoke from them still affects us.
The next question I get asked is, how big are the fires? When I tell them the collective fires burning across Canada are nearly 24 million acres in size, people don't know what to say. The number sounds enormous, yet they have no context of how large that is compared to the size of the country.
In context, the fires are about 2/3rd the size of Hudson Bay in the map above.
This got me thinking about perspective. How do we utilize language and examples to make things relevant to others?
How do we create an image in someone else's mind that enables them to see and understand what we do and create a common starting place for a conversation about what should happen next?
This is not easy, nor do most people do this well or effectively.
The reason is that many, if not most, of us assume that everyone else thinks like we do and has the same points of reference.
领英推荐
A perfect example is police taking statements after an accident or incident.
History has shown that eyewitness accounts vary dramatically based on how quickly the event unfolded, where people are located, what they were doing as things happened and a myriad of other factors.
This does not make any of their accounts wrong. . . from their perspective.
Only by looking for patterns within the eyewitness accounts can the police develop a composite of what probably happened and move forward. Relying on any one account and giving it absolute credence above all others, is not helpful, nor is assuming every eyewitness's statement should be given equal weight.
In business, we need to keep our eyes open for various perspectives. Everyone comes into a situation with their own hopes, wants, needs, fears and desires. Each has its own implicit or explicit agenda or bias, and each has its own views of what is right or wrong. Only by first appreciating that not everyone thinks, acts or reacts the same, and then developing communication strategies to build alliances and shared goals, can we ultimately succeed.
What are you doing to understand the perspectives within your organization and bring people together with various opinions and agendas to accomplish a greater goal?