How to Lead with Wisdom and Perspective | #87

So, Rich, in this first section of this podcast today, which we've called We Don't See the World As It Is, you've often said that we don't simply see reality.

We see reality through a perspective.

Do you just want to unpack what you mean by that?

Yeah, so I think a lot of people make the mistake that they think they have unmediated access to reality, so to speak.

But actually we don't, we interpret reality.

So we filter reality through a set of filters that includes things like our thinking preferences, our personality sort of preferences, our values.

the culture that shapes our perception, our family upbringing shapes our perception.

And even as we go through life, when we make different friends, we engage in different teams, we engage in different organizations, all of those subtly shape our perception and affect how we interpret reality.

And no two person is the same.

And this shows itself when you see two people experiencing the same event, but they arrive at very different conclusions.

I remember I went to a concert with a mate of mine to one of my favorite bands and he likes the band as well.

And we literally stood side by side in the same concert venue, heard the same band.

And I walked out and thought, wasn't that amazing? And he said, I'm not so sure.

And then he started to pick holes in the performance of, I can't remember what the details were now.

But it's interesting that for him, the sorts of things that made the concert disappointing were, were not something that affected my enjoyment of the same event.

So two very different perspectives, two different value sets in terms of our relationship to this band, to music, for example.

So our experience was very different.

And you see this play out inside organizations.

So imagine a change initiative, perhaps, that you're trying to introduce inside your business.

Now, if you're a leader of that and leading the change, often leaders, if they're leading a change initiative, they'll see the opportunity, they'll see the vision, and they'll come at that change initiative probably with a high degree of excitement.

Yeah.

Seeing the vision and the potential for what could be.

Yeah.

Whereas actually the people on the receiving end of the change inside the organization might not see necessarily the opportunity.

They might hear the words and see the logic behind that, but probably they'll see the risk to them, to their job, to their security.