The single most powerful statement to come out of brain research in the last twenty-five years is this: We are as different from one another on the inside of our heads as we appear to be different from one another on the outside of our heads. Look around and see the infinite variety of human heads – skin, hair, age, ethnic characteristics, size, color, and shape. And know that on the inside such differences are even greater-what we know, how we learn, how we process information, what we remember and forget, our strategies for functioning and coping. Add to that the understanding that the “world” out “there” is as much a projection from inside our heads as it is a perception, and pretty soon you are up against the realization that it is a miracle that we communicate at all. It is almost unbelievable that we are dealing with the same reality. We operate on a kind of loose consensus about existence at best. From a practical point of view, day by day, this kind of information makes me a little more patient with the people I live with. I am less inclined to protest, “Why don’t you see it the way I do?” and more inclined to say “You see it that way? Holy Cow! How amazing!”
- Robert Fulgum
Imagine that you are an anthropologist that has just discovered and is now studying a lost tribe somewhere in the Amazon rain forest. How would you go about studying this tribe? You would probably begin by simply observing: watching their interactions with each other and their environment, trying to understand what they do and why they do it. You would NOT make assumptions based on your own culture – after all, who says that they do things for the same reasons that you do things? Who says that they see the world the same way you do? You would simply try to understand their world from their point of view.
Effective leaders in all walks of life need to develop the ability to observe and accurately assess the situations and organizations that they are attempting to lead. The key to observation is understanding perspective.
Imagine that everyone goes through life with a set of glasses over their eyes. Everything they perceive is filtered through the lenses on their glasses. Any photographer will tell you that lenses are powerful things. They distort reality in special ways – by bringing some things into sharper focus, and hiding others from our view. Your lenses do the same thing. They are made up of your beliefs, expectations, past experiences, and prejudices. They distort what you perceive, so that when you look at the world, you are not really seeing the world. You are merely seeing that part of the world that your lenses allow you to see.
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the elephant
Though all of them were
blind
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The first approached the elephant
And, happening to fall
Against the broad and sturdy
side,
At once began to bawl:
“Why, bless me! But the elephant
Is very much like a wall!”
The second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, “Ho! What have we
here
So very round and smooth and
sharp?
To me, tis very clear,
This wonder of an elephant
Is very like a spear!”
The third approached the animal,
And, happening to take
The squirming trunk within his
hands
Thus boldly up he spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the elephant
Is very like a snake!”
The fourth reached out his eager
hand
And felt about the knee:
“What most this wondrous beast
is like
Is very plain,” quoth he:
“Tis clear enough the elephant
Is very like a tree!”
The fifth who chanced to touch
the ear
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most,
Deny the fact who can:
This marvel of an elephant
Is very like a fan!”
The sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope
Than, seizing on the swinging
tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the elephant
Is very like a rope!”
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong;
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong.
-John G. Saxe
Perspective is everything. In a very real sense, in this life at least, there is no reality. There is only perception. Without an Eternal Perspective, something we will someday gain but certainly lack here and now, we do not see the world as it is. Like the blind men in the above poem, we are limited by our lenses.
Another word for lenses is theories. A theory is nothing more than a way of looking at the world – a perspective. All observation is theory laden. Our theories direct our attention toward certain elements of an event or situation, and deflect our attention from others. Each of us sees what we are prepared to see. Theory development is social. From our earliest childhood we begin to form our theories of how the world is – or should be. We pick up theories from our parents, from our culture, our religion. Later we gain even more from our education or political affiliation. These theories will play a key role in how much of the world, and which parts of it, we are able to observe.
The secret of being a good observer is not to allow yourself to become trapped in a single point of view. Effective observers are able to look at things from multiple perspectives, or through multiple theory lenses. Each lens provides a different perspective, allowing the observer to gain new insights into the thing observed.
Effective managers and professionals in all walks of life, whether they be business executives, public administrators, organizational consultants, politicians, or trade unionists, have to become skilled in the art of “reading” the situations they are attempting to organize or manage. Skilled readers develop the knack of reading situations with various scenarios in mind, and of forging actions that seem appropriate to the readings thus obtained. They have the capacity to remain open and flexible, suspending immediate judgments whenever possible, until a more comprehensive view of the situation emerges. They are aware of the fact that new insights often arise as one reads a situation from new angles. and that a wide and varied reading can create a wide and varied range of action possibilities. Less effective managers and problem solvers, on the other hand, seem to interpret everything from a fixed standpoint. As a result, they frequently hit blocks that they can’t get around; their actions and behaviors are often rigid and inflexible and a source of conflict.
-Gareth Morgan, Images of Organization
