I hosted a houseguest from Ukraine. Yuti was young and loved camping. As he passed through on his cross-country trips he’d stay here to regroup. Each time he arrived he’d tote in his pot filled with an ongoing version of his oxtail soup. He was generous with his recipes and his spirit.
One morning he announced clearly and with conviction,
“You have beetles in your walls.”
Initially I felt rather terrified; I’d never heard of such a thing and it sounded creepy and destructive.
Of course, when I went to listen the “beetles” were silent. I felt worried; was Yuti’s hearing super powered, and mine not?
Yuti formed his opinion based upon his experience and world view. Beetles were part of his background.
While the beetles are a more obvious example of people evaluating situations based on their experience, business is rife with different and subtler perspectives. Even within a similar culture, geography, or field of work/study people can have very different perspectives based up on their experience.
Examples:
- If you’ve done something one way for 15 years, your concerns about changing it may be very different than someone coming in new. Your experience gives you confidence. Your experience also may blind you.
- If you are out working on the frontline with clients or patients you may have experiences that urge you to overlook potential hazards for the sake of bringing a solution or easing suffering than someone with a broader perspective who may see unintended consequences.
- When seeking collabortion with the various aspects of business as in design, production, sales, and finance, each person in those areas naturally brings different competing perspectives.
All perspectives can be valid.
So what do you do to keep momentum moving when differing perspectives exist?
Referring back to the beetles, the critical moment for me was recognizing the initial tension that I felt. My tension was a warning sign for me to do something other than what I was doing, which was freaking out a bit.
When you feel tension or are freaking out – it is impossible to see solutions.
The same is true with all the examples above when you feel the initial tension – that is your warning sign to shift the exchange! Otherwise, the tension may get greater and turn into destructive conflict.
The more the tension develops initially,
the more difficult it is to shift and collaborate for innovation.
My clients know the answer to shifting momentum is to Spiral Impact it!
What was the solution for the “beetles'”? A few days later while in the guest room I heard a vibrating sound. Could it be beetles? No, it was a loose screw on the cold air exchange vent vibrating! Easy fix! Fortunately, I’d found my center and didn’t lose much momentum in the other aspects of my life before the problem was solved.
For me “Beetles” will always represent a different prespective.
Do you find differences slowing down your momentum? Take my survey and let’s have a 30 minute consult! for free!
