Main Idea:
When you look out the window and it is dark, is it night time? When an employee tells you that a customer is being unreasonable, do you know if that is correct? Can someone tell you the truth and still be completely wrong? If your financial statements show that you are losing money, is that a bad thing?
Expansion of the Idea:
I have a picture in one of my conference rooms that shows a winding garden path. There are a million pictures that show garden paths. The unusual thing about this picture is that if you stand to one side and look at it, the picture shows summer. If you move three feet to the left, it will show the same picture in winter. This technique is called lenticular display. When I saw this at an art show, I immediately bought it. This is a great reminder to me to look for reality from multiple points of view.
Most of us get into ruts in how we see our business, our employees, our friends and even our enemies. It is easier and quicker to take the previous view of the world and just use that. And that will work for a period of time. However, the world is changing rapidly. For anyone in a service business, you may or may not need to be located close to your customers. Amazon has completely changed retail and distribution businesses. There is disruption everywhere and you can’t afford to be the last person at a game of musical chairs. We need to look at everything from multiple perspectives, including those of our customers and employees. There is no real definition of reality. There are just multiple facets of it.
Likewise, there is no perfect way to address this situation. The most important thing is to realize that our perspective may seem right for us but it isn’t always right for others. By looking at all points of view, we may find better solutions for all interactions. This could include:
Learning more about your customer, employee or vendor
Asking questions on different perspectives
Invest time to see how your products or services are used
Look back at some recent conflicts, lost employees or customers to see if there was some information that you were unaware
One of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits for Highly Successful People was to seek first to understand and then to be understood. I think a completely consistent version of this would be to seek first to understand and then build a better solution.
Places to Start Looking at Different Versions of Reality:
Are there issues going on in your business that you don’t understand
Revisit important conversations you had with team members to see if your understanding of that conversation was the same
Meet with clients to understand their view of what you offer them
Talk to outside advisors, including your banker to evaluate their perspective of your service offering
Spend some time watching how work is done in your business
Ask your team if there are areas that they think you should focus on
I plan on having a zoom conference call on Constraints and Conflict Resolution on October 27 at 1pm CDT. This will explain how to identify your constraints and use the constraint to grow your business. I know that this sounds like an oxymoron but it works. I will also introduce a special conflict resolution process to help in your thinking. Looking at reality from different perspectives is absolutely critical to exploit the constraints. This zoom call will be beneficial for all managers, whether in a business or nonprofit. If you are interested in reserving your spot, please email me at your earliest convenience.