WELL THAT WAS A BAD IDEA
I have plenty of people in my life that will tell me when I have a bad idea. In fact, I hear that almost daily. I suppose that means I either have really bad ideas, or it means I just have a lot of them. Either way, what makes something seem like such a great idea to me, but can be so easily shot down or proven to be ill-contrived by others? Why might I see things a certain way, while my colleague, my friend, or my coach sees things in a dramatically different light? Simply, perspective.
We have all been there. From our point of view, in our opinion, the way we see things, or from our perspective, a course of action seems very clear. We’ve all but made up our mind, and we feel confident in the decision we are about to make. Perhaps right before we move forward with that choice someone else chimes in. Someone else voices their opinion. Someone else offers a suggestion, another option, a differing perspective. In that moment, we begin to question the decision we were so sure of. In that moment we rethink the choice that we made. In that moment we re-orchestrate what led us down this path in the first place, and begin to question whether or not we’ve thought through all of our options.
This can be wildly helpful when making decisions. But more importantly, it can be incredibly valuable when just absorbing information, compiling data, and diving into research.
Recently I shared that as I looked back on the books that I had read in the previous year, 80% were written by men and 20% were written by women. I generally read the majority of my books around just a few topics each year. I read selectively to learn as much as I can around that topic. I choose those books. And without being strategic about what I choose to add to my reading list, who I listen to and who I learn from, unknowingly I could be limiting my own perspective to a certain type of person - all of whom have similar perspectives in their own right. Of course, that doesn’t mean the information in those books isn’t incredible. But if my goal is to expand my perspective in order to become a better decision maker, a more rounded human being, and a stronger leader, then I can strategically look to bring new perspectives into my information gathering and consumption habits.
This takes strategy and not just behaving automatically. You see, I read non-fiction. And as it turns out among reviewed non-fiction, 83% of the authors are male. So without a real strategy to expand the perspectives I allow into my daily life, by pure mathematics, I will end up reading male authored books about 80% of the time. And just like that, I find myself falling into a Similarity Bias, “preferring what is like us over what is different than us.” Shining light on this bias - whether circumstantial, statistical, or strategic - allows each of us to welcome new perspectives into our lives. It’s an active process and unfortunately won’t happen naturally in the society in which we live. We will need to make choices around how to seek out, welcome, ask for, and listen to new perspectives. By in-so-doing, our own perspectives will be broadened, our understanding of the world widened, and our decision making skills deepened.
I came across a very simple story from back in 2012 when YouTube had just launched their mobile product which allowed everybody to upload videos directly to the internet from their cell phones. (As an aside, this very product was a way for those previously unable to share their perspective, to do so.) As the videos began to get uploaded onto the web however, about 10% of those videos would be uploaded upside down. The development team could not figure out why 90% of the time the process worked perfectly, while 10% of the time the videos became unwatchable. Ultimately after much research, they discovered that left-handed people hold their cell phones differently, and all of their videos were upside down upon being uploaded. How could such a simple issue be overlooked before releasing the product to the public? When figuring out where the team went wrong, a glaring oversight showed up. There was not one left-handed person among the product and design teams that worked on that specific product. No one was there to offer their perspective on how to build and design this simple product and feature for both right-handed and left-handed users. And without that differing perspective, an entire group was left unaccounted for.
So where in our own worlds are we missing perspective on the life that we are building and designing. Do we have a perspective rich environment? Do we welcome new perspectives and search for those that we may not be accustomed to receiving? My bookshelf looks a bit different after I spent some time thinking about perspective this week, and so my perspective will surely be a bit different as well.
Perspective gives us options.
Perspective gives us dimension.
Perspective gives us range.
Perspective gives us a wider path to our preferred future.
Oh, and perspective saves us from some of our own really bad ideas.
Chris