# 136: Perspectives
Story behind the Passage
Yes, I admit it, I am really in love with dictionaries. Today, I simply have to write about a word that has gained importance, I think. Look at what Ngram says below. Of course, that does not tell you much — it all depends on your perspective. If you are a mathematician or some other numbers expert, you will probably not give much about the Google tool. I do not give much about it either, except for just using it as an indicator for the popularity of certain terms in the context of different historical eras.
The reason why I am writing about perspectives today is because I had another “aha” moment this morning. I was quite proud of myself because I actually made it happen instead of turning the incident into a big drama. I think, all the business learning and the entrepreneurship add so many valuable things to one’s knowledge and skills portfolio that it is hard to imagine where I would be without it today. Anyway, the story is very simple: I had written a text that I was not happy about. It was a collaborative text but somehow it just did not flow, even though my co-author was fine with it. Then I got feedback from a third potential co-author this morning and his content came from a very different perspective. So, instead of trying to squeeze it into the existing text or to let go of the piece completely, I immediately knew how we could solve this: We are going to turn it into a new text format, probably an interview, that exposes the different perspectives. This was my feedback:
“The real value is not in the text, it is in your comments and our different perspectives.”
So, the “aha-moment” was that I actually realized this. And my co-authors all agreed. What follows is the realization that quite often, at least this is my experience, we make things more complicated by somewhat concealing the individual perspective in our writing. Very often, this is a consequence of the genre we choose. But I do think that the entire online communication habits and the fast-paced exchange of “authentic” Tweets and instant messages has made us more picky about the origin of news — and individual perspectives. We are used to always checking: Who said this? Where is it from? Whose “perspective” does this represent?
My Learnings
“A mental view or outlook.“ This is really the key, I think. It is all in your head and in your heart. This determines how you see what you see. It is interesting that it says “or outlook.” For me, the two words “view” and “outlook” do differ significantly when it comes to the time horizon. If you have a bleak view of the world today — your outlook — your perspective at the future, will not look very different, i.e., much more positive, I suppose.
“An understanding of how aspects of a subject relate to each other and to the whole: a perspective of history; a need to view the problem in the proper perspective.” This sub-definition strikes me because of the holistic aspect. Given what I wrote about sensemaking yesterday, the ability to solve problems crucially depends on all the other perspectives that you are able to take — or not. The questionable thing, of course, is the adjective “proper.” When you look at coaching or intercultural communication, the key thing is that you learn — slowly but surely — that you can only help people solve (inner) conflicts if you forget about the insistence on some “right or wrong” perspective.
“Subjective evaluation of relative significance; a point of view: the perspective of the displaced homemaker.” All “right or wrong” assessments are evaluations and evaluations happen from one particular perspective only. This is what is so fascinating about intercultural experiences and communication. All of us grow up with this natural ethnocentrism and respective judgements in our mind. If you are really ready to deeply dive into another culture to really understand it, you will automatically leave your old judgements behind and then look at your own culture from a new perspective. This is what really changes you irreversibly. It really demonstrates the point of multiple perspectives and the importance of constructivism, if you want to use the philosophical term. We all construct our world the way we (want to) see it from where we are — temporarily and locally.
“The technique of representing three-dimensional objects and depth relationships on a two-dimensional surface.” This is the level of full mastery, I think. This is kind of the Buddha stage. You see the full complexity of humanity from all possible angles and therefore everything becomes simple and whole. What might sound like a paradox is the ultimate three-dimensional perspective. Most of us do not achieve this, I guess. But that should not stop us from trying. Being able to shift from perspective to perspective without getting crazy is a great asset— especially for solving the world’s most challenging problems. I just hope that this ability is truly being fostered by the diversity that we see in our communication channels. If we just decide to watch all the pluralism of perspectives while insisting on our own, we are missing a great opportunity. Actually, we are putting our problem-solving ability at risk. Especially in the age of machine learning, this unique ability to recognize patterns remains a human skill — our perspective.
Reflection Questions
1) Do you frequently use the word “perspective” to make sure you are not talking about universal truths — in which situations particularly?
2) Which events changed your perspective of looking at life?
3) Do you think that digital media use and globalization really change the perspective of people or is this a myth? Where do you observe changes?