If you sing that to the tune – ‘what a difference a day makes’, it should help brighten your day. Well, you may ask why did I start with this particular heading – it was due to an amazing set of circumstances which came about as a result of a number of activities and networks that I am involved.
In the course of one week a series of meetings and interactions provided a tremendous boost to what I am doing and as a result an equally tremendous insight into the skills of so many others around us that we take for granted – or indeed, we actually ignore, which by defualt tends to promote a lack of esteem in the very people we should be encouraging and supporting.
I was involved in a discussion, striving to explore options and interpretations of a passage of text, the idea that many folk were reading the same information but they managed to offer so many interpretations of what it meant, highlighted the different skills and experiences that each person was coming from.
This was a glorious eyeopener for me, can you imagine the trouble they have in the United Nations, to get a simple piece of legislation through that would mean the same to all who read it – a mission impossible. It also provided one lady with an ‘esteem’ complex, she indicated that perhaps she was not as smart as some of us around the table contributing to the discussion, what a humbling experience, that we would make her feel that her view was less.
Imagine if you would, a one metre sphere which we are all standing around – and we are standing on a glass floor, so that others can mimic our circle below and look up at the sphere, also imagine a glass ceiling above with yet another circle of people exactly set out as ours and the one below. We are all looking at the same sphere – but no other person is seeing it from the position that I am in – therefore my view is unique, just as every other view around me, above me and below me is equally unique.
We soon realised that the only way we could get a true image of our world today, was through collaboration, teamwork, sharing and listening – we all had our individual part to play, our own skill and interpretation to share and together we were becoming a powerful force of knowledge and information, able to consider a broader range of interpretations.
Only by sharing do we have the opportunity to see the WHOLE picture, we need to learn to listen to others viewpoint, to inform our debate, to inform our understanding, to allow us to make a sound choice based on good judgement after taking everything into consideration. We also learn that others will make a similar choice or indeed one which is completely opposite – we may also find that some choices are made without gathering all the facts and that is normally where conflict arises.
This simple experience on discussing some text – provided an open dialogue with a number of business colleagues during the rest of the week with startling results and impact on them, their outlook and the direction they wish to go in developing their business. What a difference your ‘SKILL’ makes.
Jimmy