Perspective….

Certain times it is not about knowledge or capability as much as perspective… about knowing the context….

Several times you would have seen decisions being taken contrary to your expectations or your best judgement. The instinctive reaction then would be… “what on earth were they thinking?”…. to say they are ‘wrong’ or to brand them ‘stupid’!!!

Hold off for a minute…. after all, no one is that stupid…. Well! For the most part!!!

Step back for a minute and try understanding the context or the premise within which they were taking the decisions when they did….

I have found that as much as we all like to think that we are always more right than the others most of the times… the world is actually blessed with more intelligent people than we care to give it credit for… and if you think unbiasedly, there are more smart people around you than you think there are!!!

Decisions are never absolute…. they are always contextual!!! You are right in your place… and he is right in his!!!

So when there is a conflict, step back and look at who has the better perspective in that situation… or may be the bigger perspective….

If you are a department head that knows more about your area, your normal tendency would be say that your organization’s management is wrong….

They may be… but if you are intelligent, before you conclude as such, understand that while you may have a better perspective about your specific area… your management probably has a bigger perspective of where your area fits in the overall scheme….

I am not suggesting that you yield blindly, but if you do care enough, approach them and reason with them…. If they care and you care… then the best organizational decision will result…. It does not matter who was more right in that context, for all that matters is that the right decision was taken!

And if either of you has ulterior motives, I am sure both of you are smart enough to figure it out and react as appropriate….

Put things in perspective…. Always!!! The better perspective… the bigger perspective… the right perspective…. in that order… And everyone will win!!!”