Views into Another World - Day 56

Day 56 (25th January 2015)

56 - the exact number of curls in Shirley Temple's hair when a child actress

Her mother, Gertrude, gave her ringlets similar to those of the silent movie star Mary Pickford 

Shirley Temple inadvertently caused Graham Greene to write "The Power and the Glory". 

He had been a film critic, but his comments on her performance in "Wee Willie Winkie": 

"Her admirers "“ middle-aged men and clergymen "“ respond to her dubious coquetry, 

to the sight of her well-shaped and desirable little body, packed with 

enormous vitality, only because the safety curtain of story and dialogue drops 

between their intelligence and their desire", resulted in a libel action. 

Following this Greene resigned and left the UK to travel in Mexico, 

a trip which inspired his masterpiece.

Alex Moyle is the Managing Director of Selzig Consulting, based in Bristol (Selzig is word of Scandinavian origin meaning "to serve" - Alex is a specialist in sales and his business focuses on helping organisations to enhance revenue and growth through customer service and talent management - serving clients and employees). Prior to setting up his own business, Alex spent over 15 years with global recruitment experts, Robert Half, where, having proved himself an able senior consultant (he was a branch manager) he became a specialist in training and developing employees and was the UK Director of talent Development. Alex is married and lives with his family near Bristol. He is active on social media (his Twitter handle is @Alex_Moyle) and a regular blogger on LinkedIn.

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Everything we see, hear, smell and think is tainted by perspective. My favourite quote of all time is in Act 2 Scene 2, Lines 246 to 247 from Hamlet where Hamlet says to Rozencrantz:

"Why, then, ’tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” 

What I love about the quote is that it reminds you that, whatever situation you find yourself in, it is what you think that decides the perspective you see.

Marcus Aurelius has a similar opinion to that of Shakespeare

However a challenge for us all is that the decisions we make and the perspective we choose is more often than not a subconscious one.

Dali's painting: Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee
around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening
often cited as a depiction of the subconscious influencing thoughts

Worse still is that, if we are not consciously aware of the perspective from which we see situations, how are we to be conscious in seeing the perspectives of others as we live our lives?

No one wants to be the boss that is seen as uncaring or or self-centred, only concerned with our own view on the world.  Or, in the best case, wandering through life thinking everyone likes you, but mysteriously spending Christmas Day on your own.

So what are the conscious triggers that you can use to encourage you to see life from another perspective? 

• Try reading a different news paper or news website than usual and, rather than disagreeing with the view points you read, think “what is making them think like that?" If you read the Telegraph try the Guardian, etc...

The Sun vs.Daily Mirror - contrasting opinions
Headlines for Thursday 6th May 2010 UK election

• When your husband, wife or partner is frustrated with something you have done, rather than defend ask yourself “what are they seeing that I am not that is making them respond in this way?"

• When someone in your team is complaining about the company, rather than immediately defend the situation with the company line ask them “why is it you think that?"

• When your boss delivers change that you do not perceive as positive, think “what is the business trying to achieve from this change?”  This may seem strange but, in the main, companies do not set out to deliberately make their staff unhappy.

• When you are confronted by an unhappy customer whom you feel is being unreasonable, ask your self “how would I feel if I had this happen to me?"

More often that not once you start asking yourself these questions another world opens up that is different than the one you see today. 

Strange things may start happening to you.  You may find that you think a little longer before you respond, instead of defaulting to your pre-programmed way; you may be slightly less judgemental knowing the person annoying you may have good reason for behaving that way. You never know, you may even start reading a different paper, voting differently or switch your football team from the blues to the reds...

David Bowie - "Changes" from the album Hunky Dory, 1971

It would be great to get your ideas and suggestions on things you should ask yourself in situations where you probably could do with pausing and seeing things from a different perspective. 

Comments below please.