Perspective

Comedian George Carlin has a bit he used to do about driving in which he describes people who drive slower than him as idiots and those who speed past as maniacs.  Perspective is a funny thing. 

I was reminded of that when listening to funny stories being shared by a team during an exercise recently.  Their experiences prompted me to share a story of my own:

• Walking out of an office supply store in a busy strip mall one day, I was loaded down with materials for a meeting and in a hurry to get back to work.  I came out to find the parking lot was a mess.  In this relatively small lot, traffic is required to weave up and down one-way lanes that align with the angle of the parking spaces—but today cars were everywhere, moving in the wrong direction.  I looked at drivers as I walked past them, thought them inept, and wondered—possibly aloud—“What is wrong with these people?”
• I shook my head at them and the absurdity of the situation as I crossed the lot to my car.  And then I stopped.  In the midst of this mayhem and ineptitude, I spotted the direct cause of the situation—a small blue sports car completely blocking the lane in the far corner of the lot.  Unable to weave their way through, drivers were backing up, making multi-point turns to redirect their vehicles around the obstruction, and doing it calmly—without honking, yelling, or muttering at the incompetence of the one driver who had caused the situation.  In front of the blue car I could see an empty parking spot on a bit of an incline. 
• As it turned out, when its hurried driver parked and got out, she didn’t fully engage the emergency brake.  Before she ever made it into the store, her car followed her and coasted into the lane that led to the lot’s exit. 
• I stopped shaking my head at the drivers scattered around the lot, got into my wayward blue sports car, and humbly took my chagrin and my copies back to work.

After sharing my story with my participants, I reflected on how often our perspectives can be misleading—and how often we think we’re right but aren’t. Remembering that day reminds me to assess before I judge, consider my potential contribution to a situation, and look at things from multiple perspectives before coming to a conclusion.  

How have you created situations you attributed to others’ behaviors?  What story can you share with us to highlight perspective?

Kimberly both teaches and employs the practice of pausing to consider alternative views of a situation – and now always checks her parking brake twice.