Perception and Communication

How we perceive the world affects how we are with others, the decisions we make and how we create what happens to us.

For example, we were recently working in Russia and were taken out to a rather touristy show, some of which was dreadful, but most, interesting. There were Russian folk songs, Cossack dancing and Russian folk music, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. On talking about the show to our host, Olga, she discussed how much this show bought up memories of her childhood. Her whole village would make the opportunity to sing and dance on the streets. Tables would be brought out and food provided by everyone for everyone. Today this does not happen and Olga was seeing the show through her own eyes and the memories it brought back to her. We, on the other hand were experiencing the performances as examples of Russian folk history and music and because we did not have any personal experiences to go back to purely saw the show in the here and now.

So, what has this to do with work? At work we are all aiming to communicate and very often it goes awry. Often this is because we all have different perceptions of the same issue and even the same experience – just like Olga and I and how we were experiencing the show. Frankie Armstrong, a singer, songwriter, author and performer said that we don’t see “with our eyes we see through our eyes”. We all bring our history, experiences, culture and expectations to the table when we communicate and problem solve. Perhaps if we accepted this fact we might we might be more tolerant and interested in how come the other person thinks or says something rather than trying to beat them over the head with what we believe or think.

Diversity enables us to co-create imaginative responses as long as we are willing to put down our prejudices and expectations and see who is before us.