One day at my college job, I was pondering out loud the behavior of a particular person when one of my student colleagues from Paraguay said, "a thief thinks everybody steals". Ever since then I've remembered and used that phrase to describe not just the situational ethics I observe around me, but my own propensity to assume that everyone looks at life just like I do.
For all the good intentions towards inclusiveness, I still must work hard every day to see situations from other points of view and not just my own. My "self colored glasses" will cause me to miss a lot going on around me. They cause me to make assumptions I shouldn't make.
I may have had an excellent meeting presenting an idea to management, and the agreement in the room was "great idea...let's move forward." If I look at this event as the milestone in my project life and forget it may be five minutes in the executive timeline, I'll move forward without checking back or in. The meeting meant a lot more to me than it did to those people I presented to. Oh, it may have been an amazing idea and they may still be thinking about it, but even a few hours sleep can erode "buy in". So, if I put my "what are they thinking" hats on, I'll know that this great idea that I'm now moving forward with must stay in front of them many more times... during and at completion.
Communication is the uniting force that separates us all. It's a challenge even for people who are really, really good at it. If you really want to know what people think, you have to ask them. And not just like you're asking them how their day is going; you have to ask them as if you're going to have to pretend to be them in 30 minutes (in other words, really listen).
A word of caution. Viewpoints are like ripe vegetables. They can expire quickly. You can't necessarily take a conversation you had two years ago and assume you understand the viewpoint of that same person today. (Not only might their cheese have moved, they may not even be a mouse anymore.) However, if you are continually having conversations with that person and you are understanding their view, you have a relationship... and you are in a much better position to speak for them in their absence.
I'm sure the Lord Jesus Christ wishes Christians checked in with Him more often before they decided they could speak for Him. Fortunately it doesn't take much investigation to determine whether they actually have a relationship with Him, or if they just met Him the one time. One of the great benefits of having a relationship with the Most High is that He can show you how to talk to your audience before you even have a chance to ask them what they think. The best pair of glasses to wear are the "Christ-colored" ones.
For all the good intentions towards inclusiveness, I still must work hard every day to see situations from other points of view and not just my own. My "self colored glasses" will cause me to miss a lot going on around me. They cause me to make assumptions I shouldn't make.
I may have had an excellent meeting presenting an idea to management, and the agreement in the room was "great idea...let's move forward." If I look at this event as the milestone in my project life and forget it may be five minutes in the executive timeline, I'll move forward without checking back or in. The meeting meant a lot more to me than it did to those people I presented to. Oh, it may have been an amazing idea and they may still be thinking about it, but even a few hours sleep can erode "buy in". So, if I put my "what are they thinking" hats on, I'll know that this great idea that I'm now moving forward with must stay in front of them many more times... during and at completion.
Communication is the uniting force that separates us all. It's a challenge even for people who are really, really good at it. If you really want to know what people think, you have to ask them. And not just like you're asking them how their day is going; you have to ask them as if you're going to have to pretend to be them in 30 minutes (in other words, really listen).
A word of caution. Viewpoints are like ripe vegetables. They can expire quickly. You can't necessarily take a conversation you had two years ago and assume you understand the viewpoint of that same person today. (Not only might their cheese have moved, they may not even be a mouse anymore.) However, if you are continually having conversations with that person and you are understanding their view, you have a relationship... and you are in a much better position to speak for them in their absence.
I'm sure the Lord Jesus Christ wishes Christians checked in with Him more often before they decided they could speak for Him. Fortunately it doesn't take much investigation to determine whether they actually have a relationship with Him, or if they just met Him the one time. One of the great benefits of having a relationship with the Most High is that He can show you how to talk to your audience before you even have a chance to ask them what they think. The best pair of glasses to wear are the "Christ-colored" ones.
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