Wisdom In Leadership
By Les Mottosky
Most of us believe we see the world accurately. We don’t. That's because we’re not passive observers. We see something and instantly project meaning on to it. This projection is an interpretation that becomes how we "see" the thing we're looking at.
So, nope; we don’t see with our eyes. We see through them. Through our life experiences. Through memory, emotion, story, training, trauma, culture, and patterns. Our "realities" are entirely individual. Three people can look at the same river: one sees beauty, another sees danger, the third sees a fishing opportunity. Same water, three unique lenses.
Our eyes are the aperture. What we “see” is shaped by what we’ve lived, what we expect, and what we’ve been conditioned to notice or ignore.
There's a saying used in psychology: "The map is not the territory". And by that same reasoning, sight isn’t vision.
That’s why perception is always a creative act. More than reflecting the world, it shapes it. Because our perception creates everything. So much so, that what we notice about life becomes what we believe. (Remember the beautiful/dangerous/fishing river?)
Most consequentially, what we believe shapes what we’re capable of becoming.
So if we want to change what we see, we don’t start by changing the world. Instead we change our lens. That means developing new skills: unlearning lessons no longer effective for us, reigniting curiosity, asking better (and more) questions, welcoming dissonance, navigating constructive confrontation and letting go of certainty.
The real work of seeing isn’t in our eyes. It’s in our attention. And our attention is a choice. The more earnestly we choose to see what’s inside of us, the more honestly we can engage with what’s outside.
So as impossible as it seems, we don't see the world as it is. We see it as we are.
And that’s not truth, but it is where our power exists.
TAGS: #Wisdom In Leadership #Power Of Perception #Nature At Work #Humility #Courage Is Our Nature #Adaptation As Innovation
Les Mottosky
Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.
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