perspectives: a path to creativity and choice
Purpose:
In this process, you will have the opportunity to explore a work or life situation from different perspectives. When we “take out the trash” in our minds and open ourselves to other viewpoints of the same situation, our creativity flourishes! We are able to break the patterns of the past, identify best solutions, and move from living a life of chance to living a life of choice and purpose.
Background:
Perspective work is a tool used within the coaching industry to help people see and experience challenges or situations from different points of view. As a result, it opens the mind to new possibilities, offers new options, and allows the individual to be more creative in his or her choices and actions.
In the movie, The Peaceful Warrior, Socrates helped Dan see his life from a new perspective. Freeing his mind of clutter allowed him to focus on the one thing that mattered: the moment. As a result, Dan gained the ability to look at the ordinary and see the extraordinary. By changing the lens through which he saw the world, Dan was able to take a life-changing accident and turn it into an opportunity to take his skills to an even higher level.
Objective:
To explore a challenge or situation that you are experiencing and look at it from different points of view in order to discover new possibilities and solutions.
Set Up :
This process can be completed as an individual, within your business group, within a family and in a community organization. It takes about thirty minutes to complete and works best when done at a time when everyone is free from interruptions for the entire time.
- Use masking tape to mark off four equal quadrants in the middle of the floor. The quadrants should resemble the four quadrants in the “Perspectives” worksheet.
- Distribute a copy of the “Perspectives” worksheet and “Action Planning” worksheet to each person. Make sure each person also has a pen or pencil.
- Identify one person to be the facilitator. The facilitator will keep time, help move people from one quadrant to the next, and keep the process on track.
Process:
1. Review the objective of the exercise with the group. Hand out the “Perspectives” worksheet and the “Action Planning” worksheet.
2. Using the “Perspectives” Worksheet as a guide, you are going to reflect on a current challenge or situation that you are facing and consider how that challenge or situation can be seen from different viewpoints.
3. Have the group determine a common challenge or opportunity that is facing them right now. In the space provided in the center of the worksheet , write down the chosen challenge or opportunity. This can be a personal situation, a business situation, a family situation, or a community situation.
4. Determine the four different perspectives you will use to view the problem. Assign these to each quadrant. Have the participants write the perspective in the corresponding quadrants on the worksheet.
Below are some examples of different perspectives:
Personal or Family Challenge |
Business Challenge |
Community Challenge |
| My Spouse | My Future Self | Community Leaders |
| A Significant Other | My Employees | A Neighbor |
| A Good Friend | My Manager | Neighboring Communities |
| My Children | The Customer | Community Service Provider (e.g. a school, church, the police or fire department, etc.) |
| My Parents | Another Department | |
| A Competitor |
1. Ask the participants to distribute themselves in one of the four quadrants taped on the floor so that each perspective has several people in it. One approach to use is to ask the participants to stand in the quadrant that calls to them the most.
2. Explain that this part of the process will be done in COMPLETE SILENCE.
3. Using the "Perspectives Worksheet” as a guide, reflect on the different ways that the challenge is impacted by the perspective quadrant in which they are currently standing.
4. Ask everyone to consider the questions at the bottom of the “Perspectives Worksheet” as a starting point. Encourage them to clear their minds of other thoughts, to “take out the trash.” Have them focus on the current perspective and what the problem or challenge looks like, feels like, and sounds like as they connect with this point of view.
5. Encourage them to write their thoughts down in the space provided. Allow several minutes for people to reflect and write down their thoughts and feelings.
6. Have everyone rotate CLOCKWISE to the next quadrant. The physical rotation to a different quadrant will allow the participants to deepen their experience of a new perspective.
7. Repeat Steps 6-9 for the remaining three quadrants.
8. Once you have completed the four perspectives, the participants should anchor their thoughts and feelings into an action plan.
To move your organization forward and to create many options and many choices, it is important to reframe the problem or challenge into an opportunity. Finding another angle to view the situation invites creativity and innovation.
1. Ask people to share their various thoughts. Which perspective will serve the organization best to move it forward toward the goal or solution? Choose one. Circle it.
2. When you say “Yes” to one thing, you will have to say “No” to something else. That is the nature of choice.
3. Some examples:
- When I say “Yes” to being powerful, I will say “No” to having low self-esteem
- When I say “Yes” to moving my company forward, I am saying “No” to holding it back
- When I say “Yes” to taking focused action, I will say “No” to doing busy work
- When I say “Yes” to walking to work, I will say “No” to using gas unnecessarily
4. Write down those things that the organization will say “Yes” to and those things they will say “No” to by making the choice of that perspective. Use the worksheet provided.
5. As a result of what you have experienced and your new perspective – what will you do differently? What action will you take to overcome your challenge and turn it into an opportunity?
6. Write down the action steps in the space provided on the worksheet.
Conclusion:
Exploring various perspectives allows an individual to re-examine viewpoints and belief systems to think about issues differently. Perspectives provide the power to stimulate change, explore possibilities, and inspire creativity. A new perspective is always possible if one is open and conscious enough to see it, and when we do gain a new perspective the world truly is extraordinary.
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