Yesterday it was my son’s Christmas concert. Turning around, what did I see? Not the excited faces of all the parents focused directly on what was happening on stage, but a sea of phones. This is what the kids saw too.
Now I understand there are 101 reasons why parents may feel the need to record their child concert and it’s not for me to be preachy as I too have been guilty of this. But it made me question what was the real reason we were there. Was it to record yet another video to be stored on our phones (and most likely never viewed again), or was it to support our children? What would the children there want to see, how did they feel?
As a coach I often encourage my clients to see things from others’ perspective. Anticipating a difficult conversation with your boss? Having issues with a colleague? “How would you view the situation if you were in their shoes?” I ask them. Such a simple question allows us see to a situation in a new light, helps us understand each other better and can help us change our behaviours to take account of all parties involved and not just ourselves.
This difficulty in seeing a situation from another's perspective is all too relevant when we think about the difference in perspectives intergenerationally. We often hear mid-lifers disparing about Millennials, but how much of this is real or just a lack of understanding, an inablility, or unwillingness to put ourselves in another's shoes? As economic pressures force many of us to continue working till later in life, the highest growth in employment in Britain is amoungst the over 65s, a better intergenerational understanding is, more than ever, a necessity for better workplace relationships and possibly productivity growth.
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