What you see depends on where you sit
An important lesson from Einstein's theory of relativity
I want to start by sharing an extract from a Tim Ferriss Show episode where Sheila Heen (Harvard Negotiation Project) is telling the story of driving her young son to school:
"We stopped at a traffic light, and we were working on both colours and traffic rules. So we're stopped at the light. And I ask, "What colour is the traffic light?" And he says, "It's green." I said, "We're stopped at the light. What colour is the light? Take a good look." And he goes, "It's green." And when it turns, he says, "It's red. Let's go."
My first hypothesis is maybe he's colour blind. So I started collecting data and asked him to identify red and green in other contexts, and he got it right every time. And yet, every time we come to a traffic light, he's still giving me opposite answers.
My second hypothesis, by the way, is that he is messing with me, which I certainly had some data to support. This went on for about three weeks. It wasn't until maybe three weeks later, when I was in the back seat sitting next to him, and we stopped at a traffic light. And I suddenly realised that he usually couldn't see the light in front of us from where he is sat in his car seat. The headrest is in the way. So he's looking out the side window at the lights for the pedestrians crossing the road.
Now think about the conversation from his point of view. He's looking at the light, and it's green; I'm insisting that it's red, and he's like, you know, my mother seems right in most other ways, but she's just wrong about this. That experience has stuck with me all these years because it's such a great illustration of the fact that where you sit determines what you see.
When you're in the front seat, you are in a leadership position. You've got the experience, the resources and the best view of the road. Then somebody in the backseat pipes up to say something that doesn't make any sense at all. It's just so easy to dismiss it and move on rather than to say, "Okay. It doesn't make any sense. Help me at least understand what you're looking at."
Often, people on the backseat can see something coming at you that's going to sideswipe you because they're closer to the customer, suppliers, or the production line, etc."
What you see depends on where you sit!
Many business professionals and executives have yet to assimilate an important lesson of Einstein's theory of relativity: that the position of an observer will influence the phenomenon being observed and affect the results of the observation.
It can be tough to see different perspectives when we are part of the system, e.g. from the leadership seat. This is why it is essential to source different frames of reference to help think better and tackle complex problems.
📫 - Favourite quote
"Theories, beliefs, and practices die one generation at a time. But the conversation and battle must start somewhere."
From the book "Why We Sleep" (Matthew Walker)
This is similar to Planck's principle as formulated by the German physicist Max Planck (1858-1947):
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it... An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out and that the growing generation is familiarised with the ideas from the beginning: another instance of the fact that the future lies with the youth."
Both of which got me thinking about whether the slow progress in real change to workplace practices in some high-profile industries, e.g. Law or Financial Services, is because this principle is at work. More on this topic in 2022 - I have been researching a longer article on this subject matter for some time.
🧐 - Newly discovered content of interest
"Hi, and welcome to this very natural setting..." this 2-minute video welcoming us to the Icelandverse has me from the very beginning. What a wonderful, witty response to Mark Zuckerberg's video introducing us to the Metaverse.
And just in case you were interested in where Zuckerburg found his inspiration for the Metaverse, you may want to read two books: Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) and Neuromancer (William Gibson). Yikes! While great reads for sci-fi fans like me, they don't paint a pleasant picture of our future.
🧾 - An absorbing and insightful (short) read
An insightful letter from Tobi Lutke, the Shopify CEO, talking about the role of the employer and employee and why we should think of it as a sports team, not as a family.
Here is a small extract:
"Shopify, like any other for-profit company, is not a family. The very idea is preposterous. You are born into a family. You never choose it, and they can't un-family you. It should be massively obvious that Shopify is not a family, but I see people, even leaders, casually use terms like "Shopifam", which will cause the members of our teams (especially junior ones that have never worked anywhere else) to get the wrong impression. The dangers of "family thinking" are that it becomes incredibly hard to let poor performers go. Shopify is a team, not a family."
Let me know what you think. Do you view your organisation as a sports team or family or something entirely different?
🐣 - Something I am doing differently or entirely new
I am writing less.
The speed of information and news delivery has increased thanks to alerts, texts and interrupting popups. The cost to produce is also substantially lower than in the past. Consequently, some people write multiple posts a day. It is difficult and can be exhausting to write something thoughtful and full of insight on one topic, let alone many different ones. The fluency of the person you're getting your news from in the subject you're interested in when they are writing hundreds of articles a year is near zero. As a result, you risk filling your head with surface opinions and one-sided arguments. Consider the contrast, this year, I have written 12 email newsletters and 19 articles for the blog (I no longer aim to provide weekly(ish) updates). It takes a lot of effort to produce evergreen content that helps you answer your questions and question your answers.
What could you do differently in 2022? How about spending less time-consuming news and more time thinking or seeking out dense information sources rather than surface-level summaries or news headlines? There is a signal within all that noise.
⚖ - Et cetera
Perhaps the following will provide insight and be of help with a problem you are currently facing:
Do you need a new perspective on a challenge you're struggling with?
Are you starting a new role and want to make a positive impact and quickly establish credibility?
My latest article is here - "My top book recommendations from 2021."
The RYSE Journal - "A coach in your pocket."
Please keep your comments and feedback coming in. Even if it is a quick email to say hi for the first time in a while.
Rob