How Recognizing Different Perspectives Can Drive Organizational Success

Binary Thinking: How It Hinders Our Progress

One of the things that stands out to me through my work in training and development is how we tend to judge. We immediately categorize an idea, an experience, or a project: It's good or bad. It's right, or it's wrong. It’s [Frame A] or [Frame B].

We're not effectively trained on how to abstain from judgment, so our default position is to assign a value immediately. And if we frame things that way from the get-go, we can get into this binary mindset and frame of mind, and that's a bit of a challenge. 

The reason I bring this up is: When we do the work around concepts like strengths and values, we tend to think that whatever way we personally do things is the most effective way. Please note the word effective as opposed to right or wrong. There is often no definitive right, no definitive wrong; there's just a way. 

Recognizing Different Approaches to Strengths and Values

I was doing a workshop recently with StrengthsFinder, which is a great tool about how people can reach their potential and how they naturally operate. The nice thing about StrengthsFinder is that if you put an opportunity or challenge in front of two people and say, “Hey, go optimize for this,'' they will approach the situation differently. 

It’s not surprising that we each like our own way. It's comfortable for us. And because it's comfortable and has “worked” for us, we develop this mindset that our way is most effective overall. 

The Challenge of Leading with Personal Preferences and Avoiding Judgment

When we're talking about concepts like strengths, though, we're really talking about how somebody is naturally talented and what is natural to them. So we have to remember that what's natural for me might not be natural for you. 

This is one of the hardest lessons that we have to learn as leaders. Yes, it's okay to have a preferred way (whether you call it an approach, a system, a style, or something else), and to use it with people. It's also important to be aware of your preference so that you’re not projecting and pushing people into methods and mindsets that they might not want for themselves. That might not be aligned for them.

The fascinating thing about judgment is that it often happens with other personal concepts, like values. We might judge other peoples’ values relative to our own. We might think of ours as the “right” or “good” values and others as less right or less good because they are different.

And that’s when we have to remember that values are personal and virtuous. Strengths are personal and positive. It's not a battle of good versus bad, or right vs. wrong. It's not a competition where one prevails at the expense of another.

Building Effective Teams Through Shared Values

It's about Good and Good - a phrase my advisor and mentor Joe Leboeuf shared with me.

So how do you evaluate whether somebody else's good aligns with what your good means to you? That's where discovery, curiosity, awareness, and communication come into play. And in my opinion, it is a journey worth pursuing—within our companies, our teams, our personal circles. 

It's worth pursuing because it’s about how we can—together, with all of our “good”—become a more effective team and ultimately help our company thrive.

The bottom line is that when we think about these concepts, whether it’s strengths or values, goals or motivations, or anything else that drives our behavior and how we want to show up in the world, it’s helpful to think about them in terms of good and good. 

What does good mean for me? What does good mean for them? What does good look like for us, together?

That's an effective way of building relationships and, ultimately, building a company and teams.