If you always look at a intractable problem in the same way it will be difficult to ever find a solution. Changing your point of view can break the log jam.
Changing your point of view may be as simple as looking at a problem from a different step in the process or as complicated as gathering information from other specialties. Creating teams with diverse backgrounds and specialties is a mechanism to ensure that one point of view will not predominate.
I have constructed a game that I play to remind myself of the power of how changing my point of view impacts perception. I construct a mental story, a scene for people I see in an airport (I spend too much time in airports). I then change sitting areas, review the scene and then reconstruct the story. They rarely are the same. Even a minor physical change in point of view can reveal differences in detail.
FYI – An observation from the airport . . . plaid pants and loud print shirts rarely look good together regardless of point of view. And yes that mean you have to remember that in an airport you are not invisible.
January 18, 2013 at 2:16 pm
You may not be invisible in an airport, but at times you can be anonymous.