turn tables
#NuttyNovember 12
Oh Nutters, today we are gonna turn the tables…
Have you ever complained about something or someone?
It can be your boss at work place. A guy who pesters you with every other thing, micro manages and demands more from you every time. Or a guy who doesn’t get you.
Or it can be about systems - how bad that system is designed to make life painful day in and day out. A system so useless and messy!
Or the complaining can be even silent, inside your head - and this usually happens when you think somebody is doing a bad job. Why can’t this guy put a little effort and understand this? Or why would he do it like that - I would have done it far better.
Now we even become experts at times. And tell ”I don’t know why this brand still sells. Such a bad logo they have. And don’t get me started on the colour of their new product!”
First things first - never feel bad towards yourself if you catch yourself doing this. Do this it is fine. It is a way of processing things around.
But…
Now let’s turn the tables. Come on. Stand up, sit on the other side. This table is heavier than we thought to turn!
Now your job is to defend the other person. You may have to think about why that person is doing it. Or you may have to think about circumstances that made that person such. Or you may have to defend even telling this is that person’s first time and they are gonna definitely improve next time. Or if that brand is selling, there are some people out there who is not finding that logo weird and is loving it - you may not have met them. You will have to drill down and search why that brand is working. You may have to even go one line beyond when you can’t defend by proper reasons and tell this is better than nothing. At least this system brings ensures that this much is happening.
I don’t know how you do it. But your only job is to sit and defend as if it is you on the other side.
This suddenly helps you see the sides you may have missed seeing. This suddenly makes you ask questions you may have skipped over.
Whenever I have done this:
As a manager I realised, I wasn’t doing my job of teaching my team which was making them confused in some work streams. The things which I thought that they were lazy and had zero interest in, was actually an information problem. But even my team didn’t realise the actual reason.
With systems, they are usually built over time. And will have elements which solved for problems which arose across a longer time period. A good system at scale, takes years to build. How much ever worse sides they may carry, the art of humans orchestrating at such a scale is magnificent and difficult to pull off. Then your mindset becomes how to jab the system a bit from inside to change it a bit.
With Brands, if somebody is buying it, they are getting something right. There is a set of people out there who I cannot relate to. Or whom I don’t know. This brand works for them. These colours which are weird in eyes are meaningful and attractive to them. Now you know better about your field than when you assumed you knew and just looked down on it.
But.
What.
Is.
Actually.
Happening?
This exercise is about a simple idea: There is more than one version of the truth.
You are not the only one right. Both of you are right in most cases.
And it is this reality of life that you have to be more comfortable with. Every time you do this exercise you will realise how obsessed and absorbed were you in your version of truth! Every single time you get more and more comfortable with more versions of truth being in the room.
Only thing to keep in mind when doing this exercise is, don’t hold back. You should 100% be there to defend the other side.
You are not asked to think different or feel different. You are asked to think and feel more.
You are given a chance to see and feel the other version of truth also. Nothing beyond. Don’t force yourself to change. Just give yourself the experiences of the other truth also.
And in the end of the session, tell yourself Oh dear, how the tables turned!
Nuts :)