The number one rule in decision-making is, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." This seems simple enough yet every day I see people doing things that might be considered stupid or at the very least, very rude. How does this happen?

How often have you watched as someone steps in front of somebody in line at the bank or the grocery store, cut you off in traffic or pull out in front of you on the highway? Ever been on a plane when the person behind you has a tight connection? How many people get out of the way and let that person get off the plane ahead of them? Ever been on time to a meeting only to have some joker show up late and then take their own sweet time getting situated while everyone in the room has to wait for them to get settled. What about the people in the theater who are talking and interrupting your enjoyment of the movie? These are all examples we encounter every day of people who don't practice the Golden Rule. I am sure that there are a small percentage of people who may be doing this on purpose, but far and away, the vast majority are suffering from limited perspective.

Perspective is a mental shortcut that simplifies and guides our understanding of a complex reality. Everyone adopts some kind of simplifying perspective. This allows us to focus on some things and ignore others. Without this ability, we would quickly be consumed with trying to make sense of the world around us. Consequently, the fact that you have a perspective limits your ability to solve problems. The more perspectives you can perceive, the better chance you have of getting the best picture of the issues.

In business, we develop our perspectives or shortcuts along the lines of our work experience. Sometimes this can develop into stereotypes like when we think about accounting practices, we think about bean counters. This occurs in all areas. One way to get a handle on this type of thing is to think about what different words mean to different functions in the organization. For example, when we talk about Growth, the financial folks think about the capital requirements necessary to make growth happen. The production folks will tend to think about increasing unit output. Marketing people will think about increasing market share. Sales people will think about finding new customers. Human Resources will start thinking about hiring more people. Perspective or shortcut thinking has all of these functional areas thinking about different things even though the spark for all of this divergence was the word Growth. You would get equally divergent thinking if you were to use words like Profit, Productivity, Service and Quality. The language is the same, but the perspectives of the different functional areas are very different.

This is true in all organizations, not just business. The next time you have a meeting, give each subgroup a slip of paper (privately) that names a profession to which they belong during the exercise. The subgroup's task is to describe the room in which we are working together from the standpoint of their profession. Professions might include: one group serve as "teachers," another as "fire inspectors," another as "interior decorators," another as "janitors" and then, at the end, have one group represent "burglars." When the subgroups have completed their internal discussions they then share with the group as a whole. You will find that each group comes up with entirely different accounts of "what is here." As you explore with the group as a whole, each construction will represent the goals or values of the group in question. Discuss how this impacts the futures of each group and the groups together.
Once you realize that not everyone has the same perspective, it is easy to see how making decisions from a single perspective limits options and may be the reason for bad decisions. Good leadership recognizes that the more perspectives you can perceive before you make a decision, the more options you have and the greater likelihood of making a good decision.
This is critical in developing new products and services. All too frequently, I encounter inventors with the next greatest invention. They know what the product costs to produce and what they want to sell it for. They know how they want to go to market and how they are going to promote the product. They have plenty of reasons why this should be a huge success, but they haven't tried to look at the product from the potential customers perspective. It is sad to say, but I have seen many examples of where these folks have anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of product on the shelf but still haven't looked at the product from the potential customers perspective.
My first question to these starry eyed optimists is, "who is the customer for this product." The usual answer is, "everyone." If that were true, why does a company like Coca-Cola sell Coke in packages ranging from commercial kegs to liter bottles to six packs to individual containers? The truth is, different segments will require variations of the product, packaging, promotion or distribution. To achieve commercial success with any product requires specific understanding of what customers want, what benefits matter most to them, what product attributes don't matter and what they are willing to spend on the product. You have to view the product from their perspective.
Doing unto others as you would have them do unto you cannot be accomplished from your own perspective, but must include the perspective of the other person. Otherwise how would you begin to know how you would like to be treated in a similar situation? Perspective is a wonderful tool to help us in our daily lives, but when it comes to decision-making, it is imperative to include as many perspectives as possible. The more perspectives you can include, the more options you will have and in turn, the greater likelihood of success.
 Copyright Bob Cannon/The Cannon Advantage, 2003. All rights reserved.