How Roles Shape What We See

Attention

He is leaving. She is watching him go. Same moment, same place, but entirely different experiences of what comes next. Deep down each knows what the other faces.

That kind of awareness is easily lost, not because we don’t care, but because our own role keeps us fully occupied. It is easy for each of us to attend to what our role demands and forget what the same moment asks of others.

The person setting the deadline and the person delivering against it are not having the same experience, even when they are sitting in the same meeting. The leader announcing the change and the team absorbing it are living different versions of the same moment. They are simply standing in different places, with different things at stake. 

Awareness of what another role demands doesn’t soften your own responsibilities. It sharpens how you exercise them, and it changes how others experience working alongside you.

When did you last consider a situation from the position of someone whose role gives them an entirely different experience?

David R. Smith