THEY DON’T LIVE THERE ANY MORE
Imagine, if you will, the following conversation.
Neighbour A: “I can’t stand the Smith family who live at number 27. They make too much noise, their children make a mess in the street, and they’re unfriendly”.
Neighbour B: “But the Smith family moved away two years ago. It’s the Jones family who live there now. They are very quiet, their children are charming, and they are incredibly helpful. The Smith family don’t live there any more”.
Neighbour A: “Well I don’t care. I just don’t like anybody who lives at number 27”.
Ridiculous?
OK. Try this.
The managers of Company X made some mistakes around ten years ago. As a direct consequence, Company X faces some major problems today.
Thankfully there are new managers at Company X now who are trying to fix the problems they have inherited. Those old managers don’t live there any more.
And yet, the media (social and otherwise), relishing a simple message, talk about Company X as if nothing has changed. As if the Smith family still live there, when actually it’s now the Jones family.
Number 27. Company X. Just labels. And dealing in labels is much simpler than actually having to look deeper and understand what’s really going on.
So that’s neighbours and companies. But what about you and me?
Let’s suppose that a few years ago I used to be quick to make judgements on people (obviously this is a work of fiction…). But life experience has taught me a few things, and I’m a bit slower to draw conclusions about people than I was.
Simple label? “Martin Howden is very judgemental”.
Except that person doesn’t live at Martin Howden any more.
Buddhism refers to this, so I read, as the “Every Breath Paradigm”, meaning that with every breath we become a slightly different person. We change, and with a combination of intent, support and opportunity, we become hopefully better people.
The neighbours at number 27 change. Company X changes. Martin Howden changes. You change. The people who live at those addresses? They’re not the same people as a few years ago.
We coaches really should know this. We build our businesses on the assumption and experience that people are capable of change.
But all of us can surely learn something about stopping to think for a bit before falling for the lazy trap of simple labels.
GOING DEEPER
We now offer a short video programme if you want to go deeper with the types of issue explored in these short stories.
