Graham Chastney

Whatever we are looking at, whether we are near to it, or a long way away from it, we have a perspective on it. We can’t see the back of it, we might not even be able to see the side of it. We are limited to our perspective.

The same issue of perspective can also apply to our attitudes and ideas.

I know of people who write off an application or web site after only a few minutes of looking at it. I know other people who regard everything from a particular company as being the best at whatever it is that the product is doing. I myself would prefer never to see a product from certain companies ever again.

Each one of these opinions is formed from a perspective built up from an experience.

Whether this perspective is a good one, or not, is difficult to assess, particularly by ourselves. We can’t see what we can’t see.

Some of these perspectives are formed from our irrationality. Even when we know something that would change our perspective we don’t.

Standing at the bottom of a cliff our perspective towards the cliff could be completely different. We could see it as an adventure to overcome, we could also see it as a dangerous place to move quickly away from.

In many work situations we try to gain the perspective of others, but often we choose people who will reinforce our perspective to review our understanding. We need to do a better job of valuing diverse views and opinions.

Sometimes perspectives are called “experience” because they’ve been held for some time. But often this type of perspective isn’t built from experience at all, it’s built from an experience.

We use statistics to support our perspectives and reinforce the words of Einstein: “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” Spend any time at all looking at the statistics that surround the issue of global warming and you will find people who people who’s perspective, no matter what it is, is supported by one statistic or another.

When I am reversing my car into a tight parking spot my perspective is very limited. Sometimes someone will off to show me the way in. These people don’t sit next to me an use the same perspective that I have, they stand outside the car to give the situation another perspective.

Many of the words innovations have happened by someone taking what already existed and seeing it in a different perspective. One example is this video from Ikea:

I quite like this quote, it seems to sum up what I’m trying to say:

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

There’s lots of power in connecting with the field of vision of someone else.

You might be interested to see what CSC is up to internally with Enterprise 2.0 type technologies:

Well done Simon and Charlie.

We all get frustrated and that’s often a good thing.

Now I’m not talking here about the depressive kind of frustration that can gnaw away at us, day after day. I’m talking about the kind of frustration that pushes us into action. There can be a fine line between the two, and often that difference is found within our attitude towards them, but sometimes the difference is found in the situation itself.

There are things that frustrate me about which I can do absolutely nothing, but that is the exception. In most situations I have some power to do something. Often the cost of change is higher that I am willing to pay, but sometimes, just sometimes, frustration drives me to make a change.

As I look at the innovations that I have been involved in I can’t think of a single one that has come out of a grand idea. By a “grand idea” I am talking about those situations where someone, unprovoked, has a good idea, as if from nowhere, that makes a difference. I am sure that this kind of “grand idea” does happen, but I can’t think of a situation in my experience. I can, however, think of lots of situations where an innovation has happened because someone got well and truly fed-up something and decided to do something about it.

Sometimes we need the pain of frustration to spur us into a change. Without the frustration there wouldn’t have been the innovation.

The danger for many businesses is that they suppress frustration and miss out on the innovation. I would be interested to know how many employees regard themselves as disengaged simply because they could not find an answer to their frustration, there’s certainly lots written about it. Perhaps your frustration makes you a high “flight potential”.

There are a new generation of employees entering the workplace for whom frustration manifests itself very differently to my own generation. These individuals are going to cause all sorts of problems for traditional organisations that are not willing to embrace change.

One of the reasons I like the job that I am currently doing is that it gives me huge potential to change things, that doesn’t mean that I don’t get frustrated, it just means that I have an outlet for it. That’s what makes it so interesting.

As for the situations where I have absolutely no power to change the frustration – then I need to change my attitude towards the situation.

A wry smile came across my face when I saw this from Geek and Poke. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Yesterday Jonathan was involved in a bit of a news incident. One of the buses at his college exploded into flames as it was sitting waiting to leave the college where he studies.

This happened around 4:30pm. According to the local press the fire services were called at 4:26.

By 17:44 the first comments were being added to a Facebook group.

A bit later than this an article was being written on the local newspaper’s site featuring photos and videos taken by students on their mobile phones. The article was posted to Twitter at 18:17.

By 18:44 one of the students (Sam Pratt) posted:

Within two hours and 10 mins since the Runshaw bus fire, a Facebook group was created, 4 videos and 12 photos were on it and the LEP had already covered it on their website. How’s THAT for social media?

By 20:48 it was in the BBC web site with what looks like a security camera picture.

The BBC site has a single 150 word article with a single picture.

The Lancashire Evening Post site has a 650 word article a single video and 7 photographs. There’s also 8 comments (mostly pointing people to the Facebook group)

This morning there are nearly 1200 members of the Facebook group. There are 30 photographs and 8 videos. There are are over 180 different comment threads as well as comments on lots of the photos and videos. Some videos have also been posted to YouTube.

I’m sure that this scenario is being played out all over the world right now because we’re all reporters of the news now.

The Lancashire Evening Post sites say: “See The Evening Post on Friday for exclusive pictures and comments from eyewitnesses", why should I? I’ve already read the eyewitness reports from hundreds of students and seen more than enough photographic evidence.

I’m sure that there is still a need for journalists, but it needs to be about adding value.