Perspective!

Perspective Joke

A little girl had just finished her first week of school. "I'm wasting my time," she said to her mother.

"I can't read, I can't write - and they won't let me talk!"

Perspective

Information is meaningless until it's interpreted and put in perspective.

I watched a manager proudly share his previous year's performance with a group of business prospects. He said, "Sales are up 23%," but he didn't put it in perspective. How does that compare to last year? How does that compare to sales projections? How does that compare to other companies in the industry?

He later mentioned his company can manufacture a complete product within three days. I didn't know if I should applaud or wince at the news. And what constitutes a complete product? If they build custom homes, this is exciting information; if they make woodchips, I'm concerned. Michelangelo lived to the age of eighty-nine; good by any standards, but remarkable given the thirty-five-year life expectancy in the sixteenth century. Clarification deepens your listeners' appreciation for your information.

People perceive PowerPoint as the great provider; it shows the words, charts and pictures that bring your presentation to life-at least it should. PowerPoint doesn't make you a presenter any more than a calculator makes you a mathematician. Wordy slides and bundles of bar charts confuse more than they clarify. If you show it on the screen, tell them what it means. You must remain the primary source of information and a translator who interprets the significance and implications of the information you share.

Ken Lodi builds confidence and wealth for managers and executives by improving their presentations, pitch meetings and value propositions so they leverage big opportunities. It's not what you earn, it's what you forgo because of what you don't know. Learn the skills that make a difference.

Perspective cognitive

Perspective in theory of cognition is the choice of a context or a reference (or the result of this choice) from which to sense, categorize, measure or codify experience, cohesively forming a coherent belief, typically for comparing with another. One may further recognize a number of subtly distinctive meanings, close to those of paradigm, point of view, reality tunnel, umwelt, or weltanschauung.

To choose a perspective is to choose a value system and, unavoidably, an associated belief system. When we look at a business perspective, we are looking at a monetary base values system and beliefs. When we look at a human perspective, it is a more social value system and its associated beliefs.

Perspective or Point of view

Cognitive perspective refers to the aspect being looked from. It differs from the narrative point of view. If you are talking from your point of view, you would talk about what you want, need or feel like. To get a person to do something, it is much better to talk from the other persons point of view. That includes talking about what's in it for the other person. Talking about it in terms of what's good for the other person and what they will get in return, while afterwards talking about what you want the person to do.

In social psychology you would talk in terms of the other persons point of view when soliciting or motivating the other person to do something for you. Being able to see the other persons point of view is one of Henry Fords advice towards being successful in business. "if there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own".

In conflict resolution a technique of using "I", "me", "my" language encourages the person to talk from their own point of view. This helps to get the antagonist to better understand the speakers feelings, needs, experiences circumventing the need for discussion. Talking about your own point of view brings it up on the other person to be more understanding and cooperative. Since it takes effort to see the situation from another persons point of view, the opponent is disarmed unless they are willing to put in the extra effort or are sincerely interested in being helpful. This is the opposite of solicitation because in soliciting the speaker is the one offering their services.