I should have made a better effort at seeing things from my team’s point of view

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I recently shared some good news with my team. I thought they would received it very positively. But the response was more reserved.

I recently shared some good news with my team. I thought they would received it very positively. But the response was more reserved.

In fact, the team had a number of tough questions about exactly how the change would impact them individually.

At first I was very surprised but upon reflection I realize there are two key principles at play:

1. Perspective

One of the smartest people I know is executive coach, author and industrial psychologist Paul Nyamuda. He taught me years ago to keep in mind that people don’t see the world as it is, but as they are.

I think I should have made a better effort at seeing things from my team’s point of view.

2. The curse of knowledge

This is a cognitive bias that happens when you communicate with other people and unknowingly assume they have the background to understand.

In my case, I’d been aware of the problem for the best part of a year and had been getting ready to launch “the solution” for a few months.

I had become very familiar with the situation and so in the end there were many things that I could have communicated in a better way.

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#communication
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#learning
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#reflections