I feel like at least ten years have been condensed into this last one. Amazingly enough, I have five or ten more grey hairs than I did last year at this time. I must have learned a lot!
One thing in particular that has really changed my life has been working with people who think and operate very differently from me. I remember early on this year a friend asked me how I was liking my job working with other student leaders at UBC. I gave her a blank stare, and replied that I was ‘learning a lot’…code for thisisreallyhardandIdon’tlikeit!!! More questions revealed that one reason it was so challenging was that no one on my team thought like I did! Months and months went by, and though I recognized that my ideas were different, I could not understand why despite our best intentions, we were having such a hard time seeing things the same way, and functioning as a team! It felt more like we were in a three legged race gone wrong-people pulled in different directions but forced to work together.
One day, frustrated, tired, and still totally oblivious to what was really going on, I went out with my team for a drink after our day. Feeling guarded and misunderstood, I was totally unprepared for the beautiful thing that was about to occur. As we began to talk and be honest about our experiences, I heard my team-mates in a new way, and realized that we had been totally set up! Each of us sees life, work, and communication in a very different way, and each of us brings a unique piece to the table. In fact, we were chosen not for our similarities, but for our differences! For a long time, we struggled to put those pieces together, but in that moment, a lightbulb went on for me as I realized that not only do they see and think differently from me, but I see differently from them, and just as I was frustrated with feeling misunderstood, they were challenged by not being able to understand me! As we talked, hope began to chase away the shadows in my mind, and I saw that it was in fact our incredible differences that created the potential for excellence. I saw that I needed to learn to see through a different perspective and communicate to understand, not to be understood.
This experience for me has been more meaningful and helpful than anything else I have learned, for it was really a microcosm of the world in which we live, and how really, we are each using our own lens to see and interpret the world, but that lens cannot be assumed to be universal. I am learning that it is in that space, that un-interpreted, un-communicated grey zone that most great ideas fall to the ground.
Furthermore, as I saw how unique each person really was in their approach, I started to see the potential for interdisciplinary, intercultural teams to go deeper, wider, and farther than we can go as individuals. I started to see the world in a new lens, to see the incredible complexities differently, and to realize that we so desperatly need one another to piece together the whole picture.
Offer up your piece, no matter how small or big it is!