During the weekly meeting on Tuesday, October 31st, current fellows Emily Somberg and Zunara Naeem presented on the professional development competency, perspective. They approached the concept of perspective as an active process, rather than one limited to passive reflection and introspection.
To further emphasize this idea, the fellows discussed perspective from multifaceted vantage points:
- Perspective and identity formation, from a TEDx talk on e-cigarettes and dinner parties: Perspective is everything
- Perspective and historical context, illustrated by connecting cave paintings to current-day thoughts and behaviors
- Perspective vs. reality, by discussing optical illusions, including the now infamous gold or blue dress of 2014
- Perspective as a 3-D concept, to demonstrate its holistic lens
- The PAF perspective, and its applicability as an action in both the personal and professional realms
We also discussed the following strategies for maintaining perspective:
- Perspective as a continual mindset, best exemplified through exploratory thinking that challenges our inherent biases and personal truths, rather than defensive thinking, which preoccupies with protecting personal truths and biases.
- Acknowledge implicit and explicit biases
- Solve different problems
- Explore different environments, in service or otherwise
- (Actively) listen and engage others
- Ask why and other information-gathering questions
- Take a break and come back to it later
- Practice “mindfulness”
Fellows and the Advising Team also explored the application of perspective through a role-playing exercise, wherein groups of two were provided identities unknown to their partner that they had to act out. The activity was a fun way to consider how our personal perspectives are so intimately shaped by our identities, but that simple strategies such as asking questions illuminates potential blinders and expands the world we live in to include perspectives other than our own.
See GW’s Learn Now guide on Perspective for more information about this essential professional development competency.