Is it right or different? When I’m working with others, an interesting dialog happens in my head. (She hangs her head as she realizes how quick she is to judge.) “You have to do it this way.” “Just do it right.” “Why do you walk all the way around there when you can get there quicker going this way?” Sound familiar?

There’s right and wrong, for sure. Is it possible, though, that there’s right and different? When I think back on corporate frustrations, one that pops readily to the surface has everything to do with the judge and jury in my head. It was easy for me to get caught up in ‘my way is the only way’ to do something. Do you ever find yourself in this spot? The presence of mind to realize different is okay, often diffuses the drama of someone ‘not doing something right.’

I experienced the receiving end of ‘my way or the highway’ on more than one occasion. What is it about being in a management position that activates our inner critic? Wouldn’t it be nice if managers were required to have ‘right or different’ training?

This concept of different softens even the roughest edges. We hire people for their innovative ideas and contributions. Why is it so hard for us to remember this with their proposed new ideas? Just because someone uses alternate steps to arrive at Point A, doesn’t make it right or wrong; it’s simply different.

Why do we have to be right? How many times have you engaged in conversations married to your rightness? Goodness gracious! It’s easy to see in others, and hard to see it in ourselves. What if we approached those same conversations from different instead of right? Can you see peace oozing into these conversations? Aren’t those conversations more inviting? Why do we have to be right?

All this rambling about right and different. Perhaps you see yourself in some of these ideas. Let’s play with different and see where it leads.

Image by Bryan Craddock from Pixabay