Your Perspective Needs Adjusting

My morning ritual is to pour my first mug of coffee, walk out the front door and retrieve the Boston Globe from the front porch. I sit at the kitchen table and proceed to work my way through the entire paper while caffeinating up for my day of Internet connectivity. This morning, next to the wrapped Globe, was a copy of China Daily. Why it was there, I have not a clue. I could speculate all day, but that isn’t where I’m going with this story.

After my first two coffees and my Globe morning briefing, I skimmed through the English Language version of China’s “news” Daily. It had a number of articles directed at business between China and the U.S. written from the Chinese (presumably government) perspective. It was immediately clear that the “editorial” slant was vastly different than what I have come to believe to be true. How the U.S. is hindering Chinese development of cheaper solar energy solutions, not about China ripping off U.S. technology. How China’s investment in foreign currency is to protect itself from all the nations attempting to destabilize the country and keep it from securing a level playing field. In my opinion, I was reading a propaganda tool directed at a U.S. business. Ah, now I understood why this “news” appeared on my front porch. An attempt to change my perspective about Chinese business. Why me? How did I get on this list?

So, why am I telling you this? No, it’s not about some plot to mind-melt the American business person. Actually, my point is “perspective” in our approach to new ideas. If we are the leaders in creating new possibilities, we need to change our point of view in order to see where we could go. Not about changing opinions, but changing how we form our opinions.

Disrupt your managed day. Do it in some way every day. We all need that whack in the head to shake off the drone of comfortable monotony. Follow some Twitter trend that appears totally out of your realm of living. Spend an hour on StumbleUpon exploring categories you have no interest in. Watch something on Discover Channel. Sit down by yourself in a diner for lunch. Or pick up a copy of China Daily and snicker at the vastly opposite concepts of reality.

These probably won’t change your opinion, but they could adjust your perception enough to allow for a new idea that could change your business.