Hi, I'm Diane Grassell and I'm also known as silver Disobedience.

So thank you for joining me for this podcast today.

I want to talk about something that certainly fascinates me and sometimes boggles my mind, and it might boggle your mind too, but it's really the idea that there's two sides to every coin.

There are many times in our lives where we will be thinking about it or observing a particular situation, whatever it is, that whether it's work, political, in our personal lives.

And we truly cannot fathom that another might hold a view or a perspective that is completely different from ours regarding something that we believe to be very important.

So sometimes we even find the perspectives others hold to be downright shocking.

Like where could they be coming up with this nonsense from?

How could they be thinking this?

It's so obvious to us and we cannot understand why anyone else could see anything differently.

So today I want to explore how that happens.

So the next time you're confronted with someone that sees something like you're here and there 180° in the other direction, maybe if you think from this perspective that I'm going to share, you'll be able to start a conversation with that person instead of just saying they're out of their minds, they're crazy.

Because the more we do that and the other person may be out of their mind are crazy.

But the more we do that, most of the time someone's not out of their mind or crazy.

They're just either getting their news from a different source.

They're seeing things differently.

They're not being open minded enough to other possibilities.

And that goes for us as well.

We have to be open minded.

We have to be open minded to what other people are thinking and saying if we want to have good communication or if at least we want to understand where the communication is going awry.

So to help you understand how people can have very different perspectives on any particular topic, I'm going to use the example of a company wide layoff to explain it.

So let's imagine we are all working with a company and it's a big company and it has all different constituents within it that are watching the news of this company and trying to figure out what's going on and come up with their perspectives and why these layoffs are happening.

So let's start at the top with the CEO, the chief executive officer of the company from the CEO's perspective or the chief financial officer, the CFO or anyone responsible for the bottom line of the company, whether that's to shareholders or to themselves or their own pockets.

A layoff is never a first choice for sure, because it means things are going maybe a little backwards or they're not going quite as we planned or we've got fact that, I mean, it involves people.

No one loves the idea of letting go of people.

But from the CE OS perspective, it might be seen as necessary for the long term viability of the company.

Now let's look at it from the human resources perspective.

From an HR manager's perspective, the focus would likely be on legal and ethical aspects of the process.

So the HR person, if they have to deal with the layoffs, they're going to want to ensure the employees that you know, that are being terminated are treated fairly and in accordance with any labor laws while providing support and guidance to the remaining employees during any transition like a layoff.

Now let's get to, let's say there are unions involved.

From the perspective of a union representative, the layoff event would be seen as a threat to job security and maybe employee rights.

So the representative would be advocating for the affected employees, negotiating with management to maybe minimize the number of layoffs and ideally secure fair severance packages.

So again, another perspective.

And they might try to protect the rights of the remaining employees and ensure that the company follows any relevant collective bargaining agreements or other things that have been put in place by the union with the company.

Then, of course, there's the perspective of the employee and in the event they are being let go, certainly this would be a disrupting event to their lives and it would disrupt their ability maybe to pay bills or care for their families.

So suddenly they'll be hoping, let's say, maybe for a reasonable compensation package or, you know, consider plans while they seek new options where they're seeking new employment or parallel careers or something in an entirely different industry.

So you've got a lot of different perspectives just within the company.

Now, you could take the financial analysts that might be watching this company, let's say it's publicly traded on Wall Street or something like that.

So from the perspective of financial analysts, the layoff might be seen as a sensible cost cutting measure.

They're immune to the emotional impact of it.

They're just saying cost cutting was necessary and this is aimed at improving the company's financial performance and bottom line for the shareholders.

And the analysts might assess the financial health of the company and analyse the impact of the layoffs on the bottom line.

And then of course, they're going to provide their recommendations or their insights on how they think this achieves desired cost savings for the company, how it will affect the balance sheet in the long haul.

A financial analysis going to be focused on the metrics such as profitability, efficiency, the return on investment to justify this decision to the variety of shareholders or maybe even stakeholders.

Then you have the public relations person that has to deal with the stress and get this message out and try to deliver the message to all the constituents.

And so from the perspective of the public relations specialist, the layoff might be perceived as the potential reputational risk for the company.

So because maybe people are going to think the company's going out of business, it's poorly run, it's not caring for its employees.

There any any number of things that the public relations person, if they're good, it's going to look and think about and think about all the perspectives, all the stakeholders.

And they would focus on managing the external perception of the layoff, crafting messages to communicate the company's rationale and ensuring that anybody affected any of the affected employees, for example, are treated with empathy and respect.

A good PR specialist might also develop strategies that can be used to rebuild trust with the stakeholders and the existing stakeholders, which could be partners, employees, regulators, the neighborhood that the company was in, mitigate any negative publicity that could arise from the event.

So this is an example of a single event, a corporate layoff.

And as you saw from the example I gave you, we're looking at the exact same event.

There was a corporate layoff, yet distinct perspectives arise based on how the situation is impacting the individual and their role within that organization.

So if we consider this fact, we might all observe and certainly experience the exact same moment, very different.

We're all seeing it different and we're certainly perceiving its impact differently as well.

It really helps to draw on something like this when you're dealing with politics, neighborhood disagreements, developments within your neighborhood.

So in light of all this, next time you have a communication breakdown or need to break some, let's say, potentially difficult news to a group of people or to someone, you might want to really carefully consider the delivery and make sure you're giving all the recipients of the news ample time to ask questions so that they can clarify the news developments from their own perspective.

Because if you give them time to absorb it, that will.

And you share the perspectives and you take the time to listen to theirs, it will hopefully get people aligned at some point with where you are and where you're going in that potentially crisis communication situation.

I want to thank you for tuning in.

And my name is Diane, PhD.

I'm also known as silver disobedience.

I'm a perception analyst and I'm a hypnotherapist and I work with individuals and companies all over the world.

And my goal is to help them achieve a greater understanding of how our conscious and unconscious perspectives or beliefs impact everything we do and how they change how we see things.

And if we can understand our perspectives and how we're seeing something, and then take the time to understand maybe how someone else is seeing the exact same situation, things can start to move forward.

And hopefully communication can improve.

And this can apply to business, it can apply to politics and apply to personal relationships of every kind.

OK, It's getting to understand that we may see things one way, but there could be a reason someone else sees it another way.

And somewhere there's a compromise in the middle.

And that compromise isn't always 5050.

It might be 99 one, it could be anything, but somewhere there is a way to move forward.

So again, I'm Diane Grassell, I share actionable insights on this podcast every time.

It's for free.

You can also go to my website, whichisdianegrassell.com, which is my name, and any of my social media accounts, which you'll find either under my name, Diane Grassell or as Silver Disobedience.

I share perceptions of all kinds and I look forward to seeing you on any of my pages.

Thanks a lot for joining me.

Take care and you have a great day.