A Perspective

 

The STORY

There is a famous story of an Elephant with 6 blind men in the Indian sub-continent and it goes like this.

6 blind men, and an Elephant were put together in a room. The 6 blind men were ask to describe how the elephant looks like. During their exploration of the elephant, each one of them touched a different part of elephant’s body. This led them to paint a different picture of an elephant. When asked about how the elephant looks like, here is what each of them had to say.

The person who touched the leg of the elephant, thought that the elephant is like a “PILLAR”.

Second person caught hold of the tusk and felt that its perfect and round and that elephant is like a “SPEAR”.

Third person caught hold of the Tail and thought that the elephant is like a “ROPE”

Fourth person caught hold of the ear and thought that the elephant is like a “FAN”

Fifth person caught hold of the Trunk and though that the elephant is like a “SNAKE”

Sixth person fell from the sturdy body of the elephant and thought that the elephant is like “WALL”.

All of them continued debating about their own lived experience and not accepting other’s opinion.

Practical Learnings

1. Diversity / Curiosity : When we are in a discussion with our fellow colleagues, a lot of times we get blinded by our own version of truth and feel that we have the entire version of the trust but in reality, we should give some space to the possibility of complete truth. We should exercise curiosity, be open to diversity of thoughts and consider all the versions to get a complete picture of the truth (of the elephant).
2. Openness/Inclusion : In the above example the variation of truth is too varied from Pillar, Spear, Rope, Fan, snake to Wall. It really requires an open mindset to embrace all the different variations into one single versions of TRUTH. This mental model of being open to others' version of truth according to me is Inclusion.
3. Courage: Every war is first settled with in the mind, and it takes real courage to win this mental battle and go forward with the final solution. It requires courage to challenge your own mental models or challenge others’ perspectives respectfully and apply learning/growth mindset to accept and learn from other’s perspective.
4. Imagination : Once you are able to challenge your own limitations/ thought process and be open to incorporate different opinions, then you need imagination to recreate a new mental model OR imagine a moving normal. (Just like an opensource) .
5. Art and Science brings Innovation : It requires both Art & Science to bring all the above views together and which is what breeds innovation. Art requires one to be curious and have an imagination to incorporate other’s opinion and Science provides existing tools/techniques to get there. I think this will requires patience, practice and skill.

If we can practice the above 5 pillars in any situation, I am confident that over a period, we will be able to develop a learning mindset, value diverse perspectives, be more inclusive and breed innovation.

Story Revisited.

The collection lived experience of the 6 blind men after applying the above 5 principles would have been so much different than their initial experience together, they would be able to come much closer to the truth