Top Dog

We tend to view situations through our habitual lenses. Sometimes it is exciting to disrupt our approach so that we have a different perspective. For example, we could be curious and ask what would happen if we used the same framework and replaced expected components with new elements?

Let me give you an example: a traditional Christmas Dinner with family and friends sitting around a table could be something that most of us could picture.

Turner family Christmas lunch in Sydney - December 2017

Above is the photo of my daughter’s family gathering in Sydney Australia. If you look carefully, there is not much unusual about that photo. It is a happy picture where people are smiling and enjoying the company and good food. It is what we might expect to see.

What would happen if we took the same framework and replaced some of the components? It could disrupt our thinking! I smiled when I saw the similarities (and differences!) in the picture below in the Hilton Veterinary Hospital newsletter, also December 2017.

The purpose of my comparison is to help shake up your thinking through the questions that follow. (I’m not suggesting that we replace the joy of family gatherings by replacing people with dogs!)

Often the reason we don’t understand situations or a person’s behaviour is that our perceptions are based on our own context. Purposeful disruption can help us to adopt an ‘attitude of positive discontent’. Things don’t always have to stay the same. Sometimes our ideas (regarding change) are not going to work or be advantageous to anyone. But at least we have then explored possibilities and are more confident that we should leave things the way they are.

We need to ask ourselves what would happen if we changed either the context or some elements and then explore differences and similarities.

My questions for you are:

• If you were to choose the people whom you’d most want around that table, who would they be?
• How nutritious would the conversation be?
• What routines or rituals are holding you back in any area of your life?
• In which areas of your life are you ‘stuck’ with ‘inside the box’ thinking in your private or business life?
• Where else could disruptive thinking benefit you?
• Who really is the ‘top dog’ in your life?