{"id":28794,"date":"2022-09-10T14:17:23","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=28794"},"modified":"2022-09-11T11:51:23","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T18:51:23","slug":"the-layered-lens-through-which-we-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-layered-lens-through-which-we-see\/","title":{"rendered":"The Layered Lens Through Which We See"},"content":{"rendered":"

I once had a startling experience with a co-worker after this person assembled a stage TV and cart for our church.\u00a0 When the TV had been tested and was ready for use,\u00a0 I sent an email to the worship team letting them know we would use the new TV for Sunday worship and in the email, I thanked my co-worker for the efforts in getting it ready. Later that day, my co-worker stopped by my office and informed me that the recognition was unnecessary and it was uncomfortable that I mentioned them by first and last name in the email. Initially, my reaction was of stunned silence. I could see my co-worker wanted me to affirm that I would not do such a thing again. After the encounter, I was confused that a genuine thank you from me had been so offensive.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a certified Enneagram coach, I know that each of us sees the world through a unique lens. This lens is tinted by our personality and our lived-experience. While I know this to be true and teach it to my clients, situations like the story shared above still tend to take me by surprise. After reading <\/span>The Culture Map<\/span><\/i> by Erin Meyer a realization struck me that I had not considered before\u2014it\u2019s not just that our lens is <\/span>different<\/span><\/i>, the <\/span>extent <\/span><\/i>of the difference also matters. In other words, it\u2019s not enough to simply recognize a difference in personality, it could be even more helpful to visually map the difference on a scale to see where each person\u2019s lens is located in relation to the other. My co-worker\u2019s position on a public thank you<\/em> scale was obviously very far away from my own. As Meyer proves in her book, adding a culture lens on top of a personality lens makes human interactions even more complex. In this blog, let\u2019s take a look at the posture God calls us to have when it comes to our differences (both personal and cultural), how we can harness those differences for good and the value that maps can have on our understanding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Divine Posture<\/b><\/p>\n

As doctoral students at Portland Seminary, we aren\u2019t only called to be leaders, we are called to be Christ-like leaders.\u00a0 So what kind of posture did Jesus have when it came to people from other cultures or people with different personalities and backgrounds from His own? <\/span>\u00a0<\/b>He didn\u2019t just tolerate them, He actually sought them out. Not only that, He placed their needs above His own. He honored them. He included them. He saw them for the unique children of God that they were.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 attitude toward non-Jews teaches us much about the posture we must hold when interacting with those who are different from us in culture and personality. We are one body, made up of different parts. So we humble ourselves to interact in ways that make it easy for others while also maintaining the unique skills and perspective that we have to offer. In thinking through the suggestions in Meyer\u2019s <\/span>Culture Map, <\/span><\/i>I recognized this very Jesus-like attitude of being willing to defer one\u2019s own preferences and tendencies for the good of another. As naturally egotistical human beings, this is not easy to do on our own. It is only the power of the Holy Spirit of Jesus, Himself, that allows us to set aside our pride. The more I grow in leadership, the more I recognize the need for the Holy Spirit to be active in my life and the more I recognize that leadership is often about service to those I lead rather than simply getting a job done.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harnessing Differences for Good<\/b><\/p>\n

One thing that was not thoroughly addressed in Meyer\u2019s book <\/span>The Culture Map <\/span><\/i>is the profound importance of utilizing differences between people and cultures for creativity, ideation, and impact. Perhaps it was implied, since her focus was on businesses that already see the value of working cross-culturally, but I think it\u2019s important to state clearly. Particularly in research, ideation and design phases of projects, getting input from a wide variety of viewpoints, background and even outliers is key to seeing the nuanced impact of a project. So while I agree with Meyer\u2019s thesis that adapting and minimizing cultural differences is important, I think it is equally important for people to feel comfortable coffering a unique point of view. In both cases, transparency and open communication is key.<\/span><\/p>\n

Value of a Map<\/b><\/p>\n

A final insight to offer is a theme I am recognizing through many of the books I have read thus far in year two of my doctoral studies in global leadership\u2014the importance of a map. In Ahrens\u2019 book <\/span>How to Take Smart Notes <\/span><\/i>I learned the importance of note taking in the learning process. Not as a way to document things to remember, but as a way to move around ideas and information in a tangible way to make connections. In <\/span>Game Storming <\/span><\/i>by Gray, Brown and Macanufo, I recognized the importance of using creative activities (often with tangible pieces and artifacts) to generate ideas, test and evaluate ideas, and even develop plans for implementation. And finally, in The Culture Map, Meyers taught me that cultural differences can be most easily seen and understood by using a graphical map to display similarities and differences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, as I think back to the initial story I shared about my co-worker and consider the implication of these learnings, I recognize that 1) I must honor the request to not publicly thank my co-worker with a Jesus-like posture 2) consider how I might incorporate the perspective into my own ideas about the importance of recognition and 3) muse about ways to develop a map of personality differences using the Enneagram tool to help teams identify relative personality differences in the same way Meyers does for cultural differences.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I once had a startling experience with a co-worker after this person assembled a stage TV and cart for our church.\u00a0 When the TV had been tested and was ready for use,\u00a0 I sent an email to the worship team letting them know we would use the new TV for Sunday worship and in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1429],"class_list":["post-28794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-meyer","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28794"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28810,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28794\/revisions\/28810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}