(De)Constructing Difference
"Am I even a tulip?" I can't stop laughing at my business partner's unexpected reaction to last week's installment. Seizing the moment, and emphasizing how we're wired differently, she added "What comes after tulips?" I'm inherently inclined to look ahead, see the world like a Designer, and pursue possibility like an entrepreneur. Her comments are followed by a conversation about how and if AI should be integrated into our consulting practice. Collaborating over the last several months has required listening, learning, and negotiating difference to a degree I never have with a colleague before. Often, resolution requires working through our respective inferences about what the other one meant, ultimately finding more common ground than initially was the case, as we did on the AI topic. I must be clear about what I mean but also try to see myself as she sees and hears me, which may differ from and challenge my perspective. I'm fortunate she is a strong communicator, able to adeptly listen and reflect back as much as strongly convey her own views. I've had to learn the difference between leaning in and asserting. The investment in our relationship over the last several months is starting to pay dividends not because our views are perfectly aligned, although they tend to be more in sync than not, but how we're coming to leverage our differences and understanding of each other into a sum greater than its parts. When we don't agree, it's often fodder to create deeper comprehension. Whether she is a daffodil, tulip, or some other late bloomer is irrelevant, she's dedicated to growth, as am I, and this is the true power of nature if we allow, seize, and pursue it.
