Prejudice prevents you from seeing the world in its entirety. It forces you within some boundaries and it reinforces your perspective by limiting doubts.
When prejudice is taken a step further it becomes righteousness. That’s when you aim at keeping others within the same boundaries built your own prejudice, and you allow them only one possible version of the truth.
Prejudice and righteousness are human traits. That’s why it’s important to remind ourselves of how limiting they are.
When we are kids, we think everybody is interested in our opinion, in what we think, even when we know absolutely nothing about the topic. It might be because our parents have taught us that we matter, that we are the centre of the world. And so of course what we have to say is relevant to the situation. No matter what situation.
Then, we grow up, and somehow we develop some kind of filters. Some do, at least. We start getting feedback that what we say is not really useful, we notice others putting themselves into awkward situations we want to avoid, we are reminded of our limits, and we realise that not everything we have in our head is worth sharing.
Unfortunately, that seems to stop in a couple of instances, at least.
The second case is incredibly similar to what happens to kids. We are surrounded by people who mainly confirm that we are important, that we matter, that we know, that we are better. And we lose the ability to distance our thoughts from what is needed, appropriate, relevant.
That’s a risk that’s worth keeping in mind. Unless we want to come full circle and be just like kids once again.
What will the new year bring?
The end of the year is not an eraser. Just like you do not become immediately wise and adult the day you turn 18 (or 21), the new year will not give you a new you, free of old fears, uncertainties, pains, and problems.
So, the question really is: are you ready to handle all of that in 2023, and perhaps make something out of it?
If the answer is no, there is your new year resolution.
What you do at the top will cascade to the rest of your organisation.
It’s not what you say. Not what you think. It’s not your ideas or your intentions. It’s not your principles or your mission statement.
It’s what you do in the LT meeting and in the board room.
Because you are in control.
P.S.: this is valid even for very small organisations. A family, for example.
We want to be strong, but we are often fragile.
A compliment makes us feel great and unique, a critique turns us into useless and pitiful beings. The very same thing in two separate moments might give us completely different emotions. We don’t put trust in ourselves enough, yet we are ready to follow some total stranger who appear to have achieved what we apparently desire so much.
We are fragile, and perhaps the real strength is in figuring out how to navigate our fragility without being overwhelmed by it.
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