In the 1960’s I lived in Greenland for one year. Going from Southern California to Greenland is a major change. Greenland is in the Artic Circle and is very cold. The now, ice and glaciers remain year round and the temperature drops to a minus 70 degrees. It is dark 24 hours a day for a portion fo the year as well. The ground is covered with now and ice and it is slippery and dangerous in places. When there are storms, you cannot see someone standing five feet away from you. We stayed in buildings for days at a time for safety during the storms and relied on reserves of food stored in the building.
On one occasion the method of heating in our building went out and within three hours there was ice on the inside walls of the building. The building had windows with three panes of glass. One outside pane, then two inches of air space, a middle pane, two more inches of air spaceand an inside window pane. This way the inside window pane was insulated from the outside cold air. The door handles were not metal. It was a lever made fo plastic so if bare skin touched it your skin would not freeze to it. If you touched a wet mop to the metal steps it would freeze to the steps upon contact.
This was a different world requiring a different perspective. The weather and environment were life threatening on a daily and hourly basis. Your attention was constantly focused on the weather. The situation required your constant attention with a relevant perspective to remain functional.
In business there are times when curcumstances change and people try to deal with them in the same manner they have always handled a situation or problem. Sometimes we have to change in order to effectively deal with a situation. Many times we need to change our perspective. When you change your perspective, many times you can influence a good, positive outcome.
Garry Haggart, CPC is a management, marketing and performance development consultant and facilitator. He can be reached at 661-259-2530.