The Challenge of More Than One Perspective

It has been said many times before how there are many different ways to look at an issue. Whether the issue is big, small, important, unimportant, pressing or upcoming, each comes with its own array of looking glasses through which to gaze at it. None of these perspectives are necessarily good or bad, nor is one particularly more weighty or pressing than another. They merely exist and therefore are real. How pervasive one, several or even all the perspectives become is inevitably decided by those of us who are doing the looking and judging. A great example of this is the recent awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama. Obviously, it was and is international news and is the topic of much discussion and debate as I write this.

A number of people have expressed delight at this honor being bestowed upon our still-new president. Others have found this decision by the Nobel Committee to be outrageous and insulting. And still other perspectives have fallen somewhere in the middle of the others by being congratulatory while at the same time questioning the wisdom and timing of this particular honor on this particular individual. In attempting to interpret these mixed reactions, what is a communicator to do? Given the many responses, would one determine this to be a good thing, a bad thing, important, something to be scoffed at, or better left ignored?

Seeing as we are now just over a month away from Thanksgiving, which around our house always includes a big meal, let me make a food analogy. Final perspectives are like a freshly baked pie. They are produced as a result of combining a number of ingredients. If mixed properly and in a timely manner, the result is one's own creation that, if not edible, is at least understood and given consideration. Often times, communicators are called upon to offer their interpretation or assessment of a given issue or incident. Ideally, one's "take" on something should not be pulled from thin air but rather be the result of combining your own assessment with facts and thoughts from other sources. Once mixed together and analyzed, then the odds of you producing a viable and intelligent perspective are high. Communication is a social science and therefore should be carried out as any other scholarly field deserves: with facts and analysis. It makes the challenge of dealing with various perspectives much more interesting and orderly. It also points to the importance of communicators placing their own stamp on various issues of the day but doing so as a result of looking beyond their own perspectives.