Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences:

Once we define a person, problem or situation, that definition can begin determining what we see and the solutions we consider. Temporarily releasing what we think we already know gives us the opportunity to look again and see what is actually there.

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I have never been particularly comfortable with labels however, I understand their usefulness. They give us language for things and help us communicate what we mean. My difficulty has always been with what happens once the label becomes the definition.

Entrepreneur. Consultant. Failed business. Difficult employee. Bad relationship. Wrong strategy. Unmotivated person. Poor performer. Dysfunctional team. Once we have decided that something belongs in one of these categories, it becomes very easy to start interpreting everything we see through what we have already decided it is.

I have done this myself. I have wondered whether I am really a businessperson, whether I have what people would call a business, whether entrepreneur or consultant accurately describes me. The trouble with those questions is that I can very quickly stop looking at what I actually do and start measuring myself against everything I think those words are supposed to mean.

The same thing happens when we are trying to understand problems.

Call someone a difficult employee and every difficult interaction can become confirmation. Decide that someone is unmotivated and we immediately begin thinking about how to motivate them. Decide that a business has failed and we begin discussing whether it should close, change direction or start again. Decide that the strategy is wrong and our attention shifts towards replacing it.

We start making decisions from the definition we have given the situation. yet the definition itself may be the thing that needs examining.

What if, before deciding what to do about the difficult employee, we temporarily removed the word difficult? What are they actually doing? When does it happen? What seems to trigger it? Is this a behaviour problem, a relationship problem, a role problem, a management problem, a capability problem, or something we have not yet considered?

What if we stopped calling the person unmotivated for a moment and looked at what is preventing action? What if we released the idea of a failed business and examined what actually failed? What if the strategy itself is sound and something else is interfering with the result?

This is what I mean by looking with beginner’s eyes.

It is not pretending that we have no knowledge or experience. It is being willing to temporarily release what we think we already know so that we can see what is actually there.

The word temporarily is important because we are not required to throw away the original definition. We may examine everything carefully and come right back to it. The employee may indeed be difficult. The strategy may be wrong. The business may need to close. The person may genuinely have lost motivation.

The difference is that we examine first before allowing the definition to determine the diagnosis.

That matters because the moment we decide what something is, we also begin narrowing what we believe can be done about it. A definition can therefore become much more than a description. It can determine the questions we ask, the information we notice, the explanations we consider and the solutions we pursue.

Sometimes better understanding requires us to loosen our grip on the explanation we already have, become curious enough to examine the situation more fully, and allow what we find to challenge what we thought we knew.

Temporarily release the definition – then look again at what is actually there.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

What have you already defined so firmly that the definition may now be influencing what you see, and what might become visible if you temporarily released it and looked again?

About Giselle

Most costly decisions begin with an inaccurate understanding of the situation.

I’m Giselle Hudson – writer and Pre-Decision Diagnostic Advisor. Most advisors offer solutions before carefully diagnosing the situation. I diagnose first — looking for what isn’t completely visible yet. Once we identify that, everything else becomes clearer, and confident, right action can follow.

Through my daily Strategic Alignment Journal, I explore leadership, decision-making, and the patterns that shape organizations, helping leaders make sense of complexity before committing significant time, money, or resources.

What’s the one thing about your business that frustrates you most — the thing that, despite your best efforts, you can’t seem to resolve?