The Elusive Laws of Communication - Excerpts From Chapter 9

...Folklore has it that, in order to believe something, you have to see it, as in “Seeing is believing.” This is, by the evidence, exactly the wrong way around. To see something, you must already believe it is there. The correct maxim is “Believing is seeing.” The “something” we “see” is a mental construct. If you believe you have a certain problem, you will see evidence for it. If you believe you don’t have a problem, you will not see the problems you have…

...People don’t see something, and then believe it. They have to believe it in order to see it. If you are looking for your car keys, you will have a mental picture of what they look like. What you have a name for exists because you have a name for it. We recognize those things for which we have a mental construct. We don’t normally go around looking for something we have never even imagined…

...If you believe the financial statements accurately describe the state of your organization, that is because you believe that to be the case, not because it is “true.”

...Most people have never been involved in a great – or a high performance – organization. Nor do they believe such organizations exists. They look at the world from what they know. They can’t imagine much beyond what they already believe. And this will never lead them to the creation of a high-performance organization...

...Great leaders believe that anything is possible. Thus they see the possible in everything…They believe that the circumstances turn on others’ interpretations, unlimited by their own beliefs. They can “think outside of the box” because they believe that what could be created exists outside of the box they presently inhabit…

...If you are going to create something that never existed before, you have no choice but to believe it can be created. And thus what it looks like and feels like.

Comments

[Steve Wershing]

Lee,

You are absolutely right that believing is seeing. I am currently challenged with communicating a new vision of my organization to the staff. While most of the people are coming to understand the vision (which involves more services than the old one), some influential members push back. They see the value proposition as a package of services rather than a single comprehensive offer involving those services, and resist "adding services while we have not mastered the ones we have been doing." There is some validity to these concerns, and we are having a group discussion of what they see as what we do now, what mastery would look like, and what the gap is. However, it would be more productive is I could get everyone to comprehend the new, integrated vision. What can I try to help them believe that, so they can see it?