It’s just the way things are and always have been. It is easy to believe this. To take our personal experience and extrapolate to everyone, everywhere, for all time. The thing is, this is rarely true. It may feel true, but it rarely is.

Change makers understand this. They use it to unpack how teams, organisations currently function. And use it to bring in alternative perspectives and stories. The alternatives help others see a different way. It may be judged immediately as wrong, but it plants a seed of difference.

Often when there appears to be no solution, no alternative possibilities, we need to explore different places. Not our organisation, not our sector, our industry, our culture, or any of our regular haunts. We need to go somewhere different. This can take a bit of time, but generally it is well worth it. When we see and hear how others do things, approach problems, shortages, manage demands, deal with conflict and stress, our mind opens. Perhaps not immediately, but seeds are planted.

So what can you read, visit, learn about today that is completely different than what you usually do? Sometimes, when we are stuck, something completely different is just what the doctor ordered.

Photo by Gareth Harper