We were breaking into another vault – the goal for this mission was to take a million dollars from the vault, but we had to figure out how to get in first. When we found a room full of lasers, we figured we were closer to the prize. One team member nimbly (and then not so nimbly) made their way through the lasers without setting them off. They made it to a small area and found that there was no way they could move forward through the next set of lasers without deactivating them. Luckily there was a panel on the wall that looked very similar to a panel in the other room.

One team member went into the other room while the other was at the panel. We had to communicate what was on each of our panels and then the team member near the lasers asked what was on each part of their panel. They entered the information on the panel to deactivate the lasers and… nothing happened. The team member near the panel realized that they would have to look at the panel from the other’s perspective and ask for information that way. After going through the process again, the team members were happy to find that the lasers were deactivated, giving them access to the vault and they quickly exited with a suitcase filled with stacks of bills.

The team learned yet another valuable lesson that day. As hard as it is sometimes, you must pause and do your best to see a situation or challenge from the perspective of another in order to work through the problem at hand. How well are you able to truly step away from your own perspective and take on the perspective of another? What about opposite perspectives? It takes time and intention, but it can be done.