Nkechi’s Office

Nkechi's Office

Nkechi has invited you for a one-on-one conversation about the meeting you just attended. Listen and respond to what she says. You need to listen so ⭐️⭐️ make sure your audio is on! ⭐️⭐️

Enter

Thanks for sitting in on that meeting there. I wanted to get your impressions before I write up my report. Tell me, whose version of events felt closest to your own? Why do think that one made sense to you?

That’s interesting. And I think it says something important — not necessarily about who’s right or wrong, but about how YOU see problems. The version that felt most natural to you probably connects to something in your own experience or your own way of thinking. That’s worth noticing.

And did anyone surprise you? Whose perspective was the most different from how YOU saw the problem before the meeting?

Yes, I agree. You know, it's really important to notice how other people see things differently from us. It helps you to recognize your own blind spot, you know? The thing you can’t see from your perspective.

Oof, well... Kofi was probably the hardest for me to hear. It’s not nice to know that the newest members of the team don’t feel supported, and as Operations Director, that is part of my job. It’s something I’ll have to think about.

You know... Tomás has a point, even if he did make mistakes. We are stretched too thin, and people don’t have time. I think at some point we might need to hire an assistant project manager to take over some of his work.

Let me ask YOU something harder. When I asked you to investigate this project back in Lesson 1, I gave you a brief. I told you to look at the team and find out what went wrong. Did you ever question that brief?

That’s wonderfully honest. And that’s the point, you see? My brief was a frame. I told you to look at the team — so that’s what you looked at. You probably didn’t think about the client’s role, or leadership decisions. Not because you’re not smart — but because the frame I gave you determined what you could see. And it didn’t feel like a frame at the time. It just felt like the task.

Good instinct. But even if you wondered, the brief still shaped what you focused on. I told you to look at the team. That meant you probably spent most of your time on people and tasks, not on client relationships or leadership decisions. The brief was a frame — and even if you sensed its limits, it still guided what you could see.

You know, I do. When I gave you that brief, I was framing the problem too. I told you to look at the team. I didn’t tell you to look at how I allocated resources, or whether I should have pushed back on the client’s timeline. That was my frame — and I didn’t see it at the time either.

I like to think so. I think that’s what makes a really good leader. Not that you stop framing issues from your own perspective — you can’t do that, it's impossible. But you can try to catch yourself doing it. And sometimes you have to be honest about the fact that you didn’t.

So knowing all this — that everyone frames things, that you do it too, that even the person giving you the task is doing it — what do you think you should do differently next time?

Honestly, yes. I think I should have looked more closely at my own role in this. Sometimes, it’s only afterwards, when you step back, that you realize what you missed. But that’s the thing about blind spots — you can’t see them. The clue is in the name!

So knowing all this — that everyone frames things, that you do it too, that even the person giving you the task is doing it — what do you think you should do differently next time?

I think that's very wise.

click

Ah, you’ve noticed this picture. My son drew it... oh, years ago. He’s studying to be an architect. He’s probably around your age. Gosh! How time flies. Would you like to see it?

And the thing is, we’ll never know. You might think if we could zoom out far enough we could know the answers, but that's just an illusion. We can only see a tiny part of the world it shows, and that's all we'll ever see.

The best we can do, the best anyone can do, is to accept that we'll never see the full story, and just try to see the picture — AND see the frame we’re looking through.

This picture reminds me that everything we see is shaped by where we’re standing, when we’re looking, and who we are. Our gender, our race, our social background, our job, our age — these are all frames. They’re the lens we look through. And we’re never going to take that lens off.

Are the children running away because they’re scared? Or are they playing a game? Is the boy chasing them, or is he about to throw the ball?

And the woman on the bench — is she crying? Is she tired? Or is she counting for game of hide and seek?

You know, I’ve always loved this picture. I think... it asks so many questions.