28/08/2026
Sometimes, We Need to Change the Lens
Recently, I had a conversation with someone at work that made me pause.
I realized I was looking at that person through the lens of some of my past professional experiences.
I had seen similar situations before.
I had experienced certain behaviours before.
And somewhere, without consciously realizing it, I had started expecting the same story to repeat itself.
But this time, it didn’t.
I changed my approach.
Instead of reacting to what I thought I was seeing, I became more curious about what was actually happening.
And something shifted.
The person didn’t necessarily change. My lens did.
That small shift made the interaction easier, more productive—and surprisingly, much less mentally exhausting.
It reminded me how often we carry our professional experiences with us.
We may leave the meeting, close the laptop and go home, but the thoughts don’t always stay at work.
A difficult interaction can follow us into dinner.
A disagreement can occupy our mind long after the conversation ends.
A past experience can quietly influence how we approach the next person.
And perhaps this is where both leadership and Talent Development have something important to learn.
We often talk about developing people by identifying gaps, behaviours and capabilities.
But sometimes development begins much earlier:
with the lens through which we see people.
Are we seeing the person in front of us?
Or are we seeing our past experience of someone else?
Are we responding to what is happening now?
Or reacting to what happened before?
I’m learning to pause and ask myself:
“Am I looking at this situation—or am I looking through an old lens?”
Because sometimes, we don’t need a different person, a different team, or even a different situation.
We simply need a different lens.
And perhaps looking beneath and beyond that lens is where some of our biggest growth begins.
