Perception is reality to those that choose to believe it. Have you ever heard this? This is usually an interesting conundrum that sometimes you end up spending more time justifying why a certain observation is, or is not real, and then everything gets out of whack.

As we go through our own lives and spend times with those family and friends close to us, it is often observed that we all have a certain way we want people to see us. And likewise there is a certain way that we don't want people to see us. Our day-to-day patterns of living blend actions and intentions into a frappe of desired or undesired perceptions of those actions.

What makes this so interesting is the way different individuals interpret those same outcomes. It seems there is a whole lot of preconceived thoughts that go into how one looks at an issue. One might draw upon their upbringing, religion and personal taste. Take any example, like a random news story, and try to figure out what lenses you are wearing to look at the world outside and why others may or may not agree with your deduction.

Dr. Morris Massey had a very popular series of "tapes" (yes, I know I just dated myself). Dr. Massey created the phrase "What you are is what you were when." The gist of this was that through experiences you learn in your formative years, you will develop filters that will influence the perceptions of how you react to current issues for the rest of your life.

One example a coworker shared with me was a time when her marketing department from another part of the state was putting out a message that essentially told consumers "Don't you deserve this from my company?" They did this mostly because their reputation in that part of the state was excellent. However, due to preconceived notions about this company in this area, people were seeing that message and saying a resounding "No way, I deserve better"! The problem was that the preconceived notions were based on misinformation, a lack of information and the simple fact that this company had purchased another similar business in the same building.

In business, look at how you are dealing with your day-to-day issues at your business, keeping in mind that many people may look at the same set of data and arrive at a much different observation. It doesn't mean that either one is wrong or right. The real lesson is how we need to understand the potential opposing point of view and how that is used to enhance teamwork and collaboration and increase productivity and efficiencies.