Poetry isn't always readily associated with good business practice or writing and that is probably business' loss. Recently I've been thinking a lot about good strategy and reflecting that it starts as a question of perspective. Any good strategy, any great marketing campaign or indeed any worthwhile relationship, has the same start point. Call it empathy. Call it perspective. To help us understand others, Mary T. Lathrap's poem cautions us to:
"Just walk a mile in his moccasins
Before you abuse, criticize and accuse.
If just for one hour, you could find a way
To see through his eyes, instead of your own muse"
Understand and appreciate the world from another viewpoint. Don't do it just for the sake of it, though that can be good, but do it because it will help your understanding, throw up new thoughts and make your strategy, campaign or relationships all the better. Do it for your enlightened self interest. While Lathrap shows how perspective can help us empathise, Robert Burns highlights how it might help self understanding and free you from many blunders and foolish ideas.
"O, wad some Power the giftie gie us,
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
And foolish notion"
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