More labels

I wrote yesterday about labelling things and people.  Some of you have already pointed out both the value and inevitability of this strategy.  I agree.  However, it has hidden drawbacks too, that we seldom see.  Imagine someone giving you a Swiss army knife with a dozen different handy tools.  If you only ever use the knife blade after a while you cease to consider its potential value as a bottle opener or a screw driver.  People are like this too.  Particularly at work, we can tend to see people as rather 2 dimensional and forget that they have a life outside work.  The more we see and relate to the whole person the more of themselves they bring to work and the more they have to offer.

We also label ourselves.  It is very typical for people to introduce themselves with a label; “Hi, I’m Sophie’s husband” or “Yes, I’m the Sales Director” or “I work for Eagle Star“.  When we think of ourselves through this filter of our labels we limit ourselves too.  I am more than just someone’s husband, someone’s father, someone’s son, someone’s neighbour etc. 

We label our behaviours and responses as “Good” and “Bad”, when it would be much better if we asked if they were appropriate or not; helpful or not; affirming or not? 

Perhaps today is the day to peel off some of these labels and see what potential you can unleash…

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?'”  George Bernard Shaw

“We love labels. We really do–as a society, I mean. It’s so much easier to understand the world around us if we name it, tie it down, and distance ourselves from the parts we don’t like…. We all want to beloved, we all want to love, and we all want”

Tags: Change, labels, potential

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 14:13 and is filed under Business Change, General, Values & Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.