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A while ago, we were invited to a creative conference where
150 people were gathered and seated at 10 different tables. At
the beginning of the conference, we were told that during the
next two hours, 21 babies would be born.
Each table were then asked to come up with an answer to this
question: What would you give these 21 children if you had all
the opportunities in the world? We had 15 minutes to agree on
an answer.
I sat there among 14 people I didn’t know and suddenly
thought about shoes as being a persons standing point. I felt
the most important thing in the world was to be able to see the
world from another persons standing point. Or put differently:
The ability to stand in another persons shoes. Imagine what
this could lead to. The end of misunderstandings, envy, wars
even? Understanding in spite of differences.
This was my suggestion.
Initially, my suggestion was met by scepticism and everyone
went on and on about love. After about 10 minutes, however,
a female financial executive agreed with me. Soon the rest of
them followed and my suggestion was chosen as our answer.
After a presentation of the answers of all the tables, ours was
chosen as the best overall.
We went on to the next assignment: What would your first
action be in order to effectuate your gift if it were to be distributed
to a lot of people?
My thoughts drifted once again. Men and women often feel as
if this is never done and that is always done. You never really
see what the other person is actually going around doing. To
put it in simple terms, men mow the lawn and wash the car
– women do laundry and cook. But what if we were to pick a
day designated to change the daily tasks? Men would have to
cook and do the laundry or whatever the woman in question
would be doing that day as well as the other way around.
This would really open our eyes and give us an understanding
of the other person after being in his or her shoes for a day. The
suggestion was chosen as the best among all the others.
At Action we believe in empathic dialogue.
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