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Business is not always exciting. Between peak moments – landing a big client, forging an important partnership, expanding into a new market or launching a new line of business – there are many tasks that are just ordinary and routine. Payroll. Bookkeeping. Inventory. Filing. Office maintenance. Budgeting. Project Management. Logistics. From entry level clerks to C-Suite executives, everyone has tasks on their plate that are tedious and dreary. Routine creeps into practically every business, making even the most exciting ventures feel stagnant.
But what if there was a way for a business leader or manager to make a small change that would convert the ordinary into something extraordinary… like rocket fuel to supercharge a business? What if a small and simple change could help a company find a solution to a problem, craft an innovation, create a new product, or develop a deeper understanding of the needs of either customers or employees? What is this simple yet powerful tool? Perspective-Taking.
It seems simplistic – perhaps even ridiculous — that a change in perspective could make any difference at all in solving problems, developing new ideas, or understanding better the needs and desires of customers and employees. But, for leaders and managers, shifting their viewpoint can shed light on old problems or develop new insights that leads to innovation. Changing perspective can help executives step into a customer or employee’s shoes. It can be the game-changer that pushes a business to a new level of success. This is not just feel-good conjecture. There is science to back up this claim.
The Science Behind the Power of Perspective-Taking
Numerous studies validate the impact of perspective shifts on business outcomes. A study published in the Journal of Business Venturing found that diverse teams, with members holding different viewpoints, performed better on innovation tasks due to their broader range of insights. Everyone knows the value of having a group of diverse viewpoints looking at an issue. But even changing the perspective of just one person — rather than getting multiple perspectives – can also make a huge difference.
Research published in Harvard Business Review revealed that leaders who actively seek feedback from diverse perspectives make better decisions. And those leaders do better when their own perspectives change, even without feedback from others. This has been dubbed “Perspective-Taking.” Adam Galinsky, the Paul Calello Professor of Leadership and Ethics and chair of the Columbia Business School Management Division, has focused a great deal of his research on Perspective-Taking… the act of assuming another’s point of view. In his book, Friend & Foe, Galinsky explains that “Perspective-Taking — the ability to see the world from the perspective of others — is a leadership skill that is a critical ingredient for managing both friends and foes.” While an invaluable skill for leaders and managers, it is one they often lose as they ascend the ranks because “power reduces the ability to understand how others see, think and feel.”
While that description makes perspective-taking sound a lot like empathy, and the two are related, there is one crucial difference. Perspective-taking involves understanding another’s point of view and emotions while empathy requires feeling another’s emotions. Empathy can push a person toward compassion, an essential human trait but one that’s not always practical in business.
Perspective-taking, on the other hand, provides insights without necessarily connecting in a compassionate way. It enables a manager to consider more options when resolving conflicts and overcoming leadership challenges. In negotiations, for example, perspective-takers can “expand the pie” by understanding their negotiating partners’ priorities. This can broaden the range of concessions on the table. The end result is a win-win. It’s about results, not touchy-feely sentiment. Galinsky’s findings align with the concept of cognitive flexibility, the mental ability to adapt to new situations and consider different viewpoints. Studies show that individuals with higher cognitive flexibility exhibit greater creativity, problem-solving ability, and leadership effectiveness.
The Wharton Neuroscience Initiative in partnership with SEB, a leading Swedish corporate bank, also explored Perspective-Taking — the ability to put oneself in someone else’s shoes — from a neural basis and its effects on collaboration and business outcomes. Michael Platt — a neuroscientist and director of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative as well as a professor in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania — together with Vera Ludwig, Elizabeth Johnson and Per Hugander, shed light on the neural basis of Perspective-Taking and why it can lead to more innovation and better business outcomes. They presented their findings in an article titled Perspective-Taking: The Brain Hack That Can Help Making Better Decisions published in March 2021.
The Wharton team started with the premise that if Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of Spotify and Tradedoubler, is correct and “the value of any company is equal to the sum of the problems they are able to solve,” then expanding a company’s problem-solving capability is key for every business. In their study, they found that neuroscience showed one key strategy for building problem-solving capacity: simply taking the perspective of others. This crucial skill provided not only additional information about complex situations, but also activated brain regions linked with creativity and innovation.
In fact, their study found that many frameworks and tools for solving tough and complex problems were centered around the ability to take the perspective of others. Innovation frameworks started with taking the customer’s perspective. Collaboration and negotiation frameworks were centered around understanding others’ viewpoints. And, dialogue models recommended postponing judgment in order to take different perspectives for solving numerous business challenges. Indeed, being able to step into another’s shoes was essential for problem-solving, which explains why Perspective-Taking appeared so frequently in problem-solving literature for business.
Based on that, the Wharten team looked at what happens in the brain when a person takes a new perspective. They found that when people are trying to solve a problem, the frontoparietal attention network activates, meaning that areas at the front and the side of the brain are at work. However, when people take the perspective of another person, they engage a different network, often called the “mentalizing,” or theory-of-mind, network. This has two key components: the temporoparietal junction located just above and behind the ear and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex which lies just behind the middle of the forehead. Those areas help individuals understand what others know, want, need or find important.
Notably, the “mentalizing” network partially overlaps with the so-called default mode network. This term was chosen when researchers at Washington University in St. Louis discovered that that network became active when people took a break from active problem-solving. But, after years of research, scientists now know that this network is activated during exploration, imagination, innovation, thinking outside the box, and engaging in mental time travel by thinking back to the past or imagining possible futures. For those reasons, they now call it the “exploration” network. Thus, perspective taking engages both the mentalizing and exploration networks. They concluded it is because getting inside someone else’s head requires getting outside of one’s own head. In other words, a person has to step out of their own shoes to step into someone else’s shoes.
They also investigated what happened when they turned that network up or down. They found that the exploration network engaged when a person searched for new alternatives or deviated from routines. Boosting activity in that network provoked selection of options the person typically wouldn’t have taken into consideration. Temporarily turning off a key part of the default mode network impaired learning about new options through exploration, though memory for old routines remained intact. When the exploration network was turned down, the person often had difficulty generating new ideas. This proved conclusively that stepping into another’s shoes has a significant benefit on problem solving and creativity for business.
Beyond Theory: Real-World Examples
Recent history is rife with examples where a shift in perspective led to a business breakthrough. Faced with declining sales, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz saw potential in underutilized cafes at night. Shifting perspective, he thought about what customers might enjoy doing at night. As a result, he launched “Evenings at Starbucks,” he transformed cafes into community hubs which boosted revenue.
Netflix, when faced with stiff competition, didn’t fight them head-on. Instead, they saw an opportunity in the data of shifting from being a DVD rental service to a personalized streaming platform, revolutionizing the industry. Netflix founders Reed Hastings and Mark Randolph had to shift their business model perspective, which they had built from scratch, to embrace an entirely new business model. By looking at things from their competitors’ perspective, they saw an opportunity in a totally new, untested industry: data streaming.
Lego, facing declining sales, adopted a “customer co-creation” approach. They tried to see what the people who engaged with Legos – not necessarily all children — wanted. Gathering user insights, they shifted perspective and launched Lego Mindstorms, programmable robotic kits. This became a new best-seller for the company and later led to other marketing breakthroughs including the Lego Movie.
And, when Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were struggling for their startup to gain traction, they saw potential in their own apartment. This perspective shift led them to offer their space for rent, sparking the sharing economy giant Airbnb.
These examples showcase how embracing different perspectives can illuminate hidden solutions, ignite innovation, and lead to products and services that truly resonate with customers. Next week, we’ll look at the steps for how Perspective-Taking can help turn what is routine into what is extraordinary in order to supercharge any business. Stay tuned!
Quote of the Week
“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.” Aldous Huxley
© 2024, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.
