On Perspectives

A perspective is important in the quest for personal and professional development . Whenever I think about perspective I am reminded of these lines by T S Eliot :

In our life we never cease from exploration

And at the end of our exploring

We will be to arrive where we started

 And know the place for the first time

A perspective allows us to do that -allows us to see the oft seen and repeated things in a new light altogether .We begin with any new venture , any new topic with the basic information . There are levels of information i.e. starting from a preliminary introduction to the topic to getting more and more deeper information related to it . Later on when there is enough and more information with which we can form generalizations for that particular topic we are stepping in  the realm of forming our own personal perspective . It is exactly like the theory of relativity moving from the specific to the general from absolute knowledge of one topic to linking it or relating it to other thought processes and bodies of knowledge .The process of perspective formation is moving from the domain of pure information to the field of insight . It is this insight that will help us gain a deeper and intense understanding of the topic and gain mastery over it . Over a period of time in our professional lives – by virtue of repeating the tasks, by virtue of living and breathing the same set of activities and thought processes we are able to form insights , generalizations about the field naturally . It is at this juncture that peers and superiors can play an important role in acting as good sounding boards. That is so because a perspective is always personal , discussions help it gain an objective nuance and the pros and cons of that insight can be examined many times even in a clinical manner .Also it this insight and perspective that will help differentiate after a particular level a high potential employee from the  rest of the peer group . It is the responsibility of the organization to provide avenues and opportunities to the people to present their perspectives . Of course it depends on the resourcefulness of the employee to present his/ her viewpoint too at the right forum .So much for perspectives and career development !