09 Apr What’s The Outcome?
I have a friend who doesn’t really know how to use a dishwasher. Yes, you read that right. She has one in her home. However, she feels like she practically needs to wash the dishes to put them in it, so she may as well just handwash them. It’s also her comfort zone. She’s always washed the dishes, and she trusts her hand-washing more than she trusts the machine.
Recently, we took a trip together, and we stayed in a condo. We were constantly feeding nine people, seven of which are teenagers. Needless to say, we had a lot of food happening. Given the constant flow of food preparation and dishes, she decided she’d use the dishwasher. It was a learning process for her as well as for me.
I’m an avid user of the dishwasher. I have very specific guidelines about how the dishwasher should be loaded and when it should be run. My friend doesn’t have any of that because of her inexperience with it. When she loaded the dishwasher it was chaos (in my mind) and all wrong. There was no discernible system. I watched it happen, and I struggled to stay positive. It took all I had not to tell her it was wrong and fix it. However, when I took a step back and thought about it, I realized the outcome was the same. The dishes would get washed.
It didn’t matter how the dishes were put in, and it certainly didn’t matter if she followed my system. We were focused on the same outcome – clean dishes.
That’s a valuable lesson in any situation!
How many times in our lives do we focus on people doing it OUR way? And yet, not everyone has the same experiences. We’re setting people up for failure every day with the expectation that they have common sense. Just because it’s OUR sense doesn’t make it common. We all come from different perspectives, so no two people will do anything the same.
Knowing this, how do we successfully accomplish anything?
We focus on the outcome. That’s it. When we find ourselves struggling with someone else’s perspective or approach, stop and think about it. It may not look like yours. It will still get you there though. Ultimately, the outcome is what’s important. So many times when it’s not done our way, we find ourselves asking WTF? Instead, start asking WTO – What’s The Outcome?
~Michelle Fink
Where in your life are you focused on WTF? What’s possible if you focus on the outcome instead? If you are ready to look at the answers to these questions, let’s set up a call and explore. It’s free. Email Barb at barb@high5leadership.com to set it up!