There are different ways to view an event, a situation, or an experience.

That is obvious when we speak to our doctor about a problem we have been grappling with for a period of time.  We have a vantage from the inside out, and the doctor looks at it from the outside in.

Often, a patient’s thinking is dismissed, immediately corrected, or even silenced when offering his/her perspective on what has been happening.  They are the patient, not the professional.  “Did you see my sign?”

Warning:
Patient will be charged EXTRA
for annoying the doctor
with self-diagnosis.

It is clear that there are times when we look at what is happening from a different vantage, and many who are in the medical profession have little-to-no interest in what we think is happening or causing the symptoms.  We are not the “professionals.”  What is happening can only be known and understood by those who are the specialists.  There is little room for the layman to offer some possible insights from a different vantage.

The reality is that we will identify problems dependent on our vantage.  The value of different viewpoints is acknowledged in a number of ways . . . .

• Outside consultants are paid big dollars to look at an organization or business to evaluate what is actually happening.
• Questionnaires are given to new customers or visitors to get their perspectives.
• Feedback emails
• Suggestion boxes at retail stores.
• “YELP”
• Outside executive hires are considered because they bring a new vantage, instead of the same institutional perspective.

Sometimes it is said this way . . . . “We need a fresh set of eyes to look at this.”  Because over a period of time . . . .

• We begin to “believe our own press.”
• An “echo chamber” develops where we hear back what we have been saying.
• Other leaders begin to “drink the cool-aid” and fail at providing the needed controls.
• Relationships become more important than speaking the truth about what is happening.
• The “same-old” is the “same-old” because there are no fresh eyes looking at the situation.

While the value of seeing a situation from another vantage is acknowledged, the fact remains that discordant or “non-professional” vantages are often dismissed or immediately refuted with professional jargon.  Outside opinions — and they must be considered non-professional OPINIONS — may be given a nod of possible consideration, but they carry very little meaningful attention or weight!

Laymen vantages are often labeled “annoying”  . . . . and such people “will be charged extra for annoying” the leader with their vantage.  The “charge “is usually a relational disparaging, a cavalier indifference, and/or even the rude and ungodly ghosting of brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Results: The results are a combination of a steady decline in attendance, weak finances, low morale, little real outreach, and/or the loss of that ministry’s influence and reputation.  The professional viewpoint controls and the patient’s health declines further.

A better diagnosis of what is actually happening is squashed, and/or the “prescriptions” for the needed changes are never written.

The patient takes the “professional advice” only to return with the same problems for the next visit — and again he/she attempts to suggest his/her insider viewpoint.

Like was said by Hemingway . . . .

How did you go bankrupt?
Two Ways . . . .
Gradually, Then Suddenly