I was facilitating a small group conversation today on bias, and someone said something simple and yet so profound.
Reflecting on his efforts to bring more self-awareness to his (often unconscious) actions and behaviors, he said:
"I'm trying to stop letting my experiences get in the way of someone else sharing their experiences."
What a great insight, and a personal goal to continually work on:
Stop letting your experiences get in the way of someone else sharing their experiences.
We do that all the time. We take up so much of the space in any given context – in a 1:1 call, in a team meeting, online, with our family and friends – that we leave little or no room for someone else to share their experience.
What if each one of us could consciously be aware of how much space we're taking up, and then consciously work to take up less space?
Imagine what that space does for the person or people whose space we had previously taken for ourselves?
The agency, the autonomy, the confidence, the growth.
And the new ideas, insights, and solutions that we and everyone else now have access to.
When we pause, we intentionally create space for others to share their voice, their stories, their perspectives.
Which opens up all kinds of beautiful opportunities. For them and for all of us.