The sunlight reflecting in my artwork stimulated my thinking. The black and white photo is of Bondi; a beach I’d go to as a child in Sydney. The superimposed blue sky and trees, seen through the window, are in London. This reminded me that as a part of the Australian diaspora and the child of Italian emigrants my cultural norms are a blend. The values, standards and practices that my parents imparted to me, were sometimes challenged by my Australian compatriots. And when I first arrived in London my hybrid of Italian-Australian perspectives was sometimes seen as inappropriate.
Consequently, what I consider to be a norm or appropriate is continually evolving. Beyond idle musing, this is relevant because it speaks to the concept of who we are as ‘observers’, or the way we engage with and make sense of our worlds.
Sometimes the observer we have created is beyond its ‘use by date’. That is, we may need to consider if our values, beliefs, attitudes and practices are fit for our workplace and different communities.
Do you consider your values and beliefs are fixed or could they be age, group and context specific?
Have you had an experience where shifting who you are as an observer has opened up new possibilities?
#observer #selfawareness #leadershipcoaching
