Bifocalism: A Key to Conflict Resolution

If you’re familiar with bifocal eyeglasses, you know they allow you to view the same scenario from different perspectives. Anthony Kronman of Yale Law School uses “bifocalism” as a thought-provoking analogy. As he put it: “Anyone who has worn bifocal lenses knows that it takes time to learn to shift smoothly between perspectives and to combine them in a single field of vision. The same is true of deliberation. It is difficult to be compassionate, and often just as difficult to be detached, but what is most difficult of all is to be both at once.”

Seeing a situation from another’s perspective is key to any successful negotiation, compromise, or conflict resolution.  Recently writing in The New York Times, David Brooks posited that we get better at this skill as we age (http://bit.ly/bifocialism ) But why wait?

We can aid detachment by asking ourselves, “How would an outsider view the situation?”, or “How would I view this if I set my emotions aside?” As for compassion, it is essential to remember that all of us have our own perspective, because everyone is unique.  As Anais Nin said, “We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.”  We view situations, through the prism of our own experiences, values, and culture. We may never fully be able to step into another person’s world, but we can set a goal to regard our own perspectives as just one way of understanding, among many other ways.

We want to hear. Do you find it easier to view situations with detachment and compassion as you mature? If so, why do think that is?  Join the conversation and click "comments" on our Community of Practice Forum.

Image Credit: Thomas Hawk https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/

---