The Gladstone — shifting perspective.

Situated in West Queen West, one of Toronto’s most creative neighbourhoods, the reimagined Gladstone House maintains its emphasis on culture, art, and diversity, while ensuring the building’s rich history and iconic original architecture remain preserved. Featured in Michelins‘ Toronto Hotel Guide, the celebrated boutique hotel, steeped in history, features restored exposed brick walls, curated local art and innovative lighting applications that transition throughout the day, bringing the building to life (Taken directly from their website)

It was only by circumstance that brought me to the Gladstone for a little under a week, and my only endorsement would be the elevator is very cool, the kitchen is amazing, and they make a fine Manhattan.

In under a week, I have:

• Gotten a pile of work done.

• Wrote a couple of blogs.

• Was reminded how amazing my daughter is, even as she questions how hip I think I am.

• Was reminded how honoured I am to have a great circle of friends.

• Learned more than I thought I would from an U of T alumni sponsored on-line course — Needs, Circumstance, Characteristics, Capacity and the Scripts. All dictate how we approach our life and greater than I appreciated. It has offered new language to navigate the human condition.

• Was reminded that diversity is strength.

• Was reminded everything is possible

In one of the conversations during the week, and as the universe is apt to do, the Gladstone was explained:

“I need to see issues and ideas from all sides, so people sometimes feel I am not "siding" with them, or criticizing them, when I am truly just curious and considering all possible perspectives....”*

The Gladstone allowed me to shift my perspective and because of this, things happened. Does shifting perspective make things happen? No. What shifting perspectives offers is a broader view of current situations, challenges preconceived notions, and in theory**, offers a clearer picture — it is with this, that you can make new things happen.

On the third floor of the Gladstone is a beautiful pool table for the guests to use at their leisure — what I noticed is from one angle there is no shot but as you move around the table, the shot you didn’t see, comes into view. How’s that for an analogy? Is any of this earth shattering or a monumental shift; not at all, but the journey is taken with small steps — one foot in front of the other.

Gladstone[verb]: to change perspective. Example: I’m just don’t see it, it’s time to Gladstone.

iamgpe

* Shayva Steinberg

**I say in theory because you must be open to seeing situations differently.

Sacrificing Sacred Cows

One of the simplest examples of a Sacred Cow can be found when you write blogs because there’s a small number of words in play. Occasionally, you write a sentence that you like very, very much but as you continue to build your thoughts and as the page expands, you start to realize that the sentence just isn’t appropriate anymore. You refuse to edit it out and actively rationalize why it needs to stay. No matter how much it is not working you want to keep it — “It’s such a fantastic sentence and it just has to be used.”

This thinking regarding sentences can easily be transferred to operating mechanisms and processes, where you focus your efforts, roles and responsibilities, strategies and tactics — anything that has worked very well in the past but for many reasons doesn’t work anymore.

The pithy term Sacrificing Sacred Cows is used when something revered isn’t working anymore and has to be removed or changed — it’s a course correction needed to bring an idea to life or sustain continued success. Something works until it doesn’t, and the glitter of the Sacred Cow can blind the recognition that there is problem, and what has worked in the past, isn’t anymore. They can be hard to sacrifice, these Sacred Cows — disbelief they’ve become a problem or suboptimal, aspects of being human and our strategies*, the perception of sunken costs or one of the seven deadly sins; they all keep sacred cows alive and well.

It is easy to sacrifice a sentence in blog when it doesn’t work and much, much easier than shifting a company strategy or a blowing up a process tied to revenue. In the end though, if you don’t, the result will be the same — a poor product that over time becomes obsolete. Adapt or die is the harsh reality of business, life and even humble blogging and the result of sacred cows not dealt with appropriately. How they are dealt with can range from the subtle to the dramatic but first they need to be recognized.

And sometimes that is hard — we’re only human after all.

iamgpe

*The Nash Equilibrium — The Nash equilibrium is a decision-making theorem within game theory that states a player can achieve the desired outcome by not deviating from their initial strategy. Yes, he is the one in the movie ‘A Beautiful Mind”.