In companies, people often talk about facts, data, and objectivity. Yet a large share of professional tension does not come from the facts themselves, but from the way they are perceived.
The book Become Will in Motion offers a fundamental insight: human beings never access reality directly. They construct a representation of it.
Perception: an invisible filter at the heart of work
Our brain selects, interprets, and organizes information coming from our senses.
Two colleagues attending the same meeting can leave with radically different understandings:
- one hears an opportunity,
- another perceives a threat,
- a third remembers only a negative detail.
In organizations, this means that:
- a strategy may be “clear” for top management and “unclear” for teams,
- feedback may be perceived as supportive or as aggressive,
- a rational decision may trigger an unexpected emotional reaction.
The fundamental managerial misunderstanding
Many managers believe they are communicating facts.
In reality, they are communicating interpretations that collide with other interpretations.
The issue, therefore, is not a lack of communication, but a clash of representations.
Managing means aligning subjective realities
In light of the insights developed in the book, the role of the manager evolves:
- less about transmitting messages,
- more about clarifying perceptions,
- creating spaces for dialogue to confront different representations.
A high-performing organization is not one where everyone thinks the same way,
but one where differences in perception are acknowledged and brought into coherence.
Understanding that everyone works from their own reality profoundly changes the way we manage, decide, and collaborate.
It is a powerful lever to reduce conflict, smooth project execution, and strengthen engagement.
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