Seeking ‘Reality’

I recently came across a blog by Robert Fritz, author of “The Path of Least Resistance” and “The Managerial Moment of Truth”, both books containing some fabulous stuff about creating a shared reality.  And in today’s world of fake news and low trust in leaders – reality is a hot topic.

But when Fritz wrote “Reality is not a product of perception. It exists independent of perception, and our job is to see it as clearly and accurately as possible”, then I have to question that. For me, a completely objective position that you either see or don’t see is a luxury. It presupposes a level of factual clarity that hardly exists in day to day life. Without that clarity we have to add an interpretation to bring useful meaning, which is subjective.

Here’s a model of how I see that luxury quickly disappearing and why we need to acknowledge different perspectives to understand a whole shared reality:

We know that our interpretations are coloured by how we perceive the world based on our knowledge, experiences, personalities and motives. Therefore, what we perceive overall, both objectively and subjectively, becomes our reality.

Reality as seen by one person alone is meaningless. Reality exists between people: when they recognise things the same way, be that when they are in agreement on the same facts, the same interpreted facts, or otherwise.