LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY · DISCOVERY · COLLABORATIVE CHANGE
Multiple Lenses
Explore: Philosophy of Leadership (2020) · Change Agent Strategy (ORGL 516)
Seeing Through Multiple Lenses
Organizations, clients, and relationships are complex. All require effort and attention. What appears to be a communication problem may be a difference in expectations. What looks like resistance to change may reveal a gap in understanding, trust, or shared purpose. Whether I’m working with a client, consulting with a team, or volunteering alongside others, one perspective rarely tells the whole story.
I’ve learned that meaningful change rarely begins by announcing what someone else needs to fix. It begins with curiosity.
Discovery Before Direction
Earlier in my career, I often approached new work with fresh ideas and a strong instinct for identifying opportunities. I could see possibilities that others, immersed in their daily responsibilities or circumstances, might not immediately recognize.
But seeing an opportunity and helping others see and embrace it are two different things.
Experience across professional, client, and volunteer settings, reinforced by my graduate studies in organizational leadership at Gonzaga University, reshaped how I approach that challenge.
Today, I begin by listening.
People, Processes, Philosophy, and Pace
I seek to understand people, situations, and shared work through four interconnected lenses:
- People: Who is involved or affected? What do they know, value, need, and experience?
- Processes: How do things actually happen, beyond the stated plan, familiar routine, or written procedure?
- Philosophy: What beliefs, assumptions, and values shape expectations and decisions—and how consistently are they practiced?
- Pace: What is the capacity and readiness of those involved, and what timing makes change realistic?
Each perspective reveals something the others cannot.
In every facet of my work, I listen to leaders, workers, and representatives of every constituent group. I strive to offer the same attention to all people involved, their priorities, and the realities they navigate. Different experiences illuminate different parts of the picture.
The goal isn’t simply to gather information. It’s to understand how those perspectives connect.
Facilitating Shared Discovery
When people are told what needs to change, even thoughtful recommendations can encounter resistance.
I’ve found a more productive approach is to create an environment where people can recognize challenges, examine assumptions, and discover possibilities together.
My role becomes that of a facilitator rather than an outside expert delivering answers.
Through genuine curiosity, thoughtful questions, and collaborative conversation, people begin sharing observations that may otherwise remain unspoken or separated by roles, assumptions, or experience.
When people recognize a need for change through their own participation, they have a stronger foundation for taking ownership of what happens next.
From Insight to Action
Discovery isn’t an end in itself.
Looking through multiple lenses helps reveal practical opportunities—sometimes through new strategies, sometimes through better use of resources already available, and sometimes through a different understanding of what someone truly needs.
At HRG, listening across organizational levels informed a communications program built around existing technology.
At Pet Savers, understanding operational needs helped shape decisions about facilities, outreach, and organizational possibilities.
At Art Chowder, recognizing individual strengths and creative perspectives helped guide editorial collaboration and the publication’s evolution.
Different settings. Different people. Different challenges. The same underlying commitment to understanding before acting.
Leadership as a Shared Practice
I don’t believe effective leadership requires having every answer.
It requires the willingness to ask better questions, consider perspectives beyond our own through conversations that matter, and make room for people to shape decisions and outcomes that affect them. It is born from a healthy learning environment where sometimes failure is welcome as a step toward finding the right solution.
Seeing through multiple lenses is more than a way of gathering information. It’s a way of leading—one that turns curiosity into understanding, understanding into shared ownership, and shared ownership into meaningful change.