Just lately at a dinner with friends, they, my partner, and I in a mix of amusement and all-day parental horror agreed it is a miracle that any of us grow up having all or at least most of our teeth.

It seems no less miraculous that with all our differences and despite all the things that go (even terribly) wrong between us, a lot of good things happen when humans band together. I don’t speak of historical achievements or tragedy here but think of the many functioning businesses out there. The ones being the professional home to so many humans with so many different viewpoints and still getting their daily business done in such a way to produce value for clients and society.

This is good news! The even better news is, usually, in the way we work together in any organized manner there lies potential for improvement. Endless potential, one part of which I found to be as enticing to work with as frustrating when going unattended.

My curiosity for working at the intersection of (human) perspectives was a chance discovery. Fresh out of university, I landed a job in an unusual but enticing industry: I worked in the production crew of three short films selected to be produced by the Berlin International Film Festival. Three different projects, one coherent observation from my role as a production assistant.

Each film went into production based on one identical script that all those in the required functions (production, direction, camera, acting, lighting, costumes, etc.) had read. From the same script, these individuals’ minds all saw wildly different films come to life before their inner eye. Of course. Tensions showed, the natural and not specifically addressed friction between the various perspectives cost time, money, some buy-in of those involved, and some quality of the product, not to speak of the nerves of many.

None of this is surprising. The divergence of interests and viewpoints and the negotiation between them is an ever-present part of our lives. But something in the way that films are like small, project-length enterprises with such distinct crafts involved, perhaps unusually outspoken people as they don’t have to work together long term and it being my first full-time work experience, presented it to me like under a burning glass.

In paying attention to and addressing the differences in perspectives at work when humans are at work more constructively, I saw potential. I thought ‘That’s it, it’s what I want to do’ but didn’t know where to apply it yet. It was clear that film production didn’t lend itself to the kind of work I envisioned, so I broadened my view.

I took steps into the more traditional corporate world and a boutique consulting firm I knew from a study project seemed to be a good starting point. I received training, and soon collected practical experience in the facilitation of workshops, training, and other dialogue formats, became a conflict mediator, and dug into the topic of how to overcome resistance to change. In all of these tasks, I worked on the exact potential I had observed. And I felt like a fish in the water!

I decided to focus my time fully on this niche through working in Learning and Development as well as Organizational Development. In taking that step, I wanted to collect first-hand experience inside organizations for a while to better share the experience of most of my clients. It became more than 8 years that I greatly enjoyed.