How you see is what you see! by Bevv Beirl

Before reading this article, grab a pencil and paper and write three statements comparing the 4 objects above.

Have you ever been asked what the USP is of your business? Maybe you decided to create a brochure or a display ad to use in your marketing campaign and the marketing company insisted you give them your USP. Unique Selling Points set you apart from all the other sandwich shops or carpet cleaners or insurance companies. Your USP will highlight how you are different, better and why a customer should do business with you.

If you are a difference thinker this task will be relatively easy. However if you are a sameness thinker, you may find it difficult. What kind of thinker are you? By doing the test before reading this article you will be able to understand how you process or think through challenges, assignments or tasks.

Being a difference thinker myself, as I write this article I can think of all kinds of things to demonstrate how a difference thinker analyzes tasks and why it’s the best way to come to a conclusion. On the other hand, my husband is a sameness thinker and I’ve had to enlist his help in explaining that way of thinking.

In our house, my husband will say, “Where do you want to go to eat tonight?” I will answer, “Well I don’t want seafood and I definitely don’t want pasta.” It drives him crazy. Even when we arrive at the restaurant I will go down the list and discard the selections. He’ll listen to the specials, glance at the menu and proceed to order the same thing he always orders at that particular restaurant.

As a kid I used to love to identify the differences of two drawings. You know the ones. They were usually in our Highlights Magazine or the newspaper. I would time myself to see how fast I could do it. On the other hand, a sameness person would find the exercise of finding the mistakes in a picture stressful or useless.

Have you ever had a staff meeting and brought up a concern you have about the future of the company and had a person say something like; “I don’t see the problem, our revenues are about the same as they were last quarter and our product is just as good as XYZ company.” And on the other side of thinking, another person says; “Are you kidding? Look at our phone expenses. They’re up 7% and our office supplies line item is up 5.5%. Joe Client said he had 3 returns last month.” Both of these people are valuable to your company if you recognize their thinking style.

There are basic personality types and thinkers. Our society is made up of a balance of all of them and that’s important. We need the visionaries and pioneers as well as the technocrats and analyticals. The key is knowing who you are and how you process information. You must be able to recognize what kind of thinker your employees, colleagues, customers, spouses and children are as well. By recognizing a person’s thinking style, you are better prepared to optimize the mental assets of your business or company. And just as important, if you understand that your teenager is a difference person, you will be able to understand why he/she disagrees with you on everything including the color of his/her own eyes.

So, what did you write about the four objects? Were your statements something like this? “They’re all round. They’re all American coins. They all have a head on them.” Or did your statements look more like this? “They’re all different sizes. They’re all different denominations. One of them is copper.” And of course as the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz may point out, “some do go both ways”. You may be a person who saw similarities and differences equally.

Take the next few weeks to really listen to the people around you. How do they describe or compare things? Also pay attention to your own thinking style. Knowing that you’re a sameness person will be valuable when you could really use some analytical, difference thinking to solve a challenge in your company.
If you’re a difference person, the sameness colleague will be extremely valuable when it comes time to tie everything together. My advice: look, listen and learn how you and those around you think. It just may make all the difference (I just can’t help myself) in your business.

About the Author
Bevv Beirl is a successful businesswoman who has written and spoken on human potential for over 25 years. Bevv is also the editor and CEO of BABM and can be reached at: editor@BABM.com