Itʼs as if weʼre asleep. Most of us go through life unaware of just how unique our personal perspective really is. Only through years of life experience and interpersonal challenges do we gradually awaken to the fact that other people have genuinely, and often drastically different, fundamental ways of looking at the world. Different ways of being, perceiving, and doing…

Itʼs time to wake up. Waking up to your unique Native Perspective is a very powerful transformational exercise you can undertake to accelerate your self-understanding. It can help you better understand how and why you interpret your life experience and personal relationships the way you do, help you to find more compassion and love for the rich diversity you encounter, and enhance your professional skill and communication.

Using Integral theoryʼs four quadrants, join us in this role-playing exercise as four colleagues undergo the first 2 minutes of a business meeting where they discuss a new project. Watch how each participant brings a dramatically different Native Perspective — or “orienting quadrant” — to the table, then get inside their heads to see how they interpret the meeting. Can you spot your own Native Perspective?

This exercise can help you unfold into greater fullness and a richer sense of who you are. As you explore your own Native Perspective, watch all of the ways this new awareness helps you understand your relationships, your intentions, and your native comfort zone. It will also help you understand why there are certain people you have such a hard time relating to, and why others just seem to “get it.”

As you watch this presentation, try to get a sense of what your own Native Perspective might be. Which of these four characters do you relate to the most? Are there any characteristics that you often find yourself annoyed or irritated with? Feel free to use the Journal app in the lower-left corner of your screen to track your reflections.

The results are eye-opening, inspiring, challenging, funny, and no doubt painful (the best kind, of course). Enjoy!