This one has been rattling around for a while as the temporary traffic lights have been there for a couple of weeks, only took that photo today but have been collecting other related images when out and about of the last week.
With the traffic lights in mind, even as children we are taught the importance of the red light, the stop sign. It becomes an unconscious act (hopefully) to notice it and respond to it. It is a boundary that is easy to understand, and we mostly have the expectation that others will adhere to it.
But I feel it’s always worth checking that the others have stopped. There is a quote along the lines of ‘There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom’. In this case have the knowledge others should stop, but the wisdom to check. And my lasting memory of this quote used a someone jumped the lights story to drive it home.
With this in mind, how we communicate our personal and business boundaries can create different result.
Do we just assume that something is understood, or do we reinforce/reiterate it when dealing with someone new, or someone we know in a new situation? Here the temporary lights are replacing an existing set that are damaged, but they feel the need to put a reminder sign up too. And this sign reinforces the ‘wait until green’ not ‘stop on red’.
The ’cyclist please dismount here’ is a polite request, I have no idea if there are penalties if you don’t.
But the ‘WARNING’ sign, No this (with a couple of reasons thrown in), no that, no the other. To me felt like demands, not warnings. Even to the point someone has taken offence (presumably) to the ‘no fishing, without a license’ line and scrubbed out the picture.
So even here we have three ways to express the boundary/set the expectation. Which I feel is worth bearing in mind when someone doesn’t hear/oversteps or deliberately confronts a boundary we have.
(that’s pretty much my 2200 characters)
Questions
How do you tend to state your boundaries?
Have you had situations where there was a misunderstanding about what the boundary was?
#businesscoach #businesscoaching #boundaries #expectations.
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One of the big questions about this project is explained in more depth on Day 4