INsight/ Use Your HUD
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Photo: Moskito Raptor HUD for cyclists.
Manila, 31 May 2017 — Head-Up Displays (HUD) are guiding pilots and gamers, and may soon be common for drivers and cyclists. What if you could see the world through your very own leadership HUD?
Well... that is what you are already doing.
What do I mean?
Rapidly advancing technologies like augmented-reality-smart glasses are now helping people to blend the digital with the real world.
"When you change the way you see the world, you can change the world you see," claims Microsoft for users of its HoloLens glasses, one of the many brands available. Microsoft tells us that this new technology can create a mixed reality where the world is our canvas to bring our ideas to life and "transform the way we communicate, create, collaborate and explore."
Powerful words, and what an exciting sequel that is to what Marcel Proust said a century ago, when he reflected that “the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
You don't have the hi-tech glasses yet? Neither do I.
Yet I claim that you are already seeing the world around you through your very own leadership HUD. It's just that most of us are not yet aware that we are actually wearing invisible glasses that shape the world for us and give it colors.
"Do we see reality as it is?" asked Donald Hoffman.
The powerful response came from Stephen Covey, who explained that we see the world, "not as it is, but as we are—or as we are conditioned to see it."
Altering Reality
What if you could change the conditioning that Covey talks about? What if you could reprogram your mental HUD through which you see the world around you every day?
I am convinced that you can, because of my own experiences since I started working consciously on expanding my awareness and skills to lead changes and make a difference. I am convinced that you can do it too.
Just imagine, there might actually be few limits to what you can do if you turn the world in front of you into your canvas, guided by your mental HUD, which you can program yourself to make it more powerful by tweaking it and by adding features.
Steve Jobs did that when he created Apple's revolutionary products that have changed our life. People around him described how he seemed to alter reality through his mental vision, making it possible for his team to go the extra mile and turn his vision into reality.
Altering their vision of reality is what leaders do—with or without smart glasses—and have always done throughout history. They train themselves to see reality in a different way from other people around them. They use their mental HUD to give new meaning to what they see. They often see opportunities where others see problems. They see bridges where others see divides.
Photo: Apple Smart Glasses.
When I look back on my experiences over the past decade and more, I can see how my view of reality has transformed. And how the methods and skills I learned from many teachers have given me a more powerful and exciting HUD to guide me, whenever I choose to switch it on.
Using your HUD
For example, my mental HUD shows me what might be the most effective leadership style to adopt for a particular situation I find myself in, what roles I can choose to play, what color of language might best connect me to the people I meet, and much more.
I keep developing my mental leadership HUD every day, through study, practice and feedback. My journey of discovery, and my quest to become a better leader continues, with lots of tweaks to my HUD.
Spotting the seven language colors as they manifest in the world around me, has become one of the 'power features' of my leadership HUD, and I am excited to use that every day and to share that knowledge with other leaders through the Work In All Colors training.
What about your mental leadership HUD? What picture does it show you of the world around you? What are the features that help you? What features have you reprogrammed? And what feature requests do you have, to make it more powerful and exciting for you?
Before you dream to buy a pair of augmented-reality-smart glasses, why not make better use of the mental leadership HUD that you already wear, to change the way you see your world?
“When you change the way you see the world, you can change the world you see.”