When was the last time you truly looked at the world through someone else’s eyes?
Not just listened politely, but paused, absorbed, and tried to see the situation exactly as they did.

This simple act, what I like to call “borrowing lenses”, has the power to spark transformation in ways we often overlook. It can shift how we lead, how we collaborate, and even how we live our daily lives.

The Workplace Example: A Leader and the Shop Floor

Consider a factory manager who was frustrated with declining productivity. On paper, everything looked efficient. Machines were running, workers were present, and processes seemed aligned. But when he “borrowed lenses” and walked a day in the shoes of an operator, he discovered something that reports never revealed:

Workers were spending nearly 40 minutes of every shift just searching for tools and waiting for instructions. From management’s lens, the issue looked like “low motivation.” From the operator’s lens, it was a system that made it hard to succeed.

By seeing through another’s perspective, the manager wasn’t just solving a problem; he was transforming his leadership. Productivity rose not because of stricter rules, but because empathy drove better design.

A Child’s Perspective: Rediscovering Curiosity

Children are natural experts at perspective. They ask “why” relentlessly, find joy in the simplest of things, and approach the world with curiosity instead of judgment.

Imagine approaching workplace challenges with the same mindset. Instead of dismissing a recurring problem with, “That’s how it’s always been,” we’d ask, “Why does this happen?” and “What if we tried it differently?”

One leader shared that he began inviting junior team members to brainstorm sessions, not because they had technical expertise, but because their questions were unfiltered. What he got wasn’t polished solutions, but fresh angles that his experienced team had long stopped considering. Sometimes transformation isn’t about adding more knowledge but unlearning the habit of assuming we already know enough.

A Competitor’s Perspective: Seeing Opportunities in Weakness

Borrowing the lens of a competitor can be equally transformative. Think of two businesses in the same industry, one struggling, the other thriving. The weaker one often blames “tough markets” or “shrinking margins.” But when leaders pause and ask, “If I were my competitor, how would I see this situation?” the answers can be startling.

Perhaps the competitor views the same challenge as an opportunity to innovate pricing, bundle services, or adopt digital tools faster. By stepping into the shoes of a rival, organizations often uncover the hidden possibilities that drive transformation.

A Mentor’s Perspective: The Long View

We live in a culture of instant results, monthly targets, quarterly reviews, and year-end appraisals. But mentors often lend us a very different lens: the long view.

Where we see failure, they see stepping stones. Where we see a detour, they see redirection.

A young professional once shared how her mentor reframed her “career setback.” After being passed over for a promotion, she felt stuck and undervalued. But her mentor helped her see the broader picture; this wasn’t the end, it was the beginning of building resilience, skills, and credibility that would serve her for decades.

Sometimes the most transformative shift happens not in what we do today, but in how we choose to view today in the context of tomorrow.

The Stranger’s Perspective: Everyday Humanity

And then there are the smallest, most unexpected lenses, the stranger you meet briefly, the customer you’ll never see again, or the colleague you rarely interact with.

Think about how many misunderstandings at work could be softened if we paused to imagine the day a colleague might be having outside of the office. Transformation doesn’t always have to be monumental; it can start with patience, kindness, and empathy in everyday interactions.

Final Thought: Transformation Through Perspective

Real transformation rarely begins with tools, strategies, or even goals. It begins with perspective. By borrowing the lenses of others, whether a child, a competitor, a mentor, or even a stranger, we begin to see our own blind spots.

And in that shift of vision, doors open. Ideas emerge. Relationships deepen. Growth accelerates.

Because sometimes, what changes the most isn’t the world itself, but the way we choose to look at it.