For hours today I was at my computer trying feverishly to clear out my inbox. Some of my ‘unread’ emails I had already taken care of [thank goodness, although there were not nearly enough of those], some had to be filed elsewhere, some could be deleted, and others, well those I kept as ‘unread’ so I could handle them later. Every fifteen minutes or so I would glance over my new incoming messages. All was going well until I received a high priority email … you know the ones that come with the red exclamation point. “Hmmm” I thought “this must be important, this must be something I need to read immediately, for I am sure it will help my company.” I opened the email and, amazingly, it had absolutely nothing at all to do with my company. It was an email totally unrelated to increasing my company’s position. The fact is that it was the sender’s perspective, and therefore the sender’s reality, that the message was very important. I can only think that if I were to purchase the products that this company was selling, it would be a huge benefit to that company. Now let me clarify who the sender was … someone I had never met [although I have received high priority emails from people/companies I have not interacted with in years], a company I was not familiar with, and a product I would not purchase. This company and my company happen to belong to the same very large professional organization. We can get so focused on our own perspective and in our own world that we do not think to step back and take a broader perspective of the situation. We communicate from our own viewpoint. We need to do it from the viewpoint of our listener or of our reader. Many times it is simply our point of view that we pay attention to and disregard the other point of view. This is much like proceeding on with our own agenda without considering how it will affect the other person, if it is a good time for the other person, what unwanted consequences can result from our own narrow viewpoint. Remember, in every ‘conversation’ there are three points of view: the speaker’s/sender’s, the listener’s/receiver’s and their blended points of view. Whose point of view are your emails targeted to?