For many years, I have been part of an international organization where I am responsible for ensuring that the instructional materials we use are functional and effectively support the education we offer around the world.

My experience has taught me a valuable lesson about the movement from ME to WE to US.

At the ME level, I can review the materials, make a few edits, and feel confident that they are on target and make complete sense to me. From my perspective, they work.

But then I share them with a small WE, a team of three other people. Almost every time, someone identifies another correction, clarification, or opportunity for improvement.

Rather than assuming my perspective is the complete answer, I STEP BACK and invite open discussion. Each person brings their own experiences, knowledge, and perspective to the conversation. As we listen to one another, we STEP TOGETHER.

The result is something better than what I could have created through my individual review.

But our work doesn’t stop there.

Because these materials are translated into several languages and used by instructors and participants around the world, our WE must consider the larger US, the people who will ultimately experience and use what we create.

We review the materials again, this time asking different questions:

Will this translate clearly?

Will the formatting work in other languages?

Could a word or phrase have a different meaning in another culture?

What are we assuming simply because of our own experience?

By considering the larger US, including instructors, translators, and participants, we recognize something important: our perspectives are naturally limited by our experiences.

That doesn’t make our perspective wrong. It simply means it isn’t the whole picture.

One of my favorite examples is the word “boot.”

In United States English, a boot is something you put on your foot. In UK English, the boot is where you put your luggage in the back of the car. That’s what we call the trunk in the United States.

And then it gets even more interesting.

In the United States, a trunk is where you put your luggage. In the UK, a trunk is something you might pack your clothes in when traveling and then put that trunk in the boot of your car!

Same words. Different meanings. Different cultural contexts.

Both perspectives make perfect sense within their own context, yet either one can create confusion when viewed only through the lens of the other.

It becomes very easy to understand why translation, and communication in general, can become complicated around the world!

This experience has reinforced something I believe is essential to moving from ME → WE → US:

When our individual perspective expands, we become more able to understand, appreciate, and make room for perspectives different from our own.

At ME, we become aware of our own perspective.

At WE, we bring our perspectives together, listen, learn, and create through Connection.

At US, we expand our Awareness beyond ourselves and consider the larger purpose, people, and impact of what we are creating together.

The goal isn’t to determine whose perspective is right.

The goal is to become aware that there may be more than one perspective and to be willing to STEP BACK from our own view long enough to see what we might otherwise miss.

Because sometimes, the best way to move forward is to STEP BACK, listen to the WE, and then STEP TOGETHER toward an US that is bigger than any one of us.