To understand different perspectives, I consider six chairs and the views of the people in them. Although, there are countless different perspectives along any spectrum, I like to focus on up to six different ones to keep things manageable.
In addition to what I noted in yesterday’s post, I like to consider all the different views available along a spectrum. First, I assess both ends of the spectrum. Secondly, I add up to four other positions along the spectrum to consider other potential views.
To visualise this, I have added a spectrum below and placed an asterisk at both ends and four others in between. This gives me six chairs (asterisks) and six avatars, or points of view, to consider.
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A sample topic could be, “How often should children eat ice cream?”.
As you can imagine, there are many different views with even more reasons available to support each view. To make it easier to hold the various thoughts in my mind, and debate between them, I consider six chairs.
From one extreme to the other, the six views I would consider are as follows:
- Children should never have ice cream as there are no health benefits to it at all,
- Children could have ice cream three or four times per year as an exceptional treat on warm days to help keep them cool and happy,
- Having ice cream once a month is fine and part of a healthy childhood experience,
- Ice cream on a weekly basis is fun and enjoyable,
- Eating a variety of ice creams after meals, like lunch and dinner, is a normal part of growing up, and
- Ice cream is in the freezer for kids to have at any time. It can be a dessert, pudding, snack or even breakfast.
Now try your favourite topic.
