Both Sides

Walter Cronkite once said “In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story”.

I remember listening to this beautiful Joni Mitchell song Both Sides as a teenager and what it meant to me then, and still does, is that I can see both sides to pretty much everything, so how the hell am I to decide?

It has become the norm to take a stance and stick to it, we dig ourselves in.

Being opinionated increases your chances. Certainly with political parties!

But the truth for me is I agree and disagree at the same time on all sorts of issues.

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all.

Joni Mitchell

My friend Andrew Wadsworth, the property developer, says that if he and his business partner, Robert, talk through a problem enough, they nearly always come to the same conclusion. When someone takes an open-minded middle position, it is heart-warming, and I find myself increasingly open to different points of view.

Good luck. If you can do it, things become easier and everyone is on board.

Who is Very Different to You? And what can you copy
00:00 / 1:20

  • Take Away

    Agree or disagree – but understand first

  • In Japan the expression “Nemawashi” is about building consensus by polite conversation so that decisions can be made afterwards.

  • A weekend away having fun shaves off the rough edges.

  • Yoko Ono said that when two sides go to war they both lose.

  • During an argument about who was the mother of a baby, Solomon, the biblical king, wisely offered to cut the baby in half – he soon knew who the mother was.

  • Compromise more – or don’t – but have a good logical reason for what you choose.

  • To present the opposing view: Margaret Thatcher said that standing in the middle of the road was dangerous …

  • … because you get knocked down from both directions. Good point.