Our colleague, Elena Paraskevas-Thadani, sheds light on how our vantage point can change our point of view in conflict.

Our colleague Elena Paraskevas-Thadani, shares how workplace disputes, similar to eclipses, depend on your point of view, and showcases how we can help people see the bigger “pictures”.

The much-talked about solar eclipse, an event experienced by many in North America, has come and gone. Whether or not one actually experienced the event depends entirely on one’s vantage point.

In New York, we had expected a total solar eclipse, an event that last happened 99 years ago. However, many New Yorkers were disappointed by the overcast skies which completely hid the event.

In other parts of the country, such as our neighbors in Indiana, the event was spectacular and experienced fully. The sun was covered by the moon’s shadow, the sky experienced twilight, and the sun’s corona peeked out beyond the eclipse shadow.

Other parts of the country experienced the eclipse in different iterations, and most of the country, not at all.

Some versions of yesterday’s experience are pictured below.

The impact of the solar eclipse, like many events, depends on your vantage point— your literal point of view. In workplace disputes, often the friction is caused by an individual’s fear that acknowledging another’s version of an event, means disregarding their own. We find that this fear often eclipses the actual issues in dispute. From the matters we have handled and helped resolve, we know that this doesn’t have to be the case.

Workplace mediation, facilitated by experts, can help shed light on a situation and help people navigate past an event, regardless of their point of view.