Windows, Mirrors and Doors

It’s pretty difficult imagining a world where we wouldn’t have windows, mirrors and doors.  We like to set up our offices where we have open door policies, or all sit in cube or bullpens where there are no doors.  But, we all know that every workspace needs at least one room with a door on it so that we can conduct confidential business when necessary.  Plus, we have to have a front door to lock when we leave.  Windowless environments (I don’t mean operating systems) can drive people batty after a while.  And, no mirrors in the restrooms would be unheard of doing.  Windows, mirrors and doors are basic to how we live and work.  And they are also metaphors to how we can view business.

Windows represent possibilities.  Doors represent opportunities.  And, mirrors represent reflections on what we can and can’t do with those things out the window or through the door. 

What happens too often is that we become fixated on the windows and doors and we forget about paying attention to what the mirror is telling us.  We have all seen it before; a boss or a team who dream and talk big but never live up to either because they can’t deliver or just don’t know how to get from here to there.  If we paid as much time on our capability as we do our dreams and opportunities, we’d find that getting through the door to those things we could only see through the window, would be a lot easier. 

Maybe time to install more mirrors?