We are not all the same. Not in life and not in business. As a consequence, maintaining a healthy perspective on differences among people is a critical success factor in a business career.

Some years ago I was struggling to keep a balanced perspective on one of my colleagues. He ignored or at least appeared to be disinterested in fundamental elements of our daily world at RCL. I’m not talking about esoteric stuff. I mean he did not care about what departments we had, who was responsible for them, how information flowed within the company or which of us might influence his success. He simply pursued his interests as independently of the rest of us as humanly possible. I searched for a construct to help me and others understand how to make the relationship with this colleague work.

So I came up with the metaphor of the bee and the tree. RCL is a fairly large organization overseeing a complex business model that requires mastery of hospitality and maritime, two sectors of the economy that do not normally go together. We constantly develop products and services and launch them successfully into the market for our customers or internally for our employees. Yet we are perpetually frustrated that we cannot act faster. Our people, especially those who remember the days when we were much smaller and depended less on corporate process, feel we are bureaucratic. From their perspective, at least, we are a tree. After 45 years we are firmly planted. There is nothing wrong with this. But it is a particular paradigm.

via How to Connect with a Colleague When You Have Conflicting Interests | LinkedIn.