What does it really mean to be human?

As you know, I spend a lot of time in my Kellogg classes and company speeches discussing the critical importance of developing a balanced perspective (my second principle of values based leadership). It involves taking the time to understand multiple perspectives, and as I quote Saint Frances almost daily, “seek to understand before you are understood.”

I am always looking for examples in which somebody clearly explains why a balanced perspective is so critically important.

I got very lucky yesterday when a very good friend of mine sent me a 10-minute video of Noah Eckstein delivering the Senior English address at the Harvard University commencement.

He begins his talk by explaining that one of his grandparents is Christian and the other Muslim. In addition, his Christian mother married a Jew and Noah is Jewish. He does a remarkable job of explaining that all of his relatives may have very different views, but they all truly appreciate one another.

One of the points he makes, which really touches home with me is “the counter to division is not agreement, it is understanding.” Rather than spending our time looking at everything as polar opposites, left and right, good and bad, etc., how about truly acknowledging one another? What if rather than trying to articulate why our side is correct, we started with asking others what do they believe and why?

It is clear that we will never all agree with one another. There are 8 billion human beings on this planet, many with very different views, history, and perspectives.

However, maybe we can learn a lot by taking the time to understand one another…after all, isn’t that what it truly means to be human?

I encourage you to take 10 minutes to listen to Noah’s speech. The link is below.