The sense of Objectivity

Objectivity, seems to be a commonly abused word in the professional working environment. What is to be objective in your work? Putting yourself in neutral position and to always focus on reasons and facts? Putting objectivity into relationships at home and in the workplace simply means to always focus on reasons and facts? Really! Can anybody do that perfectly? Can anybody withstand that onslaught of emotional baggage and invisible psycho-matic energy, that beg you to throw reasons to the wind, with the onslaught gradually weighing your heart down, pinning it so that every beat is with much effort.

What is objectivity? And how can you survive in a place where people are no longer objective in what they do, but are charged and motivated by emotional energy and circumstances?
Firstly, let us look at the definition of objectivity. The Little Oxford Dictionary that I have with me here states that Objectivity, or to be objective, is to have feelings that are external to the mind, actually existing, dealing with outward things, not thoughts and feelings. In other words, to have a zen like mindset, throwing all emotions to the wind, only looking at what is happening in the external world and dealing with them one at a time. In The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise was badly beated in the simulated samurai duels each time he engage his fellow swordfighting classmates, until a Japanese friend told him to be, “no minds, no minds!”. In other words, to be without a mind seems to be without thoughts, fears, confidence, thoughts on past experiences, other people’s opinions, or even your own opinion on yourself. And only attempting to take the next step of the matter and try to solve it.

While I do agree that this is a rather good way to do your work, or to deal with matters concerning work planning, operations, support, and certainly it will be an invaluable capability to cultivate a clear mind in a competition and do-or-die environment. I feel that it may be quite impossible to be in this kind of an “objectivity” mindframe when one is dealing with people in matters concerning relationships in both the home and the workplace, or any other matters revolving around the human factor. When dealing with people, one cannot help but to adopt a certain “emotional” state as the default emotional state at any one time. Especially if things accelerated into the emotional highway and starts to eat into the mental processing decisions. Nobody can pretend not to be affected and stay objective and be void of all feelings throughout the way.

How then can one hope to be efficient and objective when it comes to dealing with people who are emotionally charged up? The essence, I feel, is not to try (or pretend to be trying) to adopt a “zen” like mindframe, empty of all emotions, when dealing with a situation. Rather, it is to have a clear minded engine or decision-deciding-unit in the mind, for deciding what emotional state one is to adopt in the next cycle of interaction. And to be able to analyse how that emotional state will affect the end result. Thus one transit from one emotional state, to another state, much like what a computer AI brain will do, in the process of deciding for an action. Of course, this deciding process will always be dictated by how much contribution the potential “next step” emotional state can bring one closer to the desired end result.

In simpler terms, it simply means to adopt and train your mind to operate in a disciplined manner, selecting what emotions and thought patterns to adopt at any time and in the next stage. Bearing in mind that every single small state of emotional feeling must contribute and move one’s position closer to the much desired, ultimate victory. This shall ultimately raise your confidence and affect how you feel and perform in the next battle.

Article is also available at http://www.workingtribe.com/articles/the-sense-of-objectivity .