I once attended a lecture by a university professor who joked that he saw the world of business as a petri dish. 

 

As entrepreneurs in the audience, were his material. Everything contained within the petri dish was there for analysis, monitoring and experimenting. He would make observations and draw conclusions. 

 

Whilst the light-hearted analogy might lead to further questioning, separating yourself from a situation in order to observe it is a valid way of finding a degree of objectiveness.

 

Rather than becoming intertwined with narratives and excuses of what was happening (or wasn’t happening) in the petri dish that represented society, the professor found the distance required to be able to properly study it.

 

Couldn’t we all do with being a little more professor? Seeing situations as they really are. Removing emotion from judgment. Working out what needs to be done and applying the necessary intervention. Seeing things as not happening to us, but just happening.