The Colour of Understanding

In a famous thought experiment, the philosopher John Locke asked what has since become one of philosophy’s most enduring questions.

Imagine two people standing together beneath a bright blue sky. One says, “What a beautiful blue,” and the other agrees. But how can either know that what they see is the same? Both use the word blue because they have learned to attach it to the same object, but the experience behind that word might be entirely different. What one person perceives as blue, the other might perceive as green. There is simply no way to know.

Locke called this the problem of other minds, the idea that each of us lives inside our own perceptual world. We can describe what we see, but we can never experience it as someone else does. We have only our own sample of one.

That same challenge sits at the heart of leadership.

In any organisation, people can stand in the same place and yet see completely different things. The same decision can look bold to one person and reckless to another. The same meeting can feel inspiring or intimidating. The same tone can sound clear or cold. The experience may differ, but the label remains the same.

Understanding those differences is not instinctive. It’s a discipline.

Chris Voss, the former FBI negotiator, built his approach to communication on this principle. His idea of tactical empathy is the practice of naming someone else’s reality, describing what they feel and see before offering your own perspective. It’s not about agreement. It’s about recognition. It shows the other person that you understand how the world looks from where they stand.

That act of recognition is one of the most powerful tools a leader can use. It turns resistance into dialogue and hierarchy into connection.

The best leaders practise this daily. They don’t just talk about listening; they listen to understand. They notice what is said and what is not. They check how messages land, not just how they’re sent. They understand that clarity without empathy becomes control, and empathy without clarity becomes confusion. The art of leadership is holding both.

Culture is built the same way. It doesn’t exist in words or posters, but in shared understanding, the small, consistent moments when people feel seen. A strong culture is not the absence of difference but the presence of trust, the belief that your perception matters even when it isn’t the same as someone else’s.

Seeing through another person’s eyes will always be imperfect, but the attempt itself is transformative. It’s what turns a group of individuals into a community.

Because leadership isn’t about everyone seeing the same colour.

It’s about creating a place where everyone feels their colour belongs.