“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
Things merely are, it is our interpretation thereof that determines our classification of an event. If we look to see the bigger picture and operate with empathy we can have a nuanced view as opposed to the bipolar black or white simplification that is all too often presented to us.
Your employee comes back from lunch 15 minutes late consistently. You could say “this is the policy and the next time it happens you are fired” even though they are a hard worker and get everything done. Or you can try to understand the why of the situation and talk to them to find out that they go to be with their parent that had a stroke during that time and are making sure that the person that raised them complete their rehab. Asking the employee to stay a little late if need be until the work is completed after they get back from the extended lunch break takes nothing away from the company. By letting them take care of the parent and their needs shows and earns loyalty and strengthens the relationship with the individual while setting a positive precedent.
Looking at why the deal collapsed and understanding the little things that you did to contribute to a misunderstanding or delay that created undue pressure on the client. Yes, you did 98% of it right but the last 2% was the difference maker in the wrong direction.
The teenager bored out of his mind in the high school class that is focused on checking boxes instead of education of the youth? What are the alternatives to engage the kid, be it with incentives around what they want to do, or even letting them graduate early so they can then study things that really attract them even if the approach is not traditional? Letting the youth focus on learning instead of schooling might be the better approach in this situation but it requires valuing their growth and development more than the comfortable tried and true path of the system.
Binary thinking is limited but has been the way the world has shifted over the past several decades because of the move to algorithmic computer driven cost cutting models and the need to measure and benchmark. The fuzzy logic of experience was utilized for millennia before the advent of the computer, and as we move beyond the limited processing power into a realm of probability and distributed outcomes again we can learn that there is no one right answer to almost any situation, that understanding and empathy are not what the Handbook says to do as the most efficient, corporate approved choices but are the wiser more energy (and time) demanding options that yield superior results long term.
The world is not a true/false exam as is usually presented to us, where A or B is right and out of necessity the other is wrong and bad. The world is an unending series of tradeoffs and incomplete data sets and in a class project where the participants change and the grading criteria shift and new info is constantly presented. It is definitely not static, easy, or simple.
Reducing everything to black/white, right/wrong, good/bad is unevolved thinking that is inappropriate in the real world beyond preschool.