Borrow the anthropologist's lens

Adapted from the advice of a number of therapists I’ve worked with:

Borrowing the anthropologist’s lens can be pretty helpful in both understanding how systems of people interact.

The next time you anticipate being present at a potentially tense situation, or even just as good practice, try going in as though to study a strange and foreign people: there’s less getting directly emotionally invested in interactions/outcomes, more observing and “oh, fascinating, that’s how you try to get what you want in this system?”