The same change can create very different reactions. A new technology, restructure, new colleague, changing market conditions or unexpected headwind can immediately trigger concerns about what might be disrupted, lost or made more difficult.

Those risks shouldn't be ignored. But when the instinctive response is always defensive, the threat can become the only thing people see. Opportunities are dismissed before they're properly explored and potentially better ways of working never get the chance to develop.

Others can face exactly the same circumstances and see an alternative. They still recognise the risks, but also look for what the change might make possible. What could improve, what could be learned and what might now be achievable that wasn't before.

The circumstances are the same, the perspective isn't. Seeing the risk helps protect what you have. Seeing the opportunity helps discover what could come next.