The Power of Collaboration by Andrea Ruskin.
From the post:
A quote that I stumbled on during grad school stuck with me. From the story of the elder’s box as told by Eber Hampton, it sums up my philosophy of working and teaching:
“How many sides do you see?”
“One,” I said.
He pulled the box towards his chest and turned it so one corner faced me.
“Now how many do you see?”
“Now I see three sides.”
He stepped back and extended the box, one corner towards him and one towards me.
“You and I together can see six sides of this box,” he told me.—Eber Hampton (2002) The Circle Unfolds, p. 41–42
Andrea describes a graduate school project to develop a learning resource for Aboriginal students.
A task made more difficult by Andrea being a non-Aboriginal designer.
The gap between you and a topic map customer may not be as obvious but will be no less real.