The Art of Seeing for leaders

Before the next decision, notice what is here.

Think of one situation at work that currently occupies your attention.

a difficult project
a team problem
a decision
a number that refuses to move

What is the first story you tell yourself about it?

Hold that story lightly.

Look at what has captured your attention.

A person?
A number?
A delay?
A failure?

What has become the centre of the picture?

Assume the first explanation is incomplete.

Attention is useful because it filters.

It is dangerous for exactly the same reason.

What else could be true?

What are you assuming?

What would someone outside the situation notice?

What if the obvious problem is only the most visible part of the problem?

Notice the negative space.

In drawing, sometimes the clearest way to see an object is to stop looking at the object and look at the space around it.

What happens if you do the same with a problem?

Who is missing?
What are you not hearing?
What are you not measuring?
What has become so normal that nobody mentions it anymore?

What sits in the negative space of this problem?

Whose voice are you hearing most clearly?

Whose voice is absent?

Which number has captured everyone’s attention?

What might that number conceal?

Where does information stop travelling?

What is happening outside the frame?

Attention becomes culture.

Organisations learn what their leaders repeatedly notice.

What receives attention gets discussed.
What gets discussed often gets measured.
What gets measured begins to shape behaviour.

And what remains unseen can quietly become culture.

What might become possible if you changed where you placed your attention?

Before you solve the problem, see the problem.

What are you seeing clearly?

And what have you merely learned to look past?