For several weeks, due to a lack of desk space, it was not
possible to sit with the team in the same workspace. The only way
to detect stuff on my radar was to get up and physically walk
across the office to the team's bullpen and try to glean from their
body language, facial expressions and conversations what was going
on. It's easy to miss out on the opportunity to contribute, guide
or support situations that could empower the team. So once space
became available last week I was glad to move across and join the
team. The experience got me thinking about the power of observation
and about raising ones awareness and using it to empower the team
in a constructive and insightful way.
The power of observation has huge benefits. Your ability to see
and hear many different things becomes more vivid and intuitive and
as your awareness begins to grow so does your ability to connect
with the team and its dynamics. To achieve something of higher
value it is imperative that you increase your value through what
you know and overstand.
"
Higher values - improved results, are always the expression
of a higher degree of conscious awareness. " - Bob Proctor.
In the Kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king. It's
generally one of those popular sayings that is universally accepted
for its truth, and perhaps equally ignored. It's true that most
people have two fully functioning eyes however it's not about
whether you have one or two good ones - it's really down to how
well you use them.
It never ceases to fascinate me how often we tend to unconsciously
ignore most of the information available to our senses. I guess for
most of us if we don't we may end up having information overload
and burn out. So perhaps our ability to be blind and deaf to most
of what we see and hear helps us to cope with our many daily
survival challenges. Unfortunately there is a flip side to ignoring
most of what we see and hear, because invariably we miss out on a
lot of important stuff - team dynamics, interactions between
people. Additionally our offices are becoming increasingly complex
working environments riddled with politics and competing interests.
Whatever our role we tend to get so bogged down with being "busy"
that we fail to notice and not see what is really going on, so
perhaps in this Kingdom of the blind we may as well be blind. Those
that have taken time to notice what is really going on around them
and can easily pick up and filter stuff on their radar have a
tremendous advantage. Improving your observation ability and the
skill to respond creatively can offer huge benefits to you and your
team:
- Greater overstanding of your team members (overstanding is a Rasta term they believe that it conveys a higher way of reasoning)
- Enhance your decision making ability
- Recognising and modelling 'Success behaviour' (you define what success means for you)
- Improve the way you help people
- Improve and help you identify the best way to positively influence people
- Discover new ways of resolving niggling and persistent issues
- Able to 'See' problems and opportunities early
4 Comments
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is stoned to death.
- Joan D. Vinge
Now I know what to do about the nutters I've observed in my team! An excellent read and certainly one that has raised my powers of observation and awareness... I eagerly look forward to the next offering from Agile Skywalker!...
We have a personal responsibility to be aware of what goes on around us. It is a choice most people fail to take because not only will they become accountable for their actions but also for the rising issue at hand. So they make it a point to consciously demonstrate an act of unawareness.... almost like the bystander effect.
Good read!
Agile Skywalker you are my hero - now it is all clear where I have been going wrong.