If Fish Could See Water Problems Might Be Miraculous Opportunities

Are You Smarter Than a Fish?

Fish don’t see the water that they swim in. It is an invisible part of their world. Likewise, we do not see our see-ing, the lenses or meaning-making systems through which we perceive, interpret and act on the world around us. Unlike fish, however, occasionally we have an opportunity to see and change our lens.

Twenty years ago I was fortunate to experience a lens changing event. Instantaneously everything changed, yet nothing about the situation was different except for the way I was seeing it.

Unfamiliar Waters

Visiting a country for the first time requires adjusting our lenses. We are unfamiliar with the symbols, customs, culture and rituals, so we become keenly aware of and sensitive to our surroundings. Such was the case when my husband Bob and I went to Jamaica twenty years ago.

In the evenings we walk to town. We are at first taken aback when drivers pull up next to us, roll down the window and yell “Taxi?” After all there is no light on the top or advertising on the door to indicate this beat up Volkswagen is a legitimate taxi. After a few days we understand this as part of an informal system in a poor country where the economy relies on tourism. Owning a car is an opportunity to be an entrepreneur. On the way home from work or a trip to the store a Jamaican man with a car becomes a taxi driver or a tour guide.

On day three we suspend the notions born of a different context and embrace the culture. When a Volkswagen beetle pulls up and the driver yells “Taxi” we climb into his cab and delight in our new found sense of adventure. We strike up a conversation and within minutes Mike offers to be our tour guide. We rendezvous the next morning at 10:00 greatly anticipating the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of local culture we will explore with Mike as our guide. We stop first at the plantation where we sample raw sugarcane. Then it’s off to the caves Mike described the night before as a little-known but fascinating place to visit. He purposely revealed only that information in order to maintain an element of surprise.

The Cave of Excitement: The Cave of Fear

When we arrive a dozen or so adolescent males seem to emerge from nowhere and surround the car. Mike tells us to stay put. He gets out and engages a rapid-fire exchange in Pidgin English with the group. I understand every fifth word, and to my foreigner’s ears the dialogue sounds angry. My amygdala raises its warning flags. Mike hands a wad of bills to the young man who must be the group’s leader. My explorer mind is excited about the adventure. My fearful mind wonders if I should consider the possibility that this is a gang and that we are in harm’s way. Mike signals us to get out of the car. We do as he says.Amygdala wildly waves red flags. Explorer can’t wait to see what’s next.

We are escorted to the mouth of a nearby cave. Each young man raises an empty glass bottle high above his head. We walk into the cave. The bottles are topped with kerosene soaked rags. In unison, the boys light their torches. One man-child walks a bit too close and the smell of my singed hair fills that air. Amygdala now screaming, “RUN!” I don’t, not because I am brave but because I’m curious, because there is a small steady voice inside that says,”This is okay,” and perhaps because there is nowhere to run to. I recall a friend and recent law school graduate defending gang members who put an inner tube around a man and then set it and him on fire. We walk through several chambers inside the cave surrounded by a dozen young black men carrying fire. Suddenly the boys disappear, their torches gone with them. We are standing in the pitch black darkness. Heart pounding, blood rushing. Amygdala preps my body - fight or flight.

Then a great transformation occurs.

Beautiful harmonious rhythms fill the air. The torches become stage lights, the gang an orchestra. Each musician is seated at his own stalactite or stalagmite and plays with a simple set of drumsticks. The music echoes through the rooms of the cave. We hear it once and then again as it bounces back. The a cappella singers chime in. The bottle players blow their tunes. In the blink of an eye and the change of a lens, we have gone from kidnapped hostages to privileged audience at a private concert.

The problem has become a miraculous event.

Changing the Lens

In this story of our trip to Jamaica I am at worst a racist because of my inability to shift lenses when faced with a new context. This is true until the experience allows me to see the current lens in action. Then I have a choice. I change the lens through which I perceive and make meaning of what is happening with the people around me, in this place, at this moment.

Categorizing, framing and adopting a lens is necessary to understand, decide and act in a timely manner to the variety of situations we encounter daily.

Categorizing, framing and adopting a lens is not bad, except when it prevents us from seeing or causes us to misinterpret the world around us. Categorizing, framing and adopting a lens is not bad, except when it becomes stereotyping and prevents us seeing people as they are.

Change the lens and the problem you’ve been seeing  just might become a miraculous opportunity.

Lens Changing Tips for Leaders

1. Ask outsiders

Outsiders, like tourists, see the organization and its culture through new eyes. This allows them to frame problems and solutions on a different set of assumptions.

2. Solve a puzzle or word problem that requires changing lenses

Choose something unrelated to the problem at hand before starting or to take a break from solving a work related problem.

Choose one like the 9 dot puzzle that is solved only by changing our hidden rules and assumptions. These activities force us to see these assumptions. They rattle our brains and move us outside our typical ways of thinking.

Instructions: Without lifting your pencil from the paper, draw a line that connects all 9 dots.

For the solution click here.

3. Utilize external consultants

Consultants are trained to see you, the organization and the problem through a broader frame of reference. They also bring experience from other companies that can influence and shift the frame.

Because the question you ask determines the solution you get, engage outsiders and consultants to reconsider and possibly to reframe the question to be solved.

4. Know and use the frame changers in your own organization

Some people have a tendency to think outside the box. They see their own and others thinking. Know who these people are and call on them.

5. Walk away

Getting stuck and walking away from the problem often results in an aha moment. You’ve had these while running, walking or during a morning shower. Suddenly the solution comes to you.

6. Assume a different perspective so people can see what they are currently not seeing.

During a Strategic Thinking seminar we developed for Intel’s high potential leaders, Robert Burgelman, Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management, Standford Graduate School of Business, shared a story about how Intel’s COO Andy Grove created a dramatic shift in technology and saved the company.  DRAM (Direct Random Access Memory) was know as the product that made Intel, and many of the top executives were emotionally attached to it. DRAM was also the company’s core expertise but in the mid 1980′s demand was declining.  Andy Grove, COO at the time, saw the need for change and the resistance by top executives including Intel’s co-founder Gordon Moore. Grove recalls visiting Moore to ask the question”What would new management do if we were replaced?” Moore replied immediately “Get out of DRAM.” Grove then suggested that “We go through the revolving door, come back in, and do it ourselves.” 1 While the ensuing shift was difficult and painful, the rest, as they say, is history.

Footnotes:

1.Burgelman, R.A.(2002)  Strategy is Destiny: How Strategy-Making Shapes a Company’s Future. The Free Press.

Thanks to my esteemed colleagues, cherished friends and two very bright women Susan Mazza and Carrie Johnson for their feedback and editing advice. I value your generosity, support, and wisdom.

If you are interested in reading more about seeing your see-ing I recommend Presence by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers and Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey.