Shark Report - What Are You Missing in Plain Sight?

What Are You Missing in Plain Sight?
How seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary can change outcomes.

 

The damn dailies narrow our focus, so we often cannot see answers hiding in plain sight. When pressure rises, vision narrows. We double down on the familiar, cling to the first reasonable answer, and confuse motion with progress. Years ago, I was struck by a short video from Dewitt Jones that made a deceptively simple point: the extraordinary is usually hiding in the ordinary, but only if you are willing to look again. In a season where complexity feels relentless, the leaders who create the most value are not always the ones working harder. They are the ones seeing differently.

 

What this means for leaders and owners right now:

• Perspective is a discipline, not a personality trait.
  Jones begins with a photo many of us have seen, Yosemite’s Half Dome. Stunning, familiar, almost a cliché. Then he changes the lens and the frame and suddenly the story is different: a single tree at the base of a thousand foot waterfall. Leadership works the same way. The problem you think you are solving may be real, but it may not be the right problem.
• The first answer is rarely the best answer.
  Under pressure, teams fall in love with the first solution that sounds smart. Jones challenges us to keep looking for the next right answer. Momentum does not come from certainty. It comes from curiosity sustained long enough to uncover better options.
• Reframing turns constraints into raw material.
  What looks like a mess, a limitation, or a setback often becomes the source of creativity once the frame changes. The question is not “How do we fix this?” The question is “What else could this be?”
• Mistakes are not the enemy. Fear of them is.
  In environments addicted to affirmation, people stop experimenting. Jones reminds us that progress requires trying, missing, adjusting, and trying again. Leaders do not eliminate mistakes. They create safe conditions to learn quickly and improve.
• Seeing differently requires caring deeply.
  This is not about cleverness. It is about attention. Jones argues that creativity comes from caring enough to notice, to stay with a question, and to resist the urge to rush past what feels ordinary.

Jones closes with a simple set of reminders that belong on every leader’s desk:

• Creativity is the ability to look at the ordinary and see the extraordinary
  • Every act can be a creative one
  • Creativity is a matter of perspective
  • There is always more than one right answer
  • Reframe problems into opportunities
  • Do not be afraid to make mistakes
  • Break the pattern
  • Train your technique
  • You have got to really care

Bottom line
Before you change the strategy, restructure the team, or invest in the next solution, pause. Adjust the lens. Ask what you might be missing in plain sight. Often, the breakthrough is not somewhere else. It is already there, waiting to be seen.

 

This work starts with a conversation. If you want help seeing what might be hiding in plain sight, reach out to me at jredmon@redmonlaw.com.