On Failing to Notice

I was reading a great chapter on wisdom by Karl Weick (in here) and ran into a great quote from R.D. Laing,

"The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice that how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds."

One of the best defenses against failing to notice is to surround ourselves with people who think differently than we do, know different things than we do, and therefore notice different things as they  travel through life -- and to listen to them.  And when they don't speak-up, we need to stop and ask them what they are noticing that is wonderful, beautiful, strange, seems out of place, or is wrong.  Unfortunately, too many of us seek to be around people who are just like us in as many ways as possible.

Comments

[Christopher Blizzard]

I spent a lot of time in my day job thinking about how I think about things. The way that I approach problem solving often deeply affects how the problem gets solved. While this might seem obvious when it's said, I still try to take the time to consciously change how I think about things. Lets me view things from different angles.

As an old friend said once, "seeing" instead of "looking."