I’ve been driving through this same intersection year after year, month after month and day after day. If you were to ask me to describe it to you I would’ve said “on one corner is a strip mall with a gas station , on the other is a car dealership and across the street are empty grass lots and it’s controlled by stop lights”. Sounds about right, but if you asked for more detail about it could I give it you—even though I see it every day? Maybe a few more details like the names of dealership and gas station but most likely not names of the strip mall stores, in the correct order, number of gas pumps, type of stop light, etc. Actually I know I wouldn’t have given you the right details of the stop lights because I hadn’t noticed them until a couple weeks ago when a work crew was replacing them (“temporary” strung lights across the intersection with wooden poles for supports to permanent steel light posts). You may be wondering what’s the big deal…so what if you or I can’t see everything that we see every day. Well, not noticing the obvious when it comes to the type of stop light isn’t a big deal. However, let’s translate this to your organization and your job. What happens when you miss the so-called obvious? Is your blindness resulting in production delays, worker injuries or job errrors? Perhaps you have a feeling things could be better but don’t know exactly what to change because your everyday blindness.
One of the greatest problems of working for an organization over a period of time is the “everyday blindness syndrome”. You are in it, you see and you experience it every day. If all work systems are functioning well, then our everyday blindness doesn’t matter. It’s when things go wrong that our blindness hurts us. It’s difficult for us to problem solve issues when we can’t see everything. For example, one manufacturer brought me in to help solve two issues: employees experiencing repetitive stress injuries (RSIs) and production delays. They had already done some problem solving and had implemented a stretching program to help alleviate the RSIs and used some lean tools (5S) to help speed up production but still the problems remained. I remember walking onto the shop floor and observing the work flow and the guys and gals doing the work for a short period of time and was able to quickly come up with 4-5 things that would have an immediate impact on both the production flow and the health of the employees. I walked into the production manager’s office and told him I think I know what the sources of your problems were and laid them out one by one. Here he’d been working with his team on trying to fix this issue for months and I was able to see the root causes and solutions in a few hours. He was amazed at the clarity I was able to provide.
I believe I have a gift for being able to seek out and see what isn’t obvious to most. I also know I have a huge advantage when I come into an organization to help solve their problems because I have “new” unbiased eyes that aren’t blind to the everyday routine of things, don’t know how things have always been done or how things are supposed to be done, or the politics involved in pointing out issues in this or that area. Because of this I am able to see the big picture as well as all of the details very easily.
The one question I have been asked after I have helped an organization see what they couldn’t see is “how do we regain our vision?” In other words, how does one who is inside an organization each and every day be able to take off their blinders and see clearly again? That’s a tough question to answer. My best advice and answer to this question is to question everything you and others around you do each and every day:
Look at the whole system and ask: Is this the best way to do things?
Look at the details and ask: Is this the best way to do things?
Ask someone who doesn't work in your area to look at things for a fresh perspective
What are others, who do similar work, doing? (be careful here because just because the Jones’ are doing it doesn’t mean it’s the right way or the best way that will work well for you)
Challenge yourself to describe (verbally and on paper) what is being done—find out if it matches with reality (you’ll be surprised how often there’s a mismatch). Then ask, how else could this be done?
Hopefully, I’ve been able to give you some insight and foresight into your everyday blindness. It’s very easy to become blind to the daily, routine things in life. Oftentimes, our everyday blindness isn’t an issue, or at least it won’t cause harm. But organizations can’t afford to be blind. The push for reducing waste, decreasing injuries and continuous improvement isn’t going away. I believe the pressure to do so will only become greater in the years ahead. If the same issues and “fires” keep popping up despite your best efforts to solve them, it’s probably time for a set of fresh eyes.
Are you ready to “see”? Give me call and let’s talk (612.454.1432)
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