We have heard this cliché all of our lives. Have we ever stopped to
acknowledge how it impacts us?
This morning I sent an email to a long time client and it bounced back. Huh?
I double checked the address, compared it against the one I had on file and the
one from an email he sent me and couldn’t find an issue. So I emailed another
person at the company figuring it had changed. What the second set of eyes
caught was that I had an extra letter. I must have looked at it five times and
my eye never caught it! The brain sees what it wants to see. Two eyes are
better than one.
It made me think about how true this statement is and all the other times I
should be using two eyes. Here are a few:
- Proof reading
- Doctors’ opinions (doctors
are not all created equally, believe me) - Art work-some is literal but
if it isn’t I always like to know what someone else sees - Big decisions- we need to
figure out if we have an internal bias clouding our perspective or if
there are stones we have left unturned. Gather multiple opinions from
those you work with. Expect opinions to differ. Your decisions will be
enriched if you have considered multiple variables. - Strategy-strategy involves a
lot of big decisions and never enough facts; think of assembling a puzzle
with a lot of pieces but no picture on the box. Looking at the facts you
do have about the business is like putting the border of the puzzle
together but how do you combine the rest of the pieces in a way that makes
sense? There is always more than one option. Bounce ideas off a
colleague(s) or hire an experienced strategist–someone who is an expert
at putting pictures together. You don’t make these decisions often enough
to risk it alone and the decisions are really big! The biggest advantage I
have seen here is that the brain sees the options that are already on the
table. The second set of eyes sees opportunities you don’t see because you
aren’t looking there or thinking about them!
If you need a second set of eyes give us a call! 816-350-7680