Today I spent more than 30 minutes searching for my eyeglasses. I am a reasonably well organized person (at least I like to think so and my family does too). My eyeglasses, at my age, are a hindrance to reading and most of the time, for close work, they come off. And they either remain close at hand, deposited at familiar locations or the side frame is clenched between my teeth as I quickly read whatever I need to read and put them back on again.
I have learnt to place them at familiar locations because I don’t like to hunt for stuff. Hunting for stuff comes in the way of enjoying the better things in life that are on hold because I am in hot pursuit of my eyeglasses or keys or wallet or … And so when I retire at night, I usually take my side of the bed and plunk down my eyeglasses on the nightstand. Every night, over the last twenty five years, since I have slept on the right side of the bed. And last night too, I thought.
To my dismay, my eyeglasses were nowhere to be found. I went through all the familiar places and rolled my brain over past history. Was I reading in the bathroom? Did I leave it last night near the dining table after dinner? Was I playing the keyboard last night? Was I working on the computer last night? Was I in the utility room looking for tools? Was I in the family room trying to read the labels of CDs and DVDs?
No, no and NO! As the clock was ticking and precious breakfast and newspaper reading time was burning down, I went back one last time and checked something I never ever check – the LEFT side of the bed. And lo and behold – there were my glasses! Like a father reunited with his long lost child, I grabbed the glasses and rushed out to the garage to drive to work.
And that got me thinking… I missed my eyeglasses which were literally less than 6 feet away from where I was searching. I could have turned around and I would have easily seen them lying there, mocking me. And the reason I was blind, was that my paradigm could not ever comprehend placing my eyeglasses on the left side nightstand. Right nightstand, Yes. Left nightstand, No. After all that was my wife’s side. But yes, last night while she was tired and went to sleep, I was watching a movie, from her side of the bed which was closer to the TV. And yes, I left my glasses on her nightstand.
Enterprises are very often stuck in their own paradigms: All innovation must come only from the R&D department; All employee incentives must come from Human Resources; All layoffs must include minimal contact with the laid off employee; All purchases must go through a purchase czar who no more understands opportunistic purchase from the man on the moon. All for good reason. At some point in time. Usually a few decades back. Based on a few horror stories.
Reinventing or transforming an enterprise, any enterprise, including the one called my family, sometimes requires examination of the paradigms that inevitably cause selective blindness that cripples the enterprise. Like my missing eyeglasses.
I have learnt to place them at familiar locations because I don’t like to hunt for stuff. Hunting for stuff comes in the way of enjoying the better things in life that are on hold because I am in hot pursuit of my eyeglasses or keys or wallet or … And so when I retire at night, I usually take my side of the bed and plunk down my eyeglasses on the nightstand. Every night, over the last twenty five years, since I have slept on the right side of the bed. And last night too, I thought.
To my dismay, my eyeglasses were nowhere to be found. I went through all the familiar places and rolled my brain over past history. Was I reading in the bathroom? Did I leave it last night near the dining table after dinner? Was I playing the keyboard last night? Was I working on the computer last night? Was I in the utility room looking for tools? Was I in the family room trying to read the labels of CDs and DVDs?
No, no and NO! As the clock was ticking and precious breakfast and newspaper reading time was burning down, I went back one last time and checked something I never ever check – the LEFT side of the bed. And lo and behold – there were my glasses! Like a father reunited with his long lost child, I grabbed the glasses and rushed out to the garage to drive to work.
And that got me thinking… I missed my eyeglasses which were literally less than 6 feet away from where I was searching. I could have turned around and I would have easily seen them lying there, mocking me. And the reason I was blind, was that my paradigm could not ever comprehend placing my eyeglasses on the left side nightstand. Right nightstand, Yes. Left nightstand, No. After all that was my wife’s side. But yes, last night while she was tired and went to sleep, I was watching a movie, from her side of the bed which was closer to the TV. And yes, I left my glasses on her nightstand.
Enterprises are very often stuck in their own paradigms: All innovation must come only from the R&D department; All employee incentives must come from Human Resources; All layoffs must include minimal contact with the laid off employee; All purchases must go through a purchase czar who no more understands opportunistic purchase from the man on the moon. All for good reason. At some point in time. Usually a few decades back. Based on a few horror stories.
Reinventing or transforming an enterprise, any enterprise, including the one called my family, sometimes requires examination of the paradigms that inevitably cause selective blindness that cripples the enterprise. Like my missing eyeglasses.
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