We are only limited by our vision of what we "see"
The stated purpose of this blog is to explore both business topics and the journey called life. We do a pretty good job of covering the business of retail and consumer trends. We often miss the balance of covering topics related to the "business of life". This week, we have a metaphor that applies to both business and life. Sometimes, it is the simplest of stories that causes us to stop and take stock of the world around us. Take a brief moment to test your own vision to discover what you "see".
Why this is important: In business, and life, we all get caught up in details and lose perspective. Sometimes, it takes a simple story to make us ponder what is important, and open our eyes to potential we miss around us.
Who was your mentor that caused you to muse?
For those of you who know me, you know that I spent a lot of my early life in academia. First as a PhD student, then as a professor. I was fortunate to have a number of great teachers, who made difficult subjects like statistics understandable. I only remember a couple of professors who were mentors that had mastered the art of challenging students to muse.
Webster's dictionary defines muse as a verb meaning: "to think about something carefully or thoroughly". To muse means to ponder something, especially from different perspectives. A close friend recently emailed me The Black Dot story, which reminded me of my great mentor, who had one of the greatest muse activities of all time.
The Black Dot Story
I can't even remember much about the course. But, I can remember the following scene like yesterday! Our professor announced that we would be participating in an exam. He went around and placed a single sheet of paper face down in front of every student. Needless to say, this created intense anxiety as no one was expecting a mid-term exam.
When the professor told everyone to turn over the exam, students were shell shocked. There were no questions. To have a photo of me and the other student's faces would have been "priceless" Here's all we found …
What would you write about the image above if given an hour?
Here's your chance to "muse"
The professor's instructions were amazingly simple: "I want you to write about what you see."
As you can imagine, graduate students were dumbfounded and confused! Almost all pressed for a clarification. What were the parameters? Was this a test of our ability to apply the course readings to this exercise? How would we be graded?
The professor simply sat and smiled offering no further explanation other than we would have an hour to write down what we see. I cannot begin to describe how long that hour lasted! And, no one dared to turn in anything before the hour was up.
What would you write about the image above if given an hour? I seriously considered ending the blog here to see how many would muse about it. But given today's hectic pace, I was fearful many might return for the rest of The Black Dot Story. For those with a few minutes of time, go muse and jot down a few thoughts of your own about the image above.
Spoiler Alert: The Rest of the Black Dot Story
So, what did you write down? To the horror of the students in class, the professor collected all of the "exams" and began reading them … out loud to everyone! There were some major theoretical arguments postulated, a lot of rationales (along with whining), and a few funny punchlines. Needless to say, there were a lot of adult graduate students squirming in the seats wondering where this was all going.
After reading all of the musings, the professor made these sage observations:
- Everyone focused on the black dot
- People obsessed about the size and location of this dot
- No one wrote about the white space that is the rest of the paper
- We are all given a blank sheet in life, yet we always focus on the dark spot(s)
- Dark spots are very small compared to all of the potential blank space available
I recall now that this course was title something like: "Psychology of Perception and Problem Solving". I forgot the class and the readings, but I have never forgot the experience and learnings of The Black Dot exercise.
So, what does this Black Dot have to do with business and retail?
There is no doubt that retailing is a challenging business these days! Instead of a single black dot, there are probably several black spots constituting challenges: eroding prices and margins, escalating operating costs, increasing competition.
When I work with retailers, I'm constantly amazed at how focused they are on the black dots. They almost seem incapable of seeing the larger white space. Yes, small stores are challenged by the internet sites. But, what are all the things that stores can do that ecommerce can't? What are things that haven't been tried before? As I muse about this, I'm now thinking that I need to start my retailer sessions with The Black Dot exercise.
The Black Dot – Musing about the journey called life
So, how will you use The Black Dot story? Honestly, if you tried the Black Dot yourself, what did you see and what did describe? I would love to hear from you … there are no right or wrong answers!
We all can find the black dots in our life, and careers. When things "go wrong", we tend to obsess about them. As a rule, we miss all the "white space" and how much opportunity we really have.
Why not be a mentor? Who can you share The Black Do exercise with? A friend, family, your kids? Don't give away the story until they have had their own chance to muse about it. And, a word of caution, you might just be surprised by what your children see … in many ways they are more perceptive than "adults".
Would love to hear your stories as you use and muse about The Black Dot!
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