Three Questions to Assess a Person’s “Blind Spot”

The business and the world are moving into deep, deep digital dynamic with velocity, complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity and rapid changes. It is increasingly difficult to either steer the individual (career path) or the business (strategy) always toward the right direction; it is also more challenging to make effective decisions or sound judgment on the daily basis. So how to assess a person’s “blind spot” in order to predict his/her ability to think thoroughly and decide wisely?

What’s the root cause of your “Blind Spot”? “Blind Spot” is not a new topic everyone has some, but some have more, some have less: The root causes are often the people’s mentality ( such as ego), thought processes (lack of “whole brain” thinking), or lack of knowledge or insight. For example, the binary thinking (either right or wrong) can create blind spots. Sometimes there is an obvious right or wrong solution to a problem which you have. But when someone else looks at the problem from their perspective, they may come up with different ideas as to what is right or wrong. The problem of questionable RIGHT or WRONG comes when they are based on beliefs, which are developed by human thinking, or their own experience. Even the rules, which are made by humans come in for questioning. Everyone grows up with a different style and the business cultures in which they've worked will shape how confident they are. People also have different experience and personality, therefore, they may have different way to do things or provide feedback. Philosophically, there isn't always a right or wrong choice in any situation and there are a lot of grays. This makes it very hard to choose a right or wrong from your choices. We challenge, we debate, we learn the nature of each other through the aspect of civil and respectful dialog. We shift and move our thoughts through this process while growing in mind and spirit to the competitive nature that is the essence of being human.
Why are blind spots often caused by silo thinking?  Silos are a method of containment and storage: bounded groups or insular tribes are evidence of silos, and silos are reservoirs for homogeneous thinking, limiting the individual or an organization's creativity and innovation, and create more blind spots to understand things holistically.  In today's volatile economy, nothing impedes progress more than protective silos which are simply a form of bureaucratic amorphous mass designed to preserve the status quo. From management perspective, silo mentality is a common challenge for lots of organizations because it creates gaps and leave blind spots in Strategy Management. It is not structured, but the behaviors and attitudes of the leadership teams, how does one eliminate bureaucracy? What would be some ideas to assist in breaking down silos in an organization where they are present? It is the responsibility of the leaders to initiate his or her team to break the silos to realize the common goals or strategy which are far more important than the personal and departmental goals. When you measure the end and not the means, the silo walls will become retractable, and the blind spots can be filled out more seamlessly. Can high EQ help the leaders and digital professionals to fill blind spots? It is the importance of dealing with the blind spots by learning how to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Can you provide calm inquiry clearing the blind spots to help find out what is really happening. Your "signal light" behavior illustrates the value of maintaining self-control when you face hardships in business or your personal life. So high EQ can break down silo and fill blind spot effectively. Can you see the bigger picture and is not living the day-to-day activities only? Can you always dig through the root cause, not just know the symptom? Superficiality is also the reason to create blind spots and make the world disconnect. Superficiality often means only catch the conventional understanding of content, not the contextual insight beneath the surface; the quantity over quality; the close-mindedness, the stereotypical thinking or pre-conceived ideas about how things should happen; or to put simply, it's just skin deep. That is pretty much the very reason to create blind spots and build the walls in people’s mind.
Think, Ask and Continue learning. Most people or teams operate with an incomplete and relatively small view of the world. Thus, too often in an effort to keep moving forward, they jump to the wrong conclusions, blast the horn or swerve around the obstacle only to find a poor pedestrian in the way. So the mentality to smash the silo thinking, and high EQ will allow the leaders and digital professionals to clear silos and see further and beyond for effective decision and execution in an adaptive and holistic way.


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