Over Here
On the beach I noticed a lone plant, very green and apparently doing quite well, isolated on the sand, having withstood high tides, winds, and storms. Not far away was some flotsam, what looked to be part of a mast or rigging. A storm must have deposited it and the tides are not sufficient to retrieve it.
Last night we pulled into a (rare) parking lot outside a restaurant, and a man had to avoid the front of my car while his wife and daughters avoided the rear. Suddenly he said, “Don’t mind him, he’s from East Greenwich.” When I asked what kind of mind reading act he had, he told me we had met once in the coffee shop on Main Street, and further discussion showed that our interior designer is his cousin, and their house on the island is close to ours.
People are usually astounded at these developments, but they occur far more often than we think. The difference is that we’re not looking, not listening, and not comprehending. An experiment done long ago (when UFO investigations were ongoing) created a bright light high above a stadium in a military balloon during a football game, timed to occur during the action. Virtually no one saw it or reported it. Their attention was elsewhere. “Eye witness” testimony has increasingly come under fire for being unreliable.
We don’t take the time to look around, to inquire, to analyze, to appreciate. What are the distinctions of that plant that allow it to thrive where others can’t survive? Did a boat lose a vital part of its rigging during a storm, or was this dredged up from a wreck decades old?
Who is the person at the next table? Have you ever looked around in the airplane to see if you know anyone? Or do you just consider it a wild coincidence when someone comes up to you who lives down the block?
Look around your clients. What are the distinctions between high performance and low? What is accepted as a workplace norm that shouldn’t be?
Take your eyes off the phone screen, hold your head up, and look around. Is here someone there you recognize who can help you or whom you can help?
© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.
