Think big, think different
By Mark Towers
Let me throw a couple of thoughts in your direction -food for thought.
I once drew a circle on a page and showed it to a group of colleagues and asked them to tell me what they saw. After a few moments the chorus chirped "a circle!" So asked them to look again and was met with puzzled faces. So I explained. "It is a circle which contains a white ball, but I can also see that outside of the circle there is all this space too, and beyond that, is the edge of the paper and over that I can make out far wall of the room we're in. That is what I can see."
Another time I showed a different group of colleagues a blank piece of paper. Again I asked them what they saw. No answer. I think they thought it was a trick question. Hesitantly one offered, "a blank canvas." Exactly! - I was showing them a blank piece of paper which offered no constraints such as the boundaries of the circle (except the edge of the page) so this person was able to realise that that although it was a blank, it could be populated with whatever they could conceive. Of course, I let them know they were right, and at the same time wanted them to consider that what is right at one moment can be wrong the next. I held it close to their face and asked them to repeat their answer if they were still happy with it. They did. But now although it seemed like a blank canvas, they could not see all the paper - they were too close to the detail, focusing only on one section.
What does this tell us? It only tells us what we allow ourselves to think it tells us - perhaps it opens up the possibilities of thought? For info. These simple paragraphs can be aligned to "thinking outside the box" and "big picture thinking." "Think outside the box" is a commonly heard phrase that suggests looking at a problem from a different perspective, and without and preconceived views. "Big picture thinking" which refers to being able to looking at the wider context rather than focus on a specific area.