Time to read: 3 minutes
Article at a glance:
- Occhiolism starts with recognizing that our individual perspective is limited, but it shouldn’t stop there.
- Seeking out other people’s perspectives helps us see more of the “elephant” and develop a fuller understanding of problems, decisions, and opportunities.
- At work, combining perspectives can reveal complexities and possibilities that no one person could see alone, leading to stronger collaboration and better solutions.
- Even a group’s perspective has limits and blind spots, so Occhiolism means staying curious and continuing to seek out what we don’t yet see!
What does Occhiolism look like in real life?
The classic story of the Blind Men and the Elephant is a great example of how different people can have completely different and valid perspectives on the same thing.
We are all a bit blind. We all have limited perspectives. But imagine if the blind men hadn’t had each other. They would only ever have a severely limited understanding of the elephant. Only by combining their perspectives were they able to understand the whole!
Seeking Understanding
There are two parts to Occhiolism: (1) I have limited perspective (2) that leads to a thirst that leads for understanding.
We talk a lot about the first part, so let’s talk more about the second part that leads to the good stuff: expanding our perspectives with other people.
We need each other to understand more.
There’s always more you don’t see. Realizing that is great, and the more you seek out those other perspectives, the more your understanding, the group’s understanding, will grow!
Our combined perspective and understanding is so much more powerful than all of our little perspectives on their own.
That’s how we understand the whole elephant.
So how does this look at work?
Let’s say our café team looks at numbers and notices that one of the sandwiches barely sells. The obvious solution would be to take it off the menu, right?
So the team has a conversation, and different perspectives emerge.
One associate who spends a lot of time on the register says, “We have several customers who order that sandwich a few times a week, and they love it. They eat here specifically because we cater to their dietary needs. If we take that sandwich off the menu, we might lose valuable customers.”
A kitchen associate pipes up. “But that sandwich uses an expensive spread we don’t use for anything else, and sometimes we have too much and have to throw it out because it goes rancid. These low sales numbers are bad enough, but they don’t even reflect the wasted product.”
An associate who does a lot of marketing shares, “That sandwich actually comes up a lot in online reviews. Customers love how accommodating we are to different diets. A low seller might be worth it for that kind of reputation.”
With all these perspectives, the question is now a lot more complicated than “Do we keep the sandwich?”
The thing is, no one here is wrong. Each person is accurately describing the part of the elephant they can see.
The problem comes when we assume our part is the whole thing.
When the team shares these perspectives, they can find potential solutions that can boost sales, reduce waste, and still take care of our customers. Maybe they just keep the sandwich. Maybe they try out different dishes that cater to that diet. Or maybe they create more items that utilize the same ingredients, or develop a different but just-as-good spread for the sandwich.
Yes, it’s important to realize that everyone has different, valid perspectives, but that’s only half of it. The next step is to collaborate so everyone can understand the situation more clearly. That’s when we can really explore possibilities!
What are the elephants in your work?
Maybe it's a process that isn't working, a customer complaint, a budget decision, or a disagreement about priorities.
Before deciding you understand the problem, ask yourself:
What part of the elephant can I see?
What parts can't I see?
Who is standing somewhere I’m not?
Then, go talk to them.
Sometimes that means collaborating with another team. Other times it means talking to the person actually doing the work. In some situations, it means listening to customers, partners, experts, or people who disagree with you.
Because even a group's combined perspective is limited. Occhiolism doesn't mean we'll eventually know everything. It means we keep looking because there’s always more to learn.
Even collective perspective is limited.
Ten blind men collaborating will understand the elephant better than one blind man, but they're still just a few people standing next to one elephant. A team can develop shared blind spots. So can Redmond. So can an industry, community, or culture.
The blind men didn't just understand more because they combined their perspectives. They took that expanded understanding back to their community. Their individual limitations didn't disappear. But together, they could give the village a picture none of them could have provided alone.
And that's what happens at Redmond too.
None of us will ever see the whole elephant, but we can tell each other what we see!
