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I always get a kick out watching my wife go about looking for lost items. To her credit, like most of us, she always starts in the most obvious places. If it’s lost keys, she looks in her purse. If it’s a lost cell phone, she’ll look on her desk. If it’s a lost sun glasses, she’ll look on a shelf by the front door. Yep, she always starts in the most obvious places. It’s what comes next that’s a bit perplexing. As if bored with what would amount to a normal outcome, she relatively quickly gives up on the obvious, chases after worst-case scenarios that require their own form of conspiracy theories to be plausible, and hurries to expand her search to more and more bizarre locations.
I tend to lay low during these searches because I’ve learned that as these searches continue to increase in size and scope, at some point one of the developing conspiracy theories will involve me. When I am finally accused and questioned, I always say the same thing: “Go back to where you think whatever you’re looking for mostly like is, and just look harder.” Begrudgingly, that’s what she does, and soon after I hear a relieved, and slightly embarrassed, “I found it!”
Sound familiar? I’m sure it does, because most of us are guilty of the exact same behavior. It begs the question, why are we so quick to give up on the obvious? This peculiar phenomena isn’t limited to car keys, cell phones, and sun glasses. In fact, it tends to work its way into how we approach many of the things we do.
We don’t just give up on items, we give up on ideas. We don’t do this because of being too afraid, or being too busy or being too lazy. We do this because we underestimate the obvious. We seem to expect the obvious to fight for our attention and command us to follow its apparent lead. Unfortunately, although the obvious clearly possess an impressive track record, it does not possess a voice… and this is a voice we really need to listen to.
Think about how many ideas you’ve given up on because these ideas seemed obvious. Perhaps it made so much sense to you that you were convinced its conclusion would be mocked, or maybe someone else has done it already. Familiarity has a way of lulling us into believing what’s simple to us is simple to everyone. Not true. I recently created a one-page document spelling out the subtleties of equipment and delivery techniques I utilize when I provide virtual presentations. I chided myself when I was creating it thinking it was a waste of time, and absurdly obvious to the speaker’s bureau I planned on sending it to. This particular bureau deals with hundreds of professional speakers and I was convinced they had seen way too many of these types of little touches. I was wrong. They were grateful and told me they had not received anything like this from any other speakers!
Ironically, it seems to require a higher level of discipline to give the time and attention the obvious requires, then it does wasting our time chasing down the far from obvious… particularly when we don’t immediately find what we’re looking for.
Ideas aren’t the only casualty when it comes to ignoring the obvious, it affects how we problem solve as well. Having spent years teaching problem solving for Xerox, and working as a consultant, I can tell you firsthand “obvious” is the most dangerous word in problem solving. Obvious solutions to problems aren’t apparent to most people, because most people discount the obvious as if there’s a prize waiting for the solution that reaches the furthest out-of-the-box. Just a quick reminder, but if there really was a prize, it wouldn’t go to the most creative solution, it would go to the best solution. Arthur Conan Doyle once said:
“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”
Don’t give up on your ideas, particularly the simple ones, don’t give up on the problems you’re looking to solve, especially the apparent ones, and don’t give up on the obvious.
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