Today we went on a “field trip” during our practice together. We went offsite and all sat in the drivers seat of the CEO’s car. I simply asked everyone to adjust the car so that it would be ready for them to drive. One at a time, everybody sat in his seat and adjusted the seat position and made some adjustments to the rear view mirror and the drivers side mirror as well. Only one made adjustments to the passenger side mirror. Funny, huh.
After they had completed the assignment, I asked them how they adjusted the drivers side mirror. After a few funny looks my way, Gary responded that he had adjusted the mirror so that he could barely see the back of the car. This was what I was waiting to hear.
This is the way 99% of Americans adjust their mirrors. This is why they have a “blindspot.” The problem is not that “inherently” all vehicles have a blindspot, the problem is that we don’t know the truth about how to adjust our mirrors.
Today, this team learned that they’ve been told a lie. And, like most, they have simply believed it for a long time. Like since drivers education, back in the day.
All I did was illuminate the truth about properly adjusting your mirrors. And, we invested the rest of the day adjusting our mirrors as leaders and illuminating some of what we had previously been blind to. Everybody learned something about themselves and each other. Trust was built, you could almost see it happening “brick by brick.” This is always one of my favorite practices.
Anybody “out there” want to explain how to adjust your mirrors properly in your car and how to eliminate your blindspots in your work and life?
Tell me more, my friends.
Tell me more…
BUILT TO LEAD 
The best field trips are the fun ones filled with new insights – sounds like a good time today! My two-cents’ worth: develop the courage to adjust my ‘mirrors’ to begin to see what I was blind to in my life. It’s more comfortable to point them at what we already know and can recognize, i.e. the back end of our car. Takes courage to point them where we don’t know what we’ll find out. AND make sure I have trusted truth-tellers along for the ride.
LOVE this “and” and the picture of having the trusted truth tellers along for the ride…
My AND is that in practicing this, it’s important to practice the HUMILITY of giving people a “green light” when you ask someone to cover your blind spots. A green light means you’re giving them the clear to proceed…a yellow light is typically what most people assume which is only enter with caution. . .a red light is sadly what marks the highest fear cultures, which means do not enter or you will pay.
Another “and” is that if you aren’t willing to ACT on the input you receive, you will inoculate people from giving you further info on your blind spots — this is the most common reason people quit trying to help their leaders.
Finally, remember that FOOLS hate input and will respond in 3D — Defend Deny Destroy. The WISE will thank you, and say “tell me more”.
p.s. very important to stay in LEARNER mode, not JUDGER mode when giving and receiving feedback about each others’ blind spots
Tilt just a little bit farther than you think and ask your passenger if all is clear, trust their response and speed ahead.
Chet, I love this exercise and saved the first blog you wrote a year or two ago, I had to put it into play with my own clients, I loved it! Adjusting your mirrors takes courage, trust, humility and a dedication to Life Long Learning. A basic principle of Life Long Learning is feedback, you can’t get better nor gain mastery without feedback….YOU gotta have truthtellers in your life who will help you illuminate those BLIND SPOTS.
If we expect to develop truthtellers we have to get outside of ourselves and reach out for help, and naturally when we do, this can cause fear, anxiety and doubt. The other day I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the Great Navy Seals, the training they go through and most importantly who survives the test……. This quote summed up for me what trust, courage, leadership and being a great teammate is all about……..
“Almost all the men who survived possessed one common quality. Even in great pain, faced with the test of their lives, they had the ability to step outside of their own pain, put aside their own fear and ask: How can I help the guy next to me? They had more than the “fist” of courage and physical strength. They also had a heart large enough to think about others, to dedicate themselves to a higher purpose. ”
Chet, you have always been the kind of leader who has reached outside of yourself to uplift others.