I recently viewed, as thousands have, the “invisible gorilla test” on YouTube. The headline in the accompanying story was “How Little We Notice”. For those of you that have not seen it, they pass a ball around and ask you to count the number of passes while unexpected things happen right out in the open. Suffice it to say, that while the sample size of their study did not appear too scientific, a lot of people miss the unexpected things in the background. Interestingly, “what I noticed” in the article was it did not mention or analyze who correctly counted the passes.
The video reminds me about research that used imaging technology and mapped how the brain makes decisions. The short version being that when faced with alternatives, everyone goes through the same process where they compare usually two, but a maximum of three, alternatives at a time. While we think we are choosing between ten menu items or granite counter colors we are actually making a series of individual comparisons of one item to another.
We also all subconsciously make thousands of filtering decisions. Should we listen to the air conditioner fan, the buzzing light, the soft music, the person in the office next door, the person on the phone with us, or the person who walked in and asked us a question? We disregard the fan, the light, the music, the person in the office next door and a whole host of other things as unimportant. If we focus, we might be able to understand both the person on the phone and the person who just walked in and asked us a question.
An awareness that we are all predisposed to focusing on task (or choice) A and B to the exclusion of all else is important. There are times to concentrate and be hyper-focused, but they need to be tempered with big picture awareness. Not everyone is blessed with the innate ability to timely shift from one (attention to the correct details), to the other (good broad perspective) in the span of microseconds and be spot on every time, even if you are.
The right perspective is the key. Keep an open mind; but if the color of the curtain, how many people are in the video, or somebody dressed up as a clown or gorilla are not important in the context of what you are trying to accomplish, by all means filter them out and focus on what is important. If you can manage it, be aware when you are engrossed and filtering, so you can appropriately and timely re-engage. It would be wise though, not to ignore an elephant in the room.
