BatNutsCrazy
There are days that I really think I have Alzheimer's or the early stages of dementia or something! Honestly, I can't figure out how I can be so "on" one minute then draw a complete blank the next. This happens to everyone right? Right? Like one minute you are talking about a new complex issue and the next you can't pull up the name of someone you've worked with for 5years or more...no matter how hard you try or even if they are standing right in front of you?
I was told these black-outs are caused by having children and this syndrome commonly called "mommy brain" -for lack of a better term. Perhaps you have a term that sounds better than "crazy" or way less scary than "dementia?" Perhaps there is a simple answer to the times when our brains let us down? Maybe it is parenting? Maybe stress? Maybe the food we eat? Might be, I don't know. However, I do suspect someday someone is going to find out that those diseases are caused by something super simple like mouth bacteria or out gassing chemicals from carpet pads and when they do figure it out it will probably be stupid simple and totally obvious and the result of an accident from a completely different experiment.
It always seems the greatest innovations result from mistakes during the quest for a different unrelated target. Like- we set out to discover a cure for x disease and our experiments and solutions did nothing to fight x. We did however find out that our treatment concoction was an amazing, non-toxic, synthetic lubricant and now we are the largest manufacturer of synthetic lubricants in the world! What happened to x disease? ...who cares!
What's the point to this ramble you ask? I don't remember! Or rather, I had a point but I lost it in one of those black outs, right? Noooooo. My point is about the moment you (insert your organization or team) can't remember/call up the familiar or obvious, that "losing the moment" moment or the moment when you lose the context of the familiar and can't see the forest for the trees. It is about those times when the right answer is simple and obvious but for whatever reason we can't see it. This sort of problem happens everyday at organizations the world over...familiarity black outs. These are the moments when the obvious and familiar stare you straight in the face and still you can't see it no matter how hard you try. And people look and teams look and entire departments are formed to get after a problem and no matter how long they have worked with the problem they still can't see the answer...like those times when a name escapes you or you can't remember why you walked into a room or can't remember where you put your keys. ...ya just need a little help to see it or remember.
So what's the business rub? People (teams, organizations) need help in those moments when information is known but can't be expressed and thus can't be commercialized successfully. The business would be a professional services team focused on drawing out known expressions within existing teams. In this they would work with client teams to map the lost moments and "familiarity blackouts" -the moments when simple answers become hard to understand or visualize. Like the moment you forget a persons name you just need one small trigger to get you back on track to remember. This trigger is usually quite simple, something that makes the connections familiar again, then BAM, you remember! Often the same goes for discovery and problem solving...teams just need a little push with the aid of some creative visualization tools/awesome facilitators/coaches to get beyond the familiarity blackout and to arrive at those profoundly simple yet meaningful innovations.
Whew that one got away from me a bit. Hope it made sense to you! Makes perfect sense to me:). I just hope I remember whatever it is I am trying to say when I wake tomorrow!
Goodluck people!
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